Snapifeye Corp.
Milwaukee-based startup
Innovation: Marketing app
www.snapifeye.com
Milwaukee-based Snapifeye Corp. is layering social media platforms with a new marketing tool that helps companies reach more fans and followers and accelerate traffic to their websites.
The tool is available as a mobile app, Snapifeye Mobile, and an iPad app, Snapifeye Professional, and primarily serves companies and organizations hosting events they want to promote.
Snapifeye functions on the premise that “branded photography is valuable” as it allows companies to easily share high-quality photos from events across multiple social channels at once, said Steven Lee Anderson, co-founder of the company.
Through the Snapifeye Pro app, a company can brand event photos with its name, logo and any other elements depicting its identity, and then send those photos out through several social media channels with a single click.
The app is brand perfect so that it can meet individual companies’ branding guidelines, according to Anderson, who operates Snapifeye with co-founder Josh Holtz and marketing coordinator Rebecca Sidman.
As they delve into the app, clients first figure out how they want their brand conveyed on their event photos. They can customize the design to feature their logo, event icons, decorative frames for photos and more. Snapifeye also helps clients determine the kinds of messaging they want to post with their photos to further reinforce their brand.
While using Snapifeye Pro during an event, companies and organizations can either shoot photos with an iPad or link a camera to the iPad so that photos directly transfer. The software allows companies to then tag individuals in the photos on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
Before companies fire photos out through those channels, they can attach a message and incorporate a link to their company’s website.
“What happens is when I share this and I tag you in it and then you re-share it, some of your friends will visit that website,” Anderson said.
That process of re-sharing leads to cost-effective advertising, he said.
Snapifeye tracks unique website visits through both analytical tools imbedded into the software as well as through Bitly brand tools – free online tools that allow users to measure the performance of their links.
The ability to measure the reach of photos across multiple social media outlets in one swoop is a big part of the value behind Snapifeye, Anderson said.
Being able to tag social media fans and followers on multiple platforms and share that content with one click is equally valuable, he said.
Case studies on the startup’s website highlight some of its top successes. During Newaukee’s YP Week in April, when Snapifeye was beta testing its Pro version, it generated more than 221,600 unique impressions through social media, achieved close to 120 retweets and shares of images, and drew more than 150 unique visitors to Newaukee’s website.
During a May bachelor and bachelorette event the nonprofit WGIRLS Milwaukee hosted in support of Penfield Children’s Center, Snapifeye generated more than 68,000 impressions through social media, inspired more than 60 retweets and shares of content captured at the event, and attracted more than 200 unique visitors to Penfield Children’s Center’s website.
While Anderson has found considerable use for the app at nonprofit events and tradeshows, he said it can also be applied to sports marketing initiatives, festivals, corporate social responsibility movements, campaigns and consumer goods.
“This tool (has) a broad application,” he said.
In customizing service to Snapifeye clients, Anderson and Holtz do everything from simply selling their software suite to clients to staffing events with a Snapifeye photographer and content manager.
“We’re a full-service firm, and we provide as much or as little service as a client needs,” Anderson said.
As Snapifeye continues improving its apps’ capabilities, the co-founders plan to add more social media platforms and more advanced data retention and analytics features. They will also work to simplify some of the app’s tagging features, integrate the app more closely with digital cameras, and build an advanced web portal where clients can better manage their Snapifeye content.
“We want to build the best tools to help companies create, measure and amplify viral content,” Anderson said.
And as Anderson and Holtz enhance their technology, they’re also targeting clients across the country to grow their company’s own reach.
The startup is currently offering free trials of its software suite. More information can be found at www.snapifeye.com.
