By now, you must have heard of Facebook, YouTube, tumblr, spotify and twitter.Well add Snapchat to the list. It is an app which allows you to send messages, videos and photos which disappear quickly. You can send these to either a select number of your friends or to everyone who is following your Snapchat account.

It is really a very simple concept, some may even find it dumb. But in spite of all of that, or may be just because of it, Snapchat has turned into a large phenomenon. eMarketer has projected that around 20% of the Americans will be using Snapchat this year. The research also says that 85 million of the US population will be using it by 2020. Snapchat is not just a US centric phenomenon, it is also very popular in other countries. And although it was youth-centric when it started out, it now starting to be popular in the people who have crossed 25 years of age. Even the former US First Lady, Mrs. Michelle Obama has had an account for a while now.

Also, as the service gets more popular, the new users seem to have a lot of questions about it – same as they do about Facebook, twitter, YouTube, tumblr, vimeo and spotify. Most them revolve around when, how and why to use any of these services. People want to know why they should be using Snapchat when they already have so many other platforms.

The confusion is natural. Snapchat, on the surface, feels like just one of the many apps out there. Indeed, YouTube, Vine, Instagram and many more apps seem to be doing similar things. Snapchat, however, has a lot of unique qualities about it that attract over 100 million users to itself. Free snapchat likes can enhance your brand as well.

Unlike other social media platforms like Instagram, Twitter or Facebook, the first thing that you will notice when you open Snapchat is that it is not some massive feed containing information. It is a camera.

This has been done on purpose and speaks volumes of the strategy taken by Snapchat. The whole concept behind the app is to encourage users into creating content sharing it with their friends – even if they are just silly videos. Snapchats has created products around this service, like Live Stories where curators at Snachat pick up snaps (this term is used to refer to videos and pictures on Snapchat) from a given location and convert it into some story related to the event, like a video game expo or an NBA game.

The push given towards making, rather than just watching content seems to have worked really well.  Recently, CEO Evan Spigel told the investors that the service was now getting 10 billion views a day which is up from 2 billion on May 2015.

It is vertical friendly

Before Snapchat came in, watching videos on phone often meant that you had to hold your phone horizontally, or just contend with watching the video in a short and wide box with the screen held vertically. And it was just fine, most people did not complain about that. However, for most people who are used to holding their phone vertically, which is most of the people, making and watching videos with the phone held upright just comes more naturally.

It is Private

When you share a snap, the app will prompt you so you cab send it just to your friends, but you also have the option to making it into a story, which will make it visible to all the people following you but for just 24 hours. You can send messages containing your pictures and videos privately if you want tor make it public for everyone. This is a key difference between Snapchat and other social media services where privacy has been more of an after thought.

It is Unfiltered and Authentic

Snapchat is a lot less structured when compared to apps like Instagram where people sometimes get a fake feeling because of the borders and works. There is no “like” kind of a feature on Snapchat. Also, there is no framing around the content to constantly remind you of the platform you are on – videos on Snapchat take up your entire screen space, which makes them more immersive, less arranged to fit in some given frame.

Believing These 7 Myths About Social Media Blogging Keeps You From Growing

Blogging like any other business needs marketing to keep growing and hinting the market. Social media is a guaranteed way to make your blogs reach a wide range of readers around the globe. With many people interested in writing and making their views and ideas meet many people in the world today, social media blogging has simplified everything for them. Today there is a lot of information about social media blogging available out there, and these means there is also a lot of misinformation on the same. Based on my observation and some research, I have gathered some myths about social media blogging that turned out to be entirely false or halfway right. Here I have listed some of these myths that will stagnate your social media blogging.

1.    No strategy is needed

Some people think that since you can use the Facebook note feature to share your blog, they can also write without a plan. However, writing without a strategy will end up showing in your post, especially if for example you are eyeing to have many free Instagram likes let’s say. Social media blogging needs some bit of planned content to ensure that you share with people a relevant post. Social media blogging is like a process and you will need to plan ahead of time.

2.    No room left for new bloggers

It is true to say that niches have become saturated today. This doesn’t mean that there is no room for bloggers. It actually means the market out there for those topics is quite wide. Not everyone will be attracted to reading your posts but again not everyone will like posts by others. Just get it right, there is someone out there who will get interested in what you post on Tumblr, Facebook or even Instagram, whatever platform you decide to use. Just write something many people can relate to and you are done.

3.    You must be a niche expert

To get you out of this and promote your growth on Spotify blogging or any other social media blogging, you just need to have some knowledge on the niche you are using but it really doesn’t require you to be an expert. Positioning yourself as an expert can help you become one as far as social media blogging is in play. Just learn and ensure you are at least a step ahead of your audience and this will help you teach them what you know. Just learn and grow to be an expert.

4.    The easy tool, for money making

Oh, if this is how you see social media blogging, then you need to know that there is quite a lot to be done before you start earning. Despite the fact that you can use social networking platforms such as Tumblr, Spotify, Instagram, etc. in the easiest way convenient, it doesn’t really mean that you will earn just like that. Social media blogging is also a process that will need you to create your content, promote it, learn about it and much more before you start earning.     

5.    Every platform you use for social media blogging is valuable

The notion that every platform can help you grow in social media blogging is a guarantee but it a common misperception. Don’t perceive that every platform will be a great idea. In reality, there are platforms that will be preferred than others. Some might prefer Spotify, Instagram or even twitter depending on their taste and preference. 

6.    The audience will come automatically

Common advice in social media blogging is great content and everything else will come automatically. Everyone thinks that you just need to have a good niche and the audience will follow. Unfortunately, this is not practical. The reality is, you will have to work an extra mile by promoting your content and then your viewers will share from there.

7.     Social media blogging is free

This is an important aspect to get out of the way. You will consider using Instagram, Tumblr, Twitter or Facebook that provides free platforms for your social media blogging. It might not cost you I terms of money, but you will need to invest more of your time doing research, and more effort to ensure your success.

These myths do not mean that social media blogging isn’t worth a trial, but they are things you need to know to get you out of these traps of thinking.