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Up until recently, social media has been a predominantly visual platform. Between photos, videos and memes, it seemed that the days of talking and listening to each other without any visual cues were a thing of the past.
However, in 2020, while most of us were hunkered down, downloading TikTok, and getting used to Zoom meetings, a new trend emerged in social media — called social audio — with an app called Clubhouse.
Clubhouse allows users to walk down a virtual “hallway” and visit different audio chat “rooms” to meet people from around the world in real time with similar interests. Once you enter the audio chat room of your choice, there is a moderator on the subject, and you can participate as a speaker or listener — it’s up to you. While Clubhouse became wildly popular during the pandemic, with 10 million weekly active users, popularity has waned. Since then, other social media platforms — like Twitter, Facebook and Spotify — have launched their own audio chat services in order to compete. According to Forbes, many experts think social audio will have the most success as a supplementary feature on platforms like Twitter rather than as a dedicated, standalone platform.
Using social audio for marketing in healthcare
Whether through a standalone app or as part of social, there are opportunities for healthcare marketers to use social audio to connect and engage with communities. Here are some ideas.
Engage with your community
Imagine this — your hospital has a big, new announcement. Instead of organizing an in-person or virtual press conference, you can take away the stress of your CEO’s outfit choices and reduce the threat of technical difficulties. With social audio, you can simply host a chat room and your CEO can talk directly into the phone or computer — no fancy equipment, clothes or backgrounds needed.
Patient-to-patient support groups
Many healthcare organizations host patient-to-patient support groups — either in person or virtual. It’s important for patients to talk to others like them, as it can help them with their physical, mental and spiritual health. With audio chat rooms, patients have access to even more support — worldwide. Patients can also meet and talk with more anonymity than usual, which can help them open up more and get more value out of the support group.
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Patient-to-doctor communication
According to Ogilvy Health, who visited a Clubhouse room entitled “A Few Black Docs: Organ Transplant Needs & Misconceptions,” this is a great platform for open conversations between doctors and patients. This particular room had over 1,000 attendees from around the world and included a panel of doctors to help answer questions regarding the challenges of being a Black doctor in healthcare and how to perform kidney transplants.
Challenges of social audio
While the possibilities of social audio are exciting, this platform also presents challenges.
There are no visuals
While having no video or visuals can seem refreshing — it’s also a great way to call attention to your brand and keep people interested.
Reach is limited
While the example above talked about a room with over 1,000 attendees — those results are not typical. Most rooms typically have 100 attendees or less.
It’s for individuals
You cannot set up a company or business page in Clubhouse — it’s for individuals only (so far, anyway). So, while one of your doctors may be popular on the app — it doesn’t mean your healthcare organization will be.
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Editor’s note: This post was updated in November of 2023. It was originally published in August 2021.
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