The app known for scandalous images and drunken college students took a brief socially conscious turn on Tuesday and it was awesome
By: Elvis Jocol Lara
Snapchat, or the “sexting app” as it has been known by many, has been doing its best to shake that image and become a social media platform that is used by a mass audience and not just promiscuous teens. Recently, it has picked up traction by providing live feeds from large scale music, entertainment and sporting events such as the Golden Globes and College football bowl games.
It may have outdone itself, however, on Monday as it provided a live feed from Paris, named “Je Suis Charlie,” otherwise known as “I am Charlie.” “I am Charlie” has become a global trend as people move to show their support for the French city and those affected by the terrorist attacks on the magazine, Charlie Hebdo.
For those unfamiliar with a Snapchat live feed, the feature gathers “snaps” (as posts on the app are known) from everyday users within a preset geographical area surrounding a major event. Snapchat employees then curate the collected snaps and send them out to all Snapchat users in their feed. The feature allows users to witness a major event through the eyes of those in attendance; the perspective is organic and cuts out the commercial feel you get from paid posts on other social media sites.
The feature has become increasingly popular with brands over the past several months to a year because it allows the advertiser to reach an increasingly younger user base in an innovative and engaging manner. The feature holds great promise for the popular app that doesn’t quite have a solid revenue model in place.
Despite positive early reviews, it’s still yet to be known if the live feeds will resonate with user’s long term. After all, there’s only so much fist pumping, blaring music and screaming college kids one can see before it gets old. Once you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all, right?
But “Je Suis Charlie” is different. It provided a perspective that no other media outlet has or can provide as witnessed below (though admittedly, viewing the images outside of the app, doesn’t quite convey the experience):
With pictures such as these, viewed as if they were being captured with your own phone, the user is given an experience unlike any other. In seeing the images, I was transported to Paris, a city I’ve never before visited and the video snaps truly helped convey the mood and tenor of the city (unfortunately we were unable to save the videos). Of course, sprinkled in the feed were some pretentious and even annoying snaps, but that is something that can be improved as Snapchat curators learn along the way.
It is unlikely Snapchat is seeing any revenue from this particular execution of its live feed, which makes it even better; it is organic and serves a social purpose. The company would be well served to harness this type of user experience moving forward in an effort to reach and engage a broader user base and keep them coming back with content that isn’t all sponsored.
Imagine the app being known as the one to turn to when major world events happen, instead of the one to turn to in order to snap an, ahem, “inappropriate picture.”
Of course, this will never be who Snapchat is full time; it would take it too far away from the original concept which made it popular, but it would certainly be a welcome feature that could help unite the world, if only a bit, following major events. We’ll see where it goes from here, but in this particular instance, kudos are certainly in order.
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Elvis Jocol Lara is Director of Digital Media at El Mundo, Founder and President of Casa Guatemala and an experienced Marketing professional who has worked with some of the world’s leading brands. A child of Guatemalan immigrants, he was born in Boston and raised in Waltham, MA. Follow him on Twitter @ElChapin.
