Brands curious about Snapchat?s unique audience will be emboldened by the findings in Snaplytics? Snapchat Q4 report, which cites research that claims 35 percent of teens regard Snapchat as their favorite social platform, far surpassing Instagram?s 24 percent. 

Snaplytics? report contains a bevy of insights for both the aspiring brand marketer and the stalwart working for a large brand: The platform?s nascence proves that the rules to brand marketing on Snapchat are still yet to be written. While Snapchat has relatively recently opened up its platform from focusing on private messaging to a more brand-oriented experience, there are still a few best practices that marketer would do well to heed.

?Brands hitting the target or above on the average metrics are definitely doing Snapchat right,? said Thomas Cilius, CEO of Snaplytics. ?It is a loose definition, but we need to move beyond the notion of a brand ?doing it right? on a platform. 

?Everything depends on the demographic of the followers and the DNA of the brand. The important part is that the brand is able to outperform the average metrics in the industry ? that is also why we created the quarterly report.?

Snaplytics? report claims that 64 percent of followers added in the 4th quarter of 2016 were added by unique username, while 25 percent were added through the platform?s camera-integrated Snapcode feature. 

According to Snaplytics, ?The reason behind the large amount of ?Added by Username? is that a lot of the advertising and awareness around the brand account takes place on other social platforms.?

The report also noted that most brands tend to post Stories from their accounts from Wednesdays to Saturdays, with Sundays and Mondays being the least active times for brands on the platform. This creates a soft spot for marketers to potentially take advantage of, even if open rates are actually lower on those days. 

Snaplytics also took a look at the number of snaps posted to each brand?s story, and categorized them by sector. Retail?s 8 Snaps per story pales in comparison to Beauty?s 12 Snaps per story and NGO?s 17.

Retail also held one of the higher completion rates for Snap Stories in Q4, with 88 percent of users finishing Retail Snap stories once they are opened.

?The absolute key takeaway (for brands) is that 54.8 percent of your followers are going to watch your story, and 88 percent of the ones viewing the story watch the story in full,? Mr. Cilius said. ?Most brands will post a story 2 times a week with, on average, 11 snaps in each. 

?In other words, you can expect very good engagement if you manage to build the number of followers on Snapchat.?

Snapchat has been on the tip of many tongues in the past few weeks, marketers and businesspeople alike. The insight that Snaplytics provides in its report will only serve to attract more brands to Snap?s platform ? good news for CEO Evan Spiegel and company, who recently filed a long-awaited IPO that is rumored to take place at the end of this quarter (see story). 

A huge component of the company?s prospective valuation is the massive growth of its Discover Platform and its rapid adoption from heritage news publications. Last week, Time Inc.?s Essence and Entertainment Weekly were some of the latest to join the party (see story). 

?As a consumer, I definitely challenge you to try and follow your favourite brands on Snapchat ? you will be amazed by the quality of content most post to the platform,? Mr. Cilius said.