Who Are The Best Brands on Snapchat, and What Makes Them So Good?

We heard from a panel of four Snapchat experts, who discussed the “Best Brands on Snapchat.”

The panel included Sarah Epler (Senior Director of Social Media and Fan Engagement at MTV), Bridget Evans (Account Director at VaynerMedia), Aaron Wolfe (Social Media Specialist at American Airlines), Carla Zanoni (Executive Emerging Media Editor at The Wall Street Journal), and Jeremy Skule (Chief Marketing Officer at Nasdaq) was the moderator.

Jeremy began the panel by presenting the audience with some figures: Snapchat has about 100 million active users, there are about 400 million snaps taken every day, and it was the fastest growing social media platform of 2014. “It’s an important platform, and an emerging one,” said Jeremy. Each member of the panel emphasized Snapchat’s emergence as a story-telling platform.

Regarding their audience, Carla said that, “I think it’s a misunderstanding that young people aren’t interested in business and marketing. We’ve been happy to see an entrepreneurial and aspirational audience is interested in engaging with The Wall Street Journal.”

Also talking about engagement, Sarah, noted how MTV’s Snapchat audience will often call them out on other social media sites if their content feels too branded.

The panel then spoke about what it’s like managing a corporate brand on Snapchat. Aaron mentioned how “We like to think about putting out content that your friends would want to see. Are they going to want to see the big corporate, this is where we are sort of thing? Or are they going to want to see us in a city, actually enjoying that city?”

Carla emphasized how “Authenticity is key.” She added that one big part of the Wall Street Journal’s Snapchat presence has been their ability to show exclusive, behind the scenes content, like they did during the 2016 election debates. “Most people don’t have that kind of access. And frankly, that type of content falls flat when we share it on different platforms. Snapchat feels like the right space for it.”

Bridget spoke about the differences between Snapchat and other social medias. “For brands on Snapchat, you can’t create this high quality image, and upload it later. Everything has to be shot in the moment. Snapchat is very different than a lot of other platforms; it’s more authentic.”

Aaron and Carla also spoke about trying to get their companies’ employees on Snapchat. As Aaron said, like getting flight attendants and other American Airlines employees to Snapchat their days. Similarly, Carla said that many reporters at The Wall Street Journal are able to pitch her potential Snapchat Discover stories, and are very excited to use Snapchat.

“If it makes a good story, it’ll make a good Snapchat story,” said Sarah. Keep up the great storytelling, Snapchat.

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