Snapping Comps!

Who doesn't love an opportunity to win free stuff with minimal effort?!
Certainly not me.
One of the best marketing techniques over Snapchat I've seen so far are Snapchat competitions. There are many types of these that I've noticed some of which being:

1. 'Screenshot this coupon before it...'. Oh it's dissapeared.
2. 'Send in your best snap in the next 3 hours for a chance to win [insert cool prize here]!'
3. 'Treasure hunt! Follow the clues in the our Snapchat story and the first Snap of the answer wins!'
4. 'Screenshot this pic and share on Facebook for your chance to win!'

The opportunities are endless!

One Snapchat blogger I follow, Drew Binsky the travel blogger, runs these competitions flawlessly and often holds them with the prize being small but interesting (often a postcard from his current location).

Most recently he help one where he asked his followers to send in their craziest travel stories. The results must have been hilarious and the winner was a boy who was hitchhiking though Arizona when one of the people offering him a lift asked him if he wanted a paid job being in a porno with him and his mate. 

Drew's Competition snaps, announcing the winners and showing the prizes.

Now Drew doesn't gain any new followers from these competitions but he encourages his followers to interact with him which results in higher engagement and a higher likelihood of his blog spreading through word of mouth. This is smart marketing and Drew has certainly benefited from it with his thousands of followers on all Social Media Platforms.

Drew Binsky's Snapchat 101

Over the past few weeks I have been coming up with new ideas for this blog, and one of them was to potentially write an in depth how to of snapchat, putting your business on snapchat and how to make it work effectively for you. I thought about this idea for a while, began writing and realized what a massive job it really was. Then I came across Drew Binsky (If you think that name sounds familiar, it does, if not check out my previous blog post on travel blogging on Snapchat!) and his absolutely marvelous 'SNAPCHAT 101: MARKETING FOR BLOGGERS & BUSINESSES'.
SO instead of writing out my own, I contacted Drew to see if he would mind if I shared his post with you guys, the answer was affirmative and so here's Drew's opinion section on...

Why is Snap Chat so Effective? 
 In this section, I am going to lay out 10 reasons why Snapchat has blown up so quickly and why it’s so powerful:

1.  It works like a text message – Snaps immediately are sent to the recipients phone and they will receive a notification – Just like a text message, but much it’s more entertaining and fun. 
2.  You have extreme PRIVACY – Nobody else can see what you’re doing on Snapchat besides yourself. It’s personal. This is perhaps the most attractive feature of the app, because it sets it apart from the other major social media platforms.
3. You don’t need wifi to send snaps – This is crucial especially for us travelers who don’t always have access to strong wifi on the road. You can take as many snaps as you want, and save them on the app to resend when you do have access to wifi. I’ve been doing this in on my current trip in India and it’s been working magically.
4. It’s quick and to the point – There is no bullshit with Snapchat. You send a photo/video, and the recipient views it. No advertisements, no re-Snapping, no sharing. That’s it.
5. It’s fun –Snapchat is a more FUN way to communicate with your friends and followers than just standard texting. The same way that watching videos is more fun than reading blog posts.
6. It’s Customizable – After you take the photo or video, you are able to choose any color and draw freely on the screen with your finger. You also have the option to write up to 31 characters on the screen. Better yet, you can use emojis and put them anywhere on the screen and make them as big or small as you want. There are unlimited options to customize your snaps!
7. Users will Anticipation Your Snaps – If you are somewhat entertaining and creative with your snaps, then people will start looking forward to your next post. Just like Instagram.
8. Photo + Video Option – While photos are nice, videos are much more powerful. You are allowed up to 10 seconds of video to send.
9. It’s addicting – You know how Tinder can be addicting? Yeah, Snapchat has 100 million active monthly users. People who are on it can’t seem to stop (I’m guilty of it too). 
10. It’s behind the scenes – My favorite part about Snapchat is that you are essentially filming your life experiences behind the scenes! Nothing is planned or staged. People are seeing content exactly how you are seeing it in real life. It offers an incredibly your viewers a unique perspective, almost as if they are standing next to you. 
11. 100% user engagement – When someone is viewing a snapchat, their finger must be touching the screen at all times or the snap will disappear. Therefore, you can be 100% certain that you have the full attention of your viewers when they are opening your snaps. This is unlike Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, where users quickly scroll through their newsfeeds and hardly retain anything unless it pops out or catches their eye.

So there you have it guys, if I can't convince you to get on Snapchat, Drew certainly can! Check out the entire of his blog post at: http://thehungrypartier.com/snapchat-101-marketing-for-bloggers-businesses/ and follow him on Snapchat to see his travels by snapping this:

Travel blogging on Snapchat

As Snapchat has evolved, many people have started using it as a method of communicating with their friends and family whilst overseas.And as free wifi is now readily available in all major tourist destinations; Snapchat travel blogging has bloomed. Along with your everyday relative or friend sending you 10 second videos or pictures of what they got up to that day, people are creating full blown, profitable businesses out of travel blogging.
 Take for example, the now pretty famous Drew Binsky who makes his living by both travel blogging on his page The Hungry Partier and through Snapchat (@drewbinsky) where he has over 42,000 followers and over 8,000 people viewing his daily travel snap stories. When I last caught up with his snap stories he was having a ball in Indonesia and giving me serious travel envy as I procrastinated from doing my uni study.  He provides travel advice to those who ask for it and allows people to experience other countries whilst never leaving the comfort of their own home.

Drew Binsky is also an avid used of the Snapchat geofilter (as pictured above) which in my opinion is one of Snapchats best tourism marketing ideas and is what my next blog will star!

For a list of the best travel blogs to follow on Snapchat; visit Getting Stamped, another snapchatting travel blog with an entire post dedicated to this.