By Sarah Harvard
Photos by Thana Faroq
They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but with Twitter only limiting storytelling to about 140 character, reporters have turned to Snapchat as new, more engaging and immediate method of distributing news.
Nalan Spirar, the Editor of Innovative Programming for Deutsche Welle, says legitimate news organizations like CNN, Wall Street Journal, Vox, Mashable and BuzzFeed are finally using Snapchat to provide live coverage for breaking news and feature stories.
The features on snapchat are quite complicated, and not essentially made for journalistic purposes: snaps are immediately erased after 24 hours, have no functions to like, share or comment, with no analytics or data information on followers; and yet, it’s still has been more effective in gaining viral coverage.
This is primarily due to their phenomenal amount of users: 150 Million users a day, with 10 billion views a day—in comparison to Facebook’s 8 billion a day—as of April 2016, and perhaps the most interesting is the target audience: 13-34 years old.
“Snapchat doesn’t want to be a platform for parents,” Sipar says.
When it comes to social media technology, millennials ranging from 13-34 years old are not only one of the biggest news consumers, but also the most engaging on twitter.
Here’s some tips journalists can use to not only attract a younger and more engaging audience, but to expand their international coverage.
Write Your Script Beforehand
Writing a script of your report, explainer, recap or commentary is incredibly useful when speaking directly to the camera. Not only will you be able to not go on tangents, but you’re also able to plan exactly how many snaps you will need and work around to ensure you keep the snaps at a minimal for best outcome.
Film yourself providing quick recaps, explainers, or reports.
Snapchat videos only last for ten seconds, and as reporters, brevity is key. Within 3-7 snap video uploads, film yourself making a report while using captions as their own headlines.
Use Emojis to attract young users
Emojis are a better method to explain your reports or provide subtitles with less words.
Number Your Snaps For Commentary
best method in numbering snaps is by putting the number of the snap out of the number of snaps you expect to give.
Use Quizzes To Keep Your Audience Engaged To Your Snaps
Creating a quiz on snapchat is easy. Use one snap for a question. Make sure you decorate it with the paint tool feature and emojis. Set the timer for the snap for however long you want it to be — 10 seconds work best. The next snap should be used to reveal the answer. Make it pop!
Use Personalities For Your Snaps To Gain Followers
There’s a misconception among media organizations that the discovery channel is the most beneficial feature for them. However, it’s actually not highly viewed among snapchat users and takes a whole production team and thousands of dollars. The best way to gain more views is to invite social media personalities with a large influence and viewers, and have them promote your snapchat account.
Snapchat Doesn’t Allow You To Upload, But You Can Bypass That
Upload’n’Roll, and other third party application softwares, help you export videos into your Snapchat account. This allows for high production video editing and packaging for your snapchat.
Use Caption Feature As Subtitles To Expand Your Audience
Snapchat has a caption feature with five to six words limit, but did you know you can actually expand the word count? It’s easy. Go to your notes feature on your iPhone, or a Google Doc app on your Android, and type up your text. Select. Copy. And then paste it onto your snap.
It’s even more helpful to have your commentary and reporting have subtitles on a different language.
