Webinar Recap: Cause Marketing and Strategic Philanthropy – A Differentiator in a Competitive Market – with Darren Sudman, Unless Agency, and Melissa Margis Kapur

Webinar Recap: Cause Marketing and Strategic Philanthropy – A Differentiator in a Competitive Market – with Darren Sudman, Unless Agency, and Melissa Margis Kapur

by | Jul 20, 2021 | Business & Marketing Strategy, Events, Insights

Webinar Recap: Cause Marketing and Strategic Philanthropy – A Differentiator in a Competitive Market – with Darren Sudman, Unless Agency, and Melissa Margis Kapur

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Humans are driven by feelings. So, if you want the consumer to remember your product or brand, they must be engaged and impassioned by the interaction with your company.

Gerald Zaltman

Professor of Business Administration Emeritus at the Harvard Business School; Executive Committee of Harvard University's Mind, Brain, and Behavior Interfaculty Initiative

In our post-pandemic world, companies of all sizes are navigating three key business challenges:

  • Rising customer expectations. 60% of customers prefer to buy from purpose-driven brands. 64% of consumers would buy or boycott a brand solely because of its social or political positioning
  • Employee turnover and retention. 71% of employees feel disconnected from their work, and 60% are open to a new job. Turnover costs the U.S. economy $30.5 billion per year.
  • Hyper-competitive marketplace. Brands are struggling to find a key differentiator, stay relevant, and ultimately drive business growth.

Many companies have turned to philanthropy and cause marketing, as they’ve proven to not only benefit communities, but also create better working environments, create a strong sense of collective purpose that drives employee satisfaction, and increase profits.

However, some brands have fallen short, often lacking strategy, intentionality, and authenticity.

Last week, &Marketing’s Community Relations and Philanthropic Lead, Melissa Margis Kapur, and Darren Sudman, CEO of Unless Agency, co-led an interactive webinar and Q&A exploring:

  • The whys and hows of cause marketing programs for small and medium-sized businesses (especially in today’s hyper-sensitive social marketplace)
  • The dos and donts of cause marketing, and how to ensure your cause fits your mission and the values of your customers
  • Ways to execute a cause marketing program with a limited budget
  • How to creatively tie-in public relations and social media to tell your story about your cause marketing program
  • Examples of executed successful campaigns

If you were unable to join the webinar live, we encourage you to check out the free recording at the link below!

 

Watch the Replay of the Cause Marketing Webinar
About the Speakers

 

Darren Sudman

Darren Sudman is founder and CEO of Unless Agency, a Philadelphia-based entity helping companies imagine and implement cause marketing campaigns. This endeavor is the culmination of a professional journey and personal tragedy. Darren began his career as a lawyer in 1995. In 2000, he joined the business unit at America Online (AOL) and, through the Helping Hands Initiative, saw what happened when a company embraced philanthropy. Later, Darren would help design and implement a cause marketing campaign at Advanta, which encouraged small business credit card holders to support entrepreneurs around the world by offering a match.

In 2012, Darren’s career path took a sharp turn. A few years earlier, his three month old son died, suddenly and unexpectedly. He and his wife co-founded Simon’s Heart, an organization to prevent sudden cardiac arrest and death in children, teens and young adults. After running it on nights and weekends for seven years, he assumed the role of Executive Director, where he created innovative and lifesaving initiatives, including cause marketing campaigns with The Philadelphia Flyers, Wheels Up, Speedo and Scrub Daddy.

Now, through Unless, Darren leverages his passion, purpose, and creativity for the benefit of other companies.

Melissa Margis Kapur

Melissa Kapur is the Community Relations & Philanthropy Lead at &Marketing. With a background in promotions, public relations and marketing, Melissa has been working on community-based marketing programs for 25 years. Her career has spanned small businesses, non-profits, and food retailers and manufacturers. Her specialty is crafting marketing events and public relations programs on a small budget.

About Unless Agency

Unless is a creative agency developed exclusively to connect companies and causes in a meaningful way through cause marketing, focused philanthropy, and mission building. We find a cause that aligns with your company, and then create a partnership that will differentiate you from the competition, and attract and retain the best talent.

About &Marketing U

&Marketing U is a modern marketing course for busy solopreneurs and one-person marketing departments. This course provides all of the marketing tools, education, and accountability you need to grow your business, all in one place and for a fraction of the cost of hiring an agency or new employees.

 About &Marketing

In today’s fast paced world, many growing businesses are struggling to modernize their marketing approaches because either they don’t have the expertise or the bandwidth to do it themselves.

&Marketing provides seasoned marketing strategy professionals and a nimble execution team to help our clients achieve their goals. Our unique partnership model allows us to augment our client’s existing teams or outsource the entire marketing function in an affordable, flexible, and transparent way.

Sending LinkedIn Invites to Strangers: Is There Protocol?

Sending LinkedIn Invites to Strangers: Is There Protocol?

by | Jul 9, 2021 | Business & Marketing Strategy, Insights

Sending LinkedIn Invites to Strangers: Is There Protocol?

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The pandemic has forever changed how people network, with digital networking becoming mainstream. And nowhere has this been more prevalent than on LinkedIn. LinkedIn’s usage soared through the pandemic, with a 31% increase in engagement and 19% increased revenue over the past year. Gone are the days where LinkedIn was only for ‘finding a job’ and you only connected with people you know in real life.

We’ve all faced a situation like this on LinkedIn: You encounter someone on LinkedIn and you want to connect with them. Maybe they posted something you identified with or you share a similar position in your industry. Maybe they’re a potential prospect and you want to build a digital relationship. In any case, you want to connect with this person that you haven’t actually met.

However, you don’t want to just ‘reach out’ given the amount of SPAM or overly “salesly” message requests we’re bombarded with on a regular basis. It’s understandable for people to be wary of a request from an unknown person.

How do you create a LinkedIn invite for a virtual stranger?

Since there’s no hard-and-fast rule of etiquette surrounding these types of requests, we went straight to the source by asking our own contacts through a LinkedIn poll, and the results were quite revealing!

Overall, we found that about one-third of people will either accept every invite, or not accept an invite from someone they don’t know.

Under what conditions do you accept LinkedIn invites from people you don’t know?

  • 20% NEVER accept unsolicited requests
  • 68% accept some
  • 12% ACCEPT all invites

This leaves about ⅔ of people in the “gray zone,” that space where there is no black or white answer and it really depends on several factors. Some people prefer a tight network of close contacts and to avoid strangers online, while others prefer to explore new contacts and discover the unknown potential networks in their industry.

After reviewing the 150+ comments, we created some guidelines when approaching your next potential LinkedIn contact:

1) Always customize the invite (and don’t use AI!)

Many respondents said that they wouldn’t accept invites from those who didn’t customize their invites with a message to make the benefit of connecting clear. So, take a few moments to customize your message to make the benefits of connection with you clear. Is it a common industry or geography? Common LinkedIn connections? A common former employer or university?

And besides being explicitly against LinkedIn’s terms of use, many users feel they know when automation is being used to automatically send invites.

I’m highly filtered for whom I let in, if I haven’t interacted/met them. I first look to see if they wrote me an actual message addressed to me personally, that’s relevant. If not – and I don’t actually know them – decline. If you can’t take the time to address why you’re asking to connect with me, it’s pretty straightforward that I don’t know you anyway.

Jeff Fryer

I only connect with people who send me a personalized note (it’s pretty easy to tell the generic AI invites). I’m not looking for followers – I actually know (or had at least a few conversations with) every one of my LinkedIn connections. They are my network, my collaborators, my team.

Merrill Loechner, Storyteller

If we know people in common, or send me a personal, not automated, message I accept them.

Helen Passfield , Business owner

2) Make the benefit of connecting clear to the receiver

“It’s not about you!”

Nobody wants a spammy sales pitch as part of the invite, so avoid the “unsolicited sales pitch” at all costs. Look from the perspective of the receiver and build a benefit into your message. If accepting the contact means you can both broaden your knowledge in your field or offer a new perspective on a situation or process, you are likely to have more success in getting new contacts. Any worthwhile relationship takes two to make the connection worthwhile. While you want to ensure you will benefit from adding the contact, let them know how they can benefit from a connection. If it appears a mutually beneficial relationship can develop from an unknown contact, many agree it’s worth saying yes.

A critical element for me is threefold. Will it create a business or learning opportunity, provide welcome insight and different perspectives, or widen my network to better business outcomes and untapped opportunities. Relevance, as mentioned above, is the key driver.

Dana Lupton

I go back and forth on this. For the most part…I accept. I think it makes sense to connect with others as much as possible and to provide value to them via that connection. If I can make a referral or connection where and when that makes sense…then it is a win for everyone. But recognizing bandwidth has its limitations is practical.” 

Drew Griffin

3) Make sure the connection is relevant – common interests or connections

Another major benefit of making a request on a social network versus an in-person connection is the opportunity to do some research. Many respondents concluded that if the contact is a stranger and yet seems like a good match, some initial research can help with the decision to accept or decline. Many specifically said that they would accept invites if the person has common LinkedIn connections

I think it depends on the strength of those connections. If the mutual connections are strong, then I wouldn’t hesitate to accept and reach out to set up a one-on-one. If those connections are weak, I may pause. My ultimate goal with LinkedIn is to develop professional relationships that I can lean on if need be. That reminds me that it might be time to prune my connections a bit.

Eric Knoblauch, Financial Analyst

If they put a personalized message explaining what they are looking for or how we may work together, I’m likely to respond favorably. Because LinkedIn is primarily a business tool for me, I try to make connections with people that are going to help my business. Granted, networking is all about who you know, so even people involved in different industries may get me a connection to a potential customer, but I have to figure out that balance. Our customer base is primarily in North America, so typically I will not accept requests from connections outside of that area.

Maryn Elliott

Sales Representative at Elliott Company

I accept the request if we are in the same industry or have mutual connections.

Olivia Martinez

I will accept if the individual is connected to several current contacts.

Tracey Woomer

If you’re still unclear on where you stand in networking, especially in the Post-COVID business environment, consider researching the importance of relationship marketing post pandemic.

4) Make sure your own profile is updated!

Many respondents will do their own research when reviewing an invite and deciding whether or not to accept it. So, make sure your profile is updated and reflects genuinely on your position and goals. Many believe that creating a virtual team of contacts from whom they can learn can be a valuable opportunity to make an impact or even just provide a better understanding of issues at play.

I look for relevance, a genuine aspect of their approach, common connections that validate them and some way we can each win from connection. Sometimes it’s business opportunity, sometimes partnership, sometimes learning and lately…it could be about aligned missions (ie, fighting for the event industry’s optimization of engagement and value). Without relevance at all, I will decline an invite.

Beck Wentz

I check out their profile before accepting. What I look for are number of connections (500+), people we have in common, and what they do. The only exception is my students. I always accept them!

Orly Zeewy

5) Interact with those you invite if they ask questions!

Some of our respondents specifically reach out to those who have sent them in invite who they don’t know. If this happens, always follow up!

If the invitation does not include a note, and I think that the connection may be useful for both, I answer asking for the purpose of the invitation. Only 10% of the cases o receive an answer. No answer in 7 days, I decline and block the person. If I receive an answer, I analyze if I make another question or I politely decline.

Pablo Lewin

Sometimes I ask them why out of millions of people they wanted to connect with me, when we can easily follow people we find interesting. I do not connect with everyone, but I do always research who they are and how I could add value to their lives.

Harriet Stein

 

Final Thoughts 

Remember: LinkedIn can be a powerful tool, but until you fully realize how to leverage it, you may need to spend some time learning how to best grow and develop a network.

Sometimes, no matter what you do, you may still get your invitation declined. The times to say no to an unknown contact are broadly personal. Some prefer to keep their contacts limited to their own industry, while others are hesitant to accept offers from anyone unknown in anticipation of sales pitches and unsolicited headhunters.

To summarize, it’s always a good approach to send a brief introduction with a LinkedIn request to someone you haven’t met to clearly show them the benefit of connecting with you. Identify mutual benefits of connecting, the relevance of your connection, and any mutual alignments. And always have your LinkedIn profile updated!

Is your business interested in learning more about leveraging LinkedIn to drive business? Download our ebook, “Powerful tips to increase and engage your LinkedIn company page followers” or contact us directly for an evaluation on how you can best utilize social media in your business.

Download the eBook
About Rajat Kapur

Rajat “Raj” Kapur is the founder and Managing Director of &Marketing. He strives to provide growing businesses of all sizes unparalleled marketing strategy and execution services. Raj brings two decades of professional experience in marketing, sales, and strategy development experience spanning B2B and B2C Fortune 50, mid-sized, and startups.

Ann Ehinger is a Marketing Manager at &Marketing. She serves as the link between clients and creative to drive projects that deliver results. With over a decade of experience working in the non-profit, technology, and agency space, Ann is adept at managing a project from idea to completion while navigating all the ups and downs that pop up in between.

 About &Marketing

In today’s fast paced world, many growing businesses are struggling to modernize their marketing approaches because either they don’t have the expertise or the bandwidth to do it themselves.

&Marketing provides seasoned marketing strategy professionals and a nimble execution team to help our clients achieve their goals. Our unique partnership model allows us to augment our client’s existing teams or outsource the entire marketing function in an affordable, flexible, and transparent way.

Leveraging Marketing Tech to Streamline Your Marketing Just Got Easier – With &Marketing U

Leveraging Marketing Tech to Streamline Your Marketing Just Got Easier – With &Marketing U

by | Jul 7, 2021 | Business & Marketing Strategy, Events, Insights

Leveraging Marketing Tech to Streamline Your Marketing Just Got Easier – With &Marketing U

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As you grow your business, it’s likely one thing has become clear — you need a strong digital presence and marketing strategy that works for you and doesn’t take a ton of time and energy away from you. After all, you need to be able to focus on what you’re good at.

On the surface, having an online presence and a process for attracting and converting new customers might seem simple. But when you dig a little deeper, the overwhelm sets in and you start asking yourself…

  • What’s the difference between a web host and a website builder?
  • What’s a CRM?
  • How do I keep track of all of my leads?
  • How can I make emailing everyone on my list easier?
  • Is there an easier way to follow up with people who are interested in my offer?

Whether you have a website you love and are looking to up your game in other areas of tech, or you just started going digital and have no idea where to begin, be on the lookout for these traps that are easy to fall into.

  1. Choosing the wrong website platform.It’s hard to tell the difference between them all, but depending on what your business goals are and how you plan on using your company’s website, a wrong decision here can make everything else much harder.
  2. Not implementing a CRM when you need it.A CRM, or Customer Relationship Management software, makes building and nurturing relationships with your ideal audience easier. You might think you don’t need one if you’re a small shop, but if you don’t put this in place before your leads get hard to manage, you’re in for trouble.
  3. Not automating some of your emails.You might think you can keep up with your standard newsletter, welcoming new people to your list, follow-ups for form fill outs, etc. without automating anything because it feels less personal. But there’s a way to set it up so that it feels authentic and allows you to stay connected with people without those emails getting lost in your to-do list.
  4. Leaving other helpful tools on the table. High converting landing pages, call tracking software, web form integration tools — all of these might sound foreign to you, but if you write them off before you understand them you’re bound to regret it later.

If this all sounds familiar, don’t worry. You’re not alone. The good news is that with the right education and setup, you can:

  1. Select the website builder that’s best for your business. No more wondering if you should have chosen WordPress over Squarespace.
  2. Understand if you need a CRM and what you need it to do.There are standalone systems and platforms, these aren’t one-size fits all softwares and we can show you how to make the right decision for you.
  3. Set up email automation that feels authentic and makes your lead nurturing easier. All email service providers (ESPs) are not created equally, and you don’t always need all the bells and whistles.
  4. Feel confident you’re leveraging all the tech available to help you grow your business.From CallRail to Zapier, be informed enough to know if you need it.

Sound like something you’d like to implement? Our &Marketing U team is ready to show you how.

 About &Marketing

In today’s fast paced world, many growing businesses are struggling to modernize their marketing approaches because either they don’t have the expertise or the bandwidth to do it themselves.

&Marketing provides seasoned marketing strategy professionals and a nimble execution team to help our clients achieve their goals. Our unique partnership model allows us to augment our client’s existing teams or outsource the entire marketing function in an affordable, flexible, and transparent way.

Growing Your Business Through Social Media and Paid Ads Just Got Simpler With &Marketing U

Growing Your Business Through Social Media and Paid Ads Just Got Simpler With &Marketing U

by | Jun 7, 2021 | Business & Marketing Strategy, Insights

Growing Your Business Through Social Media and Paid Ads Just Got Simpler With &Marketing U

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As we begin to shift our mindset toward a post-pandemic world, it’s becoming clear that the pivot to relying more heavily on digital marketing efforts is here to stay. Leveraging online tactics like organic social media and paid ads to build awareness, drive customer engagement, and generate sales can feel paralyzing and overwhelming to those with a small team and a tight budget.

On the surface, organic social and paid ads might feel simple — you show up, show off what you have to offer, and let the sales roll in, right? But if you’ve tried these tactics, you know it’s not that simple. It’s likely you’ve fallen into one of five traps.

 

5 Mistakes Marketers Make With Social Media and Paid Ads

  1. Posting ad-hoc whenever the inspiration strikes. Sometimes you post four times a week, but other times you don’t post for four weeks because you have nothing to say, or you get too busy.
  2. Not knowing what to post at all. Inspiration strikes at 3 AM instead of 3 PM — inconvenient right? You have written 100 blogs, taught webinars, have a robust website, and sent killer emails, but when it comes down to creating a social media post, you’re out of ideas.
  3. Posting and promoting content and then walking away from it. Social media posts aren’t meant to be mic drop moments, they’re conversations. You put so much hard work into a value driven social post with great content, but there’s no engagement. You need conversation, not crickets.
  4. Posting and promoting content without a clear strategy or goal. You know you’re supposed to share on social media and grow your following. You know Facebook ads, LinkedIn ads, and Google ads work for a lot of businesses. But you don’t know how to make them work for you.
  5. Not taking the time to listen, learn, and optimize your paid ad performance. You know you’re supposed to measure your performance and ROI, but you don’t do it well enough.

If this all sounds familiar, don’t worry. You’re not alone. The good news is that with the right upfront planning, and just an hour or so per week, you can:

  1. Generate plenty of (or enough) content ideas. No more racking your brain trying to figure out what to say on social media.
  2. Create a strategic posting plan weeks in advance. It’s all about the prepping, planning, and scheduling.
  3. Get your organic content actually seen on platforms like Facebook and Instagram. Hint: engagement and diversification are key.
  4. Leverage LinkedIn Company Pages, Personal Pages, and Groups to generate conversation and gain awareness.More people than ever are using LinkedIn every single day. Don’t miss out.
  5. Use paid ads on Google, LinkedIn, and Facebook to generate more business leads. Paid ads work if you set them up properly and use all of the tools at your disposal. But this is an ROI game, as poorly run ads can be expensive with a low return.

Sound like something you’d like to implement? Our &Marketing U team is ready to show you how.

Join Us June 9th for an Interactive Webinar

Register Here for $1

If the answer is yes, we invite you to join our &Marketing U Community this June for a webinar and coaching sessions! &Marketing coaches and subject matter experts Beth McDonough, Amanda Cook, and Sydney Thomas will cover everything we just mentioned so you can feel empowered to utilize social media and paid aids and stop feeling like it’s yet another thing left undone on your list at the end of the day.

Our theme for June is “Driving Engagement & Increasing Sales with Organic Social Media and Paid Ads.” For just $1, you can join us for this webinar and get access to this digital learning space for an entire month, where like-minded professionals interact and learn how to strategize, plan, and execute a customized marketing strategy.

Register For The Webinar

If you find value in the June webinar, you can maintain your membership after the end of the month for $129/month and have access to:

  • Live webinars
  • Webinar play-backs
  • A backlog of marketing content, best practices, and other resources
  • Homework assignments and oversight to help hold you accountable
  • An online community forum, moderated by our coaches, where you can engage with like-minded people and exchange ideas, challenges, and insights
  • Weekly live group coaching and community hours
Register Here for $1
 About &Marketing

In today’s fast paced world, many growing businesses are struggling to modernize their marketing approaches because either they don’t have the expertise or the bandwidth to do it themselves.

&Marketing provides seasoned marketing strategy professionals and a nimble execution team to help our clients achieve their goals. Our unique partnership model allows us to augment our client’s existing teams or outsource the entire marketing function in an affordable, flexible, and transparent way.

Clubhouse for Marketers: What You Need to Know

Clubhouse for Marketers: What You Need to Know

by | May 3, 2021 | Business & Marketing Strategy, Insights

Clubhouse for Marketers: What You Need to Know

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By this point, you’ve probably heard of Clubhouse. And whether you are a frequent Clubhouse user, or have simply heard the name in passing, it’s common knowledge that this social media platform is quickly becoming the next marketing power tool. As busy business owners and overwhelmed marketers, you might be feeling frustrated over yet another networking tool and social media platform to keep track of and figure out hot to leverage. So we did the legwork of trying to figure out if this new app is actually worth your time, energy, and potentially your dollars.

So What is Clubhouse?

Clubhouse is the latest social media source that’s rapidly rising in popularity. Born through a socially deprived pandemic where people were limiting their in-person interactions, Clubhouse is now taking the internet by storm. In essence, Clubhouse is a place for professionals from all industries to join together and network in real-time.

This unique layout combines popular social media platforms like LinkedIn (giving you the ability to network with like-minded professionals and gain knowledge on navigating your way through your career endeavors), Facebook (providing the opportunity to connect with others around the world and discuss common interests), and Snapchat (after a “session” is over, the conversation is gone forever). It’s a fully interactive audio app that allows you to either listen to or participate in live discussions.

Clubhouse’s purpose is easy to grasp, making it a strong competition as the new kid on the block among established social media platforms. The app is full of various rooms that cover a myriad of topics. As a user, you simply choose the room you want to engage with and enter the chat. Clubhouse is completely auditory, so there are no photos, videos, or live streams. It operates in the way a classroom would, or if a podcast was recorded in front of a live audience. Moderators, or those that form the topics of the “rooms,” are those who control the flow of the conversation. When you “enter a room,” you can choose to listen in on other people chatting, or you can volunteer to “raise your hand.” When you are called on, it’s your turn to give your two cents on the conversation as you have an opportunity to speak on the subject.

Ok, Now What’s the Appeal of Clubhouse for Marketers?

Should Clubhouse continue on the upward trajectory that it seems to be on, it’s likely that it will soon join the ranks of the other top social media sites. And just like LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook, Clubhouse is a great way to advertise your business. Their algorithm allows you to strategically leverage your company and get your business in front of a wider audience of people without a lot of the “pay to play” challenges Facebook and Instagram are known for.

Clubhouse is a great opportunity to gain customer loyalty. With the way Clubhouse is set up, brands can title rooms on relevant topics that pertain to their business while also using it as leverage to get their name out there. The topics you choose and the way you use your brand identity to title and describe them — along with the voices you feature— can go a long way toward making your business recognizable and building loyalty.

Another advantage is that this app is constantly evolving. It started off as a vessel for celebrities and influencers to host conversations related to entertainment, business, and technology. This original idea has quickly evolved into a space for any like-minded professionals to share their thoughts and advice in their given field. Clubhouse also caters to the rising trend for podcasts and the rising demand for audio content. The app capitalizes on the popularity of virtual socialization and provides an opportunity to connect without the burden of screen fatigue.

We wanted to understand what folks in our own networking spaces think about Clubhouse thus far, so our Founder and Managing Director, Rajat Kapur, conducted a poll on LinkedIn to get a feel for other people’s experience so far. You can find all of the feedback here, but below are a couple quotes from those who chimed in:

relationship marketing poll
From a followers standpoint— until you figure out the right people to tune into, it’s hard to tell what’s a waste. Like other platforms, you have to find your tribe. However I think it’s a tad harder here because unless you are following people you are already familiar with, there’s no archive to thumb through ahead of time. So finding your tribe takes a bit of time. I did want to approach it from a leader’s standpoint instead of follower so it took me some time to figure out the angle. I started hosting rooms last week to see where it would take me.
Erica Quigley

From the personal use, I think Clubhouse is a great way to quickly and easily crowdsource some information to build your content using insights from thought leaders outside of your immediate sphere of influence. I also wonder if it is a way to conduct qualitative research that we sometimes struggle to obtain.
Amanda

One last pro to consider. Clubhouse also offers a feature that allows you to connect your other social media platforms. If someone clicks on your icon, they receive links to your Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and any other social site you want to send them to. This adds an extra opportunity for interested clients or customers to see the labor of love you’re putting into other platforms as well — especially if you have a stronger presence on one of those sites.

What Are the Cons of Clubhouse?

The list of pros for marketing your business on Clubhouse are nearly endless, and it’s a great app to capitalize on before others do. However, it’s also important to understand the cons. Since it is still in its beta testing phase, the app still needs to work out quite a few bugs. The most notable example is that Clubhouse can read as an unedited podcast. Since it is live and largely unscripted, participants can say what they want with little to no monitoring from mediators. This has led to problematic conversations and misinformation taking place in certain rooms.

They are also facing tough competition among other top social media sites. Platforms like Twitter and Facebook are toying with the idea of introducing audio features into their sites, which could mean bad news for Clubhouse’s future. But in terms of Clubhouse for marketing, it might be worthwhile to experiment with the platform so you can easily hop on the trend if the feature is adopted by some of the other big players. That way, you’ll already be an auditory marketing expert and ahead of the curve.

At first glance, adding yet another social media platform to your rolodex of apps that you scroll through for hours on end can feel exhausting. But there is a sense of authenticity to Clubhouse that other social media sites aren’t offering. Especially if you are a freelancer or entrepreneur, joining this interactive experience is a chance to network with professionals in your field, and gain invaluable information to help grow awareness of your expertise and build connections.

As with all new apps, it’s easier to gain a following on Clubhouse right now than in any other, more established, social media platform. Being an early adopter definitely has the potential to pay off when an app sticks around. And if it doesn’t, auditory focused marketing most certainly is. So for you it comes down the same thing it always does for all of us — risk versus reward. In this case, the risk is extra time and energy that could be going somewhere else. The choice is yours!

Need extra help trying to decide what social media platforms to invest yourself in this year? Download our 2021 Social Media Playbook to find out where you can score some real points, and where you should take a timeout.

download our 2021 social media playbook
About the Author

Content Manager and Copywriter Beth McDonough brings nearly a decade of professional writing and editing to the team at &Marketing. With extensive experience in an array of fields that range from entertainment publications to a Fortune 500 energy company, Beth has the ability to produce written content that speaks directly to the needs of a breadth of clients and channel their brand personality into a compelling story.

 About &Marketing

In today’s fast paced world, many growing businesses are struggling to modernize their marketing approaches because either they don’t have the expertise or the bandwidth to do it themselves.

&Marketing provides seasoned marketing strategy professionals and a nimble execution team to help our clients achieve their goals. Our unique partnership model allows us to augment our client’s existing teams or outsource the entire marketing function in an affordable, flexible, and transparent way.