by Katie Mucci, Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference, Assistant Commissioner, CoSIDA New Media Committee Chair, kmucci@scacsports.com
and Kailin Nelson, Chatham University, Sports Information Director, CoSIDA New Media Committee Member, k.nelson@chatham.edu
If you’re active on social media, there’s no way you haven’t seen someone using a geofilter. It might be a simple city name, a skyline drawing or it could even be a helmet overlay for the big game Saturday. The possibilities are endless, but the outcome is attention-grabbing.
So… what is a Geofilter? Well, according to the folks over at Snapchat “geofilters are a fun way to share where you are, or what you’re up to, by adding a fun overlay to your Snap.”
Why would you use a geofilter? In an article by EventBrite, the writer touches on the idea that Snapchat drives the sense of FOMO, or Fear of Missing Out, that can increase buzz and ticket sales.
Other ideas for using the geofilters include:
• Contests for those who use the filter (they must be in attendance to do so)
• Creating a Snapchat story to include all of these images and videos from attendees
• Putting a geo-filter at a rival location to support your team and fans
• Making geofilters for off-campus sites that your team’s regularly use to promote your program(s)
To get started, you will choose between two different types of Geofilters. The original type is a “Community Geofilter”, while Snapchat released “On-Demand Geofilters” in early 2016. What’s the difference?
On-Demand Geofilters are great for events, special games and/or marketing.
Time Available: 1 hour to 180 days
Size: 20,000 square feet to 50,000,000 square feet
Cost: $5+ depending on length of time and size of area
How to Make: Submit a PNG online or create within the Snapchat app from your mobile device
Logos allowed?: Yes
Review Time: generally less than 24 hours
Ease of Approval: Very easy.
Community Geofilters are intended to be more permanent for cities or specific areas to show off a location.
Time Available: Not specified
Size: No limit
Cost: Free
How to Make: Submit a PNG online
Logos allowed?: No
Review Time: No specified timeline, though it can take up to a few days or a week
Ease of Approval: Tough to get Snapchat approval for filters
Now that you’ve chosen your type, you’ll move on to creating the geofilter.
If you’re Photoshop-capable, you can use the Snapchat template (located
here) to get started with the proper image size (1080x1920). You must save the final image as a PNG file to upload onto Snapchat’s website.
If you’re not so Adobe-savvy, you can use Snapchat’s online design studio to create the perfect look. This is similar to the in-app editing you can do with filter templates that can be customized to the look you want.
Now that you’ve got the geofilter, you’ve submitted it and you’ve been approved it’s time to move on to implementation. How do you get people on board with the geofilter? Tell them! Big organizations like the Milwaukee Brewers and Arizona Diamondbacks have drawn people in to test out a limited edition geofilter with a tweet about it (see below). Don’t be afraid to cross-promote the filter on Twitter or Instagram.
For some other great geo-filter examples, see the gallery curated by Jeff Mason
here.
Finally, the last step in your Geofilter adventure is seeing how they performed. When you purchase On-Demand filters, you get the ability to track a few different metrics. You do so by logging into the Snapchat account you used to submit the filters on your computer and clicking “My Geofilters” under the navigation bar to the left. So what can you learn?
Swipes: The number of times people saw the filter while swiping through the filters carousel.
Uses: The number of time someone used the filter in either a direct message to their friends OR in a picture they posted to their snap story.
Views: The number of times people viewed a snap that used the filter — either by direct message or on someone’s story.
Use Rate: The rate at which the filter is used once seen in the carousel.
After navigating through all of that data, you’ll be able to make more well-informed decisions when it comes to future Snap endeavors.
Has this article inspired you to create your own filters? If so, tweet us a picture of them at
@CoSIDAnews.