👻 How to Get More Snapchat Followers and Make Money [2019]

Although $SNAP is not doing too well as a stock, its social platform (Snapchat) still remains relevant and constitutes a great medium to engage with fans and followers.

With a snap, you have people’s undivided attention for 10 seconds at the time. People tune in for your story, they want to hear what you have to say.

As a Snapchat influencer, you have to make it count and make sure it is something that is worthwhile to watch.

Following are the best lessons I’ve learned while growing my own Snapchat (102k followers and counting!) on my @youngslacker account (add me on IG too) and how I manage to sell products, services and shoutouts on Snapchat every month. 

This guide will teach you how to monetize your Snapchat account and also how to get more followers on Snapchat.

I’ve also added tips from some of the world’s largest Snapchat influencers.

(Young Slacker is my rapper account)

So, how can you grow your Snapchat account? Read below.

Related: Looking to see how Snapchat monetizes its users? 

Grow your Snapchat followers ‘in a Snap’ with these 7 fast tips

(Yes, pun intended)

You might have the best product in the world, but if you are not able to get people excited about it, no sale will ever take place.

Same deal for your content: Content is not valuable unless it reaches a lot of people.

Therefore, it is imperative for you to grow your (Snapchat) follower count if you want to monetize your account. Here are the best tips I found:

1. Tell your friends and contacts to add you on Snapchat
   • They are the easiest way to get feedback on your product and marketing and will probably have something relevant to contribute to your snapchat channel early on. If they like what they see, rest assured that they will tell their friends. 
2. Add your snapchat username to this subReddit: (r/snapchat)
   • Although you will get a lot of random followers, it will help with the initial momentum.
   • Make sure you interact with the people that add you or else, they will delete you.
3. Promote your account on other social media platforms
   • The truth is, very few people will discover you on snapchat. They will probably hear from you first via Instagram, Twitter or Facebook, so make sure you periodically remind them to follow you on Snapchat. You already have friends and followers on those other platforms, so try to convert them. Make it as easy as possible and have a compelling reason for them to follow you on Snapchat (like discount codes, exclusive content, backstage footage, etc).
4. Get discovered on Ghost Codes. Give kudos to receive kudos. 
5. Do a Story Takeover on big accounts (like @shopify, if you’re an ecommerce entrepreneur or @TFMOfficial, if you are a female model)
6. Drop your snapcode everywhere.
   • Post your username on discussion forums relevant to your niche.
   • After each blog post, have an about section where you include your snap code.
   • Put it on your email signatures and business cards.
   • If you are building a brand’s snapchat account add it on fliers, printed media, on your website, etc.
   • Ask your Instagram, Facebook and Twitter followers (many times) to also follow you on Snapchat.
7. Be consistent. I post raps every day, so people that tune in know what to expect. Consistency and showing up every day beats anything else when it comes social media. Ask any influencer if you don’t believe me.

11 More advanced techniques to increase your Snapchat views

1. (MAJOR KEY ALERT) Leverage other social media influencers and brands
   • Get a snapchat promo or shoutout from people with strong followings and work with brands that will promote your username on their own accounts.
2. Ask your followers to share your code/snap. On a snap story if you tap and hold you will be able to forward that story to someone else. Encourage your followers to do this.
3. 🤫 Get a blue arrow ↪ shoutout from your followers.
   • A blue arrow is the following
     • A user goes to the chat page
     • Holds down on your name
     • Taps on the blue arrow at the bottom right
     • and sends your username to all his friends (manually)
   • This sends your username alongside and easy “add” button. This way you can get a lot of followers.
4. 🔥Create a shoutouts Snap group with other people who have big followings and do an “SFS” (shoutout-for-shoutout).
5. (ANOTHER ONE) Create a Facebook Ad with your snapcode and a relevant snap and promote that to your target audience. On Facebook, you can select the demographic you wish to target. The cost per new snapchat follower will be about $1-3 but they will probably be worth more in the long run. Pro tip: You can get lower costs if you target people in Egypt, India, and other parts of Asia. 
6. (THEY DON’T WANT YOU TO GET FOLLOWERS) Post to your local snap story and event-related story. You probably won’t be able to add your username to your story if you want it to have it featured, but at least you start getting some exposure and people start recognizing you. Later you can boost a post on Facebook targeting people in your area.
7. Become an influencer on another platform first. You might find success with Youtube SEO or Instagram marketing.
8. I see a lot of people gaining big followings by posting memes, funny videos or adult content. If this is what you are into, then by all means go for it.
9. Run a competition. Have something exciting that people can win by simply following you and engaging with your story. You can ask fans to send you a picture or video doing something fun or mentioning your brand.
10. Lastly, just make awesome content. No one wants to follow someone that simply posts a story of what time it is. (Yes, I am talking to you).
11. Another option if you want to skip the hassle of having to grow your account altogether is to simply buy a Snapchat account. A solid alternative if you just can’t seem to get your views up.

To get more Snap followers, nurture your current ones with great content that they will want to share

Great, you should now have a decent following (~200-500 people).

Here’s how you can get your next 1000 Snapchat followers. 

You have to make sure that they are engaged and interact with your story. Snapstar Tristan Tales recommends creating “tales” or stories that have a plot to them.

“Make it fun, engaging, and attractive.” – Tristan Tales

The stories should have a clear start where you set the stage, a middle where the resolution to the problem or joke is delivered and an end where you wrap it up or do something unexpected.

The point is to keep people curious and prevent them from jumping to the next story.

You want to create stories that are memorable and that people will look forward to watching. 

“If people aren’t screenshotting and commenting on your story, you need to step up your game.” – Young Slacker

(MAJOR KEY ALERT) Pro Tip: Interact with your audience: ask them questions, make a compilation of their best responses and post that to Facebook or to your own Snap story. Add text or change locations to incite curiosity. 

(Anotha one) Pro Tip: Let anyone contact you: charge your settings so that people are able to follow your stories and contact you without necessarily being friends with you. You can always change it back if you don’t like it. 

(And one last one) Use snaplytics.io to track how your campaigns are doing, what the completion rate is, estimated number of followers and so on. Update: Big accounts now also have access to Snap Insights directly from the Snap app.

(Ok, one more trick) You can start a Geo-story and have people around you join you for an event, party, celebration. Then you can DM the people that contributed to the story and add each other.

Need some inspiration for your snaps?

How does the new Snapchat update affect you?

The new Snap update makes it a bit tougher to get views and simply posting a lot of content throughout the day will not be enough to stay on the top of your followers; Snapchat feeds.

That means you now also should aim to interact with your followers more. The more you interact the higher you will appear on their chat feeds.

You should also make all your stories public and geolocated to increase the chances that people near you find you.

(In case you were wondering, I’m not a big fan of the update just like many other millions of people.)

8 Ways to Make Money Off Snapchat

When the time to finally reap all the hard work that you have put into nurturing your audience comes, you need to be effective and clever.

Don’t share a 2-minute pitch on Product X that you’ve rehearsed over and over.

Share something short and spontaneous.

People love the unfiltered, unedited, raw content that snapchat provides.

If they were looking for something ultra-polished, they will go to other social media platforms.

Here are a few ideas to monetize on the followers that you have:

1. Sell snapchat shoutouts 
2. You can sell pictures. If you are a painter or a model you can use Snapchat to promote yourself and find people interested in your craft.
   • Most people will sell “premium content” this way. The most common use case is for adult content but it can also be used to invite people to your private coaching session, to a mastermind, etc.
3. Feature up and coming singers with a story that includes their song. 
4. Become a social media celebrity and reap the benefits in the real world. If you do end up becoming an influencer, you can get invited to exclusive parties and get a chance to do major deals like Jake Paul and Logan Paul do. (Note, if these tips make you famous, please remember me and invite me to your mansion!)
5. (MAJOR KEY ALERT) Promote your own events and products using a discount code and direct people to a buying/sign-up page. For example, I promote my brand Flux Chargers with short clips, teasers and promo codes; and it works very well. (Granted, the product pretty much sells itself being that it is the #1 best portable charger in the world as reviewed by Digital Trends, Mashable and others).   
   • You can now create add a link to a webpage so definitely include that every time!
6. Team up with other brands (Coca-Cola, Nike, Doritos, Wendy’s) and do snapchat-like promotional clips. (Do them for free at first and start with smaller brands. If you want to promote my brand Flux, here is the affiliate program).
7. Build a brand for yourself and sell your own merchandise.
8. Finally, sell your entire Snapchat account.

Other questions people usually ask:

What is a premium Snapchat?

These are explicit Snapchat accounts that post adult content. People create an account and only allow you to watch their story if you are a paying member. They charge a fee via PayPal, Snapcash or Google Wallet.

Anyone can create a premium Snapchat, but I’d encourage you to find other ways to make money online, such as freelancing on Fiverr.

How does Snapchat make money?

Just like all the other social media platforms: through advertising via Snap Ads, promoted content, etc.

What to look for when you buy a Snapchat account?

You should verify that the views are authentic. You should also try to get insights into the demographics of the followers. (If you are selling female clothing, it will not serve you to have 100k male gamers as followers). Lastly, ask about any previous sales the seller has made. Try to use an escrow account.

How can you know your snapchat follower count?

There isn’t a way to tell for sure but a good estimate starts with the number of views you get on a snap story over 24 hours.

Now, since only about 2/3 Snapchat users log in on a daily basis, you can multiply the number of views you get by 1.5x.

For instance if you get 1000 views, you can estimate your follower count to be around 1000-1500 people.

Will you have to pay for using Snapchat in the future? No, as long as they keep putting out ads, you won’t have to pay a dime.

Is Snapchat dead? Instagram Stories has certainly captured a big chunk of the efimeros pictures market but I still enjoy using Snapchat. It will be interesting to see if Snapchat can keep up (so far it’s seems to be dying).

What’s my favorite Snapchat filter? The dog one (of course).

Want to see what I post on my Snap story and get some fresh ideas? Add me and snap me to let me know that you found me through this blog post and give me a request for a new story (I do mostly raps, entrepreneurial tips, etc) ! I (try to) open all of the snaps I receive. 

Since it is likely that Snapchat will just fade away, add me on Instagram: @YoungSlacker and say hi!

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So that’s all. Those are all my techniques to make money on snapchat and to get a ton of fans. If you found this post useful, share it with a friend!

Have any other tips? What kind of content do YOU produce? How do YOU make money off snapchat? Have you given up on Snapchat and caved in to Instagram Stories? Let me know in the comments or simply send me a snap!

Loved this article? You should also check out:

• Snapchat Revenue Data 2018
• My best articles on social media marketing
• Why Instagram will crush Snapchat (aw Snap)