Snapchat, Poke, and Their Effect on Business Strategy
Heard of Snapchat? If not, it’s only a matter of time before you’ll be using it to share pictures with friends. After all, it bills itself as “the fastest way to share a moment on iPhone and Android - up to 10x faster than MMS”. Snapchat and its Facebook counterpart, Poke, have recently made headlines due to the huge wave of new users they have acquired. Given the relatively young user base and the fact that images “disappear” after a short period of time (though it seems they actually do not vanish entirely), some critics have posited that the app is often used for such nefarious purposes as the sending of explicit imagery and other questionable content. However, due to the rising popularity of these apps, businesses should be aware of the changes that they will induce both internally and as a marketing medium.
Snapchat and Poke represent a stark contrast to the tweets and posts of more traditional social platforms. As companies explore how to use these new applications in a business setting, they should be aware that there are key strengths as well as downsides compared to the more popular Facebook and Twitter. As a messaging platform, the temporary nature of the apps favors businesses that change their messaging regularly or are looking to be frontrunners in the social realm. Because the pictures and videos on the apps are not easily accessible once they expire, there is less of a chance for any social blunders that could haunt businesses as on older platforms. That being said, businesses often want a social paper trail for customer research, SEO, and credibility. In that sense, Snapchat and Poke fall short to the existing platforms.
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