How long is yours? Snapchat and the march towards size zero content
Snapchat is the king of short-form content, with almost a third of 18 to 24-year-olds now using it. It is the very definition of ephemeral, yet it is growing at rapid velocity.
If short-form content and social networking is changing teenagers’ brains for the worse, then Snapchat is the crack cocaine of neuroplasticity. But with its spring update adding instant messaging and real-time video chat to its disappearing image arsenal, and other more recent tweaks, it is proving ever more potent. As Snapchat inventor Jeremy Lieuw says: “This isn’t a silly little messaging app. It allows people to revert back to a time when they never had to worry about self-censorship.”
It has taken a turn for the sinister recently with unsuspecting users posing for X-rated images they believe will expire within seconds then finding they are being posted online thanks to hacking apps. And today it was reported that a student from the University of Alabama was expelled after a message with a racist caption went viral.
However, every new surging platform faces misuse scandals as it goes mainstream, from Google and the right to be forgotten, to Facebook making private messages public on Timelines and Twitter allowing fake followers.
Snapchat's success story is not quite the same as Instagram’s or even Vine’s; while they also deal with visual and short-form content, Snapchat takes short-form content to the nth degree by turning it into a momentary experience. Moreover, it is a momentary experience with an absolutely guaranteed level of “finger-pushed” engagement. For now all attempts to improve on Snapchat by competitors Instagram Direct and Slingshot have not quite hit the target.
But the success of Snapchat represents, to my mind, a wider cleaving off of the web into two.
On one hand: platforms that give quick content 'fixes' and seemingly forget everything you post. So ultimate solutions to the potential pitfalls of having a digital footprint leads to a web that is home to the Snapchats. The Whispers, Wickrs and Bolts of this world. A web where there is not one overarching, bigger, better network; instead, there are messaging apps and quick-form data services to shuttle content quickly between tight and isolated groups of close friends, leaving little that is searchable or permanent.
On the other: platforms that remember everything, that make content available for future reference and use. Narrative-based platforms that allow you to see the tracks you have made in the sand along the way and go back an revisit. This permanency point was made when I was talking to a Facebook user who said he would ditch the platform if it were not for the friends birthdays reminder feature. He described it has his “anchor”.
I believe agencies' ability to create captivating short-term and spontaneous content, both as editorial and in advertising form, is crucial for success in today’s marketplace. As is the general ability to figure out how to market through short-form content, outside of product launch teasers. And how to market to a youth marketplace, who may not be precious about general online privacy of information, but are about the traceability of the content they make and consume.
However, is long-form and permanent content dead? Not by a long shot. It absolutely has its place. Marketeers need only consider how to more fully embrace ephemeral and short-form content as a valuable omni-channel and more mobile friendly marketing tool.
Jono Marcus is digital director and client director at Inkling