Loose control and benefit with Snapchat Takeovers
Snapchat has risen from among the fray to become one of the favourite social platforms of groups of friends and brands alike. Many naysayers were derisive or doubtful of how successful yet another photo and video-sharing platform could be just a couple of years ago, and others saw it as just a way for teens to get away with more risque messages without having a record in place for parents to find. Despite these misgivings, Snapchat is now a major player in social media.
But there’s one issue that many brands still have difficulty overcoming: finding a wider Snapchat audience without an in-app discovery tool or a train to hitch your car onto like hashtags or retweets. The answer for many has been the takeover, allowing celebrities, influencers, employees, or even random users to take the reigns of their account for a few hours or even a whole day. That person’s followers are then made more aware of the brand account, and many are likely to become new fans.
But before you hand over your account password to someone else, get a plan in place just like you would for any campaign. First, you need to set your goals for the event, which generally will fall somewhere under building brand awareness or growing your following but might be slightly more accurate.
Then you need to decide who will be taking control of your account during the takeover. Make sure that takeover candidate has a following that you can benefit from and that this audience aligns with your brand’s values and goals. The ideal candidate will be someone that you already have some form relationship with either directly or indirectly, such as a celebrity endorser, an employee, or an existing customer or follower.
During the actual takeover, having the Snapchatter in question “do their own thing” is one of the essential elements (and probably the reason their followers will be interested in the first place), but there have to be boundaries. Whatever they do should be in line with the goals of the event and should uphold and reinforce your brand image, not promote a different picture.
There also needs to be coordination with them ahead of time in promoting the event – it won’t be very effective if no one knows about it. During the takeover, there needs to be a direct line of communication between your brand’s social manager and the person taking over, especially if they won’t be in the same place physically. A miscommunication between them and the audience that could have easily been alleviated or guided by you could be dangerous.
Finally, plan out the documenting of the event. Have them save screenshots of interactions, download each Snap and the complete Story, even take notes on the engagement during the event. You want to be able to save everything for posterity and future promotional activities, and having a complete record will also let you analyse what went well and what went not-so-well to help plan for future events.
Ready to turn over your brand’s reputation in return for the possibility of more followers? It’s a scary proposition, but so far the idea has been a success for most. Let us know how your first Snapchat takeover went when you’re done.
