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How to Hide Who You are Talking to on Snapchat

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How to Hide Your Snapchat Convos – Change Display Names

Snapchat is the newest of the major social media channels. It is known for its popularity with teens. However, major brands have found it to be an effective way to reach out to users and the audience on the platform is increasing in age. Initially, messages, called Snaps, disappeared from after they were seen by the recipient. This accounted for the popularity with younger audiences – they could hide conversations from their parents. But to grow and compete with other social media channel such as Instagram, Snapchat had to add other features to make it more palatable for brands. Snapchatters can now save messages from other users but when you do save a message, the other user knows it. The channel added other features as well, such as subscriptions to brand stories, filters, and the ability to save messages.

Snapchat by the Numbers

In the third quarter of 2018, Snapchat boasted over 186 million daily active users. [1] This is actually a slight decrease from the 188 million reported in the second quarter of the same year. Snapchat’s user base has increased in age. Severity-eight percent of internet users between the ages of 18 and 24 use Snapchat. As the platform evolves, the average user age has increased. Usage is inversely proportional to age. Sixty percent of internet users between the ages of 25 and 34 use Snapchat. There is still strong usage for those in the 35-44-year-old range with 45% using the social media channel. The numbers drop off sharply after that with only 25% between the ages of 45 and 54 using Snapchat. It decreases with each bracket.

Snapchat Screenshot friend

How to use Snapchat remains a mystery to many older users. Twitter is simple yet challenging for some to learn to communicate in short chunks of text. Snapchat presents other learning curves as the disappearing Snap idea which is something foreign to older social media users. Snapchat is good at protecting the privacy of the message and shielding the user’s identities. A feature which worries many parents.

Like other major social channels, Snapchat added the ability to communicate directly with other users. People can send messages with text and images to one another. When notifications are turned on, the sender’s name pops up on the recipient’s smartphone’s screen with each message. This may present privacy and security concerns for some. Fortunately, there is an easy way to hide who you are conversing with on Snapchat.

We cannot change our account name on Snapchat. You’d have to delete your account and create a new one to acquire a new username. Your username and Display Name are two separate names associated with the account. Your Display Name is optional, your username is not. Adding a Display Name on Snapchat is a great way to help friends recognize you. Users are free to change their own Display Names as often as they wish. They can also change the Display Name of their friends and followers.

You can change your Display Name at any time. When you change it, new friends will see the updated name. existing friends will not see the change. Snapchatters who have you in their phonebook may see the name they’ve saved you as in their phone.

Snapchat Edit Settings

How to Change Display Names on Snapchat

In addition, your friends can change your name to be anything they choose for their own friends list. When a user changes YOUR name in their OWN friends list, that change is only visible to them. This is how you can give friends a name that helps you keep them organized. For example, if you know two Keiths you can give them each a name or last initial to sort them out. Since many of my contacts are from work, I tend to give them a few letters after their name indicating where they work.

Changing Display Names also helps you hide who you are talking to on Snapchat. When you change someone’s Display Name, then it changes the name listed each time a notification pops up from that person. It’s very quick to do and its shown in this video. You just head to the individual’s entry in your friends list and edit their Display Name.

Sources:
https://www.statista.com/statistics/545967/snapchat-app-dau/
https://www.statista.com/statistics/814300/snapchat-users-in-the-united-states-by-age/

Instagram – Four Types of Videos

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Instagram – Four Types of Videos Used on Instagram

Instagram offers four ways to use videos. Videos can increase reach on Instagram and make your account more visible. Instagram videos can be recorded live or uploaded later. The social media channel allows uses to edit videos for the correct length.

Instagram boats over 1 billion monthly active users. It is considered the social media channel to be on for any marketing to US consumers under the age of 45. For many regions of the world, Instagram in the only social media channel, regardless of age, because it is a mobile only app. Although, the web app has recently added a few more features, Instagram is still easier to use and remains a mobile device app. This makes it popular in areas, such as Africa, where there is far less laptop and tablet use.

Videos offers a good way for brands and individuals to connect with an audience. Videos allow a business or brand to make a personal connection with consumers. Videos can promote products but can also show potential customers what everyday life looks like at the office. Social media also allows brands to converse with followers.

Instagram has several types of video content. The original was simple video post to a user’s newsfeed. Newsfeed videos are simple to create. They can have filters and users can choose a cover image for the Instagram video. Stories also allow videos although the maximum length is shorter than a newsfeed video. However, stories have many advantages such as stickers and hashtags to help gain more reach. IGTV is the newest type of video content on Instagram and is also the longest length video allowed on Instagram. This is an underutilized type of post as brands have been slow to adopt it. The content that is posted is generally repurposed form elsewhere. IGTV is an opportunity to gain more reach an Instagram. Highlights are videos saved from other posts. Highlights are great for what appears to be categories on an Instagram profile.

Four Types of Videos on Instagram

  1. Newsfeed
  2. Highlights
  3. IGTV
  4. Instagram Stories

    Instagram newsfeed videos are up to 60 seconds long. Instagram Story videos are 15 seconds long. IGTV videos can be 10 minutes long offering the best opportunity for a longer video. Approved Instagram accounts can go up to an hour on IGTV. Highlights are saved from other content.

How to Choose the Best Video Channel for Your Business

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Choose the Best Video Channel for Your Business

Video should be a part of your marketing strategy it if isn’t already. If you are not in it yet, how do you choose the best video channel for your business? Of those who are already using videos in their marketing strategy, 76% report that the strategy increases sales while 47% found that it decreased customer support requests. There are a few fears that can hold a business or brand back from jumping into developing video content. Fear of being on camera and the thought of high costs are the top two concerns that I hear.

In 2017, the average consumer watched over 1.5 hours of videos online each day! I can say I enjoy a daily dose of equestrian, aviation, dance, and lots of music videos but I don’t think my watch time approaches over an hour day.

Everyone knows YouTube. Of those marketers who are already using videos as part of their strategy, 87% said they are using YouTube to share content. All but 10% felt it was an effective part of their marketing and branding plan. It’s a no brainer – there are one billion YouTube users. The channel has something for everyone, regardless of ages.

YouTube is the most popular video channel for viewers and for marketers. It is a no-brainer that if you want to be produce videos that this is channel should be part of your strategy. Remember YouTube is not just a video hosting platform, it is also the second largest search engine in North American and Europe.

YouTube isn’t the only channel to consider. You’ll get more ROI out of your effort if you can share across multiple social channel, on your website, and in email campaigns. Instagram offers a number of opportunities to share video content. Depending on which part of the channel you share on – feed, stories, IGTV, or highlights, the length of the video can vary quite a bit. Even with IGTV, most videos are under 15 minutes, averaging just a few minutes in run time. More metrics are available to Instagram business accounts.

LinkedIn also allows videos now, but the adoption rate is not nearly as good as the YouTube numbers. Much of this is because of channel age. Videos are relatively new to LinkedIn compared to YouTube. Also, the business social network does not have the global reach that YouTube enjoys. Although it is has loosened up somewhat since the sale to Microsoft, its content is still almost entirely business oriented and expected to stay that way. We don’t see the satire, gaming, and how-to videos that make up much of YouTube’s watch time. That said,, about 38% of marketers who are already using video content use them on LinkedIn. That is expected to rise to about 55% by the end of 2018.

Facebook also offers a variety of video sharing options. There are paid posts and boosted posts. We can also use videos in stories – a blatant Snapchat rip-off – and of course in organic posts. Boosting an organic video post is an excellent way to gain more insights on your audience. Sixty-eight percent of video marketers have used videos on Facebook.

Surprisingly only half of those using video on Facebook have used Facebook Live. Interactive video, like those seen on Facebook and alternative platforms like Twitch, are still not as popular. Interactive videos, where the personas in the video broadcast can respond to audience input in real time, are gowning in popularity. Channels like Twitch were once a forum for mostly gamers, but the push is on to make it more educational, information, and mainstream. Facebook Live videos are considered 81% effective by those using them for marketing purposes.

The only video channel that is not growing for marketers is Snapchat. It’s just not working for the average brand. Lack of metrics contributes to this lack of adoption.

There is a still an opportunity for brands to insert their marketing messaging into videos – ether organically on their own channels, in interactive videos, or as paid advertisements. A video strategy done well, can increase revenue and decreases some costs. Videos are effective way to connect with clients and other stakeholders. They create an emotional appeal that can raise brand awareness allowing viewers to get to know you and your company.

Data Source: The State of Video Marketing in 2018 by Wyzowl

Instagram Adds New Security Features

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Instagram Adds New Security Features

Instagram rolled out a pair of new features designed to increase the security of your Instagram account

Accounts that have a large following can request verification. Like Facebook, verified accounts will sport a blue checkmark in their profile. Instagram has not specified what constitutes a large following or large audience for the app. A verified profile on Facebook does not coordinate with a verified profile badge for Instagram. You will have to apply for it separately.

How to Apply for Instagram Verification

  1. On your mobile device, open the Instagram app
  2. Login to your account
  3. Tap your profile icon on the lower right-hand corner of the app
  4. Tap the hamburger menu (three horizontal lines) in the upper-right corner
  5. Select settings at the bottom of the screen
  6. Scroll down to the Settings section
  7. Select “Request verification” (if it is there)

NOTE: You will have to supply your Instagram account name and provide the required form of identification.

Two-factor authentication (2FA)

Instagram also added two-factor authentication (2FA) to help users keep their accounts secure. This security feature adds an extra step to the login process. 2FA is used by many social channels like Pinterest, to help keep accounts secure. But like the others, Instagram also made the security enhancement optional as the users’ discretion.

Instagram users can turn on 2FA from the settings section of their apps. The steps are detailed in this blog post about enabling Instagram 2FA.

Both features are rolling out to users. Two-factor authentication should be available to all users over the coming weeks. All accounts we manage already have it enabled. Large account can apply for verified profile badges as they see fit!

About Instagram

Instagram is a popular photo and video-sharing social media channel. It was launched in 2010 by creators Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger. In 2012 Facebook acquired Instagram which now has over 800 million users globally.

Four Snapchat Settings to Protect Your Privacy

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How to Change Your Settings on Snapchat

Learn how to edit four critical Snapchat privacy settings to protect yourself online. Social media channels, websites, and other online apps use your location data to track. However, did you know that other Snapchat users can see where you are on the map as well? Cool features like the Snapchat map let other users know where you are, and you may be surprised how accurate the map is. In some areas, other map users can see what building you are in.

Even if you shut off your Snapchat map, there is another level of tracking going on. Other major social media channels, like Facebook, track your location to sell that data (anonymously) to advertisers. So, besides the map, there are a few more settings to change to protect your privacy

Use Ghost Mode – Snapchat ghost mode allows you to hide your location from the map. For a set amount of time, you will be able to go incognito and disappear from the map. A more permanent alternative is to disable the map feature all together.

An obvious but sometime over looked privacy feature on that applies to Facebook and Snapchat is to not add strangers as social media friends. Don’t add strangers as friends. It is common sense, but if you are concerned about people tracing you down in person, then don’t follow or friend stranger. Keep in mind stranger friends can find you via the map. If you are a public figure or otherwise need to use social media for your career, then create an alternative profile that only shows work related posts and leave your family and personal life off of the public figure version of you. Facebook has this feature, and it is a version of Facebook pages. For Snapchat you’d simply create another profile.

Change your privacy settings so your Snapchat snaps are only shared with people you are friends with. The default setting is all snaps are public wo all followers when saved to your story. Choose to send snaps directly to friends by selecting them from your list of friends.

Finally, turn off location data on your phone or at least deny Snapchat the access to it. Do you love those geofilters on Snapchat? That’s your location data sharing at work! TO turn this off, either go into your device’s settings and stop sharing is globally to all apps, or turn it off for Snapchat specifically.

How to Set Up Snapchat Ghost Mode

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How to Set Up Snapchat Ghost Mode for the Snapchat map

If you are using the Snapchat maps (or maybe you didn’t know you are contributing to it) you may be surprised to find how frighteningly accurate Snapchat is at sharing your location. If you open the app and look at the Snapchat map, you’ll see that not only can you see where your friends are, you may be able to see exactly which hallway or section of a public building they are in.

For some, this may be acceptable, but for many, it’s creepy. Plus it is a huge privacy concern!

If you want more privacy on Snapchat – at least some of the time – then go into ghost mode or stop using the map all together. We know that internet giants like Google and Facebook are tracking our movement and preferences and then sell that data (albeit anonymously) to advertisers. Snapchat has an advertising platform too. So, don’t be naive and think the Snapchat map was developed entirely for fun. Data mining for advertising dollars is big business!

Enabling Host Mode by turning off the Snapchat’s location sharing is easy and takes less than a minute. You can choose who you share your location with, like just friends for example, or turn it off completely for three to 24 hours. Just go to your settings, under the gear icon. Select location data. After you tap Ghost Mode you will be able to control who is seeing your location and for how long.

Watch the video on how to change some of your Snapchat privacy settings and stop sharing your precise location with everyone.