I have to admit, I avoided getting active on Snapchat for the first few years, hoping that it would fade away like Google+, Pinterest, Periscope, Vine and so many others that tried to break into the big three (Facebook, Instagram and Twitter). Snapchat has not only broken into the big three but is dominating them in terms of social media usage among young adults.

Snapchat is a mobile photo-messaging app that allows users to take photos and short videos that remain viewable to recipients for up to 10 seconds. After that, the “snap” disappears forever. Think of it as texting with visuals. The app is designed for mobile users, which makes it appealing for millennials, whose first digital language is often mobile.

According to the company’s advertising page, 60 percent of U.S. citizens aged 13 to 34 are using Snapchat, making it easily one of the best apps for reaching the young demographic. Ten billion videos are viewed everyday by over 100 million users. Here’s another amazing stat—Snapchat users aged 13 to 34 view eight times more content on Snapchat than on television for the same event or story. If you want to reach millennials, your brand needs to be on Snapchat.

Download the app after you read this article and start learning how to use it, because Snapchat is only getting bigger. Snapchat generated $3.1 million in revenue in 2014. The following year, revenues were $59 million. Analysts are predicting anywhere between $500 million to $1 billion in revenues for 2017.

Most users allow their snaps to be viewed for 24 hours. These are known as Snapchat stories. Once the clock hits 24 hours after the user posts a snap, it is gone forever. This is very different from the permanency of posts to Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Snapchat also features user comments, live video chats similar to FaceTime and a chat feature similar to Facebook messenger. Companies and event producers are heavily using the platform, providing stories to their users and continuously looking at ways to grow their Snapchat communities.

Building followers will take time with Snapchat. Unlike Instagram, you can’t search for new Snapchat connections from the friends on your Facebook page. That’s why many users on Facebook and Instagram have their Snapchat names on their profiles. You can start with your personal address book to build your following, but that’s about it. You have to type in a user name to follow someone, and you can’t see any of their past snaps (unlike platforms that allow you to see their posting history), which adds to the challenges of growing your Snapchat community.

Snapchat features a variety of location-based graphics that users can add to their snaps. These filters are becoming a very important trend for event producers and marketing companies, and Hawai‘i is seeing a large increase in companies offering this service. To learn more about Snapchat geofilters, visit snapchat.com/on-demand.

If you haven’t made Snapchat a part of your marketing strategy, you’re definitely missing out on an opportunity to connect with members of your young adult audience. If you decide to join the platform, you can find my daily snaps at
@atmarketing.