Snapchat followers: How do I give my channel more range?

The Snapchat app, as a mixture of instant messaging and social media, is the youngest com­peti­tor of Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and WhatsApp. And in com­par­i­son to other platforms, Snapchat addresses a much younger target group, which consists mainly of teenagers and young adults. What’s in­ter­est­ing for companies and self-employed in­di­vid­u­als is that Snapchat isn’t only suitable for com­mu­ni­cat­ing with friends and ac­quain­tances – it can also be used for marketing purposes, es­pe­cial­ly if the target group is rel­a­tive­ly young. Snapchat is becoming an in­creas­ing­ly common marketing channel, but companies and bloggers are con­stant­ly dis­cov­er­ing further marketing pos­si­bil­i­ties with the app. In order for your marketing campaigns to work on Snapchat (whether ad­ver­tis­ing a product or company, or running self-marketing), your account needs a certain amount of followers. This article will advise you on how to get more Snapchat followers and which benefits the app offers.

A Snapchat account offers various pos­si­bil­i­ties for keeping in contact with followers. Com­mu­ni­ca­tion with your Snapchat followers can be es­tab­lished in the app via text messages in chats, calls or video calls, or by means of photos or short videos (called Snaps). Content dis­tri­b­u­tion for marketing purposes on Snapchat is focused mainly on sending snaps as a private message or publicly on Snapchat Stories, which are shared with your contacts.

Sending a snap as a private message offers the advantage that it will remain marked as new in your follower’s inbox until it has been opened by them. Snaps on a story are not directly displayed to followers, but instead are added to the stories section of the app, where content is au­to­mat­i­cal­ly deleted 24 hours after its release – even if the follower hasn’t viewed it. As a con­se­quence, the user has to actively access a snap in the story section to be able to see your content.

But this format also offers an advantage, as Snapchat Stories aren’t only viewable by your followers, but also by all Snapchat users. The latter is ab­solute­ly rec­om­mend­ed for a Snapchat channel that’s being used as a marketing tool.

The fact that Snapchat channels are only ac­ces­si­ble through the app is the most sub­stan­tial challenge when marketing your own channel. This cir­cum­stance is the main dif­fer­ence sep­a­rat­ing Snapchat from other social networks like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, or YouTube, which can be accessed directly via the web. In­ter­est­ed users have the op­por­tu­ni­ty to watch a channel first without having to log on to the service or download an extra app for it – by clicking on a link, they can be taken directly to the cor­re­spond­ing social media channel.

But promoting your Snapchat profile functions dif­fer­ent­ly: Sure, you can provide redi­rec­tion to your account via links and QR codes here as well – but these can only be used by people who have already installed the Snapchat app. If somebody doesn’t use Snapchat yet, then they have to install the app in order to visit your channel. Since there’s no classic feed on Snapchat with old channel entries, it’s not possible for visitors to get an im­pres­sion of the channel in advance and then decide whether or not to follow: Users can only see an account’s new content once they follow the account.

As a result, marketing on Snapchat is much more com­pli­cat­ed than on other social media. You shouldn’t let this put you off, though, because there are numerous tried and tested strate­gies for gaining new Snapchat followers. You can rely not only on the methods that quickly get more short-term followers, but also on those that retain and expand your Snapchat contacts in the long run.

How can you gain more followers on Snapchat? This is the first question that people ask when setting up their Snapchat profile. After reg­is­ter­ing on Snapchat, you generally have to be active yourself before you can win a suf­fi­cient­ly high number of followers. The following sections explain the best ways that you can do this.

Anyone who can be found on Snapchat usually also uses a profile on another social media. So you should make sure to advertise your Snapchat account there as well. The same goes for your own website and e-mail newslet­ter: Use all the channels you can to draw attention to your Snapchat account. Design it so that making contact with your channel is as easy as possible: It’s advisable to not only provide the name of your Snapchat profile on your digital channels, but to also post your Snapchat code and/or Snapchat URL – both connect users directly to your account.

Using your Snapchat QR code as the profile photo on your social media accounts can be useful as well. The majority of companies don’t do this per­ma­nent­ly, but return to another profile photo after their Snapchat channel has gained a suf­fi­cient number of followers.

As opposed to the Snapchat URL, the Snapcode can also be mean­ing­ful­ly promoted off the internet. You can print it on business cards, flyers, or posers, in­ter­est­ed users can scan it directly with their smart­phones. Of course you should ideally include a de­scrip­tion of your Snapchat channel’s content as well. How detailed this de­scrip­tion is depends on the space offered by the re­spec­tive ad­ver­tis­ing medium. Space is pretty limited on a business card or product packaging, but you can offer more in­for­ma­tion in bigger ad­ver­tise­ments on social media posts for blogs and websites.

You should at least give your target group an idea of what they can expect from your Snapchat channel, though.

A couple of ex­plana­to­ry words on your Snapchat account are es­pe­cial­ly advisable if the content is the­mat­i­cal­ly different than that of your other accounts.

On your channels, you can not only spread in­for­ma­tion and links to your Snapchat account, but also show its content. If the Memories function is con­fig­ured correctly in the app settings, photos and videos taken with Snapchat are saved in an album folder on the smart­phone or device. Using this feature, it’s possible to upload your snaps to your other channels as well and display the type of content that users can expect on your Snapchat account. There are also various apps that enable the ex­por­ta­tion of Snapchat content. In this way, target groups can get a first im­pres­sion of your Snapchat channel without having to register them­selves on Snapchat.

Followers of in­flu­encers (a popular blogger, YouTuber, etc.) usually have an increased interest in the subject area that the in­flu­encer presents in their content (e.g. en­ter­tain­ment, fashion, sports, etc.). They also value the in­flu­encer as be­liev­able and/or likeable (otherwise there’s no point in following the channel) – so an in­flu­encer enjoys the trust of their followers. If you use an in­flu­encer for the promotion of your products and services, this is called in­flu­encer marketing.

By co­op­er­at­ing with an in­flu­encer, you can profit from their range and status: Maybe you already know about people who act as an in­flu­encer in an area related to that of your Snapchat channel (or at least in an area with a similar target group) through previous marketing measures and/or business and industry contacts. If not, then you just need to establish contact with suitable in­flu­encers from your industry. Make sure that you always offer an in­flu­encer a con­sid­er­a­tion, making it clear how you believe that the co­op­er­a­tion will be mean­ing­ful, and meet the person on equal footing. In­flu­encers usually know their own value, and want to be un­der­stood as a business partner.

In­flu­encer marketing is usually based on extremely prominent people making rec­om­men­da­tions to their followers. But working together with micro-in­flu­encers In­flu­encern is also generally quite promising. Even though they don’t have an out­stand­ing range, they often address a group of people who are in­ter­est­ed in a very well-defined topic area.

If your Snapchat content overlaps the­mat­i­cal­ly with a micro-in­flu­encer’s content, then it’s promising if you can somehow procure co­op­er­a­tion with their Snapchat channel. Then you can be rel­a­tive­ly certain that the ads for your Snapchat account are reaching the exact people that are really in­ter­est­ed in your topic.

How does working together with an in­flu­encer really look? Usually, your Snapchat account is mentioned and therefore ad­ver­tised in one of the in­flu­encer’s posts. For this, the in­flu­encer’s platform doesn’t have to be Snapchat (your Snapchat channel could also be mentioned by an in­flu­encer on YouTube or Facebook, among others). But with a Snapchat channel, because of the social network’s closeness, it’s entirely possible that you’re col­lab­o­rat­ing with someone who already has a suf­fi­cient­ly large Snapchat following that cor­re­sponds to your target group. This type of promotion of another account is called a ‘shout-out’.

Another method is the ‘takeover’, where an in­flu­encer takes over a channel for a certain amount of time (usually a day) and de­ter­mines the content of the profile. But a channel needs to already have a certain range es­tab­lished in order for a channel takeover to be worth it. On the other hand, you typically need a certain degree of pop­u­lar­i­ty so that when an in­flu­encer leaves you with your own Snapchat account, you can advertise your own channel. A takeover is most ap­pro­pri­ate for extending your pre­vi­ous­ly existing range even further – whether you take over the channel from someone else, or leave your own channel to an in­flu­encer.

The Snapchat tips listed above help you get more people to follow your channel in the short-term. But even having a lot of followers won’t help you if you don’t provide them with appealing content. If you want to suc­cess­ful­ly market your Snapchat channel, your motto – as so often happens in online marketing – has to be “content is king”.

Simply by pub­lish­ing content that fits your target audience, you keep your followers happy and prevent users from un­fol­low­ing your channel. In the end, Snapchat is the same as any other social network (Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, etc.): You have to satisfy followers of your account and make it a popular place for users to visit.

Regularly pub­lish­ing content plays an important role: Your channel should always offer something that appeals to your target group and makes them think pos­i­tive­ly of it. Of course, it goes without saying that the quality of your snaps is important. The way in which you deliver high-quality content depends on the topic of your account and your options. But you should make sure that your Snapchat channel is different from others in its area and has a certain unique­ness. In addition to a regular pub­li­ca­tion frequency, unique content is also important to keep followers truly in­ter­est­ed. This not only keeps your follower bounce rate low, but also ensures that the quality of your channel gets around and gains you more followers.

Other Snapchat users can hear about your channel not just tra­di­tion­al­ly by word of mouth marketing, but also within the ap­pli­ca­tion: Since the update at the end of 2016, it’s been possible to share snaps from another user’s story with your friends via the Snapchat sharing function. This feature also allows content to reach users who don’t follow your channel. If shared snaps interest the re­cip­i­ents, then they ideally will be motivated to add the channel.

Re­gard­less of which way users find your Snapchat account, good content is the best way to expand and maintain the range of your channel in the long run. The basic pre­req­ui­site for this is that, in addition to its content, your Snapchat profile’s marketing is also suited to the target group and im­ple­ment­ed well.

In terms of social media, it’s often heard that some cheaters actually buy their followers. The mo­ti­va­tion behind it is this: If a profile has a large number of followers, it indicates a high pop­u­lar­i­ty (of the channel and so also the high quality of the content). But this approach isn’t usually advisable – not only morally, but also for marketing reasons. On the one hand, buying followers is generally caught out pretty quickly: Because the massive and quick growth of a pre­vi­ous­ly unknown account is simply unnatural, it actually hurts the rep­u­ta­tion of a channel in the eyes of many users who detect the procedure in very little time. In addition, purchased followers are rarely active and don’t con­tribute to the dis­tri­b­u­tion of your content (for example, by sharing content). Obviously, purchased followers don’t actually have a real interest in the pub­li­ca­tions of your channel – as opposed to users who follow a profile of their own accord. Pur­chas­ing followers on Snapchat fun­da­men­tal­ly doesn’t make sense, since the follower number isn’t specified on a Snapchat profile. Users can’t conclude the quality of a channel based on a seemingly wide dis­tri­b­u­tion.

A large following on Snapchat isn’t built overnight – es­pe­cial­ly if you can’t rely on channels that already have a wide reach for support. Even if your company already enjoys high status in its industry or among its target group, it’s not unlikely that you’ll still have to start from square one with your Snapchat account. The isolated system is mostly re­spon­si­ble for this – Snapchat is only ac­ces­si­ble via an app and your channel can’t simply be visited by anyone (as profiles on Instagram or Facebook can be). Users have to use their own account and add yours in order to be able to form an im­pres­sion of your channel.

Of course, there are various strate­gies for achieving this and getting more Snapchat followers in a short period of time: Try to network with all the people that you know who have a profile on Snapchat. In addition to your personal contacts, this can include your followers on other social media platforms or the sub­scribers of your e-mail newslet­ters – be sure to let them all know that you’re on Snapchat. Extensive promotion of your Snapchat channel is extremely important. Col­lab­o­ra­tion with in­flu­encers can also score you a much larger following.

The ultimate factor de­ter­min­ing whether or not you can encourage many users to follow your account in the long run is the content of your channel. This should cater to the target group and satisfy your followers with high quality content. It’s also important to post content at regular intervals. In addition, you should be aware that Snapchat is mostly used by young people. Tailoring your content ac­cord­ing­ly to teenagers and young adults up to 30 years old will give you the greatest chance of success.