How brands can break into Snapchat

The past year has seen organic reach in social media – reach not supported by paid advertising – decline further. Simultaneously more users, particularly younger ones, are spending more time in private spaces, harder to access by brands, including WhatsApp, Yik Yak and Snapchat. The latter has emerged as the leading dark social channel with over 700m snaps shared every day. How can brands be part of the conversation on this ever-growing platform?

One defining feature of these platforms is that they’re private and, unlike other social media, are almost completely unmeasurable. This is key. The adults of tomorrow are actively avoiding channels where they feel like they have to care about how liked and appreciated their content is and gravitating to places where they can be their true selves without that pressure to gain approval.

Entering these spaces as companies is inherently difficult. Social media was never meant for brands and dark social far less so. But Snapchat is making a concerted effort to accommodate businesses and their ad money. While there are no immediate plans for company profiles, there are now multiple ways to reach people in a one-to-many model, as well as the original one-to-one messaging functionality.