As an agent we are always striving to excel with today’s latest technology and offer it our clients. From electronic signing for our busy, on the road Seller to Skyping with our out of state Buyers, the learning curve is continuous. And, that’s okay! I love being able to offer ease and efficiency. But, did you know, according to the Daily Real Estate News, Snapchat boasts over 100 million daily users who view 7 billion videos through the social network on a daily basis.
While Snapchat was once thought of as a social channel used primarily by young millennials for messaging with friends, recent changes have shown that its highly-coveted user base is increasingly using the app to engage with content from news organizations and businesses.
This evolution in how young people use Snapchat means that now is a great time for agents or brokerages to familiarize themselves with this social platform, and especially how younger millennials engage with it.
Variety reported that in their February survey of 1,117 Snapchat users aged 13-24, around 44 percent of respondents who interact with the Live Stories and Discover features do so at least once a day. Now this might seem a little young for our first time home buyers. But, it’s always a safe bet to learn what your future clients are learning now.
For those of us who really aren’t as familiar with Snapchat the concept is to take make live stories with a compilation of snaps (photos and videos) from specific events and locations all over the world. Its Discover tab features content from top brands and publications like Buzzfeed, MTV, Cosmopolitan, ESPN, and Comedy Central, among others.
Brands with an older demographic like The Wall Street Journal are among the least popular on on Snapchat Discover, though the placement of brands that skew older could be an opportunity. In fact, over 50 percent of survey respondents said that they first became aware of brands like Vox, Fusion, and Mashable due to them being featured on Snapchat Discover.
Of those users who checked Snapchat multiple times a day, 48 percent said they viewed snaps and snap stories from brands, 47 percent interacted with snaps or stories using the Discover feature, and 44 percent looked at local live stories and events, and a variety of reports.
Snapchat is growing as a way for this cohort to keep up with news. The survey revealed that 36 percent of users consider Snapchat to be their primary source for entertainment news. 28 percent say that Snapchat is their main source for keeping up with current events, and 30 percent have used Snapchat to get news on the Presidential election.
As Snapchat moves away from being simply a messaging app, younger millennials will see it as an easy way to learn about new products and brands, keep up with the latest news, and interact one-on-one with friends and businesses alike.
When I think about this, I think about mini movies for our clients to take advantage of to save them time in the home buying process. I see excellent marketing strategies for my sellers reaching far, wide and across the age ranges.
Source: “Snapchat Content Survey: How Much Millennials Actually Use Live Stories, Discover and More,” Variety (March 24, 2016)
Source & Copyright Credit: “How Young Millennials Are Using Snapchat”, Daily Real Estate News from NAR.org (March 31, 2016)
