12 Effective ways to Get a Lot of Followers on Snapchat
By Sam Nguyen
Drive 20-40% of your revenue with Avada
Considered one of the most favorable social media platforms, Snapchat is a fertile land for businesses to establish relationships with their audience. However, many people face difficulty building an account and increasing the number of followers for their brand’s account since they are not familiar with this platform.
Understanding this, in this post, we would like to introduce you to 12 useful tips to increase your followers and the advantages of getting lots of followers. Now, let’s have a look and explore what it is!
Why you should have a lot of followers on Snapchat
With the development of technology, there are more and more new social networks introduced for the public. Some of them can be named as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Linkedin, etc. and Snapchat. To many people, Snapchat is often underestimated when comparing with other famous platforms but the truth is different, this platform is a strong social network with a huge number of people accessing daily.
Snapchat was launched in 2011 by an American company called Snap Inc.. This multiple media messaging app features the ability to automatically delete messages or images after 24 hours, similar to stories on Facebook or Instagram. More than that, it gives users the ability to set “my eyes only,” which means that their photos will be kept in a password-protected space.
Despite the development of TikTok or Instagram stories, Snapchat continues to grow and achieved surprising figures in terms of users. At the beginning of 2020, the number of active users on Snapchat every day is estimated to be 229 million. This number is 20.5 percent higher than 190 million daily active users of this platform in 2019, reported by Statista.
Consequently, Snapchat is considered a fertile land for business, especially the young target customers. Statista also points out that users tend to spend 20 minutes each day on Snapchat, which ranks second (following Facebook). There is nearly 40 percent of top brands and publishers using Snapchat for their marketing strategy.
It can’t be denied that Snapchat is a mighty social network of the world nowadays and it is likely to continue to maintain its status as one of the top platforms globally. Hence, there is no reason for entrepreneurs to neglect this platform. They are able to take advantage of it to build and intensify the relationship with their customers and enlarge the community. Or else, it is an ideal place to promote their upcoming events, discounts, programs, and so on.
12 Effective ways to get a lot of followers on Snapchat
As mentioned above, Snapchat is a great place to connect with your customers and support your marketing efforts. It should be focused the same as other social media like Facebook and Instagram. Merchants should pay attention to nurture their customers and get an account with plenty of followers.
If you intend to possess a hot Snapchat account but still have no idea about what to do, these 12 helpful tips following will help you.
1. Post high-quality content
Content plays an important role in the growth of any social network account, not only Snapchat. You can have good ideas, good stories but if you don’t know how to convey it to your audience, it will be wasted and your followers will lose interest soon.
To compete with other brands and stand out in the sea of stories from other businesses, your content should qualify one in two criteria which are valuable and viral. They are two common features that are applied by various brands.
Valuable content
Valuable content means that your readers will get some value that they are interested in or necessary for their life after reading your post. Of course, whether it is valuable or not is decided by your audience. So, to determine which types of content will be displayed on your account, you should do some research of your business and your snapper: what is your goal? Which product do you provide? Who is your target audience? They are key factors for your content
Different people will have different ways to give value to their readers. For example, if you manage a celebrity account, the valued content is about the life of the celebs; it can be both about their work and personal life. Everything but needs to be related to the celebs since the people following these accounts are almost their fans. Their concerns are all about their stans.
In case your Snapchat account doesn’t belong to a famous person, this type of content never works. They need to change the strategy and switch to other types of content.
In general, the most common way to create value via content is to educate the audience. By giving lessons to customers, they will find your account helpful and easily become your loyal fans. More than that, it also supports businesses in building up their authority and impact on their followers.
Obviously, it is never easy to help other people learn a lesson in just ten seconds. But the result will be worth it and when implementing frequently, your account will be considered an indispensable channel to learn. This promotes more people to follow your Snapchat account since they know they will get something helpful from you day by day.
Ensuring that whenever your Snapper gains something valued, it encourages them to connect with you more and more. Moreover, no one refuses free gifts, so merchants can organize some special programs which offer your loyal fans some deals or gifts.
Viral content
Viral content is another type attracting people on Snapchat. Owning 314.9 million users golbally in 2020, it is really hard for a business to make their account outstanding. It is necessary that enterprises have to instantly refresh themselves and explore new ways to connect with their viewers.
Competing with a huge range of competitors requires each business using Snapchat to generate unique content. Otherwise, the likelihood that they become viral will be no more than zero. Updating yourself and assuring that your posts are attractive enough to make them press follow you or share your post with their friends.
There are some format and ideas that business can exploit for their Snapchat profile, which are:
| Formats and ideas | Details |
|---|---|
| Hook | By using an interesting headline, you can arouse viewers’ curiosity and make them click on you. |
| Storyboard | Offering a series of pictures telling about the outline of a story will help you convey to customers your ideas within 10 seconds watching. |
| Short | Keep your content brief since like the time for each content on Snapchat, attention spans is also short. |
| Geofilters | People living in different regions will have different taste and concerns, so by using geo-tags merchants can focus on specific targeted groups and satisfy them. |
| Music | Music is regarded as a popular factor for relaxing people. By adding music, your posts will be more attractive and interesting. |
| Subtitle | Subtitle is necessary for any stories since not all people can understand your languages and with captions on videos, people still know what happens when they mute the sound. |
| Jargon | This is a bridge to connect with them. So, try to update yourself with new slang and phrases and you can integrate with their world. |
| Quiz | Quiz or poll is a powerful way to make your viewers engaged, they can select the option they want instead of just watching as usual. |
Besides the content, image also has a certain impact and if you are not good at it. Don’t hesitate to ask for help from professional people in this field or take advantage of the stock images. However, don’t forget these crucial specifications when uploading images:
Size:
- Image: no more than 5MB
- Video: no more than 1GB
Format:
- Image: .jpg, and .png
- Video: .mp4, .mov, and H.264 encoded
If you want to have more detailed information about Snapchat specifications, click here.
2. Introduce Snapchat account on other platforms
A brand often creates accounts on several popular platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Linkedin, Youtube. With some particular industries, they also have accounts in their field. Additionally, it is not easy to find an account on Snapchat. Thus, they are great channels to promote their Snapchat account by adding your link at the profile introduction section, at the end of each post, or spend a single post.
This is an effective way to increase your followers in a short period; your fans on other social media will follow you when they are on Snapchat. Also, you are allowed to use Facebook ads to drive traffic to your Snapchat account to approach more followers.
Compared to other social media platforms, Instagram seems to be more suitable for Snapchat than others. By posting your snapcode ( QR code for your account on Snapchat) regularly or attaching your Snapchat profile’s link on the bio, you can introduce your account to all of your followers. Apart from these methods, it is possible for you to exploit any ways to advertise your Snapchat.
In addition to promoting each other, Snapchat and Instagram have many things in common because they concentrate on the visual. Hence, merchants can post the same content on Snapchat and repost on Instagram, and vice versa. This helps your staff decrease the workload, introduces your social media accounts, and sneaks them across other platforms.
Except for social media, merchants are also able to exploit other channels to promote their Snapchat like website, blog, email signature, and even on your products or services, etc. With each types, there are several tips for users, which are:
| Channels | Tips |
|---|---|
| Website | Place your link or code on header, sidebar, footer, or your contact page |
| Blog | Add link at the end of your blog or create a call-to-action (CTA) to attract readers follow your Snapchat to see the unique information |
| Email signature | Place it in your social profiles in the footer of your signature |
| Newsletter | Attract customers to follow by announcing that they can get special content like a preview, etc., add a Snapchat icon or QR code on header or footer of your newsletter |
| Business card | Add snapcode on your social media profile section |
| Products | Add snapcode on the packaging or price tag and ask them to contact with you via Snapchat |
| Events | Stick your snapcode to any viable places, add it to your program, lanyard, or booth |
Of course, if you don’t like any suggestion above, you can create a new way, choose other places to promote your Snapchat account.
3. Build a coherent strategy
Snapchat users can have a more transparent view of their post by having a clear campaign to run it effectively. If there is no plan, your followers soon feel confused with your content or finally neglect you.
A comprehensive marketing strategy on Snapchat needs to consist of objectives, target audience, brand look, and brand story.
On marketing objectives, you have to set one or several goals such as web conversions, sales, video views or more. However, the primary for any marketing plan is still to increase the number of Snapchat followers. A strategy will work more efficiently when its solution is simple.
In terms of target audience, merchants will analyze and define their target audience: who tends to like their products, are potential customers, and can attract them. This is a crucial base for marketers to establish detailed campaigns.
Think about your brand story and you can share it with your followers. People can read it to understand more about you. Moreover, this can help you make a more stable relationship with your customers.
Brand look is also an important factor for the development of your Snapchat account. It is the face of your brand, which will be evaluated at first. Therefore, pay attention to your tagline, themes, images, typefaces, and colors to make sure that they work well with each other and make your brand stand out.
In detail, with each story, admins should think carefully before publicizing. The attention span in human beings is so short, so ensure that your stories are condensed enough to attract them. If viewers still have no idea of your messages after watching three or four stories, you will soon lose followers. With just a second, a person can unfollow and lose a follower, but it is not as easy to get a new follower to lose one.
As a result, the expectations should be displayed in the first three snaps to make them continue watching your stories. By acknowledging the expectations, they will watch the rest to get what they are told in the first snaps.
For example, entrepreneurs can offer their followers 10 or 12 tips to develop their online store, which is included in 10 or 15 snaps (it is up to you). Your followers who watch the first stories will be sure of what is shown in the next stories. And, if they are interested in your topic, they will see them. It would be best to mark the end of the story to help your audience know where the last one is. Like a normal story, a Snapchat story should also include a clear outline with three parts, opening, body, and conclusion.
4. Generate lenses and filters
Using filters and lenses when taking photos has been popular and become the trend among social media users.
When creating branded lenses and filters, you can promote your business in a humorous manner, which promotes more people to use than be serious. More than that, your brand can approach more people without spending too much money.
In addition, people who use your lenses or filters are good channels to advertise your enterprise. If users like your lenses, they can apply without paying any fees, so they will be willing to use and even share with their friends. Gradually, there will be more and more people knowing about your account. The more popular your lenses are, the more followers you will be likely to have.
You can download the instruction for creating filters and lenses on Snapchat for free. Follow it, and you can create your filters. Also, this guide offers readers some additional useful tips to develop their business by these filters.
5. Upload behind-the-scenes stories
Things that make Snapchat different from other platforms are the personalization it brings to the users. When communicating on Snapchat, people will see the relationship more personal. This is a favorable opportunity for becoming closer to your followers. Your content doesn’t need to be polished. Instead, it can be closer to audiences.
By uploading stories behind the scenes, viewers will clearly see what happens in the video or image they see every day. This is an ideal way to shorten the distance between the business and its fans.
6. Change your profile picture
The easiest way to get more followers is to attract others to your account. However, it is impossible to search for other accounts on Snapchat without paying any fees, which means that discovering other users is not simple.
So, how can we increase our followers?
On Snapchat, there is a thing named snapcode. It is a QR code that Snapchat creates for each individual user. When a person takes a picture of your snapcode, they will be linked to your Snapchat account and automatically added to your follower list.
Hence, businesses can add this snapcode to their profile picture on other platforms. However, remember that users are given two options: to take photos of themselves or things around you to set as your profile picture. This will be challenging with any branded accounts.
Fortunately, there is resolution for this problem: users can personalize their snapcode. They can download the snapcode from the Snapchat profile pictures on their site. Then, what they have to do is very simple, using any basic photo editing tools like Canva to create your branded profile picture. Yet, always keep in mind that you cannot change anything in the snapcode itself since with the smallest change, it cannot be read.
7. Organize a contest
Another way to increase followers is to host a contest on Snapchat. A compulsory requirement for this kind of contest often is to follow the host’s account. So, only when following your account, can people participate in your contest, which will help you have more followers in a short time.
Don’t be afraid if your budget for this contest is not big since with small prizes like a free product, there are a lot of people taking part in this contest. Moreover, your prize can be provided by a third party side, such as your partner company.
One successful instance for organizing contests on Snapchat is the case of GrubHub. This mobile food-ordering company announced that they will give the winner the prize of $50 in free takeout. And the result is that their followers increased 20 percent after the contest.
8. Exploit trending topics
Each month there will be a blog collecting all the hottest topics published by Snapchat. This blog consists of all the trending topics in the world and in the United States which can be trending entertainment, favourite emojis, hot celebrities, and hot slangs. And, businesses can exploit this trend to update their account and attract the followers.
9. Focus on the time and frequency of posts
Similar to other platforms like Instagram, merchants should post content consistently on Snapchat. By doing that, people will have more chances to get to know about your company. Furthermore, the stories publicizing on Snapchat are arranged chronologically, which means the latest will stand first on your followers’ feed. Therefore, the more frequently you post, the more familiar your account will be.
Nevertheless, if you choose the quantity rather than quality, things will be counterproductive. Your content will annoy your followers which leads them to unfollow you. Therefore, you should balance between quantity and quality. Depending on your business, targeted audiences and types of Snapchat account you manage, the strategy will be different. A random snap in daily life will be perfect with private or celebrity accounts because viewers care about account owners themselves but it will be a silly idea with an organization’s account.
More than that, it is estimated that a Snapper often uses Snapchat in 30 minutes and checks it more than 20 times per day. Thus, merchants’ mission is to find out the time that most people use Snapchat. This is the most suitable time to post content on Snapchat, they can easily get more views than other times during the day.
10. Create content based on context
It is said that people tend to spend more time on Snapchat during holidays or important cultural events than normal. According to Snaphat, holiday is the time that there are the highest number of sessions, compared to other times during the year. Also, on these occasions, their topics are often related to the holiday and people tend to purchase more, especially shopping online: 71 percent of Snapper asked says that they plan to purchase online for their holiday in 2020, so it is a suitable time for them to create and publish content related to the holiday.
That means you can create any content relevant to this special time, such as exploiting the popularity of Drake’s In My Feelings or generating the funny Snaps for holidays. For instance, Goop’s followers will be interested in tracking the cycles of Mercury Retrograde while the NFL has the Super Bowl. However, they still create content for special occasions during the year on Snapchat like “The Best Thanksgiving Moments in NFL History”.
11. Run ads
While ads on other platforms are often placed as a normal post with the word “Sponsored” below the name in users’ feed, ads on Snapchat are inserted into snaps and stories of other users. Hence, people who are your target audience will be able to see your posts. An example for this is that, with Bud Light, their target audience tend to be keen on football, so all the football fans will be their target audiences. And, the ads will be displayed to people who follow accounts related to football like the NFL or their team’s followers.
Besides, merchants have to ensure that your ads consist of a direct CTA that encourage audiences to follow your account, if it is your goal when running Snapchat ads. In case your ads are social media videos, keep it short. Snapchat states that the most ideal length for Snap Ad to drive action is from 3 to 5 seconds.
12. Pay attention to Snapchat insights
Each social media platform has its own insight, so the mission of business is to learn about them to have a general view of who is using Snapchat, like their age, genders, geographics, and more.
From analytics on Snapchat, merchants will have data to figure out where they are in the marketing strategy. There are multiple figures and information provided to users to have a deeper understanding which can be named as audience insight, story view times, content reach, and so on. Also, these metrics can be used to benchmark and evaluate your approach as well as improve it to get better results.
Also, it enables users to track their follower’s count and average acquisition rates with ease, so they can know how many people follow their account in a couple of seconds. More than that, these kinds of information are good sources for businesses to generate a new marketing campaign. Thus, ensure that you have already checked and recorded these metrics before actually building a new strategy.
Read more:
Final thoughts
Overall, it can be said that Snapchat is a potential place for people, which helps them to connect with other people on a personal basis. To businesses, it is a great opportunity to become closer to their customers and prospects. This article also provides users with a plethora of effective ways to increase the followers, helping them approach more people and get more prospects, and we hope that you will get the information you need in it.
If you want to ask any questions or share helpful tips for attracting more followers, don’t hesitate to leave a comment below this post.
New Posts
