BY JULIE A. PALM

The photo and video sharing app Snapchat can be great for your store—if you use it right

Of all the popular social media platforms, Snapchat may be the hardest for mattress retailers to grasp. It’s ephemeral by nature—the amorphous-looking logo is a ghost. The messaging app allows users to share photos and videos, which they can embellish with captions, doodles, emoticons, filters and lenses. But the images don’t hang around, lasting at most 10 seconds. A Stories feature collects all of a user’s snaps and those can be viewed for a comparative eternity: 24 hours.

Snapchat is designed for mobile use—you can download it only on an Android or iOS device—and it skews young. About 85% of users are 34 and younger, but they are engaged. The app has 160 million daily users, with the average user checking in 18 times a day for a total of about 30 minutes.

If you have products, messages and a vibe geared toward mobile, younger shoppers, Snapchat can be a great tool for you. (Danielle Corcione, a Business News Daily contributor, offers a tutorial for getting set up on Snapchat. Read, “Snapchat for Business. Everything You Need to Know.”)

Here are some ways to use the app:

• Spend some money. Snapchat offers three main types of ads. Snap ads are full-screen vertical videos, much like traditional ads but super short. Geofilter ads allow you to create a custom photo filter that users can apply when in specific locations or that you can tie to an event like a big holiday. Lense ads are highly interactive, encouraging users to play around with lenses you create. You can see examples of each at ForBusiness.Snapchat.com/Ad-Products.
• Team up. Tap into the reach of influencers (popular Snapchatters with big followings) by having one take over your account for a day, weekend or week. “Even local authorities with hundreds or thousands of fans can improve your Snapchat reach,” says Eric Siu, writing for SocialMediaExaminer.com in June 2016.
• Give people what they want. Snapchat is a good place to offer promotions, discounts, coupons and deals. Siu notes that “exclusivity sells well on this platform.” “Depending on wording, any time you create an aura of scarcity or exclusivity around an offer, you’ve got a better chance of gaining attention on Snapchat,” he says.
• Show off what you do and offer—in a fun way. Use Snapchat videos (free or paid ads) for a silly demonstration of an adjustable base. Give creative sleep tips. Maybe stage a pillow fight with your best-selling pillows or show how fast a boxed bed can be whipped out of the package and set up. Position explainers and demos as exclusive looks and behind-the-scenes peeks when you can.
• Above all, be memorable. Because you’ve got such a short time to make an impression, your messages need to be well-crafted and specifically targeted to your audience. Be authentic and be personal: Snapchat users demand it.