What Is The Best Social Audio Platform For Your Business?

If you're a business owner, then you've no doubt heard about social audio.  Whether it's Clubhouse or Twitter Spaces, social audio was born during COVID, a time when we needed it the most, whether it was for creating new business (since everyone was stuck at home) or simply for people to connect with other people due to the increasing feelings of isolation.

Even though most of us are back to "life as normal" and the number of users for social audio has diminished, I still believe that this avenue can pay massive dividends for your business.  That begs the question: which social audio app should I be using?

Today, I want to break down for you the top 5 social audio apps that are being used by people right now, rank each of them, and let you know, in my opinion, which one(s) you should be devoting your precious time to.  I want to preface this by saying that I am grading these based on being used for business and helping you grow that business.  If I was using different criteria, then I'm sure the rankings would be quite different.  However, I'm strictly focusing on which one(s) can benefit your business the most.

Twitter Spaces

Launched in November of 2020, Twitter Spaces wasn't first to the party, but in my opinion, they are definitely one of, if not the best option as far as social audio goes.  So what is the main reason that elevates Twitter Spaces over all the others?

It's the fact that Twitter has been around since 2006, and while yes, their social audio has only been around a couple of years, the number of people that can access it is exponentially bigger than every platform on this list, except maybe Facebook (we'll get to them later).  Twitter has a total of almost 400 million users, 330 million of those are still considered "active."

While this doesn't seem like a huge amount, it still far exceeds the number of users than on new platforms such as Clubhouse and Fireside.  The sheer fact that Twitter already has a user base that you can immediately plug into is huge, especially if you're already a Twitter user and have an audience on the platform.

Another reason that I'm a big fan of Twitter Spaces right now is that a lot of the rooms happening right now are related to politics, crypto, and NFTs. . . which isn't great as a consumer, but it's great if you're a business owner.  It basically means you're operating without any competition and allows you to create rooms at basically any time, without the risk of having other people doing the same types of rooms . . .

For all of these reasons, I choose Twitter Spaces as my number one choice for social audio.

The second on my list is the first social audio app we ever experienced, and that is Clubhouse.  I can honestly say that when we first got on Clubhouse back in February of 2021, it was an amazing place.  There were so many celebrities and high-profile entrepreneurs on there, and the amount of value and business happening was truly astounding.

Fast-forward to today, and it is quite a different platform.  Most of the people from that time are off the app, and the value that was found there has been replaced for the most part by celebrity gossip rooms and crypto/NFT rooms.  I personally am no longer a fan of Clubhouse because when I go on there now, all it feels like is people trying to sell their courses, tell you why you should invest in crypto/NFTS, etc. and it feels like the value is completely gone.

That being said, it still has one of the largest user bases of any social audio app, and if you are a business owner that has massive value to offer, Clubhouse can still be a great place to run rooms and connect with other businesses owners.  However, if I'm being honest, I wouldn't waste my time on Clubhouse anymore, because if you value your time above anything else, you'll quickly start to notice that it's simply NOT worth the time it takes to be on the app.

Because of its history and wide user base, Clubhouse still makes second on my list of social audio apps.

Third on my list of social audio apps would be Facebook Audio.  Thinking about it now, Facebook made a huge deal that their audio platform would rival that of Twitter Spaces and Clubhouse, only to move on to "Meta" so quickly that it seems like their audio platform has now become an afterthought . . .

The problem that I have with Facebook is that unless your audience is Gen-X or above, you're not really going to be able to market your business that effectively.  Millennials and Gen-Z simply aren't interested in using Facebook, and its overall user base continues to drop month over month.

That being said, Facebook still has one of the largest platforms, and as I said, if you have a business that markets to ages 40 and up, then Facebook Audio might be something worth looking into.

Coming up fourth on my list is Fireside . . . which honestly I was the most excited about.  The reason being is that when they marketed the audio app, we were told that the process to run rooms would be very strict and that only the people that are in the top of their industries would be allowed to run rooms.

Apparently, this was to ensure that the rooms were offering great value and had great retention.

However, that has not been the case, as we've been in plenty of rooms where it seems like the so-called "expert" running the room doesn't really know much about the topics that they're discussing, and it quickly has turned into a conversation platform . . . which is great if you're looking to make friends, but I'm evaluating this based on business use, and all it feels like is a ghost town version of Clubhouse.

At first, there were celebrities and famous entrepreneurs on there, but that's quickly faded away and now there are only anywhere from 10-15 rooms a day on the app, meaning that the user base is pretty much non-existent.  This means as a business owner, being on here doesn't make much sense in my opinion.

For these reasons, I put Fireside the fourth on my list.

Rounding out the top five and number five is Wisdom.  I have to tell you, this was the social audio app that I was the most excited about.  Having gotten a chance to interview the creator, this app was meant to be a mentorship platform where people in business could mentor other people, answer questions, do single-person interviews, etc.

But again, the problem has been that anyone and everyone can run rooms, which quickly turned it from a business mentorship platform into a conversational platform.  An incentive that Wisdom has is that based on your rooms and their traffic you can get paid in crypto, which sounds nice, except for the fact that we'd have rooms that totaled almost 800 people and the amount was less than $200.

When we have clients spending thousands of dollars a month, giving up hours of our time for $200 a month just doesn't seem worth it.  If you look now, you probably won't find a single business room, and the rooms being run by people aren't really anything that will help your business, which makes me sad, because like I said, I had high hopes for Wisdom as I thought it would truly challenge Clubhouse for the best social audio app.

That doesn't seem to have happened, and Wisdom continues to lose its user base to the point now where rooms and people are pretty much non-existent.

Hopefully, this breakdown has given you some insight into the social audio apps that are available, and which is the right one for you!  If you have any follow-up questions, you can always reach out to us on Instagram @michaelandjill and we'd be happy to talk to you about all things social audio!