Five reasons you should join Twitter Spaces today: An African perspective.

It is exactly two months and 15 days after I shared a request through a tweet on how I would love to host a Twitter Space. I had no idea I would be even given a chance to do so and with a measly 200 or so followers, my chances we even slimmer. But on the 7th of June, exactly two months after the tweet above, I reached the 1000 followers mark. I had always wanted the numbers, but had no idea how to engage and persuade a following or most importantly what that meant. My experiences to curate radio content and keep a conversation on for hours required that I venture into this new phenomenon and keep alive my sanity within a pandemic and love for audio. Twitter Spaces gave my love for radio broadcasting a new lease of life more than what I had ever imagined and here is how it happened.

The evolution of audio social platforms such as Clubhouse, Twitter Spaces and now Spotify:Greenroom are the lifeline to a global village needing conversations about themselves which they have been failing to get from conventional broadcasting platforms such as the "good old radio". Don't get me wrong, radio still has a part to play in our lives today but in a world getting more diluted and demanding a much more fair conversations on issues, audiences are shying away from "being controlled" and choosing to put the control in their hands through conversations on these platforms which are getting much richer with time.

But what happened?

2020 saw a rise in media consumption, especially "on demand" content. The world was listening, reading and watching more albeit in a slightly different manner.

According to a survey on: Consuming media at home due to the coronavirus worldwide 2020, by country Published by Amy Watson, June 18, 2020, it revealed that

"the coronavirus has had a direct impact on in-home media consumption around the world, with 35 percent of total respondents professing to have read more books or listened to more audiobooks at home and 18 percent having listened to more radio due to the COVID-19 pandemic, whilst more than 40 percent of consumers spent longer on messaging services and social media."

This simply means that people turned to social media (44%) more than they had ever done compared to radio (with just 18%). Radio's appeal faded during a time when people would have really needed it, but instead the masses moved to other platforms to do away with the stresses of the pandemic.

After losing my job on the eve of Christmas to cap off a miserable year in my career, I was quick to learn that I needed to make lemonade out of lemons. One thing occupied my mind for days and I did what I always have done when I am in doubt, learn something new. Saw I read about how mass media was changing and how more people where spending time on their phones more than anything else.

In no time I realised that for the years that I had put in producing and presenting radio shows, it was time that I become an independent producer of my own podcast and online radio station/shows. I had to go where the people are and offer on demand content as opposed to the "LIVE" aspect I was used to. I was confident that I could create conversations and content on my own as I had always done. It was time I took it a step further than I had ever done.

To digital spaces and beyond...

I pride myself as being the most digitally savvy multimedia journalist in Zimbabwe. Over the years as I fell in love with podcasting, I saw it as a format that could potentially increase audiences on traditional radio and to bring the divide between location and access. I suggested it to my superiors at work but it all fell on deaf ears. Though I was allowed to podcast individually, I felt it needed to be encouraged and developed for an ever changing palette of multi-media consumers that are in the world today. It also needed every radio DJ (and not a few) to be doing it.

When I started a podcast in January 2021, the changes in media consumption rocked by audio social networks such as Clubhouse and Twitter Spaces were huge. As a person who is convinced that people needed to listen to their shows at their own times by removing the "LIVE" aspect to radio and packaging content to consume on the go, Audio Social Networks appealed to me more because of their availability on platforms that are now widely sought after and also the ability to turn conversations here into on-demand content.

I learnt that audio consumers were tired of being passive listeners and where hungry or eager to also share their ideas and thoughts on conversations that concern them more than what traditional radio usually gives them. They need to listen and to be listened to.

When I was invited to Clubhouse, busy with the second season of my podcast, I listened in on many conversations on this platform but it lacked something. The demographics of Africa did not facilitate for many to partake in the conversations held here. It was elitist (until opening it up to Android) and even now many don't consider it to be the go to place for all things for social media platform. I felt out of place even after getting an invite from a stranger, I never interacted with them within or even outside the app.

I love platforms that "stand-alone", a one stop shop kind of application where I don't need to go elsewhere to get something else. It seemed to me that ClubHouse was offering an ancillary service to Instagram and Twitter and could only be used at certain times. I wanted something that could feed my craving in full and all the times.

It wasn't until I bumped into a Space being hosted by a social influencer, Vanessa Chilimanzi that something sparked inside me. This was to be the very space I entered. I listened in and after a few minutes I "chimed in" and never looked back again. I felt so at home as I recognised a few familiar faces while marvelling and connecting with the the new ones. I didn't need to be convinced. Twitter Spaces had managed to combine aspects of news in text, video, pictures and now audio plus the most important aspect that lacks in the other platforms, belonging to a community. Whatever you are into, if a connection of yours is in a Space you will be in there with them.

I reached out to her through her inbox (DM's) and begged her to tell me how she got the ability to host a Space. She laid it down for me and equipped me with knowledge of what would become a very important part of my career. The ability to curate and broadcast content in the same way I had always done on a radio station but now even much simpler (even at times in your pyjamas) and the rest as they say, is history.

I had a measly 260 followers when I started out with Spaces and everyday I hosted one, the number grew. Some times I would get 5 follows, at times 15 or 20 but for a person who would at times in a month get no followers at all, this was a great leap. I knew then that I had to start hosting more and this meant creating more content so that people could consume on a daily basis inside an app they already had fallen in love with, Twitter.

#WakeupAfrica: The birth.

My first tweet on #The6amClub #WakeUpAfrica

The idea of The 6am Club: Wake up Africa was conceived from the realisation that on Twitter, with its vast networks and incredible news and current affairs database, which everyone wanted to consume, there was no Pan-African Space that discussed issues from within the continent and about the black community. These issues, wide ranging and encompassing could be consumed by the black African community including those from the diaspora.

In no time, the Space and the conversations here went viral. It was a fire fanned by the love from the African community which is under threat from their leadership, capitalists and colonisers, ideologies and western influence. These conversations seemed to be more than just talk, they became mental gymnastics and therapy as an "Eye witness" approach to reporting from around the world is encouraged each morning.

The Space offered relief and a way in which the many, mentally stressed and affected by the issues from their communities could share, discuss, find a way forward (and even laugh about it). I learnt that the news that we consume daily needed a passage out. It was mostly expressing disgust, venting and even ridiculing our societal problems. How do we get rid of the stress of learning that billions are missing from government coffers without a trace, or the death of millions from the pandemic and the demise of a people inflicting pain on themselves and from the rest of the world? Conversations! The more we spoke the better we related to each other and in not time, the better we handled our own personal issues.

Today, #The6amClub #WakeUpAfrica has welcomed to its Space to over 2000 listeners and the Space allowed me to grow a follower base of over 1200 in roughly two months. At this point I must hasten to say that the followers are an important aspect to the entire mix of things as accounts with large followers attract way more audiences in their spaces and vice versa. I learnt to grow mine in the most natural and content driven way using a well balanced mixture of the love for the audio format and people + consistency in content delivery + a professional appeal to hosting/presentation + the ability to listen to feedback from the space.

Here are five reasons you need to join a Twitter Space Today.

Whether as a listener, host or co-host:

1. You belong - become part of a community.

Whether you are a sports fan, beauty enthusiast, digital marketer, politics buff, or simply a consumer of all of the above, Twitter Spaces allows you to create and partake in the pleasures and desires of your heart. You will find almost everything including conversations that you might regard "un-radio" and having no limits to expression and duration. Some spaces have run for many hours, have been heavily opinionated and even well represented with facts and authority.

2. Full Access - Removal of the Red Tape.

I have heard the ability to be in a space that I can hear great minds speak and have the ability to speak back at them. Although it can be intimidating to utter a contribution or question in front of great people in the world such as Mmusi Maimane, MC Hammer and Jack Dorsey who have all hosted and been in spaces before, it seems now more than ever, very easy to do that whether by grabbing the mic or sending a text to them or even the host. Just knowing that "Hammerman" responded to your question is a conversation starter in any place on this world where it might ensue.

3. Consume Divergent Views

Since joining Twitter Space, I have been in conversations where I never thought I would be in. Because the platform is free for everyone to join in without the possibility of closing off a space (such as ClubHouse closed rooms) it allows for even those without knowledge to talk, understanding of the topic or even those joining in just to consume and learn. A widely used group of phrases on the platform has been to "learn and un-learn". My views of the world has been changed and I have become tolerant to other views such as politics, religion, sexual orientations and gender, much more more than what I would have ever done on the radio stations I have worked on. Like a conversation that I had on the Life of a Transgender woman or The Running Mate Saga in Zimbabwe which I would have not normally carried on other platforms because of the religious, cultural and political stances these platforms carry.

4. Access to Free Education.

I have been a student of the internet ever since I came on it. The wisdom I have gained online, in monetary value, could be into thousands of dollars. With the right platforms on your phone, one could access education worth more than your network charges for data. I ran an Events Photography business purely by watching YouTube videos and tutorials. While they served a great purpose to my business, they did not provide the real time ability that spaces has address an issue. While well written text, neatly edited video and audio and pics can provide this much needed education, audio social platforms provide much more clarity and instant feedback that would have otherwise taken longer in the other formats. Joe Human hosts 'Subtle conversations" for creatives that will give you amazing insights on that industry in South Africa and Joseline Mane and Madalyn Sklar who have been knights offering Twitter knowledge to many on how to get paid with on your creativity and use the platform to greater heights using #MonetiseMondays and #TwitterSmarter. While he hosts no space at the moment, lawyer Zac Moselane offers free legal advice on every space he goes in for free.

5. Therapeutic.

Listening to a voice from the other side can be comforting, especially if being addressed to on a personal note. I have always acknowledged all audiences that have come onto my space and the feedback that I got has been positive, even after just calling out their name. One day I forgot to do it and one person requested to speak, to ask me why I had not done that.

They had been “Concerns about the negative impacts of social media have dominated public debate. However, recent studies show there are clear health benefits to being online and connected.”

– Joanna Egan, Women’s Health

Read the full article here.

Listening, talking, learning and un-learning is an integral part of life today. Most of the things that we go through need a way out and social media such as Twitter Spaces can be the place you might be looking for.

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My only hope for my continent, which consumes more than create social media apps to start using them more as advancement tools more than just "social". #The6amClub is a great place to get an understanding of the variety of the people in the continent and because my brand is the people, I have since diversified and started the hashtag #spaceswithjoemars which I talk about different topics on different times. It's about time you get on it.