Will Snapchat Discover Revolutionize Published Content on Mobile Devices?

 

Some social media pundits predict Snapchat Discover will revolutionize how content is consumed on mobile devices.

Snapchat’s new news service can be accessed through a purple dot in the upper-right corner of the app’s Stories screen. Users browse animated story teasers in 12 channels and can read or view the entire story if they desire.

Channels include ESPN, Cosmopolitan, The Daily Mail, Yahoo, National Geographic, and the Food Network. Snapchat updates each channel daily, and posts about five stories a day, sometimes up to 15, from each channel. The posts feature a mix of news, videos and articles repackaged from the publishers’ websites, along with some original stories.

The Perfect Mobile Package

Snapchat found how to package third-party mobile-friendly content, a long-sought-after goal, says Daniel Etcovitch, chief marketing officer of The True North Times. And publishers learned how to produce content designed for mobile: short, snappy videos with an option to drill down for more content.

Snapchat also convinced publishers that it is a viable network for distributing their content. “That’s right, the app that was once used primarily for nude photos wants to be a legitimate source for news,” Etcovitch writes in the Huffington Post.

The impact of Snapchat Discover has been huge, says Kevin Roose of Fusion. After launch, the service drew millions of viewers per day, per publisher. Fusion’s channel, not offered in the U.S., offers a mix of international news, pop culture, and video features. Because Snapchat has about 100 million monthly active users, two-thirds of whom reportedly use the app every day, the Snapchat news service will draw millions of viewers even if just a few percent of users access it. The early results are especially surprising because users of Snapchat tend to be younger – teenagers who are not typical consumers of news publications.

The service could also shake up the publishers’ relationships with other social media networks, Roose says. Snapchat Discover shares with publishers advertising revenue generated by their content: reportedly 70 percent of the revenue from ads the publishers sell, and 50 percent from ads Snapchat sells. If the plan works, it will give publishers more leverage to share ad revenue with networks like Facebook

For Snapchat Marketing

Roose offers these recommendations and cautions to marketers and news organizations thinking of publishing content on Snapchat Discover.

Expect to hire at least one full-time employee for the job. Just adding it to your list of social media networks won’t work. Repackaging stories often requires custom animation, voice-over, and significant editing of the text itself.

Go short. Stories are ideally about a few hundred words or about two minutes of video. His 4,000-word story on Waterloo, Ontario, was repackaged to a handful of bullet points.

Shoot vertical videos. Although channels are posting horizontal videos, it’s awkward to turn your phone sideways to watch one at full size.

The service has no links. Snapchat wants it to be self-contained. So it won’t directly increase your web traffic, although it can help build brand awareness.

Don’t be too timely. Since channels are updated only daily, it’s not the best outlet for breaking news.

It’s impossible to predict how the service will evolve. Snapchat could easily open it to more publishers since the infrastructure is already set up, although Roose predicts it will be picky about accepting publishers. Snapchat could drop the service, or it could become the biggest thing since Twitter. “Given the stakes, it’s not surprising that Snapchat is on every forward-thinking media mogul’s mind,” Roose says.

Bottom Line: Marketers looking toward the future will keep an eye on Snapchat Discover, a new mobile-friendly, video-oriented news service that may well revolutionize the consumption and formats of mobile content.