Social media has become stressful for brands: Snapchat

Social media originally promised to be the perfect platform to engage and develop some really rich relationships with friends, according to Katheryn Carter, regional general manager for Snap Inc, speaking at Campaign360 two weeks ago.

"What's transpired in recent years is that increasingly consumers, and often brands as well, are finding the social-media experience quite an uneasy one," said Carter.

Snapchat uses different metrics than other popular social networks, and Carter said its de-emphasis of popularity-based measures could be beneficial to brands. The metrics that really matter are those that substantiate a desired campaign outcome, she added.

Kathryn Carter & Faaez Samadi

Given that close friends, recommendations, and referrals remain one of the most powerful channels for customer acquisition, Carter suggested that brands that want to capitalize on platforms such as Snapchat must create content at a duration that is similar to the two- to three-second creations of a user's personal network.

"Being fun, which is a brand principle from a Snap perspective, isn't necessarily a brand value of BMW's," said Carter. "Does that mean that they don't have a really valued role to play on the platform and achieve significant success? Not at all."

She added that BMW continues to create market-leading products, and it found success with Snapchat by creating content that was platform-appropriate.