#SnapchatStorytelling

I loved attending a session presented by Yusuf Omar on the effective use of Snapchat at the Mobile Me & You Conference this weekend. 

The conference took place at the Northwestern University Medill School of Journalism, Media and Integrated Marketing Communications in Chicago, IL. The conference focuses on mobile-first content in journalism and communications.

Omar is building the world largest’s mobile journalism team at the Hindustan Times, where he empowers over 750 mobile journalists to further the Hindustan Times’ success on small screens.

“Snapchat is becoming the biggest news outlet in the world, and is the fastest social app with more video views than Facebook,” Omar stated.

The future of content will be aggregating thousands of cameras, Omar explained, but Snapchat is already doing it. He also clarified that citizens are the reporters, and Snapchat is curating the content, making them the journalists.

Defining your purpose is crucial, according to Omar. The content on Snapchat must be exclusive and full of personality, giving your audience something that is not offered on other platforms.

He explained that Hindustan Times is utilizing Snapchat to hide the identity of individuals for sensitive stories with topics such as rape and sexual abuse. Victims use the filters from Snapchat to mostly disguise themselves while still giving themselves personality through their eyes and the filters.

He predicts that Snapchat is moving toward using their Discovery platform more, which is a professional segment of the app that delivers polished content from publishers on a daily basis. Making Discovery more open to consumers would allow for new types of content through citizen reporting.

Omar also sees Snapchat excelling at hyper local news, where they can build a story around snaps for a local event. Snapchat is already doing this in some respects, but the opportunity to grow in the area is significant. Snapchat is very secretive about their next moves as a app though, keeping the public mostly in the dark about what’s coming up.