I helped someone this week.
More precisely, I helped an individual, a refugee, get on a plane and reunite safely with a family member. While I donate to a number of organizations, what I liked in particular about Miles4Migrants was the personal nature of the experience. I booked a flight for someone using my earned miles, who is now heading from an ICE detention center to a new life. It felt good helping an individual, and I wish him a great journey in our country.
That one-to-one connection is ephemeral, but made me think about a few trends that unfolded this week. The most prevalent one was Clubhouse. Since I joined, I get a message every hour or so asking me to welcome someone or join the fun of a current conversation. It reminds me of when I joined Twitter in 2007, on my BlackBerry, using text messaging.
My first posts after the one above were part of a conversation I wound up having with a couple I knew well, the three of us using Twitter as our channel to laugh, mostly me laughing as the two of them lightheartedly bantered about their week.
We all know that Twitter missed opportunities to be more than what it is, but in the early years it was a vibrant community of marketers, startup-y types, and people testing out a new mode of public communication. A more social LinkedIn at the time, but without expectations about networking and career talk. I made friends on Twitter that I have to this day.
Why social audio is not podcasting.
The dudes (aka creators) that initially embraced podcasting were conversational by nature. Podcasting gave them a chance to talk to anyone who would listen, without the programming constraints of linear radio or the need for an established brand. Have a mic? Be a podcaster. The vibe was cool, the tone was familiar. It's morphed into a bigger business now with stars and corporate sponsors (as noted by big acquisitions by Spotify, Amazon and others).
With that kind of vibe in mind, entrepreneurs and marketers should think about using social audio as a new way to:
Socialize and build community. Zoom is pretty much essential in 2021, but it sucks for meeting with a big group of people. The mix of visual, technical and bandwidth issues make it frustrating any time a meeting gets beyond a handful of people. A far-better experience: Discord, another social audio app that I used this morning on my Zwift ride to banter with people from Guatemala to Germany.
Host marketing discussions (aka replace webinars). As a marketer, I’m always looking for good ways to get buyers and sellers to talk with each other, not at each other. With video out of the way, wouldn't it be great to hear, literally, from an expert in a conversational setting, avoid the visual melancholy of a lot of black squares on the screen and make it more engaging as a dialog?
Hold conference calls. I am no fan of the hold music for UberConference’s “I’m On Hold” since I’ve heard it hundreds of times, the idea of a group discussion held using Discord or Clubhouse would be an upgrade, and allow it to be impromptu. Rather than do a formal product launch, where the expectation is a formal, scheduled and agenda-driven event, the social audio equivalent would make the intro of a new piece of software more casual, participatory, and dynamic.
Why we need social audio right now.
Clubhouse, to me, feels like the marriage of Twitter and podcasting. Discord is audio Reddit.
Both of them are few- or many-to-many, casual and conversational, and becoming more visible as the communities on them grow. While I don’t know if Clubhouse is the next ”it” platform, I have a few theories for why it's getting so much attention (beyond, of course, the hype from investors Andreeson Horowitz and exploiting ties to Elon Musk and the CEO of Robinhood):
Video fatigue. Nobody wants to hop on another Zoom or Webinar, and go through the effort of looking good from the neck up. Too often video calls feel artificial , overly structured, and task-specific. People want good conversations, but they are tired of looking at themselves and engaging in 2-D experiences.
People want to talk to other people. Yes, I talk to my parents every week, and friends as often as I can.. But what I really miss is meeting new people, and learning from them serendipitously. I’m not a super extrovert, but in the right environment I like to expand my mind and my social network and let conversations roll.
It’s a place to do more than one thing. Community-specific apps always struggle to thrive. Why? They require you to download a new app, remember to visit a new website, and find a time to explicitly engage in that content. Broader platforms like Slack, Facebook, Twitter and email are things people use across their lives and communities without having to remember to go there. Clubhouse (or the winner of social audio) will make their platform one where I will be able to connect to a wide range of things -- clients, marketers, social and work discussions, etc. -- and not have to run dozens of apps and remember distinct log-ins for each.