What Is Snap Spotlight And How Can You Leverage Its Features?

Have you heard of the Snap Spotlight feature? If not, look no further! 

This guide will delve into what it is and how to use the feature to enrich your Snapchat experience and broaden your advertising opportunities. 

In recent years, people have seen Snapchat as a platform for younger users, but they have managed to stay relevant as an app through the addition of new features both for creators and advertisers. One of these features is the ‘Snap Spotlight’ that was introduced in 2020. 

Similar to the TikTok ‘For You’ page in terms of format and algorithm, this feature provides users with creator content that is tailored to their likes and interests. This is gauged by the average watch time and your interactions with certain videos, showing you more like them. 

This feature can be leveraged by creators and advertisers to reach the wider community and increase visibility. Whilst Snap Spotlight is currently creator-only, brands can still make use of it by partnering with a creator they think stands a chance at featuring here, for promotional purposes. 

Keep reading to discover how to use the Snap Spotlight, and to find out more about the kind of content it features to broaden your marketing and personal horizons!

How To Use Snap Spotlight

You can access Snap Spotlight by opening up the app and selecting the furthest right play button icon at the bottom of the screen. You can then scroll through a selection of snapchat spotlights that people have posted, tailored to you and your interests. 

See below for a step-by-step guide on how to post to the Snapchat Spotlight feature yourself:

1. Open up Snapchat
2. Press and hold the camera button (to switch between selfie mode and the rear-facing camera, just tap the toggle button or double-tap the screen) and film your video
3. When you’re done with your video, stop holding the camera button
4. Then you select ‘spotlight’ rather than sending to someone

Clips can be recorded and posted directly on Snapchat, but you can also upload videos from the camera roll on your phone. 

Users must have a public profile to submit a snap to Snap Spotlight, and you must be over 13 in the UK to legally have a Snapchat account and share video content. If you are over 18, you can also share your spotlight snap anonymously by toggling on ‘share anonymously’ before sending. However, once an anonymous spotlight has been shared, you cannot change this to be linked to your profile. 

To keep it a safe space, content is moderated before being posted to the Snap Spotlight tab which allows it to be enjoyed by all users no matter their age. 

Snapchat itself guides users to be creative, avoid copyright infringement, stay safe and don’t solicit on the platform, as well as urges them to follow the technical specifications below: 

Snaps from your Camera Roll are allowed but must follow these specifications:

• Vertical videos only
• Videos must have an aspect ratio of at least 3:4 
• Minimum horizontal resolution of 640 px
• Content should fill the full frame (no letterboxing)
• Content cannot feature logos from other apps 

What Sort Of Content Does Snap Spotlight Feature?

The beauty of the Snap Spotlight feature is that it features a wide variety of content, from meme based videos to people just sharing a moment of their day. The organic nature of the feature lends itself more to organic content and UGC, especially with the restriction on brands being able to use it.  

Spotlight on Snapchat consists of short form videos, so engaging and quick content is best suited to the platform that taps into popular trends and ideas. You can also explore current trends on the feature, by tapping the arrow icon in the top right corner of the Spotlight screen to view the current trending hashtags, topics, filters and sounds to help elevate your content. 

One of the features on the Spotlight tab in the US offers ‘Spotlight challenges’ which gives Snapchatters the chance to win prizes by participating in top-performing Spotlight submissions that meet specific criteria. 

Snapchatters are challenged to create Snaps that fit with the content trend whilst maintaining their unique voice and creativity. They can utilise all the creative tools available in the challenges, and users can win a share of the total prize amount available for each Spotlight Challenge, which typically ranges from $1k to $25k. For some challenges the prize available is much higher, and the minimum prize that a Snapchatter can win is $250 USD. 

FAQs

How do I use Snap Spotlight?

You can access the Spotlight on Snapchat by swiping to the furthest right icon at the bottom of the app, where you can view video content posted by others. 

To post yourself, you firstly need to create a Snap using the normal snap camera, or upload a video from your camera roll. Then you press send, but instead of sending to an individual person or group, you select ‘spotlight’ at the top of the screen. You then press the send button to submit! 

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