Snapchat may not be the biggest player on the social media field yet, but projections are good that it will continue to build a loyal following. So how has the app so quickly won over millennials? Here are 5 reasons this age group loves to snap.
Authenticity
It’s well known that most people don’t present a realistic view of their lives on sites like Facebook and Instagram, but instead tend to post carefully curated photos and posts that show them in the best light possible.
This makes sense; most people don’t want to post a photo that highlights low points in their lives but it does make other social networking sites seem somewhat artificial and inauthentic to young people. Because Snaps disappear immediately after being opened, it’s easier for people to share their authentic selves to friends—a key lure for millennials, who crave that authenticity.
A New Form of Engagement
Unlike texting, Snapchat provides a new type of media for millennials—engaging with friends one on one through photos or tens second video streams. Forty percent of millennials say they use texting or video chat messaging to substitute meeting up with friends.
With the new Stories and Discover features, users can also engage with celebrities and brands in new ways. This highly visual and fleeting entertainment model has proven very successful—and able to retain users long term. As a combination of media platform and private messaging, Snapchat has shown it can integrate multiple functions flawlessly to hold user engagement.
Humor and Creative Expression
Snapchat offers filters to users—but these filters are very different from the sleek and sophisticated ones Instagram offers. Users can select from brand and event-specific filters, as well as choose funny lenses from both Snapchat itself and sponsoring brands.
After Instagram’s perfectly posed selfies and landscapes, many Snapchat users actually enjoy the break from perfection as they send “ugly selfies” and funny photos with whacky lenses to friends. As a creative outlet, Snapchat certainly outperforms many other large social sites and allows millennials to really play around with photos and captions to promote personality and tell their own story.
An Easier Way to Keep in Touch
Millennials love that Snapchat makes it easy to show others the little moments that make up their days. They get a look into their friends’ lives they might never have seen without the app, and they like being able to craft a narrative.
Many millennials find Snapchat easier and more convenient to use than texting, especially when trying to explain something—they can simply add a video to help illustrate a point or solve a problem. Staying immersed in this way helps keep millennials connected—and many millennials actually use it as their main method of communication with some friends.
A Sense of Privacy
While photos disappearing after they are viewed might seem like a drawback, it’s actually one of the reasons millennials like the app so much. There’s a sense of control and privacy that’s lacking from some other social networks.
While users can change their settings to allow anyone to send photos, it is easy to restrict photo sharing to friends alone. In addition to Snaps disappearing immediately (Stories also disappear after 24 hours), users are notified when someone else takes a screen shot of their message, allowing them to have complete knowledge about who has their photo and what they have saved. Unread messages are deleted in 30 days.
Winning the Millennial Generation
Though Snapchat has not yet reached the user base numbers of Facebook or Instagram, it’s caught up to Twitter and seems poised to continue its massive growth. Only time will tell if new features will be able to hold millennial interest, but for the meantime, they are very happy to send fleeting messages and communicate in a whole new way.
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