Looking for ways to get more friends on Snapchat? You’re not alone. Savvy social marketers know that this is an important part of any Snapchat for business strategy. More friends means greater reach and a higher likelihood that you’ll achieve your goals on the platform.
In this guide we’ll teach you how to get more Snapchat friends (or Snapchat followers, if you prefer). No fluff or tired tactics here—these tips actually work.
How to get more Snapchat friends: 14 tips and tactics
1. Have a clear Snapchat strategy
When you approach any new platform as a marketing vehicle, you need to do so with a clear strategy. Snapchat marketing—part of which is getting more friends—requires a plan for how you’re going to reach your goals. Skipping this step could result in wasted time, effort, and money.
To get started on your own strategy, you need to ask the right questions. Questions such as…
- Who are we going to educate within the company to use the platform?
- Who will be responsible for keeping our account active, and engaging with our Snapchat followers?
- What are we looking to achieve, at the end of the day? In other words, what does it mean to us to have X number of Snapchat friends, or X number of Story views?
- How many hours, days, months, or years do we estimate it will take to reach our Snapchat goals?
- What does success on Snapchat look like to us?
- Who is our ideal Snapchat friend? How do we reach this person? (By “person” we mean audience personas).
- What methods will we use to attract followers on Snapchat? Why would they want to see our Stories, anyway?
- What will our overall message be for our Snapchat friends and followers? How will we stick to this message with our many Snaps and Stories?
- What are our competitors doing on Snapchat? How will we evaluate what’s working for them, and what isn’t?
- Who else do our ideal Snapchat friends follow? How can we leverage those influencers?
Without knowing the answers to the above questions (and others of their kind), you can easily get derailed on a platform like Snapchat. Remember, it’s not just about having fun. If it’s costing you to manage a Snapchat account, you’ll want to know if it’s paying off—whatever that payoff means to you.
Once you’ve answered those questions you’re ready to start fleshing out your strategy. These blog guides will help you through that:
2. Learn how to use Snapchat
Yes, you could skip to promoting your account. But imagine how much more effective your account will be if you first learn how to interact with others on the platform!
Snapchat has a learning curve to it. But once you get going on it, it can become second nature.
See our handy guides on this subject (because trust us, it’s not intuitive to figure out):
We’ve also included tips below for using Snapchat to build followers.
3. Get inspired by what other brands are doing
There’s no harm in learning how other brands utilize Snapchat to attract followers and engage their audiences. Here are a few sources to start your research into this:
4. Use Snapchat insights to re-evaluate, then revise
Any good marketer knows that at best, their first strategy is going to be a best guess. As with all marketing measures, you will want to use Snapchat analytics periodically. See if your efforts to get new Snapchat friends are working for you. You’ll also want to use any data you can get to answer the above ‘strategy’ questions. Then revise your execution as needed.
5. Share your Snapcode to make it easy for users to add you as a friend
A Snapcode is a nifty, scannable code that makes adding new Snapchat friends and opening Snapchat content quick and easy. Your Snapcode is located in the center of your Snapchat Profile Screen, found by tapping the ghost in the upper center of the Camera Screen.
New followers can scan your Snapcode using the Snapchat camera. They can also screenshot your Snapcode and use the “Add by Snapcode” feature on the “Add Friends” page to easily add your business as a new friend. Once you have your Snapcode, you can begin posting it far and wide.
Here are a few ways to share your Snapcode far and wide to gain new Snapchat followers.
Make your Snapcode your profile picture on other social media accounts
People on Snapchat will know what to do. In essence, they’ll take a screenshot of your Snapcode, then let the app find you by accessing the image through their phone’s camera roll.
This way, if you promote your other social media accounts, you’ll be promoting Snapchat at the same time. The more you get ‘em, the better.
Share your Snapcode in posts on other networks
BIG news… We’re on Snapchat! Here’s how we pitched it to our boss
