Have you heard of Clubhouse? If you don’t have an i-phone, you may have missed this new iOS- only social audio app. Clubhouse just celebrated its one-year anniversary, closing in on 13 million downloads from the Apple App Store. That is a significant growth in a short space of time.
Twitter is working to enable all users to host their own audio Space in the app by April. LinkedIn is experimenting with new features to help users become more influential on the platform while Facebook is testing the waters on the audio social front.
The opportunities for brand engagement
Brand Sponsorships
Currently, there are very few brand sponsorships in Clubhouse. There’s no functionality to facilitate money exchange between influencers and brands. Clubhouse has however begun a new experiment on Creator Payments.
Display Ads
Currently, there are no ads in Clubhouse, but it would make sense to do this. Imagine that users would have to watch a video, or sign-up for a newsletter before entering a room that's just started. For B2B brands, this would also be an opportunity to generate leads, just like you would sponsoring a technology convention and having a booth.
Executive Thought Leadership
Clubhouse is all about sharing knowledge, educating others and learning. This presents a huge opportunity for brands that have executives who are experts in their space and want to grow their influence across the social media ecosystem.
Employee Advocacy
Employees who have expertise in certain areas can grow their influence, build relevance, and share knowledge. They shouldn’t be spamming rooms with branded messages either. It’s about thought leadership and providing value to the larger conversation and community.
The Challenges for Brands and Social Audio
Currently, there's no way to track conversations happening in audio rooms, for a variety of reasons.
Anyone can start a room at any time, and say anything, about any brand or person. And even the brands that have sophisticated monitoring and social listening programs still can't capture what's being said in the app.
There is a bright side to this. As of today, there's no record of any room or the conversation within a room once it's over. In other words, it won't show up 2-3 weeks later in the Google search results. The caveat here is if someone blogs about the experience or tweets about it.
Conclusions
The key takeaway is that brands of all sizes, and across all sectors, must develop a plan before jumping headfirst into a new bright and shiny object. Yes, social audio is hot and dominating headlines globally, but having a well-thought-out plan will help ensure a successful marketing program, as well as a response plan when something bad happens.
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