Voice social networks and audio chats: is it worth it for a brand to enter there
Case of MEGAFON: how a realistic success in Telegram looks like
MEGAFON launched a voice podcast with 6 episodes of 3 minutes in a Telegram channel with 10 000 subscribers. Result: reach of 185 000 people, more than 2000 reactions and over 500 reposts. This is not viral hype, but a stable position in the top of popular podcasts in the channel for months.
The proportion is important here: reach in 18,5 times exceeded the subscriber base. Such a ratio in a text post is almost impossible — organic reach rarely exceeds the subscriber base by more than 20-30%. The format of short voice episodes worked precisely because audio chats in Telegram are perceived by users as a personal conversation, not as advertising, and they are easier to share with friends.
Numbers that are usually kept quiet
Comparison of engagement in different formats speaks for itself — the gap is not in orders of magnitude, but in orders:
| Format | Indicator | Value |
|---|---|---|
| Telegram audio chats | Engagement | 20% and above |
| VKontakte (text/photo) | Engagement | around 1% |
| Podcasts (advertising) | Memorability | 71% |
| Television (advertising) | Memorability | 32,5% |
It is worth separately noting a behavioral fact: listeners are willing to spend 30–60 minutes on a single episode. No text format in social networks retains attention for such a long time — this is the time it takes for a brand to not just flash by, but tell a complete story.
Why Clubhouse collapsed by 89%, while Telegram is growing
Clubhouse lost approximately 96% of downloads over the year (from 8.7 million in June 2021 to 332 thousand in June 2022), and the issue is not with the voice format itself, but with three specific mistakes that brands continue to repeat to this day.
- Content quickly reduced to monotonous topics — coaches and 'growth hackers' filled the broadcasts, and the audience became burned out from repetition.
- The platform did not preserve recordings of conversations, which meant that each broadcast required new effort, and content did not accumulate or work for SEO or the brand's archive.
- Interest was held by the pandemic effect of novelty — as soon as offline life returned, the motivation to stay in rooms disappeared.
Twitter Spaces with 200 million daily users' audience surpassed Clubhouse (4,9 million) precisely because it did not try to create an audience from scratch — it was integrated into an already existing platform with ready subscribers. This is a key conclusion: 65% of marketers in 2022 considered audio chats an effective format of content in social networks (HubSpot), but those who won were those who chose a platform with an existing community, rather than building a separate voice platform.
From what budget to start and what can be realistically achieved in six months
The minimum entry into the format is a microphone, a quiet room, and a person who is ready to speak regularly. Technically, recording 6 short episodes does not require a studio: the MegaFon case shows that 3-minute clips work better than multi-hour marathons.
- Month 1: choosing a platform for your audience — Telegram for community and trust, Twitter Spaces for quick discussion of news.
- Month 2-3: a series of 4-6 short episodes, testing the audience's reaction through reposts and comments, not absolute figures of reach.
- Month 4-6: solidifying the format in the channel's schedule, embedding into the existing content plan, first paid integrations or donations, if the audience is loyal.
Realistic results in six months with a base of 5-15 thousand subscribers — this is reach that is multiple times greater than the subscriber base, and engagement in the area of 15-20%, if the content truly solves the audience's task, rather than imitating brand presence 'just for the sake of it'.
What to do if a brand has no star speakers
A common misconception is that the voice format requires a charismatic founder or recognizable expert. This is not true. It's not the speaker's status that works, but the specificity of the topic and regularity.
- Make a Q&A format with real client inquiries instead of a monologue 'on behalf of the brand'.
- Involve middle-level employees — an engineer, technical support, a developer — their live experience sounds more convincing than prepared lines.
- Build a series around a narrow pain point topic of the audience, not around the company's general image.
The cost of integrations in Telegram is higher than in other social networks, but it is offset by trust and direct monetization — donations and paid subscriptions. Competition in audio formats is currently minimal, and this is a real opportunity window for niche B2B and mid-sized brands that cannot afford to spend the budget of large companies like KFC or Tide on large-scale podcast productions.
When to get involved, and when not to
Audio chats are worth launching if a brand already has an active community in Telegram and there is a need to explain complex matters — tariffs, technologies, processes. This works for B2B and service-oriented B2C-brands, where trust is built through explanation, not through a bright image.
The format should not be launched just for the sake of being present in all channels at once or in pursuit of trends — that is exactly what happened to Clubhouse. If a brand does not have regularity of at least 6 episodes in advance and a clear narrow topic, it is better not to start: a neglected audio chat harms reputation more than its absence would.
Case of MEGAFON: how a realistic success in Telegram looks like
MEGAFON launched a voice podcast with 6 episodes of 3 minutes in a Telegram channel with 10 000 subscribers. Result: reach of 185 000 people, more than 2000 reactions and over 500 reposts. This is not viral hype, but a stable position in the top of popular podcasts in the channel for months.
The proportion is important here: reach in 18,5 times exceeded the subscriber base. Such a ratio in a text post is almost impossible — organic reach rarely exceeds the subscriber base by more than 20-30%. The format of short voice episodes worked precisely because audio chats in Telegram are perceived by users as a personal conversation, not as advertising, and they are easier to share with friends.
Numbers that are usually kept quiet
Comparison of engagement in different formats speaks for itself — the gap is not in orders of magnitude, but in orders:
| Format | Indicator | Value |
|---|---|---|
| Telegram audio chats | Engagement | 20% and above |
| VKontakte (text/photo) | Engagement | around 1% |
| Podcasts (advertising) | Memorability | 71% |
| Television (advertising) | Memorability | 32,5% |
It is worth separately noting a behavioral fact: listeners are willing to spend 30–60 minutes on a single episode. No text format in social networks retains attention for such a long time — this is the time it takes for a brand to not just flash by, but tell a complete story.
Why Clubhouse collapsed by 89%, while Telegram is growing
Clubhouse lost approximately 96% of downloads over the year (from 8.7 million in June 2021 to 332 thousand in June 2022), and the issue is not with the voice format itself, but with three specific mistakes that brands continue to repeat to this day.
- Content quickly reduced to monotonous topics — coaches and 'growth hackers' filled the broadcasts, and the audience became burned out from repetition.
- The platform did not preserve recordings of conversations, which meant that each broadcast required new effort, and content did not accumulate or work for SEO or the brand's archive.
- Interest was held by the pandemic effect of novelty — as soon as offline life returned, the motivation to stay in rooms disappeared.
Twitter Spaces with 200 million daily users' audience surpassed Clubhouse (4,9 million) precisely because it did not try to create an audience from scratch — it was integrated into an already existing platform with ready subscribers. This is a key conclusion: 65% of marketers in 2022 considered audio chats an effective format of content in social networks (HubSpot), but those who won were those who chose a platform with an existing community, rather than building a separate voice platform.
From what budget to start and what can be realistically achieved in six months
The minimum entry into the format is a microphone, a quiet room, and a person who is ready to speak regularly. Technically, recording 6 short episodes does not require a studio: the MegaFon case shows that 3-minute clips work better than multi-hour marathons.
- Month 1: choosing a platform for your audience — Telegram for community and trust, Twitter Spaces for quick discussion of news.
- Month 2-3: a series of 4-6 short episodes, testing the audience's reaction through reposts and comments, not absolute figures of reach.
- Month 4-6: solidifying the format in the channel's schedule, embedding into the existing content plan, first paid integrations or donations, if the audience is loyal.
Realistic results in six months with a base of 5-15 thousand subscribers — this is reach that is multiple times greater than the subscriber base, and engagement in the area of 15-20%, if the content truly solves the audience's task, rather than imitating brand presence 'just for the sake of it'.
What to do if a brand has no star speakers
A common misconception is that the voice format requires a charismatic founder or recognizable expert. This is not true. It's not the speaker's status that works, but the specificity of the topic and regularity.
- Make a Q&A format with real client inquiries instead of a monologue 'on behalf of the brand'.
- Involve middle-level employees — an engineer, technical support, a developer — their live experience sounds more convincing than prepared lines.
- Build a series around a narrow pain point topic of the audience, not around the company's general image.
The cost of integrations in Telegram is higher than in other social networks, but it is offset by trust and direct monetization — donations and paid subscriptions. Competition in audio formats is currently minimal, and this is a real opportunity window for niche B2B and mid-sized brands that cannot afford to spend the budget of large companies like KFC or Tide on large-scale podcast productions.
When to get involved, and when not to
Audio chats are worth launching if a brand already has an active community in Telegram and there is a need to explain complex matters — tariffs, technologies, processes. This works for B2B and service-oriented B2C-brands, where trust is built through explanation, not through a bright image.
The format should not be launched just for the sake of being present in all channels at once or in pursuit of trends — that is exactly what happened to Clubhouse. If a brand does not have regularity of at least 6 episodes in advance and a clear narrow topic, it is better not to start: a neglected audio chat harms reputation more than its absence would.
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