Young Life staff and volunteers are usually “hip with the times” and on the major social media outlets that teens are on. However, just because you’re on Snapchat, doesn’t mean that you are using it as effectively as your could to drive excitement and buzz about your clubs, trips, and ultimately, your message.
A Few Ways For Young Life To Think About Snapchat:
Snapchat is for the moment. Snapchat is great for real-time events in a visual way. The app allows the audience behind-the-scenes views of live events. It provides an authentic perspective that you would never see in any brochure.
Snapchat is a storytelling tool. The My Story feature allows you to share snippets of your story. You can take your audience through a full day of “snaps” that tell a story. Perhaps it’s a leader telling their own story, or you’re telling parts of the greatest love story of all time from the Gospel. Using the My Story feature could be a great way to reveal camp trip locations or other surprises for your clubs.
Snapchat is an interactive tool. Snapchat allows you to publicly post to your My Story, but it also allows you to send chats to individual users, bringing the social media experience back to the individual. Remember, your kids are on Snapchat, and Young Life is all about going to kids where they are.
Using Snapchats After They “Disappear” – Many have argued that Snapchat is useless because it disappears after 24 hours. While this is true, there is a way to save your story at any point. Some people get in the habit of saving their story at the end of each day. This will save your series of snaps from the day to your device, which you can utilize later on and share on Facebook, your website, emails, and more.
Snapchat is relational – Snapchat is extremely relational in nature and is arguably, the newest place to migrate to interact authentically on social media.