Many clients I work with ask for innovation. Clubhouse, a new entrant into the emerging channel of social audio presents an opportunity for brands wanting to lead. Taking advantage of existing models of patient and physician engagement, social audio is a logical next step and one that easily cuts through the noise of video conferencing and webinars.
Clubhouse has captured the attention of technologist and social media influencers. An ephemeral, voice-only platform launched late in 2020 that allows members to create a “room” and have a monologue, share a discussion, or invite room attendees to raise their hand to participate.
Clubhouse is leading a new genre of social network called Social Audio. This new variant of social media is a community-based social interaction that is based on audio-presentation or voice-based meet-ups, usually in real-time.
The platforms are timely allowing members to “come as you are” given it’s voice-only mechanics and a nuanced. But refreshing twist of the Zoom and Teams fatigue we all feel. Although Clubhouse is focused solely on social audio, large players like Twitter and LinkedIn are introducing their own variants on Clubhouse.
Using Clubhouse, I am conflicted: cautious that the platform is a response to our video-based social experiences and gently bent variation of many other platforms. I am also wildly inspired by the opportunity that it can provide to healthcare and wellness brands.
Interestingly, Clubhouse’s community and being voice-based makes it so intimate and allows such a unique kind of connection it is disarming. It is this part of the experience that I think makes it ideally suited for patient-support and peer-to-peer experience sharing.
What I am draw to very specifically is that the moderation (requiring that audiences “raise their hands”) and the nature of speaking to the subject really establishes the speaker as the leader without deprecating the peer-like accessibility of social media.
Clubhouse (and social audio) hit a sweet-spot for healthcare brands with a more mature audience. eMarketer1 reports that 41% of US adults 35-54 years of age1 have listened to live-streamed audio content. For 25-34 year olds the group decreases to 31%. These figures are growing and figures are more aggressive in smaller interest-based cohorts.
I can very-much imagine Clubhouse a platform for hosted exchanges between patients, caregivers, and patients sharing the same challenges. I can also see a huge opportunity to add clinical expertise to these dialogues where physicians influencers and patient influencers can come together to discuss the science, treatment challenges, and experiences of patients and caregivers.
These are applications that are easy to imagine, but Clubhouse has inertia with over 10 million registered users as of February 20212. The moderation tools are ideal for a pilot program or patient education campaign. There is also ample need to activate patient influencers and challenge the typical approachability issues healthcare brands face.
This is the moment to innovate and move into a new channel using many of the tactics already familiar to brands. Social audio can help connect patients with resources that they need and will have meaningful connection to.
1eMarketer perspective on clubhouse
2BackLinko clubhouse user stats