I joined Snapchat back in 2012, back then, I had no friends on there yet, and it was known for its widespread use among teenagers, but I really just was curious about the new app my younger sister and all teens were obsessed with.

In the last 12 months the tide changed: more businesses started joining, along with entrepreneurs (I listed below some entrepreneurs & designers to follow). It’s quickly grown into the largest image sharing tool and a way to connect and form relationships with anyone, whether they are a brand, customer, or friend. And, if you haven’t tried it, you should. It’s like Instagram except you can’t upload, you actually have to be “in the moment”, plus Gchat where you can send a private message to a friend, with a little bit of Facebook where you can have a timeline, except on Snapchat it’s called a “story” and it expires after 24hrs. The general consensus is to use it casually and to be yourself.

How Businesses Can Use It: Ordering Filters

Besides engaging with customers on Snapchat as a user, one of the easiest and most effective ways of leveraging Snapchat as a business is to buy a custom filter during your next event or pop-up. I suggest promoting the fact that there’s a filter throughout the event.

You can go here to order one, and to give you a sense of the price, we included one we bought recently for one of our events:

Design Entrepreneurs – Who to Follow on Snapchat

One of the best ways of getting ideas on how to use Snapchat, is to follow some entrepreneurs for inspiration. Check out this list of entrepreneurs, designers, and fashion bloggers:

@msuster

Mark Suster, Investor at Upfront Ventures

Mark Suster is my favorite snapchatter. He doesn’t snap about his every day life like most others do, but he has solid advice and content about entrepreneurship, leadership, team building and more. He’s an entrepreneur and now an investor.  He has great insight into the challenges of running a business, and great advice.

@garyvee

Gary Vaynerchuk, CEO of VaynerMedia, Founder of Wine Library TV

Follow Gary for marketing advice, general business tactics, and how to hustle. He of course, also snaps himself going to the gym, and just everyday life. He posts every day.

@sophiaamoruso

Sophia Amoruso, Founder of Nasty Gal, author of #GirlBoss

Follow Sophia for a peek into her life as an entrepreneur, and podcast host. She is pretty candid and posts about parties, life, and advice for entrepreneurs. She posts nearly every day.

@alexanderwangny 

Alexander Wang, Fashion Designer

Alexander doesn’t post every day, but it’s still nice to follow for when he does!

@justinkan

Justin Kan is a partner at Y Combinator, Founder of Twitch which was acquired by Amazon for $970M.

Justin snaps about his everyday life, and occasionally will do a “snapstorm” on etnrepreneurship. He posts everyday.

@alexisohanian

Alexis Ohanian, Partner of Y Combinator, Executive chairman of Reddit and Best-selling author of “Without Their Permission”

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