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Everyone is talking about Clubhouse but is this a chat app, marketing tool, or a new way to connect reporters and industry experts around the globe? We asked seven journalists for their experiences and thoughts on Clubhouse and the opportunities it held for media relations.

Clubhouse launched in April 2020 as an invitation-only audio chat iPhone app. Through this platform users create and join audio chat rooms to engage in conversations on a huge range of topics from AI to cannabis to meditation, or just listen. While Clubhouse was active from the start, it became a global phenomenon when celebrities and CEOs such as Tiffany Haddish, Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg joined in. Additionally, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn recently announced similar services.

Clubhouse for PR

A year later, Clubhouse has become a learning and educational tool for PR professionals and journalists all over the globe. When I joined a few media-specific rooms, I observed how journalists and publicists openly discuss dos and donts of pitching, cold-calling and messaging via Instagram at the eleventh hour. It is here that PR professionals research, gather insight on upcoming stories and stay on top of the emerging trends. Together with journalists, they explore working with various media outlets and learn how to pitch their story.

PR pros can also expand their knowledge base and identify new opportunities in Clubhouses topic-based rooms, where theyre able to listen to conversations directly or indirectly related to their brand or industry. Within these rooms, PR pros can learn from and engage with reporters, building relationships based on useful information sharing, not a pitch.

For media outlets, the app provides the opportunity for publications to connect with their readers directly and in real time. For example, Insider created its own club of weekly conversations, Insider, in which their journalists cover a variety of topics from influencers to the stock market, and answer audience questions.

To identify exactly how reporters are using Clubhouse, we asked the following seven reporters who are active on Clubhouse for their candid opinions about the app, and offer our media relations takeaways on how PR pros can use the app to increase results:

How Are Journalists Using Clubhouse?

What Are the Pros of using Clubhouse?

What Are the Cons of Using Clubhouse?

Looking ahead: Predictions for Public Relations

Since its launch, Clubhouse has provided new opportunities for media professionals to network all over the globe, find new diverse voices, uncover story ideas, expand the pool of freelancers and meet PR and media professionals without leaving the safety of their homes. After a year of isolation, I think people are looking to connect on a personal level within their field, shared Stefan Blitz.

For PR professionals, the app allows an insiders look in the journalism kitchen to see what journalists are writing about now, what trends are they covering, how they prefer to be pitched to and when. Armed with this information as well as gaining new contacts and re-establishing connections with old ones PR professionals can repurpose knowledge gained on Clubhouse for upcoming campaigns and further advise their teams and clients on how best to utilize the app.

Some companies are already embracing Clubhouse as a marketing tool, using it to complement conferences, thought leadership, webinars and other activities in order to reach participants from anywhere in real time. Clubhouse is probably the best networking platform during COVID. But it's hard to see why people will continue to use it at the same rates as right now once life returns to something that feels more normal, says Elisabeth Buchwald. Personally, I miss going to industry conferences as a reporter. Without a press pass though, it would cost me a lot out-of-pocket to attend. So, I do hope efforts are made to integrate Clubhouse with traditional conferences so more people can partake.

Is Clubhouse the next big social network? It may be. An audio app that allows for real-time networking in a time when audiences are both tired of being on video and craving human engagement, Clubhouse has all the elements for success.

Journalism Communities to Follow on Clubhouse

Thinking about joining Clubhouse as part of your PR initiatives? Our experts suggest following these top media and communications communities:

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A Must Read for PR Pros: 7 Journalists Share Pros and Cons to Using Clubhouse - Business Wire

Born and brought up in Delhi, this young creative social media influencer has been ruling the Internet through his short videos.

By HT Brand Studio

PUBLISHED ON MAY 05, 2021 05:06 PM IST

There is an English proverb saying that hard work beats talent. No amount of talent can take to the ladders of success if you dont grind yourselves hard to reach the top. Everyday is a new day with its own set of challenges and to pursue your dreams, one needs to overcome these challenges. One such amazing journey and story which proves the above proverb is that of Saurav Soni. Born and brought up in Delhi, this young creative social media influencer has topped the charts of the internet through his short videos.

The advent of social media in this generation has been at the pinnacle of everything. People today have their phones, ipads, laptops carrying with them throughout the day. It has become impossible for all us now to make way with it. Many social networking sites have entertained us and have also provided an amazing platform for many influencers to make a living out of it. Saurav Soni too was hesitant like many a millions earlier to make this social media influence an integral part of his life, but the sooner the better, Saurav Soni now enjoys a loyal fan base of more than 17 million. Whoa! That is an achievement in a relatively short period of time.

Saurav Soni is a star of not only lip syncing but also popular on photo sharing apps, Instagram, short videos on iktok, Likee, Helo, Gana, Roposo, zili and many more. With his short creative videos, he made audiences laugh out loud and entertain them to the core with his sheer passion, interest, dedication, and hard work which made his videos go viral within a day.

He pursued his MBA in Event Management and is a proud owner of his own Event Management Agency. This young talent gives an inspiration to the coming youth generation on how you can take advantage of social media to gain popularity and to earn money also, he sets a benchmark of how to use todays technology with his own creativity.

We wish this multi-talented star all the very best for all the future endeavors. Keep inspiring us. His official handle name is Sauravsoniofficial. Also follow him on Instagram @sauravsoniofficial.

Disclaimer: This is a company press release. No HT journalist is involved in creation of this content.

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Meet Saurav Soni: One of the popular Indian social media influencers and stars - Hindustan Times

Facebook is testing a new tool called Neighborhoods in Canada and four US cities.

Facebook is testing a new tool aimed at helping people get to know their neighbors and local communities, taking on social media app Nextdoor.

The world's largest social media website said Wednesday it's rolling out a feature with its mobile app called Neighborhoods in four US cities and Canada. Facebook users have to be at least 18 years old to use the new tool, which will allow people find neighbors who have common interests, discover local groups and businesses, participate in polls along with receiving and offering help to those in their communities.

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The US cities include Charlotte, North Carolina; San Diego, California; Baton Rouge, Louisiana; and Newark, New Jersey. Facebook users already use the social network for these purposes through groups, but Neighborhoods combines all this information in one place.

Using Neighborhoods is optional and users will need to share their location to get matched to a neighborhood. Outside of sharing their Facebook profile information, users can also provide their interests such as skiing and there's also a section to get to know the pets in your neighborhood. People who use the feature could also take on different roles such as a "socializer," "helper" or "welcomer," she said.

"We're not only showing people who lives in their neighborhood but how they relate to them and what these people are interested in and care about," Reid Patton, product manager for Facebook Neighborhoods, said in an interview.

Canadians who already started testing the tool have used the feature to find missing pets, organize hiking trips, make new friends, find a handyman and get baking materials, Patton said.

The new feature, available for both Android and iPhone users, could also create more challenges for Facebook, a platform that is already struggling to moderate the billions of posts that flow through its site. People also might be wary about giving even more data to Facebook, which has faced several privacy scandals.

Facebook is also notorious for copying its competitors but social networking services that focus on neighborhoods such as Nextdoor have also grappled with its own problems such as racial profiling. Facebook will outline guidelines before a user joins Neighborhoods, noting that it wants to keep the online space "inclusive" and "safe," Patton said.

Every neighborhood will also have moderators to make sure people are staying within the guidelines and being kind, she said. Patton said users with accounts that are too new and people who have repeatedly violated the site's rules won't be allowed to use Neighborhoods. She didn't provide more details about the number of violations or how old the accounts have to be.

Users who are eligible to test out Neighborhoods will get a notification and a banner in the Facebook app encouraging them to try it out.

"We're really trying to see how neighborhoods is being used and the value people are getting out of it," Patton said. "We also hope to learn how we can better improve the product."

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Facebook takes on Nextdoor with Neighborhoods tool - CNET

By The Washington Post May 3, 2021

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By Rachel Lerman

It's been a long year full of child care challenges, pet interruptions and Wi-Fi blips for the millions of people across the country who suddenly needed to work from home full-time. And then there's the video calls. So, so many video calls.

Video calls that may have made some people resentful of the FaceTime or Zoom calls that came after-hours to catch up with friends or family or to try to professionally network. Tech companies know there is video fatigue out there.

Their solution? Audio.

Instagram said this week that it would now allow people to turn off their video and mute themselves, during Live Rooms, a feature the social media company launched last month that allows up to four people to chat and live broadcast together. Effectively, that means there could be an audio-only Live Room.

Twitter launched a similar function to some users starting in December, called Spaces, which allows one person to start a live chat room that speakers and participants can join. Facebook said earlier this month that its seeing a "continuing rise of audio" on its apps and is working on audio creation features. Slack said it is testing voice messaging and rooms. Spotify is reportedly hiring 100 people to build out its live audio features, according to Bloomberg.

Even LinkedIn wants in - the professional networking company confirmed to TechCrunch that its testing a social audio feature.

The traditional social media companies' interest in audio follows the breakaway success of audio-only social media app Clubhouse. The app lets people create "rooms" to discuss a certain topic (or just chat), and designate others who join to also speak. It's become popular with artists, Black creators, and techies who want to discuss entrepreneurship or cryptocurrency.

Clubhouse did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the increasingly hot market. The app still has a strong head-start in many ways. Research from Sensor Tower estimates that the app has been downloaded 16.6 million times and the analytics company said there is "strong retention" among Clubhouse users.

Still, it can be hard to compete with the entrenched tech giants that have millions or billions of users already committed to using their apps. And Facebook has faced criticism for copying competitors in the past. Congress grilled CEO Mark Zuckerberg on some of those points last summer.

Facebook's Stories function on both its flagship platform and Instagram is similar to Snapchat's earlier feature. More recently, the company added Reels to Instagram, which critics said appeared to be an answer to video app TikTok.

(Zuckerberg appeared on Clubhouse to talk about the company's competing audio features earlier this month.)

Audio streaming, whether talking or bingeing a podcast or listening to an audiobook, has become a favorite pandemic habit for many people. Listening to audio content is at an all-time high, according to a March report from Edison Research and Triton Digital.

It's easier to multitask while listening to just audio, and people certainly have video fatigue from the past year, said Jamie Gilpin, chief marketing officer of social media analytics company Sprout Social.

"We're seeing some companies create their own social-audio apps, while others are retrofitting their existing offerings to have audio-only features," she said in an email. "This represents a new wave of social media, one that capitalizes on accessible, intimate engagement."

And the tech giants are trying to take advantage of that.

On its earnings call with analysts this week, Zuckerberg said the company believes live audio rooms will be "especially useful for groups and communities."

Meanwhile, Twitter is moving faster on expanding Spaces, chief executive Jack Dorsey said on the company's earnings call Thursday. Answering a question from an analyst, Dorsey said Twitter is "pushing really hard on this," though he declined to share user metrics yet.

"But we do believe it's an important part of serving conversation, one important format that complements what people do with tweets and what will complement what people will do with long-form content as well," he said.

The Washington Post

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Video is so 2020 - now social media networks are going all in on audio By The - IOL

BY ROTIMI ONADIPE

Social media refers to any digital tool that allows users to quickly create and share content with the public. It can be accessed through a computer, smartphone, iPad or any other device that has internet connection. Popular social networking websites include Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.

Cyber crime refers to any criminal activity that is perpetrated by means of a computer or internet. Common examples of cyber crime are email spamming, cyber bullying, identity theft, online child pornography, phishing and virus dissemination.

Social media is a great platform for connecting with people, building relationships, sharing ideas and expanding businesses. Despite these great benefits, it is also a fertile ground for cyber criminals that are searching for unsuspecting victims.

The prevalence of the usage of social networking websites in todays digital age has also attracted internet fraudsters to set up multiple social media accounts and join many social media platforms so as to increase their chance of getting their victims.

According to a cyber security firm Bromium, the same social media platforms that are used to keep up with friends and family have given rise to a huge global cyber criminal network. According to the Bromium report, nearly 1 out of 5 organisations worldwide are now infected by malware that are shared through social media.

In another academic study by Mike McGuire, senior lecturer in criminology at the University of Surrey, social media-enabled cybercrime is generating at least $3.25 billion in global revenue annually.

Impact of social media on cyber crime in todays digital age:

1. The prevalence of social networking websites usage has increased the number of cyber criminals worldwide.

2. The ability to communicate anonymously on social media makes it possible for most cyber criminals to be untraceable after defrauding unsuspecting victims.

3. It is very easy for cyber criminals to create fake identity on social media and use it to communicate with anyone around the world.

4. Malicious softwares and websites that look legitimate can easily be shared over social media with as many people as possible within a very short time.

5. Fake news which poses a threat to national or global security can easily be shared over the social media.

6. With the prevalence of the usage of social networking websites, online fraudsters can create as many social media accounts as possible with different identities and use it for criminal purposes.

7. Most sensitive information that are supposed to be private are now being shared publicly on social media. This of course increases the users vulnerabilities.

8. Availability of many social networking websites makes it easier for cyber criminals to use their multiple social media accounts to send fraudulent and unsolicited messages to unsuspecting victims.

9. Proliferation of social networking websites has also contributed to the increase in cyber terrorism.

10. The criminal community on the dark web where cyber criminals buy and sell stolen sensitive information is getting bigger because the social media platform has become a fertile ground for online scammers.

However, social media is also an effective tool for combating cyber crime because many people can easily take picture or record video of cyber criminals while they are committing cyber crime. The picture and recorded video can be shared with many anti-graft agencies and law enforcement agents within few minutes. This of course will help a lot in the investigation and prosecution of the cyber criminals.

Rotimi Onadipe can be reached via [emailprotected]

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Impact of social media on cyber crime in today's digital age - TheCable