The keys to Snapchat's success have been....

As my social media marketing topic comes to an end, I have thoroughly enjoyed making this blog and sharing it to people all over the world to educate/inform them about the emerging social media trend that is Snapchat! Over my twenty posts I have covered many aspects of Snapchat that have differentiated themselves in the social media market as the executives of Snapchat Pty Ltd are strategically positioning the company in a beneficial position for a competitive advantage in the years to come.

Snapchats timeline of updates and enhances to the social media app.

The additions of the 'LIVE' events in the story section and the 'Discover' feature have boosted the companies trajectory and future outlook as it has established a base for high revenue receivables. Not only does higher revenue equate to increase worth for the company, which currently sits at about $15billion, it also allows Snapchat to have more capital to enable 'Research & Development' activities that will hopefully drive the app towards more success.

Over recent months Snapchat have forged partnerships with a variety of companies in the aim of exposing what companies have to advertise with Snapchat's user database, which currently sits at 200 million active users.
Examples of these include:

• The Activision alliance, which saw snapchat QR code within online games of Call of Duty where players could 'snap' the code and it would add the new call of duty trailer.
• The Discover feature partners of; News.com.au, CNN, MTV, Daily Mail, Cosmopolitan, Food Network, National Geographic, People, Vice, Fox Sports, and Fusion.
• NBA, NHL, MLB, and NCAA have all featured on the Snapchat Live events section; furthermore Major League Baseball has recently formed a deal with Snapchat to feature weekly updates of the entire season in the Live section.
• New series and movie trailer debuts released on the app have already been seen by 'Literally Can't Even', and 'Snapperhero', with many more to come such as; Sofia Vergara's 'Vergaraland' and Robin Williams' 'Absolutely Nothing'.

As the company moves forward toward the future, it will be interesting to see where the concept of making their own content from journalism goes and how successful it will be after the recent appointments of Peter Hamby and Rob Saliterman.

New technological improvements are consistently upgrading the app with new updates, further differentiating the product. Furthermore, just this past week Snapchat an update that enables the user to send snaps of the Discover advertisements to friends.

Thank you for reading my posts from the last few months, and I hope you have found them helpful and educational.

Robin Williams' last film to debut its trailer on Snapchat

'Absolutely Nothing' is set to release its trailer on the Discover feature of Snapchat for one day only on the MTV channel. The comedy/Sci-fi stars the late Robin Williams, Simon Pegg (Hot Fuzz), and Kate Beckinsale (Underworld). The trailer's appearance has been made possible from a partnership between MTV (which operates the Snapchat channel) and the movie studio's of Lionsgate and Viacom. A spokes person from Viacom said that they are always looking for innovative ways to engage with MTV and in this way, the company can take the opportunity to provide fans with content that will excite them. Also the app allows people to view world exclusives at the convenience of opening up the Snapchat on their devices.

Williams plays the role of Dennis, the talking dog in the movie. Since 1977, Williams has been entertaining audiences all across the globe with his filmography totalling 102 credits for his acting. The Aladdin movies, Mrs. Doubtfire, Jumanji, Flubber, Goodwill Hunting, and the Night at the Museum movies, are only to name a few of the box office successes that Robin Williams has starred in. He will be a sorely missed presence in feature films in the coming years as he was such an amazing talent and no doubt inspired many people in becoming actors after seeing his films.

It's prom time in the US

It's that time of year again for seniors of high school, where they dress up and celebrate their years at high school. The Prom was displayed on Snapchat feeds all across the globe; featuring numerous cities of the United States in the prom night of thousands of teenagers. 

From the west of Los Angeles, CA....

...to the east of Fairless, PA.....

...and the central of the nation in Chicago, IL. 

I remember my prom quite well and I'm sure there were many joyous memories made last night that people will carry for many years. 

Hope it was a happy and safe prom for all, good luck for the graduation 

Live Stream of Preakness

The 140th Preakness Stakes were held at Pimlico Race Course (Baltimore) yesterday, but it wasn't only the attendees who could experience the events of the day. Every user around world could watch the six minute long story on Snapchats live feed to expose the event and make the audience feel like they are a part of the action. As a fellow audience member on the app, I was quite entertained by the story with the fun that was had by young and old. The musical acts on the main stage sounded awesome and I felt like I wanted to be there. 

The coverage went throughout the entire day and even showed the main race, which was won by American Pharoah. 

MLB marketing partnership with Snapchat!

The USA's Major League Baseball is a highly popular competition that is now utilising the popular app of Snapchat to expose the MLB to a greater audience through the Snapchat users throughout the world. Each of the NFL, NBA, NHL, NCAA, and also the MLB have all featured on snapchat before in finals series, but the new partnership with MLB sees a first in a regular weekly coverage throughout the whole duration of the season.

This is a major win/accomplishment for Snapchat Pty Ltd, as live sports, especially sports, is a fast growing markets in the digital world. The partnership's purpose is to establish Snapchat within the niche market of live-streaming sports events in a convenient and effective fashion. There is a huge potential for an increase of traffic through the app, which could attract more advertisement opportunities to increase revenue. The MLB is highly popular with the older generation and as 71 percent of users of Snapchat are between the ages of 18-34, it enables the MLB to connect with their targeted audience of the younger generation to acquire more followers. If the marketing strategy is successful, the MLB will be engaging the younger demographic and growing the fan base for many decades to come. 

Lastly, it is promising to see organisations are being innovative in utilising the technology developments that society has to offer in the aim to expand the reach and potential customer base. Therefore, as technology and trends change, organisations must adapt to give the organisation the best change of survival in this highly competitive world.

This following Article link covers aspects such as; why and how MLB is using Snapchat...

http://mashable.com/2014/04/08/major-league-baseball-snapchat/

Modern Family's Sofia Vergara to get her own series on Snapchat?!?!

The television series of Modern Family has been infiltrating our televisions and laptops since 2009 and we have all come to know Sofia Vergara as she plays Gloria in the successful series. TV's highest paid actress is venturing out into a new production and will be the subject of a short-film, six-episode series. 

It has recently been announced that Sofia's latest series will launch on... you guessed it... Snapchat!

The series has been called 'Vergaraland' and is based on Sofia's career through the view of her son Manolo, who is 22 years of age. As per the usual Snapchat story exposure time, the debut of the series will be exposed to Snapchat users for a duration of 24 hours. Manolo formed a business deal with Fusion and Latin World Entertainment, which Sofia cofounded, to create this series. Fusion currently posts their news on the Discover feature of Snapchat, covering news story's in a minute-long video snaps.

Sofia Vergara's series won't be the first original series to premier on Snapchat. Steven Spielberg's daughter Sasha Spielberg, along with Emily Goldwyn, launched Literally Can't Even in January. Furthermore, a superhero Snapchat series called SnapperHero by AT&T has been written and could see many organisations follow in the footsteps of Sasha Spielberg and Emily Goldwyn.

Vergaraland will be aired in summer in the USA, which is winter in Australia. 

Exact dates are yet to be released.

New cost per view on ads in Snapchat

Evan Spiegel, CEO of Snapchat, has settled with marketers on the pricing of advertisements in the discover feature of the app. Previously in January, companies were paying approximately ten cents per view for their content on the app.

Now the new figures are twenty percent of that original cost, at a mere two cents per view. Reasoning behind this reveal that as the feature isn't 'new' anymore and has experienced a decrease in views per day, companies aren't willing to pay the rates they were previously paying.

Social media journalism for Snapchat

In a recent post I placed an emphasis on possible directions Snapchat could invest into. Recently, the company has employed its first head of news, Peter Hamby; in the aspiration that Snapchat can evolve into social media journalism. At the Snapchat headquarters, they understand that social media is a growing way that people are getting their news, and strong growth is expected to continue as it is quick and convenient. Hamby is excited about his new role as he states,"Snapchat is one of the most exciting young companies in the world.....they have a big and growing audience, and we've seen Discover is a huge success". He has continued his role at the news channel of CNN and hopefully will be beneficial for both parties.



Snapchat and CNN hold an existing business relationship as CNN broadcasts its' news on the discover feature of the app. All major social media platforms are trying to figure out how news fits into their network to expose their content to a wider variety of people throughout the world, and this is why Snapchat have strategically employed Peter Hamby.

Click here for CNN's promotion on Snapchat:
http://edition.cnn.com/videos/us/2015/01/27/orig-cnn-joins-snapchat-npr.cnn

In the article, '5 reasons Journalism educators need to be on Snapchat', Aaron Manfull expresses the necessity of Journalists to be a part of Snapchat. he explains that there is a large audience, and journalists must go to where the audience is. Also, we must keep up with the ever-changing digital landscape.
For the full article, *click here*.
The graph below reveals the current exposure and reach that the app has in the social media market.

Can Snapchat really make journalism work on its platform??

How often are you engaged in Snapchat?

It is astonishing to here that this app has 150 millions active users and is worth $15 billion after just four years. What is also interesting is the amount of time these users spend on Snapchat sharing pictures or videos with their friends.

What category do you fall under?

Personally, I'm between two to five snaps per day, but it all depends on how interesting my day is. 

Things you may not know about snapchat

Firstly I'm liking the new trend and frequently use the app to communicate with friends. 

Here are some interesting facts that I found, however they are from 2014:

The only main differences from 2014 to the present date are;

-there are now just over a billion snaps made per day by users, which is a 250% increase from 12 months ago.

-From the previous 60 million, the number of active users has reached 150 million worldwide.