Monday’s Marketing Minute: Clubhouse to Launch Creator Accelerator Program, Facebook to Enter Social Audio Space

Happy Monday! Welcome to the first full week of Spring! I hope you have a busy and prosperous week ahead, here’s some digital and marketing stories I noticed the last few days:

So two of the biggest questions everyone is asking about Clubhouse are “Is it going to last?’ and ‘Will it be acquired?” We may have gotten a hint at the answers to both when Clubhouse recently announced it’s Creator Accelerator Program. I absolutely love this idea. What Clubhouse is going to do, is take a select number of its room hosts, and give them the tools and support they need to accelerate the growth of their rooms and clubs. Everything from audio equipment to working with brands to secure sponsorships and speakers, to compensation. Moves like this will absolutely drive loyalty for Clubhouse, and it’s not lost on me that other social media sites could have made similar moves to support its content creators in those early years, and didn’t. This will resonate with users and could signal that Clubhouse is building something that will last, and that the founders want to keep as a standalone platform.

PS: I talked in-depth about the current ‘creator economy’ that we are entering in last Friday’s issue of my Backstage Pass newsletter. If you want to subscribe, click here!

https://twitter.com/joinClubhouse/status/1373680825049391105

After some speculation that Facebook might want to acquire Clubhouse, it now seems that ‘The Social Network’ is planning on building its own social audio functionality into its platform. Now, going back to what we just discussed with Clubhouse’s Creator Accelerator Program, consider that Facebook wants to give you the ability to create a similar Clubhouse-style room, on Facebook. If you are a Clubhouse user who has a room and/or club on Clubhouse, and you are in Clubhouse’s Creator Accelerator Program, will you now be interested in also building a new social audio community on Facebook?  Probably not. You would probably devote your time to building your platform on Clubhouse, especially since Clubhouse would be using its Creator Accelerator Program to support your growth. This is an important point: Facebook and Twitter can copy the social audio functionality. but if Clubhouse is doing a better job of SUPPORTING its creators, guess who will likely win?

Facebook looks set to enter the audio social race https://t.co/orp830dAT0

— Social Media Today (@socialmedia2day) March 22, 2021

This really seems like a bad idea waiting to happen.  Facebook is considering a version of Instagram just for kids under 13. Instagram blocks kids under 13 from using its site, but the site also notes that some kids are able to get on the site anyway. So the rationale is, let’s make it easier for them to get on, but only have them interact with other kids their ages, and not adults. Parents and privacy groups will be watching this story very closely, as they should.

Would this be a good move? https://t.co/2dZ8CJSMiy

— Social Media Today (@socialmedia2day) March 22, 2021

So that’s this Monday’s Marketing Minute. I hope you have a wonderful week, be sure to check out #ContentCircus tomorrow night on Twitter starting at 7pm Central, and look for Backstage Pass to hit your email this Friday morning (if you are subscribed!). And I’m thinking there will be another post up here either tomorrow or Weds, so keep an eye out for that as well!