Want to know why you aren't getting more people watching your Snapchat stories? Did you jump onto Snapchat and are floundering around like a fish out of water trying to figure out if Snapchat is worth your time?
Let's be blunt - the reason you're struggling is probably because your Stories are boring to watch.
But don't stress - let me be your Ben Kenobi and I promise you that these six tips will increase your Snapchat engagement and make your stories more appealing to a wider audience.
1. Storyboard Your Ideas
Often, people forget to have a strategy when they get into Snapchat. They buy into the hype, download the app, and just start posting random cat photos. Well, every story needs a strategy and this is where storyboarding comes in.
If you want your engagement to go up and people to get excited about what you're doing, think about the story before you post it. Take 60 seconds to write out your idea, and storyboard it.
Once your storyboard is complete, look at how you can create some depth in the story. Use Snapchat to "show" and not "tell" your message.
An example of "telling" your message is doing a 10-minute rant, with the camera pointed square at your face. "Showing" your story is sharing your message through image and symbolism, in addition to those more common means.
2. Encourage Your Audience to Participate
If you want to increase your Snapchat engagement, ask your viewers to become participants in your story. Create interactive components to your stories and let your audience feel like they have some say in the outcome. For example, you could use a simple stop motion animation where you ask people to tap the screen.
Another option is to survey your audience and ask them to vote by taking a screen shot. One day you might even grow to be as advanced as Shaunayala and his Snapchat stories, like this one.
Audience participation has become a pillar of growth in my Snapchat stories. The more I focus on creating content that has an interactive component, or components, the more views I receive.
3. Pass the Spotlight to Your Community
Getting your audience to participate in your story is awesome, but taking that to the next level - where you make them the highlight of the story - is even better.
Showing everyone how amazing your audience is and putting them on center stage to participate in the creation of your story is a great way to boost engagement. This can be as simple as a weekly game like my "throwback Thursday lip sync battle," or Blake Crofts "Sad Singing Sundays". You could also make it more complex like how @AaronFPS recently had people vote where to go in his #shareacoke challenge.
4. Use the Native Tools
One of the fastest ways to kill your engagement on Snapchat is to use Snapchat as a mirror and forget about all the native tools. Unless you're really, really good looking, it's unlikely your audience wants to stare at your face all day.
Snapchat is amazing for creating engaging and interesting content. You can draw on your snaps, you can add emoji to highlight points, you can use silly face Lenses, or the speed up, slow down, and rewind filters.
There are tons of creative options available to you when trying to make your Snapchat story more entertaining to watch - it's a creative sin not to use one or more of those features in your Snaps.
5. Create a Hook in the Beginning
With the new Snapchat auto-advance feature, there are even more people consuming content in the platform. Auto-advance - which sees one Snapchat story roll automatically into the next - allows users who don't normally look for your content to stumble upon it and join your viewers for the day. In order to maximize return from this option, you need to have a great hook to get those new viewers to stick around.
In the beginning, hook your audience to let people know exactly what your Snapchat story is about. This can draw people in and say "hmm I want to see where this story goes next".
6. Create Secrecy in your CTA
The final way to increase your engagement in Snapchat is to create secrecy in your call-to-actions. Don't always give away the house and the farm, leave a little mystery in what you are doing.
Ask people to Snap you back to learn what this awesome thing you're offering is or to find out more. This is a great way to get more qualified interaction.
Just posting a link to your latest blog post doesn't drive that much traffic. However, giving value in advance on Snapchat, and asking people to Snap you back for some more tips will. When they do Snap you back and you say, "the last tip is on this link," you can bet it drives traffic.
Those are 6 ways you can use to increase your Snapchat engagement and make your stories more enjoyable to watch. But I'm sure there are many more - if you have any additional tips, let us know in the comments.