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In a moment where no one was going much of anywhere, Authenticated Ventures’ James Andrews was traveling the world from the confines of an app.
“Clubhouse became my LAX,” Adweek’s Creative Visionary of the Year told Chief Innovation Officer Toby Daniels during their Social Media Week session, “Building Brands at the Speed of Culture. “I was able to 10x my relationships in the UAE, I have relationships blossoming in South America, and now I’m back at events IRL [in LA]”. Of the opportunity to bring his connector skills back into physical spaces, he said, “It’s great to see people that you’ve been talking to on Clubhouse for so long.” His experience amassing a multimillion follower audience on Clubhouse is impressive and exciting, but for him, the operative force shouldn’t be audience, but instead “community.”
‘A New Platform Is Like Candy to Me‘
For most of us, Clubhouse emerged as a social audio tool designed to bring people together in a moment where physical gathering was dangerous and therefore impossible. But Andrews had had the opportunity to get in on the ground floor and applied lessons that he learned building community on platforms like MySpace, Facebook, and Slack. An unlikely source of inspiration? His time deejaying. “Being a good moderator is like being a deejay of culture. When done well, a moderator can look into the crowd, bring people into the conversation, [and] create room and space and dialogue.”
With that sense of command over the audience in mind, he sees Clubhouse as a space where creators could—and should— thrive. Drawing on his time working with Nike, he adapted Bill Bowerman’s “if you have a body, you’re an athlete” mindset for creators: “if you have an imagination, you’re a creator.” Creators’ capacity to develop content that speaks to an audience, foster community among fans, and engender trust are all powerful tools—and ones that social audio is poised to take on in unique ways.
‘It’s the First Inning of a Huge New Category‘
Clubhouse has sparked competition from tools like Fireside, Twitter Spaces, and Facebook Live Audio Rooms—but for Andrews, the precise platform is secondary to the power of the mechanism they enable.
When asked about the benefit that social audio has over other mediums like podcasting or video, Andrews said: “Audio, which doesn’t require making sure that your face is touched up, that you look right—that you look the part—actually allows for real expertise, [a] real opportunity for someone to share what they do.”
And audio, when useful and well-informed, further engenders the trust that makes creators and influencers so successful. “Trust is going to be the most important thing when we break the bonds of the metaverse,” he added.
From Clubhouse Rooms to IRL Rooms
Worries have already started to swirl about the future of social audio when “real” rooms are open to us again. Andrews identifies the moment we’re in now, through to the fall, as phase one of this hybrid experiment with social audio, joking, “I think people will go to the opening of an envelope at this point.” But phase two, which will extend from the fall forward, will present a wonderful opportunity for creators and moderators to take their skills—and audiences—out into the world, to translate audiences into communities.
“There’s this tsunami coming [..] of brands having to behave differently,” Andrews said of companies that choose to harness the collective opportunity of digital placemaking and IRL community. But it will take bravery in stepping away from our traditional notions about social media, and acceptance of the waves of change on the horizon, he argued. “Brands have to throw away some of the ways that they’ve thought about controlling the conversation and allow for [it] to unfold in a way that probably feels a little scary,” he added.
But when that risk happens? By Andrews’ estimation, it pays off. “Those of us that are the great experimenters will always have a place,” he said.