A Guide to Social Audio Strategies for 2023

By far the most underrated marketing strategy in the digital realm, social audio is beginning to gain popularity outside of the renowned app, Clubhouse. 

Social audio is a new opportunity for creators to ensure that they are doing everything in their power to reach and speak to the relevant audiences. 

If you are a creator looking to implement a social audio strategy into your marketing plans then this guide will cover all the relevant bases for you to do just this. 

What is social audio?

Hailed as the goldilocks of mediums through extensive research carried out by Jeremiah Owyang, social audio is perfect for the 2020s. Owyang states “text is not enough, video is too much; social audio is just right. It represents the opportunity for social connection and empathy without the downsides of video”. 

Essentially, social audio is audio-only content; like podcasting, but a little more casual. Today, Meta’s Soundbites and live audio rooms, and Twitter’s Spaces allow creators to delve into leveraging audio content without having to commit to starting a podcast. 

People these days are looking for information, particularly on subjects they are interested in, and audio is the perfect way to relay this. It is simple, digestible, direct and trending.

Here are some statistics that will convince you to get that social audio strategy up and running:

1. Clubhouse has 10 million weekly active users
2. 68% of the US population listens to online audio each month
3. The average time listeners spend on audio platforms is 16 hours and 14 minutes weekly
4. Digital audio accounted for 7% of total media time per day in 2021

Why your brand should care about social audio

Setting up a social audio strategy should be on every brand’s to-do list and here’s why:

1. Lower competition
2. Higher bandwidth communication: text cannot express emotions and nuances that audio can. Your audience will be able to hear the excitement, interact with you in real time and ask questions to get to know your brand better.
3. Vibrant feel: Podcasting remains one-way communication. Social audio opens up the opportunity for a two-way live conversation. It’s like a live show, and since it is live, people have to be present so as to not miss anything. As a result, you have the complete attention of your audience. 
4. No ad saturation yet: since audio platforms are still in the early stages, ads have not yet been rolled out. You can use this time to capture your audience’s attention without the interruption of ads. 
5. Receive audience feedback: you can use these platforms to test new ideas and gather feedback on existing services. 

How to create a social audio strategy

Define your business goals

All marketing strategies must begin with setting out your business goals and a social audio strategy is no exception.

These can be:

1. Build thought leadership
2. Generate leads
3. Drive sales
4. Grow brand awareness
5. Market an upcoming launch

Defining clear goals is essential for tracking KPIs later on. 

Develop an editorial concept

Seeing as these audio sessions are live, there is an increased risk of things going downhill or the session being all over the place. To avoid this, an editorial concept can be created. In doing so, you define the following:

Format: are you going to host one-off sessions or design a series to form a show? Will your focus be fireside chats with experts or mini masterclasses?

Target audience: Defining your audience will help you in the type of content you create and also in choosing which platform to operate on.

Topics: what are you going to talk about? What are you not going to talk about? What will be your themes and subjects?

Style and tonality: tonality is what sets drop-in audio apart from other social media. Make sure you give time to define your brand’s voice. 

You don’t have to script everything, but creating a structure for your upcoming sessions will help. 

Pick a platform

Social audio in particular requires a lot of time investment, so the idea of being omnipresent in this realm is perhaps not the best idea. So carefully selecting the platform you will be investing your time into is essential. Choose the platform based on:

1. Demographics
2. Existing followers
3. Scalability 

Host sessions

An essential part of your social audio strategy will be to host sessions once you have laid down your business goals, built a solid show concept and selected your platform. 

Remember: the purpose of every session should be to educate or entertain rather than hard selling.

Engage with your audience

Real-time engagement with your audience is the unique advantage of social audio. 

It can:

1. Humanise your brand
2. Make your brand appear more accessible
3. Invite feedback
4. Answer questions about your product or service

Audience engagement is getting difficult on other platforms as the algorithm chooses your reach. However, with social audio platforms, you have the complete attention of your audience. 

Measure success

Perhaps the most crucial part of your entire social audio strategy is to ensure that you’re measuring the results of your campaign. 

Analyse the sentiments of your audience by reviewing your session transcripts. The two-way conversation will help you learn whether your audience has positive or negative emotions about your product or service. 

Rinse and repeat

Based on your analysis, you can tweak your social audio strategy. 

Social audio strategies: final thoughts

The key to social audio success is consistency. Where posts on other social media platforms don’t have an expiry date and can be viewed months or years later. Social audio sessions are live and will end if you don’t press record. You’ll have to keep making appearances to achieve your goals. 

Your social audio strategy should be set up with longevity in mind and we promise that, even though it is a slow process, the results will be worth it. 

FAQ’s

What is social audio?

Social audio is a more casual version of podcasting. It allows for live, two-way conversations between host and listener.  

How do you set up a social audio strategy?

1. Define your business goals
2. Develop an editorial concept
3. Pick a platform
4. Host sessions
5. Engage with your audience
6. Measure success
7. Rinse and repeat

Our Influencer marketing agency and Social agency are located worldwide, with our agency network based in the USA, UK, UAE and China.

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@ Socially Powerful

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