#4: Is audio the future of social media?
Let's talk digital intimacy. You knew this one was coming.
Hi, I’m Erifili Gounari, and this is issue #4 of The Digital Native. This newsletter is aimed at driven, curious and inspired Gen Zers, interested in mindset, entrepreneurship, business, marketing, and more! Note: You might have noticed that this newsletter has now turned bi-weekly. I figured it is a much more realistic model to follow, so I’ll see you every two weeks instead of weekly. Thanks!
If you are a person with access to the internet, by now you’ve probably already seen the increasing hype around audio-based social media platforms. Last spring, the launch of Clubhouse, the exclusive, invite-only social media platform that includes people from Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, to Ryan Reynolds in its list of users, presented an entirely new way to connect with strangers online, and it quickly picked up the interest of Silicon Valley. Especially during its early months, the user-base of Clubhouse included people who were mainly entrepreneurs, VCs, CEOs, and so on, thus rightfully attracting the attention of those who learned about the platform through other people’s tweets, but did not have yet an invite.
For those who aren’t familiar with how the app works, what it basically does is that it allows you to join audio-only chat rooms (no video, no text), as either a speaker or a listener. You can drop into any room you see on your feed, to hear what the speakers are saying in real time (kind of like a podcast if you join a topic-based room), or raise your hand to chat with them as well.
Now, Clubhouse has grown to over 2 million users, and the company received a valuation of $1 billion in January 2021. For people from any generation, this type of audio connection can prove to be very beneficial if you use it strategically. I properly got to understand this myself recently, when a month ago, I launched the GEN Z club within the app, with the intention to collect members from my generation and host weekly chats where we could talk about anything and network with each other. In just one month, the club has organically grown to over 3,500 followers and members, and our weekly discussions now usually include 100-200 people at a time.
👉 Okay but, what’s the big deal?
You might find yourself wondering whether the hype this app has received was simply because of the exclusivity that made people feel extra special once they got an invite, or because of the value it actually offers. I believe it is definitely a mix of both.
Apps and startups that launch using a velvet-rope strategy, using exclusivity as a big part of their business model, get a certain amount of success due to the fact that people love being the first to try something, and the same goes for such apps. However, the audio-based nature of Clubhouse also offers a type of connection that we have rarely experienced before. According to WIRED, “because you’re hearing everyone’s voices, the interactions with complete strangers could feel oddly intimate—like listening to a podcast where you could talk back.” At a time of global social isolation, it is no surprise that this sort of opportunity would spread quickly; whereas most social media platforms can feel increasingly isolating and polarising, this offers an opportunity to experience a type of digital intimacy, where you are more mindfully connecting with the content you come across.
💡 But Clubhouse is not the only such initiative. Twitter itself recently joined Spaces, a new feature on its app that is basically exactly like Clubhouse, allowing users to create audio rooms with others. Their first tweets about this focused on the fact that the intimacy of the human voice is now a real selling point, emphasising the additional layer of connectivity that this feature brings to typical social media.
Of course, it’s worth mentioning that this type of social media platform is far from reaching its final form. Clubhouse has already faced some quite unsurprising moderation problems due to the unregulated nature of its rooms, that will probably need to get solved before the app opens up to the public. Once a viable solution for content moderation is established, it’s safe to assume that more apps with a Clubhouse-like structure will emerge in the couple of years to come, exploring other ways to use this voice connection on a wide scale.
In Elon Musk’s first Clubhouse room a few days ago, he mentioned that he was very conscious of what he was saying, after being asked about Bitcoin, due to his power to single-handedly move the market according to his public stance on stocks and crypto. This wouldn’t really be a problem on Twitter, where you can at least think twice before publicly saying something, and in the worst-case scenario, you can just delete it if you regret it. On audio-based platforms, there’s no room for editing or regulation. You say what you think without the time to reconsider, and that offers a lot of potential to connect with people, and especially public figures, in a widely different way.
💬 Social media platforms are quickly evolving, and there’s no way to know where we will go from here. One thing is certain: right now, platforms like Instagram, Twitter and Facebook don’t really offer the intimate, authentic and ‘natural’ type of connection that many are currently looking for. Feel free to email or comment your predictions on where this trend may go!
I loved this 300-page report on 2021 global digital trends, by Hootsuite. If you’d like to see the latest insights on how people around the world use the internet, social media, and e-commerce, I’d highly recommend taking a look!
Thanks for reading this issue of The Digital Native! I hope you enjoyed it and learned something new. ☺️
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