Facebook launches Snapchat Competitor: Slingshot
Social Media Marketing

Facebook launches Snapchat Competitor: Slingshot

20th June 2014

Slingshot

Messaging apps have changed social media in the past few years. First apps like WhatsApp disrupted not only text messages, but messaging through the ‘known’ services as MSN, Google and Facebook as well. And then Snapchat came a long and played on the feeling of ‘quick and private’.

The bigger networks are now playing catch up. Facebook took a first step by acquiring WhatsApp and making their messenger service less important and now enter the competition area of Snapchat with the launch of Slingshot.

Slingshot is ‘A new way to share photo’s and videos with a group of people’. Basically it’s the same as Snapchat: you can send a picture to a (group) of people which self-destruct. Compared to Snapchat though there is a catch: a recipient has to reply first before it gets to see the image.

Here’s how it works according to Facebook:

And Gizmodo made this video:

What do you as a marketer need to do?

How can you as a marketer respond to this? Similar to Snapchat: make them share your pictures or your brand. It could be a very powerful message if it’s send by friends to friends.

Will it work?

That is debatable. At this point there is no reason for those using Snapchat to switch to Slingshot. The only reason for a switch would be because it’s convenient anyway. The reply-feature makes it stand out from others, but at the same time it could be the reason it won’t work. People will get annoyed they have to reply first.

What do you think, will it work?

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Written By
Bas van den Beld is an award winning Digital Marketing consultant, trainer and speaker. He is the founder of State of Digital and helps companies develop solid marketing strategies.
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