These Big Social Media Platforms are Taking on Clubhouse: What Marketers Need to Know

If you've read the news or surfed through social media recently, you've probably heard about the new social media audio app called Clubhouse.


In the last few months, Clubhouse, which allows users to drop in on audio calls as listeners or speakers, has received a $100 million valuation and grown to more than 10 million active users. Now, tech giants like Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn are unsurprisingly building similar features to get in on the chat-streaming action.


If you're feeling deja vu following the competition around Snapchat Stories, and TikTok's musical overlay features, you're not alone.


When a new social media app goes viral, you can almost guarantee that at least one of the social tech giants will test a similar, competitive feature. And, each time this happens, marketers wonder, "Which of these social media channels should I use in my strategy? And, is this trend even worth investing in?"


The good news? Strong competition around a social media trend, like chat streaming, signals that it’s not going away anytime soon and might be worth investing in. So, the only thing you’ll need to figure out is where to experiment with the trend.


Below, I'll give you a breakdown of Clubhouse's four biggest potential competitors, as well as some marketing takeaways to help you determine which platform is right for your brand.


Need to brush up on your Clubhouse knowledge before diving in? Check out this post for a recap of what Clubhouse is and why competitors are trying to get in on the action.


Download Now: Social Media Trends in 2021 [Free Report]

What We Know About Twitter Spaces

Twitter Spaces was softly rolled out to a small group of beta testers in late December and fully launched in May of 2021. The feature, which closely resembles Clubhouse Rooms, allows users with over 600 followers to host a space -- or audio chatroom that anyone on Twitter or just a few pre-selected followers can be invited to.


The Spaces experiment was announced late last year following the success of audio apps like Clubhouse. At that time, Twitter Product Lead, Kayvon Beykpour told TechCrunch, “We think that audio is definitely having a resurgence right now across many digital spaces. … It’ll be fascinating to see how other platforms explore the area as well, but we think it’s a critical one for us, too."


How Twitter Spaces Works

Although Twitter Spaces is still evolving and will roll out more features in the coming months, those who have access to the full feature already can create a Space by holding the post button of their Twitter app and choosing the new Spaces icon, or by tapping their Fleets icon and choosing to create a Space instead of a Fleet.


At the moment, when a Space is launched, it's public and can be seen in your followers' Fleets bar, as shown below. In the near future, Twitter says it plans to enable scheduling and room ticket capabilities that allow people to preschedule chats or sell tickets to a private space.


Tiwtter space in nav bar


At the moment, those who launch a Space can invite up to 10 hand-picked speakers. From there, they can adjust who speaks based on who raises their hand and which speakers need to leave early. At the moment, it does not seem like there's a cap on the number of people who can tune in and potentially request to speak. In the future, Twitter plans to expand the feature and allow co-hosting privileges which will allow two users to host and run a space.


When entering the Space, the UX is similar to Clubhouse in that you can see who's speaking and who created the Space before seeing a list of other listeners. You'll also see a down arrow at the top that allows you to minimize, but continue listening to the chat, as well as a "Leave," request to speak, share, and heart icon -- allowing you to signal that you enjoy the discussion.  


Like Clubhouse, users will be muted as they enter the room and will need to get speaking privileges from the Space moderator if they'd like to say something.

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