Image by Toorged
Unless you have been living under a rock for the past couple of years, not mentioning the 'C' word, Social Audio is possibly the newest social media innovation of the the current 20's.
You may have heard of Clubhouse, their meteoric rise to being THE social audio go to platform and the beauty of being focused on just that, nothing else, no distractions, no other innovations, just social audio, means they were the market leader, the innovator and solution of choice. They refused many takeover bids and even one by Twitter, which reportedly was for $4 billion yeah that’s billion with a B. Why didn’t they take that I wonder? Personally you must be slightly mad not to.
I was late into the Clubhouse, it’s been a while since I played golf so nobody gave me the nod and wink. Never mind I did set up a profile, it was easy to do and simple. The whole platform was simples, yeah I say was, because with all social media products the engineers complicate the hell out of it. It’s not so simple anymore and then the surprise why the drop off?
The whole beta and by invitation only was a clever marketing ploy. People wanted in and were desperate to get invited. I just sat there and waited until all of a sudden someone I knew, although not well sent me an invitation, of course I was overjoyed and yes I got carried along on the novelty wave too, not for long though. I listened to many rooms and came to the conclusion that people’s egos were getting the better of them, the amount of compliments for so-called experts sharing their wisdom made me ever so slightly sick in the stomach, really it was cringe-worthy.
Basically people that were hosting rooms just needed their egos massaged and all was fine, they would come back week in week out. Oh then the hysteria when a famous celebrity or musician would enter a room, oh my everyone was so excited! I still don’t know why the world is so obsessed by celebrity. They’re just ordinary folks with ordinary suffering, trying to ensure they have a better life than most of us. Good for them, yeah I mean that, I'm happy for them, really I am, honestly!
I did cohost one room on a Saturday morning and although it was interesting until someone joined whilst driving their car and because she couldn’t hear us very well, basically trying to get her to stop talking, she continued to share her life story of suffering at the hands of her estranged abusive partners. It was very very awkward. Basically it was a therapy session for her, I think she did actually feel better afterwards.
This really put me off big time. I haven’t hosted a room since.
Then other platforms started to join the fray, like Twitter Spaces, LinkedIn Audio, Spotify Green Room, Amazon Amp, Facebook (since withdrawn), Reddit, Wisdom and loads of others too. In my view in the end we will probably be left with just 3; Clubhouse, Twitter Spaces and LinkedIn Audio and why would you be on more anyway? Trouble is you have to decide which one you will major on in terms of hosting and then choose the other two for either cohosting or being a speaker.
It's no different to general Social Media, we were all faced with Facebook early on (2004) and then Twitter (2006), but we all said, well why would I want to be on both, one is plenty! But then - as businesses - we were told that these platforms are free marketing resources, so you better be on both. Then came Instagram (2010) and because it was a photo app, people started using that too. We all know what happened afterwards, Facebook bought up the competition. Many more social media platforms, messaging apps etc. started to join the sector and now we have a very confusing and full market of social media apps, platforms and marketing engines.
I suspect, maybe like me, you have stayed with your favourite platform, possibly you have gone to some others and then decided to leave them after a while. Maybe like me, you detest Mark Zuckerberg and his lies in terms of selling our data and you have downgraded your activity on Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram?
Social Audio is more or less following the same trajectory, big hype and excitement early, in this case it was Clubhouse, which meant lots of others started to launch their own platforms with some or limited success. Then inevitably there's drop-off in terms of engagement and activity.
It's up to you, I recommend you check them all and decide where you want to invest your time in terms of hosting your own show and then adopt a couple of others for listening and contributing.
My own personal strategy for now, Host on LinkedIn Audio - when I finally get it - listen and contribute on TwitterSpaces and Clubhouse. That's it, all the others may be nice and interesting but I am not going to spend time learning and experimenting in them. I have learnt from my social media experience over the past 13 years, less is more.
If you wish to learn more and ask further questions, you can join my recently created Social Audio Community Group on LinkedIn.
Here's the link: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/12669684/
Enjoy!
~ Michael - bio.link/stayingaliveuk