You can have a bad hair day, wear a comfy sports T-shirt, sit on your living room sofa, and be the host of a live event or interview with dozens of listeners worldwide. In short, that’s how Twitter Spaces works.
With the increasing rate of audio streaming platforms, Twitter simply aligned with this trend and tried to make this feature as accessible as possible. Freelancer, start-up, or an established brand, as long as you know what your audience wants to hear, you can push your creativity to the limits and host a Space.
Read below and find out how you can boost your business’s cool factor and authority with Twitter Spaces.
What is Twitter Spaces and How to Get Started
Twitter Spaces is an audio feature that allows you to create live conversations with your followers. If your Twitter profile is already engaging enough and you count a significant number of followers, Spaces is a next level you should consider.
Brands that use Twitter Spaces are automatically viewed as “cool” brands people can trust for a good reason. When company representatives take the time to interact live with their customers, it’s a sign they’re genuinely interested in their thoughts and desires.
Moving on to the technical details, the first thing you need to know is that you can’t hold Spaces on the web browser; this is only possible from the iOS or Android Twitter app.
- Tap on ‘Spaces’ once you’re signed in the app.
- Enter a name for your Spaces.
- Choose a topic from ‘Add Topics’. You can select up to 3 topics.
- The ‘Record Space’ button allows you to record your discussion, so others can hear it later.
- Promote the event by tapping on the ‘Share’ icon. You can also tweet out the link to the live Space when it starts. Additionally, pin the Spaces event to your brand’s profile for more visibility.
- Your Spaces is ready to launch!
- Your device’s microphone will be off by default, so once you go live, make sure to click on ‘Start on your Space’. .
- Adjust ‘Speaker permissions’ to let listeners participate in the conversation.
What you need to know about Twitter Spaces:
Top 5 Benefits of Twitter Spaces
1. Get Instant Feedback From Your Customers
I don’t have to tell you how important customer reviews are. But instead of wild guessing or waiting for customer satisfaction survey’ results to be analyzed, why not organize a Spaces and invite your customers to join?
You’ll instantly know how your customers feel about your product and its features and clearly understand what you should improve.
Tip: Jump in and moderate to ensure it doesn’t turn into an all-negative conversation. Also, try to let as many listeners contribute to the discussion.
2. Announce New Products or Features
If you plan to release new features of your products, Twitter Spaces can work wonders in marketing them. You can explain to your customers how it works, ask them to test these features on the spot, and, again, gather some helpful feedback.
You can even target new audiences besides your customers to get generalized feedback and gain valuable insights on how newbies see your brand.
Tip: If possible, create a partnership with a famous person (expert in the industry) to promote your new product or service launch.
3. Organize a Q&A or AMA (Ask me Anything) Session
These are the fun events that particularly loyal customers are keen to participate. It’s a nice chance for them to discover your company’s human side and get answers to questions they’ve always wanted to ask.
Tip: To avoid awkward silence moments, have an intro speech ready that you can read and prepare some questions you think listeners would have, even if they don’t ask them.
4. Host Interviews with Experts or Be The Expert Yourself
The same way you include expert opinions in an article, with Twitter Spaces you can invite these experts to talk. You offer your customers a more genuine perspective on the industry, but they can also engage in active conversations with these thought leaders.
Sometimes, this industry thought leader might be even you. So, don’t be afraid to provide real-time insights to your customers or even teach them valuable lessons.
Tip: When you’re not the expert, do your best to invite industry specialists you know your audience would love to hear or learn more from.
5. Promote Contests, Sales or Free Giveaways
Contests and free giveaways are still attractive for many audiences. They usually work very well because people share this news with their friends. This will help you increase brand awareness and visibility.
In this case, Twitter Spaces can work exactly like radio contests. You can create rules like “first 20 joiners get a 6-months free subscription”.
Tip: Create some hype around contests or giveaways, tweet about them before they go live, and (optional) try to sync them to a special holiday or event like Christmas or summer holidays.
Industries that Use Spaces to Their Advantage
We’ve noticed that Twitter Spaces makes waves especially among brands from these industries:
Blockchain, NFT, and Anything Related to Web3
It’s already known that people into anything related to crypto, blockchain, or the NFT universe spend a lot of time on Twitter. This is where they’ll find dozens of influencers and get quick updates on what else is new, not to mention the numerous worldwide events.
Blockchain technology and web3 have been around for a while, but their entire philosophy and concepts are still developing. That said, experts in these areas have a lot to share.
Twitter Spaces is perfect for these companies as they can engage with their communities and keep them updated on hot topics in the industry.
Check these examples:
Tech Companies
For these companies, Twitter Spaces is particularly helpful in boosting brand awareness, marketing their products or services, and future releases. Additionally, Spaces offers these companies a simple way to announce promotions, host contests and giveaways for loyal customers. It’s a nice trick to ensure numerous people will join their Spaces.
Most importantly, brands can bond with their customers, know and understand their pain points, and directly ask them for feedback on their products or services. Hosting Q&A sessions are particularly helpful and will encourage users to reach out and speak their mind.
Marketing Companies and Freelancers
There’s probably no single topic in the marketing industry you could ever cease to talk about. And since Twitter is one of marketers’ favorite places to debate and share new ideas, Twitter Spaces only comes to facilitate and add a different twist to this process.
There are plenty of marketers, content writers, and social media specialists out there who prefer to be vocal and not just express their thoughts in writing. Many wanted to start a podcast but didn’t know if it would work; Twitter Spaces offered them the opportunity to test the idea without going through the hassle of setting it up, maybe on a new platform they had never used before.
With Spaces, marketers can have thoughtful conversations, learn from each other’s mistakes, and learn about new marketing strategies they can apply.
Other marketers use Twitter Spaces for the simple purpose of becoming attractive and grabbing new clients.
NGOs and Advocacy Groups
Many NGOs and advocacy groups prefer to keep a low profile and not make a big deal about their activities. Still, some feel the need to reach a wider audience and make their stories and announcements more powerful.
While they continued to share updates, they went beyond tweeting and decided to chat. With Twitter Spaces, they can promote their social campaigns, globally-held initiatives, and events, and this way, mobilize resources, like financial donations, materials, and volunteer labor more effectively.
Listeners can find out how donations are spent or how they can make a positive change to their community in an instant instead of sending an email and waiting for a reply.
Entertainment
When we say entertainment, we’re not referring only to the numerous celebrities who are active on Twitter and seize any occasion (in this case, a new feature) to keep their fans updated on their current and future projects.
There are plenty of gaming companies, media outlets, like newspapers, magazines, or even book authors who use Twitter Spaces to keep their readers engaged or attract new ones.
For writers and journalists, Spaces enables an excellent opportunity to find out what topics their readers are most interested. At the same time, readers can get an inside scoop on journalistic methods or find juicy details not made yet public within Q&A or AMA sessions.
Just a few examples of publishers who leverage Twitter Spaces: The FT, Bloomberg, NPR, The Telegraph, The Washington Post, Wired.
One example from a sports brand:
Regardless of the industry, customers feel heard and valued, not to mention they get to truly know who’s behind a product or service they enjoy.
Conclusion: Social Audio Can Make a Difference for Your Brand
Twitter Spaces will be one of the major focuses of development for Twitter in the future. That only comes to show it’s not a mere temporary buzz. Chances are, Spaces will become more popular among different types of audiences.
So consider testing it out and see how it goes. Once you go on the path with Twitter Spaces and realize it’s a hit, and it brings you benefits, hold sessions consistently and maximize their potential.
In time, you’ll simply enjoy the natural and relaxed vibe of social media chats, regardless of the topic.