Today, we have some very interesting news to share with you.
Social audio is about to EXPLODE!
Facebook just announced that it is officially bringing social audio to its platform.
Twitter is already doing beta-testing with Twitter Spaces.
Ladies and gentlemen, the competition is heating up.
As the Clubhouse app continues to explode with user growth and popularity, it seems like they have some big competition on the way.
So keep on reading to find out what this means and more importantly, how you can take advantage of these updates for your business.
Today, we are going to discuss the new social audio features coming to Facebook.
So let’s jump into it.
Takeaways
- Social audio is a two-way conversation where people have the ability to communicate directly with the broadcaster.
- The major players coming into the social audio game are Facebook and Twitter.
- Outside of advertising, businesses will be able to continue to expand their brand by engaging in social audio with their customers.
Social audio is just an informal version of podcasting. Traditionally, podcasts are one-way broadcasts to anyone who wants to listen to it.
Social audio turns this into a two-way conversation.
People have the ability to communicate directly with the broadcaster, or even join the broadcast themselves.
The good news about social audio is that it’s voice-only. So you don’t have to worry about what you look like in order to take advantage of it.
Now that that’s out of the way, let’s talk about the major players coming into the social audio game.
1. Facebook
Facebook just announced that they are working to introduce a number of new audio features to its platforms.
a. Soundbites
Soundbites will be short audio clips meant for capturing things like…
- anecdotes,
- jokes,
- moments of inspiration
…and so much more.
Based on Facebook’s explanation of this, to us, it sounds kind of like an audio version of Reels or Stories.
Like a quick way to share something funny, informative, or entertaining.
According to Facebook, they are going to be testing the Soundbites feature with celebrities like:
- Drew Lynch,
- Lolo Spencer, and
- other entrepreneurs and motivational speakers
Speaking of Stories, if you want to learn more about how to use Facebook Stories for your business, then read this post next.
b. Podcasts
No surprise here.
We all know that Facebook and Apple’s rivalry has been heating up ever since iOS14 impacted Facebook’s advertising model.
Nonetheless, some of the biggest podcasters on Apple podcasts have a huge Facebook business page.
If you want to learn more about using the Facebook Business page effectively, here’s our post for that.
So it makes sense for Facebook to introduce a podcast feature that allows podcasters to upload their podcasts directly to Facebook.
And since it’ll be on Facebook, you already know it’ll be packed with social features.
Like being able to comment, share, and communicate with people who are engaging with your favorite podcasts.
c. Live Audio Rooms
This move seems to be in direct competition with the Clubhouse social media app.
Clubhouse made a name for itself through live audio rooms and creating engaging conversations around certain topics.
And if there’s one thing we know about social media apps that make a name for themselves, it’s that Facebook is coming.
And they have a strong track record.
Facebook crushed Vines by Twitter, stopped Snapchat in its tracks, and is in an active battle with TikTok with its new Reels feature.
It’s no surprise here to see that Facebook is simply not allowing Clubhouse to be the place for Live Audio Rooms.
Facebook is aiming to release Live Audio Rooms by this summer.
They are going to start by testing Live Audio Rooms in groups.
And this makes sense because people already gather in niche-based groups to discuss specific things.
They are also going to be allowing public figures and celebrities to host live audio rooms.
Sounds like Facebook will be doing their own version of influencer marketing by giving public figures early access to the platform.
With all of these features, we still don’t know how popular any one of them is going to be.
While Facebook is doing a great job of staying up to date with upcoming rivals, there’s becoming an endless amount of ways to publish content on their platform.
There’s posts, videos, polls, stories, lives, stores, reels, Facebook watch, Facebook shopping, Facebook games, and so on.
We guess we’ll have to wait to see how people adapt to social audio on their platform.
2. Twitter
Twitter is planning on rolling out Twitter Spaces to all of its users.
Twitter Spaces is simply live audio, similar to the Live Audio Rooms that Facebook is planning on rolling out and Clubhouse already has.
Once it rolls out, anyone will be able to create a Twitter Space as a Host or a Listener, including people who do not follow you.
This is different from Facebook, which will start rolling their live audio feature out in Facebook Groups.
This may work to Twitter’s advantage.
Especially if it allows people to find trending audio rooms without being a part of a group or connected to a celebrity.
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So with all of this said, what does this mean for businesses and marketers?
Since we know that all of these social media platforms depend on advertising to make money…
…we’d assume that we can expect to see an audio-based ad format rolling out very soon.
If and when that happens, we’d expect the people who advertise on these new features to get clicks at dirt-cheap prices.
This is similar to what we’ve seen with Story ads when they first came out.
Furthermore, outside of advertising, businesses will be able to continue to expand their brand by engaging in social audio with their customers.
It provides an opportunity to better build brand awareness and build deeper relationships with your audience.
So if you’re in the game of growing by content, then this will also be an attractive feature for your business as well.
That’s it for now folks.
We’ll be sure to write another post once we have more information so we can give you the best insights you need to grow your business.
