Snapchat's solution to social media

Social media is forever evolving, usually driven by the need for platforms to develop a revenue stream. Most platforms do this by opening access to their users’ data to marketers and their brands, whilst users want an assurance of privacy. Those competing pressures had seemed insolvable, but I believe one platform has found the answer everyone has been looking for. 

The beginning of social media, for most people, was MSN messenger and Hotmail.  This was all about instant messaging your classroom peers (and a great chance to put your BF in your status ‘I *heart* Alan’). This social interaction is known as Dark Social. Dark Social can be anything from sharing a link via private emails or Whatsapp messaging your friends. It can’t be monitored (although some platforms have now been accused of doing so).  However, brands are not able to analyse who is sharing what on Dark Social, and it is known that Dark Social sharing is the biggest stat that marketers are missing out on.

2006 saw the explosion of Facebook with its social profiles, and Twitter, with its social feeds that made real-time information available. Sharing was more public and marketers could tap into this social interaction and analyse the engagement with all the social media tools we use today.  Social media had moved out of the Dark Age from a marketers perspective.

But Facebook and Twitter very quickly became swamped by brands. The younger generation, not keen on their parents knowing too much about them, moved onto Snapchat and WhatsApp which quickly became the new ‘go to’ platforms – Generation Z took social media back to Dark Social.

It is therefore very interesting that Snapchat have just launched their ‘Discover’ platform.  It is early days, but I suspect that the real reason behind the launch is to provide a route for marketers to engage in the dark social market, without breaching that all important ‘privacy’.  However, there doesn’t seem to be any way of marketers analysing their demographic from this platform as there are no social profiles – maybe Snapchat will introduce this in the near future?

If my guess is right, Snapchat are the first to really understand the competing pressures on social media and have found an answer that works for everyone. A pretty impressive feat.