To Twitter Spaces and beyond.

I have always been a fan of voice and audio, of all media available on earth, it still represents the basic communication style that we have grown up with. Form as early as foetuses in our mother's wombs, we were spoken to and we learnt to speak back so as to precisely express our emotions and thoughts. This give and take ability is the same reason as to why the emergence of audio social media has taken flight in recent months and will continue to do so, even surpassing other forms of media.

The major setback to a TV News broadcast, a radio show or a social media post has been the inability to interact with the audiences in full. At most, these shows on these platforms have dedicated a short time to feedback (usually at the end of a conversation) and can only tell whether their content is highly engaging or not. When Facebook, Instagram, Youtube "lives" kicked into gear they were revered as being pioneers of engagement as you could now tell in real time reactions to a particular question, answer or action and could even engage with the audiences alongside your performance or show and make them a part of the production.

While this was all great, recent developments in audio only social media platforms is such a great stride in the curating of content, conversations and the inclusion of specific targeted audiences in this shows.

While a radio and tv had every other listener tuned in large numbers, the comparison between listeners and active participants has always been staggering. Often listeners' statistics are based on data collected via gadgets tuned into a frequency which is then converted into advertising rates and popularity brags but it does not translate purely to reaching the right audience. Often there is a conflict on whether the message got to the intended audiences during the flighting of an advert at a certain time on a radio schedule because what determines placement is money paid rather than audience tuned in.

Audio based social media platforms such as Clubhouse, Twitter Spaces (rumour has it Facebook is joining soon) have flipped the script on all of that. In these "rooms" or "spaces", you are guaranteed of meeting a group of people, attracted to a certain conversation who are most likely to offer you Return On Investment more than playing a game of dice with live radio adverts scheduling.

This smaller chunks of groups of people are most likely to respond to your business more than any other media platform available today because of it's "road- show" like nature in which customers can actually ask the host of the space or representative of a product or service in the female reproductive health sector during a discussion about women issues on Clubhouse or Twitter Spaces.

The future for your product or services lies within promoting it in spaces and rooms on digital platforms. Here you are more than guaranteed of instant feedback and engagement on your social media timeline than radio and TV has ever done. With the demographics clear to see that the majority of young individuals spending more time on social media, it does not need a rocket scientist to see where we are headed. Understanding this means you understand where your business is supposed to go and that is to the people.

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My Twitter Spaces journey

Now I have been on Clubhouse but Twitter Spaces has stolen my heart. When I joined Clubhouse, it was through the noise that had filtered through my social media platforms. I quickly moved from Android to IOS just so I could experiment with a new social media audio only platform and in a few days into it, I was quickly overwhelmed and frustrated. Before I knew it, for the very first time in my life, I was rescued by a few tweets.

I think Clubhouse is great, there is so much to be done there. For me, it was the idea of starting all over again, having to wait to get an invitation and the daunting task (to some) meeting new people where the only other connection other than on Clubhouse was Instagram. There was a disconnect. I was on Instagram but not as very active because of the demands of photography and video were too much for me and although it was quite nice to talk to strangers at first, mostly they remained that after a few days, strangers.

It did not hit all the right spots for me, I needed to be able to more than speak to strangers but something more. I never knew what it was and during that time I was happy to keep on going. One thing that i am extremely thankful for Clubhouse is the pioneering effort into the audio social space and how much I learnt in the very few weeks after I got an invite to join.

I was in and out of rooms, followed all the right people and even had time to laugh and fool around in other rooms but I was missing something, I didn't know what it until I joined a Twitter Space one day.

It was as if I had struck gold. As a podcaster, I have always been searching for the perfect way to market my podcast. The question is always, how can make this podcast successful? How can I make money out of it? So many things I have been asking myself ever since I started in January of 2021. Right there and then I felt like I had found the answer. I mean Clubhouse "sort of" looked like it had provided me with one but Twitter provided the full answer!

I was sold! And even though Twitter Spaces is still on Beta version, I grabbed onto it as if it was my life and ever since then I never looked back.

The first thing I had to do was to learn how to get on it, use it and gain from it. As it was Beta, I had to ask a host who had the ability to start a space on how to go about it. She was kind enough to give me the 411 on it and I followed it to the tee. I spent days joining a lot of spaces, speaking, sending feedback to Twitter on issues and eventually sent out a couple of tweets on how I would love to become a Twitter Spaces Host.

I felt like I had done enough, after a couple of weeks of my activity in spaces and indeed it was. As fate would have it, one afternoon as I was about to tweet something, I realised that I had received an update on my application and I could now host a space.

So fast forward to now, I teamed up with an old friend and we started a space called The 6am Club, Wake Up Africa where we discuss on African issues as they come up on a daily basis. News filters in from all parts of the continent from willing participants and we discuss on topical issues curated by the producers.

The beauty of Twitter Spaces as opposed to my CH experience is that I was given a chance to engage with an audience even in Trial version. I have been able to grow with the platform, enduring crushes, bugs, low attendances and having the greatest experience of opening lines of communication with developers and engineers from Twitter. As a growing relationship, there have been bad days but the most it has been a great experience with a ready to learn and experiment audience who find themselves on the platform.

If you haven't joined a Twitter Space in the past, now is your time for you to discover the endless possibilities of having grown man conversations with people that vibe with you.

Here is a link to a part-conversation on "Men and their feelings" which was held on #The6amClub #WakeUpAfrica space on Twitter.

Click the picture below to listen in.