Website: Maxwell Bridger

Maxwell Britten is a James Beard award-winning mixologist and leading persona in the hospitality industry. 

Design: Colin Smight
Squarespace Creation and Code: Tia Meyers

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A Guide to Creating Snapchat Geofilters for Your Business or Event

If you are on Snapchat, you've probably run into a filter whether it be about somewhere you live, a holiday or even a movie premiere. But did you know you could make your own? Snapchat now allows businesses and individuals to create Geofilters around targeted locations. This is an awesome new way to increase brand awareness, promote an event or create buzz around an opening. 

So what exactly is a Geofilter?

A Geofilter is a fun overlay that will appear when someone on Snapchat is in your designated location, hence the name Geo. Once someone takes a picture in Snapchat, they can swipe left to overlay their photo with a Geofilter.

Why are Geofilters important to my business?

Many types of businesses will benefit from Snapchat Geofilters. The #1 area I see a business benefit from a Geofilter is during a large event or a grand opening. Unlike other social media platforms, the market for Geofilters isn't saturated yet. For a small investment, you can reach a large audience. All-in-all you're increasing brand awareness and receiving a great ROI.

How to see Geofilters in Snapchat

So you're brand spankin' new to Snapchat. Well, before you start, you must turn on Geofilters. Don't worry, most people who use Snapchat have already done this and will see your filter. To turn on Geofilters, you must go to your Snapchat settings and enable Filters as well as location services.

  1. Go to Snapchat Settings.
  2. Tap 'Manage' under Additional Services.
  3. Toggle 'Filters' on.

The Basics

1. A Geofilter can run a maximum of 30 days. (The minimum duration is 1 hour)

2. It must be made in .PNG format.

3. It needs to be 1080 px wide x 1920 px tall and under 300KB.

4. All graphics must be 100% original.

5. Do not include URL's, handles or email addresses in your filters.

6. Don't let your design take up for than 1/3 of the screen.

7. Plan ahead! Filters must be approved by the Snapchat team and depending on the time, it can take over 48 hours to be approved. If this is your first time submitting, give yourself about a week ahead just in case your filter is rejected and you need to resubmit a new one.

Pricing

Pricing can vary immensely for Snapchat Geofilters. There are many factors including location, size of the area you choose, population density, time of day and more. That being said, Geofilters are very cost effective and start at as little as $5. Whether or not you use Snapchat for your company, a Geofilter is a great way of getting in front of thousands of people in a highly engaging way for a low-cost. One of the most expensive Geofilters I created was for an event around Times Square on a Friday night, it was $68. I'd say that's a pretty great price tag.

How to Upload a Geofilter

1. First step to creating a Geofilter is to have a Snapchat account. If you don't already have one set up for your business, go ahead and create one now. I suggest creating a handle in line with your other social media sites. For example, my handle on Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat is @tiameghan. 

2. Here comes the hard part...designing your Geofilter.

If you are not well-versed in design or photoshop you should ask a friend for help.

A few tips to remember:

  • A filter should not take up more than 1/3 of the screen.
  • Before uploading test your filter on top of different types of photos to ensure it looks great in all different settings.

3. Now that you have your filter designed and ready, go to https://www.snapchat.com/geofilters.

4. Click on On-Demand Geofilters. These are filters for businesses and individual events such as a wedding or birthday.

Write here...

Write here...

5. Upload your filter.

6. Set a timeframe.

If you are in a different timezone than Eastern Standard Time, make sure you change your times accordingly. I always recommend adding a little padding before and after an event of about 1 hour.

7. Draw a fence.

Next you must draw a fence around the area you want your Geofilter to be seen. Place your address in the map and use the tool to draw a fence around that area. The zone you create is never exact so create a buffer area (at least add in the street) to ensure it will be seen by everyone attending or passing by. The area must be a minimum of 20,000 sq. ft. and allows maximum of 5 million sq. ft.

8. Once these steps are completed, you will now be placed on the checkout screen. Create a name for your Geofilter, I suggest one that will help you remember the event and time of the filter. Double-check that you created your filter for the right date and time and choose whether you are a business or this is for personal. 

9. Submit!

After submitting, you will receive multiple emails stating that your filter was (1) received, (2) approved or not approved, (3) charged to your card and (4) live!

10. Snapchat metrics are very much in the early days. Once your Geofilter has run through its time, you will be able to see metrics from your campaign. Snapchat doesn't provide many metrics at this time but you will be able to see your reach, use and spend. 

Have fun creating your first Geofilter. As always, if you have any questions you can reach out to me by email or on Twitter.

Lure People to Your Business Using Pokémon Go

If you were born around 1990 or ever picked up a Gameboy, you probably have a good sense of what the new Pokémon Go app is about. It's been sweeping the streets and falling into the hands of millennial and pre-teens alike, heck even my non-digital grandmother knows about it. But is the craze worth looking into for your business or is it already on its way into a downfall?

Answer me one question, are you a small business or restaurant? If you answered yes, keep reading.

Just after the release, it dominated the appshere doubling and even tripling the amount of daily users Snapchat and Twitter have. But how can a business benefit from a game? Well there are a few ways...

What is Pokémon Go first of all?

Pokémon go is a free mobile gaming app for iPhone and Adroid. A user uses their phone's GPS to detect where Pokémon creatures are. The game encourages you to move around to capture Pokémon and challenge other users on a different team to "battles".

1. Buy a Lure

In the app, a business or person can buy a Lure. Lures increase the number of Pokémon for that given location for 30 minutes. Anyone who is playing around you will be able to see that lure and will be drawn towards your location. 

IMG_2191.png

 

Let's break it down:

  • 1 lure costs 100 coins, 100 coins cost $0.99
  • You can also buy an 8 pack of lures which costs 680 coins, 680 coins cost $6.73
  • 1 module lasts 30 minutes, so you will be paying around $1.68/hour.

How to activate a lure:

  1. Open the app.
  2. Tap "Shop"
  3. Scroll down to "Lures" and make a purchase.
  4. Go back into the app, tap the red "Pokéball", then tap "Items".
  5. Tap on "Lure" to activate.

2. Use a PokéStop to your advantage.

Players are drawn to Pokéstops or Gyms without any effort on a business. Players gather around Pokéstops to collect rewards and to Gyms to battle other players. If your business is lucky enough to end up in the territory of a Pokéstop, you've received the golden ticket to more foot traffic. Businesses can use this to their advantage by offering deals to Poké players by giving out a free drink with purchase or 10% off. Make sure the sign is very visible to passerby's.

3. Promote your Pokémon on Social.

Have you or any of your staff found Pokémon roaming around your business? Upload a photo to your social media channels to get players to head over to your store to catch it. You can sweeten the deal by offering a reward if a fellow Poképlayer snaps a picture in your store and uploads it to their own social media channels.

Anything else I should know?

If you aren't already near a Pokéstop or Gym, have no fear. You can still get in on the fun. According to Niantic's CEO, sponsored locations are coming. This will allow businesses and retailers to be featured on the game's virtual map, drawing more consumers to the location.

For now, you can try submitting a request to become a Pokestop or Gym here.

Good luck catching them all!