Wall Street seems to be keeping up with the Kardashians as Kylie Jenner’s comments consolidate an already poor year for Snap Inc., with her recent tweet reportedly wiping $1.7 billion of the platform’s worth.
Jenner tweeted: “sooo does anyone else not open Snapchat anymore? Or is it just me... ugh this is so sad.”
While Snapchat’s app redesign announcement last year was definitely a step in the right direction, offering marketers increased personalisation and relevance, the changes to the platform have backfired spectacularly. Snapchat needs to make sure it maintains the quality and relevance of its content, especially as it tries to size up to competitors such as Instagram.
sooo does anyone else not open Snapchat anymore? Or is it just me... ugh this is so sad.
— Kylie Jenner (@KylieJenner) February 21, 2018
Unfortunately, over a million people, and counting, disagree with the changes to the app, based on the popular online petition.
A drop in quality takes users’ attention elsewhere and Snapchat is currently facing that challenge. Regardless of the petitions, it looks like the updates are here to stay, but Snapchat has responded and promised changes in the coming weeks to make it easier for users to find stories.
However, with an influencer as big as Jenner publicly condemning the platform, more work will have to be done to convince marketers that Snapchat is the platform of choice.
Despite the improvements made on the platform towards the end of 2017, Snapchat's ad product offerings also need to improve to measure up to its competitors. It needs to offer improved viewability metrics for marketers if it wants to increase its ad revenue and be successful moving forward.
Snapchat should perhaps look to Facebook for advice, which recently announced changes to its Ads Manager tool to give brands better insights and clarity into its measurement tools.
For marketers, success on social media always starts with knowing your business objective and setting meaningful metrics to measure that success. By providing brands with more clarity around how metrics are calculated, Facebook is simplifying the lives of marketers.
Snapchat will continue to face a huge growth barrier in 2018 and Jenner’s comments have added yet another speed bump.
The platform can't afford to lose influencers like Jenner especially in a time where influencers are playing such a key role in marketing.
Ultimately, the lack of reach and user backlash that hangs over Snapchat remains a limiting factor for marketers looking to leverage the platform’s full potential. Additionally, all of this coming at a time when the CEO sold $50M in stock may not help investors believe the situation with Snapchat is going to improve.