Explained: Social Audio and Why It’s Useful for Small Businesses
Read this to find out how social audio lets you connect to customers and helps you build your brand online.
Posted 3 months ago
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Guest PostPosted 3 months ago
Small businesses become big businesses by fitting their product and their messaging to their target market, and that’s only possible if they’re talking to customers on a regular basis. There are so many channels social media managers could use for that, but one option your competitors likely aren’t using yet is social audio.
Whether they’re e-commerce retailers or contract management software vendors, small businesses can use social audio to talk directly to customers at scale, as intimately as if they were on a group call together. This is especially useful in B2B, where businesses are often taking customers through a much more detailed sales process than the shop selling someone new shoes.
But what tools are there for social audio, and what’s the best way to get started?
Jump to a section ✨
The benefits of social audio for small businesses 🎉
Social audio is a new field whose benefits might not be clear yet. But the fact that there is less competition on the platform is good news for you. Consider how difficult it is to stand out on crowded networks like Instagram or Facebook. When it comes to more recent services like Clubhouse, Twitter Spaces, and Spotify Greenroom, there’s still all to play for.
Want to learn even more about social audio and how to grow your brand online? Check out our podcast, Talk Social to Me!
More in-depth conversations 🎙
Social audio makes it possible for you and your team to interact with your audience in more subtle ways.
You can only fit so much information in a blog post or an Instagram caption. If you’re talking about cloud security mistakes that businesses should avoid, that’s a detailed technical subject that might require a long read blog. But if you’re in a Facebook audio room or Twitter space, you can talk through that at length, and prospects in the audience can ask you questions at that same moment.
Better, longer engagement 📲
Stronger and more significant connections exist between engaged viewers and their favorite companies. You may boost the possibility that customers will choose your brand over rivals by developing fresh ways for them to interact with your company and team. Additionally, you’ll raise the likelihood that they’ll tell their friends and relations about your brand and your social audio material.
The special benefit that social audio platforms offer is the ability to interact with your audience in real time. Take advantage of this chance to:
- Humanize your brand
- Make your brand seem more approachable
- Invite comments
- Answer customers’ questions about your product or service
More learning opportunities for you and your customers
Last but not least, social audio offers social media managers the chance to understand their audience and discover what they value. Real-time interaction with your audience makes it simpler to establish a connection, discover their preferences, and get suggestions for how to move forward with improving your content and the whole business.
Audience engagement on other channels is becoming more challenging as the algorithm determines the reach of your postings. However, with audio spaces, you know you have the audience’s undivided attention.
How to get started with social audio 🤔
Social media teams must listen and learn what kind of content is already being uploaded on the social audio platforms before they jump in and start posting their own.
Dip your toes into several areas that are important to your company or your target audience, and pay attention to the subjects people are discussing there. To begin establishing connections, think about participating in the talks as well: no hard selling, just speak up when you have something valuable to say.
Set clear business goals ✍️
Depending on your company objectives, the kind of content you intend to share on social audio platforms will vary. Rather than chasing trends, your social audio strategy should closely align with your business’s social media goals and overall strategy.
- Develop thought leadership on the importance of modern communication tech
- Create new leads by discussing their problems with them
- Increase sales by building relationships
- Develop your brand by demonstrating expertise
It’s important to identify a specific goal so that you can later track precise KPIs. Having objectives will also guarantee that audio sessions are focused and don’t just see people hanging around.
Develop a theme and concept
Social audio sessions are live, and like a webinar, you don’t want any surprises at the event. Social media managers need to come up with an editorial concept that will dictate what the company is talking about, what the session structure is, and what the company’s value proposition is going to be.
Will you host one-off events or plan a run of episodes to create a show? Will you prioritize short masterclasses or fireside chats with experts? Knowing your audience will help you generate the right kind of content and afterward choose the platform.
What will you discuss and avoid discussing? What will the topics and themes be? Are your best customers looking for actionable content marketing tips, or do they need high-level startup valuation methods to help raise funds?
Drop-in audio chat differs from other social media in terms of tone and style. Give yourself enough time to develop your brand’s voice in venues like these. Make a structure for your future sessions as well. Everything need not be scripted, but there must be a clear course of action. The hosts of your sessions will benefit from having an overview on hand as well.
You might even consider creating your own “show” by breaking up your social audio approach into a number of episodes you can target to keywords for SEO results.
You must have a strong central idea and good topic “headlines” to be able to promote these ahead of time. Tying them into your other channels where you can, like promoting the talks in blog posts and email signatures, is a great way to funnel people into this emerging medium.
Pick the platform that’s right for you 🤷🏻♀️
It takes a lot of time to create live audio content. Therefore, it’s crucial to choose the platform you’ll be spending time on carefully. When deciding on a platform, consider factors like:
- Demographics: The platform that is most appropriate for you will vary depending on your target demographics.
- Current fans: If you already have a fan base on a social media site like Twitter or Instagram, you can use that to get an advantage.
- Scalability and Accessibility: Consider how many people each platform will let you talk to, and how easy it is to get in. Clubhouse, for example, limits people to 5000 members per room. VoIP-hosted solutions and gateways can make it possible for people to join internet group calls via phone number, a great affordance for businesses that lets teams call in from the meeting room.
Choose the social audio platforms you want to employ for your brand first. You don’t need to have an immediate presence on every site. Pick a handful, nevertheless, that you believe will be most helpful to your audience. Even better, ask them via email or social media to learn which platforms they currently use.
Collaborate with industry experts👯♀️
If you’re searching for a simple approach to increase your audience and encourage more people to listen to your social audio content, think about collaborating with influencers or subject-matter experts. This is easier in B2B than in B2C, as your rockstars in any given niche aren’t exactly household names. People are more likely to want to show up and listen to what you have to say if you let them know they’ll be attending your conversations.
Host your sessions 😎
Once your business objectives have been established, a strong show concept has been developed, and the platform has been chosen, you’re ready to go. Create rooms and spaces to discuss subtopics and organize your headline sessions around the main idea. Every session should have an educational or entertaining goal rather than a hard sell.
Keep an eye on your metrics 👀
As with any other marketing effort, success is determined by end metrics. It’s simple to monitor the results because you have had certain business objectives before launching your audio marketing campaign. Additionally, you can use the audience information gathered to develop more successful strategies for upcoming promotions.
Examine session transcripts to gain insight into the attitudes of your audience. You can learn whether your audience has positive or negative feelings about your good or service by listening to the two-way talks. Pay close attention to the manner in which your audience expresses their ideas.
Building loyalty with social audio 🤗
Since it hasn’t been dominated by big players, social audio is a great opportunity for social media managers to get in front of their most engaged customers. It allows you to find out what your prospects are thinking and develop strong relationships that turn into loyal customers.
Start building your brand loyalty online with Flick! Start your 7-day FREE trial today.
Grace Lau – Director of Growth Content, Dialpad
Grace Lau is the Director of Growth Content at Dialpad, an AI-powered cloud communication platform for better and easier team collaboration and the best small business phone system. She has over 10 years of experience in content writing and strategy. Currently, she is responsible for leading branded and editorial content strategies, partnering with SEO and Ops teams to build and nurture content. Grace has written for domains such as Bizmanualz and UpCity. Here is her LinkedIn.
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