Snapchat – Do they not want us to find users?

Maybe Snapchat knows something we don’t know. Or, their young strategists are way ahead of this veteran marketer. But, apparently I am not alone. Jesse Hempel from Wired magazine seems to agree. Why do they make it so hard to find people, businesses, events and organizations. Isn’t that the whole idea of a social media platform – to grow connections?

I can’t argue that they are doing it all wrong. Whatever they are doing, it is working. My teenage son daughter are constantly snapping, the local college students here at Indiana University are all over it, and even the younger marketing consultant I work with is a regular snapper. The key lesson is that Snapchat’s questionable strategy for how their user’s find who they are looking for is old school – get the link from other channels such as twitter, instagram, facebook, websites, and of course, traditional advertising. Maybe the accomplishment of “the find” is part of Snapchat’s allure. I’m old school in the social media world – give me the search box. 🙂

Let me know if you are also trying to wrap your head around this disappearing platform.

Read Jesse’s article by clicking here or on the icon.