Clubhouse Vs Twitter Spaces - which will benefit your company more?
As the Zoom boom of the last year in video conferencing dies down and TikTok matures, the next big trend in social media looks to be social audio. It’s a term born out of the launch of Clubhouse last year - the invite-only, audio-only social network that claims to let users rub shoulders with the likes of Oprah, Elon Musk, and Tiffany Haddish in intimate chat spaces. Clubhouse saw a peak of 9 million downloads in February and claims to have more than a million others on the waiting list.
Not surprisingly, the other social media giants moved quickly to build competitors, leading to the launch of Twitter Spaces and, soon, audio-only Facebook Rooms. Twitter Spaces work much in the same way as Clubhouse: a small number of speakers are able to lead an audio session on any given topic that anyone else can join. The key difference is that Twitter Spaces is tied into Twitter’s existing platform and is open to the public, whereas Clubhouse remains its own invite-only beast.
So where should you start? Let’s take a look at some of the key differences and benefits for founders when it comes to choosing between these two new social audio platforms.
Working audio into your existing social media strategy
As of May this year, anyone with more than 600 followers on Twitter is able to host a Spaces event. This is a huge benefit for brands that have already put months of time and money into their social media calendars and built an engaged, faithful audience.
Simply put, it’s going to be easier to drive your fans towards a social audio event on a platform they’re already engaged with, rather than pushing them elsewhere. This is particularly true once Twitter launches co-hosting and scheduling features for Spaces.
That’s not to say Clubhouse can’t be worked into your existing social plan - indeed, you might even benefit from building a presence on the platform while it’s still in its early days. But it’s going to require a unique strategy for building an audience.
Many early adopters of Clubhouse have been able to take advantage of the relative youth of the platform, using it as an opportunity to build up big followings and launch new channels of their own before it becomes too saturated with competitors. If you want to hone your niche and build up a name for your business, setting up a room dedicated to a specific topic and regularly producing content could be a great way to build up a dedicated following - particularly if you bring in some guest speakers from elsewhere in your sector.
Accessing expert insights and networking.
One of the main early draws of Clubhouse has been its exclusivity. You can easily participate or listen in on candid conversations between entrepreneurs, celebrities, investors, and influencers, all for free. But the biggest benefit of this - apart from namedropping rights - is the ability to get some brilliant insights for your business and build up a network.
There are some amazing groups on Clubhouse already who offer support, tips, and advice during regular meets with their chat rooms. There’s hundreds of channels, like the Sales Club (@dre.smith) which runs regular sessions on B2B, B2C, and SaaS trends; Social Media Mavens (@socialmediamavens) who offer advice and lessons on social media marketing; or BLK Founders Club (@blkfounders) who broadcast weekly shows including Black Tech News.
Critically, Clubhouse rooms are generally welcoming spaces to diverse, independent founders. Many of the most popular Clubhouse channels are run by people of colour who have cultivated friendly, supportive spaces to entrepreneurs and founders at all stages of their career. It could be the perfect place to have direct conversations with peers, get some extra training, bounce ideas off of others, or even find a mentor.
This isn’t to say that Twitter Spaces won’t also be offering some amazing sessions and content - but these will be tied to existing Twitter profiles and publicly available to anyone on the feed. Clubhouse could offer you a better chance at building meaningful connections in a more intimate space.
Generating revenue and supporting creators
One area where the differences between Twitter Spaces and Clubhouse aren’t so clear cut is in their monetization features. Currently, Twitter Spaces and Clubhouse allow users to micro-tip creators directly through their apps, and both platforms have announced plans to introduce subscriptions. Twitter has also announced a new ticketed Spaces option, which lets audio shows on Spaces charge listeners a fee - which Twitter plans to take an as-yet-undetermined cut from.
Perhaps where Clubhouse has the edge is in initiatives like the newly-unveiled Creator Accelerator Program. Although applications for the program are now closed, it’s just one part of a wider plan to offer creators on the platform grant funding. It suggests that Clubhouse wants to differentiate itself from its competitors by the quality of its creators and content. Unlike many digital platforms, Clubhouse seems to want to help early-stage creators build a platform and is willing to reward them for it - at least at this early stage of its lifecycle.
