I’m a big fan of Casey Neistat. He’s one of the top YouTube vloggers out there, so if you want to see great video content, go give him a follow.
When I found out he teamed up with Jerome Jarre, the new found king of Vine and Snapchat, I had to have a look at the video they created together, and after watching it, it seemed a perfect fit for the 8MS blog.
It’s about why the youth of today love Snapchat. Give it a watch below – it’s a great video.
A LITTLE SNAPCHAT HISTORY
Believe it or not, Snapchat is only 3-years old. In that time, it has amassed one of the biggest social media followings in history. In May 2014, Snapchat’s users were sending 700 million photos and videos per day.
Despite it’s rapid growth, Snapchat has struggled to shake off its “we’re the platform for sexting” tag, a stigma Snapchat has long since tried to quash. A good thing too, given Snapchat’s main demographic consists of users between 13 and 23 years of age.
Last year, Snapchat rejected a $3 billion bid from Facebook. It was rumoured Google offered even more. A very bold move. But given they are now worth around $10 billion and counting, you can see why they turned away the big boys.
SNAPCHAT IS POWERED BY STORIES
The youth of today are bothered about privacy. There is a sense that they simply don’t trust Facebook, which is why Snapchat, Whatsapp and even new platform Ello are booming.
Snapchat allow you to create a piece of content – an update on your life – in real-time. It’s in the moment. There is less scrutiny, no comments, no likes, no retweets, it is just something that happens and disappears.
Snapchat Stories allow users to live their day with friends and followers. As Casey says, it’s never been about sharing a moving image. It’s being able to tell a story. In real-time. No filtered images, no perfectly edited videos, just raw content. And because Snapchats disappear, there is a huge sense of urgency, and an unrivalled urge to want to post more.
NO-ONE HAS FIGURED OUT MOBILE VIDEO
No one has figured out video on mobile. Facebook is pushing more mobile content into it’s news feed (kick started by the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge), Instagram is catching up, Vine is Vine and Twitter hasn’t even got going.
If Snapchat gives us any indication on the future of social media, it is about being personal, being human, sharing stories and having real-time interactions that don’t linger around in your history.
It seems Snapchat has finally broken it’s sexting shackles.