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Tech Tuesday

Tech Tuesday!

We are all aware of the main social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram…. the younger ones amongst us… Tik Tok, Snapchat, etc… Let’s be honest, there’s a fair few. But there’s one that’s taking the world by storm!

Clubhouse.

So imagine, in the real world, you’re at a conference. It’s a conference that has several rooms, several speakers. You look at the agenda, and highlight what interests you. You then go to the room, sit in the room and listen to the speaker(s). When you want to leave, you leave quietly, and you can join another room – where they may be talking about another interest of yours – and you sit there and listen to the speakers.

Now… Clubhouse, has all this… on an app. You can connect and follow people who you think are interesting, and when they start a room – you’ll be notified. And off course, people can follow you!

You can even create your own room! Have people join. Talk about what you want! You can make it private or keep it open for others to join.

I’ve been using it for a while. And I have to admit. I love it. I think it’s great. I’ve had my own room (where a few of us talked about football – in particular Nottingham Forest). I’ve joined lots of rooms, and listened – and like most things, some were good, some… not so.

On iOS only for the moment – but i’m sure they’ll be bringing it out on Android soon. Oh.. and you need to be invited. That’s right – it’s invite only… But when you sign up and wait – if people on the platform know you, then they can ‘let you in’. In addition, you get two invites to invite your friends!

Why is clubhouse so important?

  1. It’s all audio! – so you can carry on with your normal tasks, plug in your headphones – and off you go. The rise of podcasts has shown that more and more people are wanting to listen.
  2. Clubhouse says they do not record and store. So the room you create, the room you talk in… none of that conversation is stored so you can listen to it later. It’s all ‘real-time’. Like a real conference, where you’d listen to a person live… it’s exactly like that.

There are some watch outs though… whilst Clubhouse say they don’t record anything, some security folk found that they they will capture some of your personal data and information. So like all social media platforms, enjoy… (but be conscious of who’s watching.. or in this case, listening!)

Categories
Tech Tuesday

Tech Tuesday!

So recently, on my Instagram – I shared how I was annoyed about a post that AutoTrader had put up from their Twitter Acount.

AutoTrader – the UK’s largest automotive marketplace. I bought my recent car via AutoTrader! It used to sell it in paper form.. then with the introduction of the internet, it moved online… (app is available via App Store etc…), and promotes itself via social media.

62,000 followers on Twitter (Joined January 2009).

57,000 followers on Instagram (with over 2,211 posts).

359,000 followers on Facebook.

On the social media channels – they review cars, provide advice, etc..

So Bal, what’s your problem with them?

Well… they posted the below on Twitter…

Whilst I love the idea of a poll and seeing which car is better…. my annoyance was around the way to respond.

Firstly… I see the heart. So if I’m an Audi fan, then fine – I click the heart. BUT… if I’m a BMW fan… where’s the thumbs up? – do this mean I have to go into the comments and do a thumbs up? So… all of a sudden, I need to interact with the post, I need to comment, I need to make my vote count… IF I’m a BMW fan.

Facebook is the social media platform that has a ‘thumb’ for liking an image.

Now… this was shared by AutoTrader… but via a platform called Socialbakers. Basically, you can schedule posts and articles – and then platforms such as Socialbakers will publish them out at times when activity is at it’s peak…. allowing more people to view and engage.

It comes down to user experience.

In this day and age – when I can, click twice in amazon and have an item sent to my house, the experience for engagement should be quick, easy and simple!

So, whatever you do… wherever you do it… just think of who’s going to interact with it. Who’s going to do something with it! It’s the value someone will get out of it. There’s so much competition for eyes to be on your post – let’s be honest, firstly, there’s so many social media platforms. Then there’s so many posts… information, etc… how can you cut above everyone and have eyes on your post? – I won’t go into making good content… but key thing is ensuring it’s simple to read, simple to engage with… and simple to react to!