Snapchat is hoping to make your Snaps and public story even more beneficial to advertisers. This is becoming more and more possible as they continue to update. The recent addition of “Context Cards” may be the feature that sets Snapchat apart as a social media advertising. Context Cards is an informational feed that highlights content from Snapchat’s partners. This content will include information like phone numbers, menus, maps, and ratings.
Context Cards display information about the Snap you’re viewing – powered by amazing content from our partners like TripAdvisor, Foursquare, Michelin, and goop. – SnapInc.com
Here’s how it will work. You will see a Snap shared to a public story and it will say “More” at the bottom. When you swipe up you’ll see the timeline style list of different information cards. Continue swiping up to see more or tap on the information to learn more or perform an action. You can hail an Uber or Lyft ride, make a call, view a menu, or see reviews or a website. The goal is to take you to the information you need without leaving Snapchat, as well as to encourage advertisers to build more ads for Snapchat Stories.
What Parents Should Know
These new features in Snapchat are meant to encourage more real-world engagement. You probably noticed the video featured college kids going all over town joining their friends at their current party location. They use Context Cards to know exactly where their friends are and what they’re doing there and even how to get there themselves. The problem for parents is that your kids aren’t members of the age group that is featured in this video. Decisions made to strengthen a company’s advertising abilities can often introduce more safety or privacy concerns for our younger users.
I recommend encouraging your kids’ to have location information turned off for Snapchat. The especially should turn their SnapMap to ghost mode. Young users should always set location and sharing settings to as private as possible. Leaning towards privacy is going to render Context Cards basically useless on Snapchat. This may annoy your kids. (It may not because it may just look like annoying advertising.) If it does annoy your kids I recommend you stand your ground and still encourage them to keep their online presence as private as possible.