Snap (formerly known as Snapchat) can generate incredible buzz for pennies on the dollar compared to other marketing campaigns.

If you run a small business, ministry, or put on any sort of local events, here are 21 ways to generate buzz in a Snap:

1. Create a Snap geofilter

A Snap geofilter is transparent text or an image that is overlaid on top of a photo some takes within the Snap app.

Basically a filter creates an on-the-go photo booth without the need for physical props.

The creative potential is unlimited, and filters can be used for event promotions, marketing campaigns, weddings, sporting events, church services, and nearly anything else you can think of.

A geofilter does not allow users to click on it and take them to a website, but it does allow you to create branding and build excitement considering geofilters are currently underutilized for marketing, yet incredibly popular.

2. Recruit young influencers

The best use of your geofilters are those between the ages of 14-24. If your brand is targeting youth, your best bet to get your geofilter seen is by teens and young adults who are excited to use your filter.

Tell your influencers when and where your geofilter will be live so they can be on the lookout for it.

You might even send them a pic of your filter before it is released to the public so they know exactly what they’re looking for.

3. Craft fun, un-lame geofilters

Since you’re targeting younger people to use your geofilter, you can’t make your geofilter stale and boring. Think of fun and out-of-the-box ideas for what someone might actually be excited to use. Think of props, cool designs, and eye-catching colors.

4. Get creative advice from your target demographic

If you rely on your own “funstincts”, you’ll probably come up short. If you’re over the age of 25, save yourself some time and go directly to a teenager, tell them what type of event you’re promoting, and ask them for advice on what they think would be cool.

You might get some incredibly lame ideas, but there also might be a diamond in the rough. I ALWAYS get feedback from students for every event that I put on, and while some ideas aren’t worth even writing down, I write them down anyways.

A freshman girl recently had “the best idea ever” and suggested that we cover our entire church campus with mattresses for a fall kickoff event. Despite my thoughts of impractical and pointless her idea was, I wrote it down anyways. However, a few weeks later as we were brainstorming game ideas for the kickoff, our Young Adults pastor suggested crowd surfing. I liked the idea of crowd surfing, but didn’t like the idea of students getting groped by other students. The idea popped into my mind, “Let’s use the mattresses!” We found a few inflatable mattresses, put students on top of them, let them crowd surf in a battle, and turned out to be one of the best games we’ve ever done in our ministry.

Ask for creative advice from your target demographic. You never know what they’ll come up with.

5. Limit adult usage

More shares do not necessarily mean more effectiveness.

The more that adults use any app or idea, the less cool that idea is perceived to be in the eyes of teens.

If you create a custom geofilter, you might be tempted to tell anyone and everyone about it.

Don’t.

In fact, you might choose to not tell adults about it at all. They’ll think it’s really cool and hip and all, but if they start using it and the teens start to see that filter being used by a bunch of old people, they’ll stay away from it like the plague.

The goal is to get your young influencers using your geofilter in order to create organic and viral sharing. If a few of your young leaders use your geofilter, others will see it and want to share it as well.

6. Plan ahead

All geofilters must approved by Snap at least 24 hours in advance. Don’t wait until the last minute to create a campaign, because you won’t get it approved in time.

In fact, you would be wise to give yourself several days just in case your geofilter gets rejected.

7. Avoid getting your campaign rejected

There are some surefire ways to get your geofilter rejected. You will get rejected if your artwork contains:

• URLs
• Hashtags
• Phone numbers
• Texting groups
• Personal information
• Pics of real people
• Inappropriate content
• Too much art

 

All artwork is approved by an actual person, so you likely won’t get away with anything if you try to sneak something by them.

8. Come up with a non-traditional call to action

Consider most methods of creating a call to action are banned, you will have to get creative if you want your filter to encourage someone to actually do something.

For example, your geofilter could say:

“Show up tonight for a free gift at the park”

“Screenshot this filter and bring with you tonight”

“Add this filter to your story and you could win a prize”

Part of your call to action CAN include an address of where your event will take place.

9. Test different styles

Simple designs have worked best for my campaigns. The more crazy they get, the less likely teens are to use them. However, get feedback from your own target market and implement their suggestions.

10. Avoid detailed text on filter footers

When designing your geofilter, you may be tempted to put an address or other call-to-action at the very bottom. However, the bottom of the screen is where controls for the app pop up, so your text might not get seen there.

Instead, put any text that you want read (such as an address) at the top of the geofilter instead of the bottom. Or if you really want it at the bottom, give about ¼” of extra space to allow for the app controls.

11. Use a geofilter at an actual event

Using a geofilter at your event likely won’t help get more people to show up, unless your event goes on for many hours. However, it can be effective in making others feel like they missed out, and they’ll be more likely to show up to the next event you have going on.

12. Use multiple filters at once

Your influencers may have given you many great ideas. Why not use several at once? Giving multiple options to people that all have the same logo will create even more excitement and make your event look like a really big deal.

13. Offer layered filters

Snap allows users to apply up to 3 filters at a time to the same picture or video. Typically users will apply a geofilter featuring a location logo along with a color filter. However, you can add whatever filters you want to the same pic or vid.

This means that you can create one geofilter with half of a design, and a second geofilter with the ohter half of the design. Most users won’t even catch onto the fact that the layers can overlap each other, but those who do figure it out will likely spread the puzzle they have discovered with many others since the idea is so unique.

As an example, for one youth ministry event I had one a set of turntables in a geofilter so students could take a selfie as a DJ. Then in a second geofilter I overlayed a pair of headphones that a student could place over their head while DJing. Many students used either the turntables or the headphones, but the few who figured out they could overlay both at the same were giddy with excitement.

14. Use filters leading up to events

Don’t limit your campaign to just the event itself. Use filters to create buss leading up to your event so they help generate word-of-mouth advertising.

15. Battle school campuses

Companies are usually not allowed to advertise in public or private schools using traditional methods. However, because you can target a school using a geofilter, you can get influential students to spread a geofilter during lunchtime and build excitement in a way that has previously been impossible.

16. Limit when you use filters

If you use geofilters for anything and everything, they will lose their exciting feel. Limit when and how you use them, and bring them out for your most-important campaigns so they don’t become white noise.

17. Check ur stats

Snap doesn’t give you a lot of demographic information to gauge your filter’s effectiveness. However, they do give you 2 important numbers.

• # of Uses: This number tells you how many people actually used your geofilter while it was live.
• # of People Reached: This number tells you the number of people who saw the geofilter on someone else’s story.

 

Both numbers are really important, and while it would be nice to have more demographic stats, the 2 numbers you do get provide a lot of insight on how effective a campaign really was.

18. Learn from your stats

Don’t just read the stats—use them. Try to determine why a filter worked whereas another did not. Was the timing off? Was the design not cool enough? Was it too busy? Was it to lame?

Look at your most impactful campaigns and try to recreate what worked well in others campaigns.

19. Send personal messages in bulk

One of the greatest benefits of using Snap is the ability to send out a mass Snap to friends you select. The iPhone limits the number of people you can add in a text group, but Snap doesn’t. This means you can create a custom video invitation or promo and send it just to who you want within just seconds.

20. Upload videos

Your videos don’t have to be professionally made, but videos are incredibly useful for engaging individuals within your audience.

While Snap previously did not allow users to upload pics or videos taken outside of the app, they recently added in the ability to do so. This feature is not widely known, so stories are not yet flooded with great videos, which allows your videos to truly stand out.

This means that you no longer have to create a video from within the app. You can shoot your footage and then edit your video using iMovie, Final Cut, Premiere, or just your phone, and then upload it to your Snap account using their “Memories” button.

21. Become an early-adopter of Spectacles

Once Snap releases their brand new video-recording , the format for video will probably change considering the new glasses will likely record in both portrait and landscape simultaneously. This feature is currently not available in other platform, but will presumably become the new norm for recording devices.

If you’re ready to give Snap a shot for your next marketing campaign, but would like to see exactly how to do it, check out my video tutorial of how to make a Snap geofilter from beginning to end. In this video series, I will show you click-by-click one screen at a time:

• How to navigate Snap’s app
• How to design a geofilter
• How to add color filters
• How to overlay multiple filters at the same time
• Tips on optimizing your filter image
• How to submit your filter to Snap for approval
• The one mistake to avoid so you don’t get rejected
• How to select your geolocation of where you filter will go live
• How to check your stats once your campaign is completed

 

Give it a shot, test out a campaign, and you’ll be generating buzz in a Snap.