Compared to other social networks, Snapchat is, well, different. It doesn’t have the numbers that Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram do. The 2017 State of the Creator Economy Study found that people who use Snapchat visit it about 55 times a month, compared to 101 times for Facebook. Still, Snapchat Influencers are some of the most powerful social media users online. This begs the question: How can your brand leverage them?
What Is A Snapchat Influencer?
Snapchat also takes a different approach to influencers. As Digiday put it, on Snapchat, everyone is considered an influencer. But the Snapchat Influencers you’re looking for take their snap game to a whole new level. Snapchat hasn’t put the same amount of effort into cultivating the content and feeds of popular users the way Facebook and the like have. But that doesn’t mean that everyone with a Snapchat account actually is an influencer. For one thing, some people have accounts and never post. And some have a lot more views and followers than others. Here’s what it takes to be considered a real Snapchat influencer.
How to Become A Snapchat Influencer
Like many things that eventually spread to the wider populace, Snapchat was first a big hit with teens. It’s since become more popular with older people. As Inc. reports, 60 percent of people who have smartphones and who are between 18 and 34 years old use it. About a third of the platform’s daily visitors are between the ages of 25 and 54.
Snapchat influencers run the gamut from teenagers to older people with established careers. The social platform has also become popular with celebrities and politicians.
Successful Snapchat Influencers
Who’s who on Snapchat? Here are a few of the site’s biggest influencers:
DJ Khaled (@djkhaled305)
DJ Khaled, a producer and DJ, has earned the title “King of Snapchat” thanks to his frequent snaps, which often feature him living his life in Miami.
Jerome Jarre (@JeromeJarre)
Jerome Jarre is a former Vine star who made the move to Snapchat a few years ago, where he quickly gained more than 1.5 million followers. He also earned a bit of fame for turning down a $1 million influencer deal, claiming that he didn’t want to promote something he thought was unhealthy.
Jenna Marbles (@Jennakermarbles)
Jenna’s another Snapchat influencer who got started elsewhere — in this case, YouTube. She’s also been vocal about not taking on endorsement deals or running sponsored posts, claiming that her fame is linked to her fans continuing to like and trust her.
King Bach (@kingbach)
Back when Vine was a thing, King Bach (aka Andrew Bachelor) was the most followed person on the site. Although Vine is gone, Snapchat has proven to be a great substitute, allowing him to post plenty of funny, short videos.
Snapchat Influencers in Action
What does a typical Snapchat influencer marketing campaign look like? Here are a few examples of Snapchat Influencers in action:
- DJ Khaled visits Las Vegas. In May of 2016, Snapchat Influencer DJ Khaled gave his followers a day-and-half-long tour of Vegas, disproving that “what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.” His tour was part of a promotion with the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, designed to drum up interest in the city’s main attractions. Thanks to DJ Khaled’s Snaps, the Visitors Authority profile earned 400,000 views and had 25,000 engagements on Snapchat.
- Marriott Hotel “Snapisodes.” These days, people between the ages of 18 and 34 are more likely to book an Airbnb than stay in hotel. In an attempt to reach Millennials, the Marriott Hotel chain took to Snapchat, working with various snapchat influencers on the platform to produce a series of short videos, which it called “Snapisodes.” While the typical Snapchat ad is just 10 seconds, Marriott’s videos were nearly three minutes long.
- Grubhub and Michael Platco. Snapchat is a haven for artists, who share drawings created on their smartphones with the people who’ve added them. During the 2015 championship football game, food delivery service Grubhub partnered with Snapchat influencer Michael Platco, to remind viewers what the game is really all about: eating chicken wings.
How to Find Snapchat Influencers
Because Snapchat doesn’t really provide statistics on users the way other social media sites do, it can be difficult to find relevant Snapchat influencers. Instead of combing Snapchat on your smartphone looking for influencers, your better bet is to use an influencer marketplace to find people who use it regularly. You’ll get more details and stats from an influencer marketplace than you would from searching on Snapchat. Plus, you’re more likely to find someone who’s actually looking to partner with a brand.
What should you be looking for in a Snapchat influencer? Fit with your brand is the most essential thing. If you target moms, for example, you probably don’t want to work with an influencer whose core audience is teenagers.
Reach and engagement are two other things to keep an eye out for. Get an idea of how many people follow your influencer or how often his or her Snapchat Stories or posts are viewed.
Ideally, your influencer will have some experience working on an influencer marketing campaign. The best Snapchat Influencers have samples of past work along with KPIs and analytic results from those works. But that’s not to say you should completely rule out newbies.
Snapchat is a growing platform. In 2015, 16 percent of influencers or content creators used it, according to the SOCE. That number climbed to 18 percent in 2016. That means more and more users are looking to Snapchat as a viable tool to use for influencer marketing. It’s worth your time to get to know the platform and the people using it.
