What’s All The Hype Around Clubhouse?
Clubhouse is an audio streaming app. Every broadcast is live and not recorded (unless that changes in the future). It’s almost like a podcast but live and interactive with audience members. The best way to describe this is like attending a virtual conference, and the smaller rooms are like mini-conference breakout rooms.
If you have made your way in this exclusive, invite-only app you might be wondering, “okay, I’m in, now what?” No worries, I’ve got you covered with some insights from Clubhouse experts. But first, let’s go over the basics of Clubhouse a bit more.
Room Topics, Clubs & Hallway
Topics for rooms range on all different topics. From relationship and dating advice to religion and all things business. Since I’m an entrepreneur and business owner, I’m in a lot of “Clubs” (I started my own and already have over 5k members!) and see lots of business-related topics on my main feed. Clubhouse calls their feed the “hallway”. Below is a breakdown of the hallway, swiping left to see who’s online (out of who you follow), and a breakdown of a live room.
Learn The Clubhouse Lingo
RESET THE ROOM
Periodically throughout the term of the room, moderators will say “let’s reset the room”. Bringing it back to the main topic and the reason why they started the room, since there are quite a few people that join throughout the period that the room is live.
REFRESH THE ROOM (OR “PTR” PULL TO REFRESH)
You may hear the moderators prompting you to refresh the room. The way you refresh the current room you’re in is by swiping down on your screen. This refreshes everything, showing new moderators and speakers brought onto the stage.
CLUB HOST
You can join clubs (more details below) and host your room within a club. This allows you to reach more people. You do this by clicking the calendar icon and attaching a club host to your scheduled room.
PING
You can “ping” people who are online (the plus icon when you’re in the room). This sends a notification to whoever you “ping”, telling them that you’ve started the room or you want them to listen in on a certain room.
FLASHING MICS
If you see the mics flashing (turning the mic on/off), it’s a representation of the person clapping in agreement with whatever is being said at the moment. I personally would love to see a clapping option for audience members.
Why Clubhouse Over All The Other Social Media Apps?
“Oh no another social media app?”
Why should you care? You’re right, Clubhouse isn’t going to be for everyone and you certainly can build your business with other social media apps. No pressure here.
But here’s why I’m obsessed. I can listen in on conversations that moderators would normally charge for. Insightful information and gems being dropped in almost every room. Oh and did I mention the community? The opportunity to network and collab is endless. So much exposure and visibility for you and your business. There is so much potential to GROW on this app.
MELISSA LITCHFIELD, CREATIVE DIRECTOR & FOUNDER, LITCHFIELD MEDIA
What about Return on Investment (ROI)? You’ll see this almost instantly after hosting your own room. I’ve been asked in a room, “how can I work with you?”
I’ve seen people connect off of Clubhouse and over in the DMs. People are landing CLIENTS! I’ve seen new Clubhouse followers connect with me on Instagram – people I’ve never connected with before.
PRO TIP: make sure you connect your Instagram or Twitter within your bio/profile. Your bio can contain an endless amount of characters but it’s HTML. You can’t hyperlink any links at the moment.
As someone using the app, you should be following and connecting with as many people as possible.
Any notification on the app will appear as a green banner on the top of the app. You’ll get notified if someone “pings” you in a room, if someone you follow schedules an event, if someone is inviting you into a room they are listening to, etc. A similar banner will appear if you are moderating and someone raises their hand to speak.
What Other Experts Are Saying About Clubhouse
According to Dr. Lindsay Padilla, CEO + Co-Founder of Hello Audio, “Clubhouse is making audio trendy, and I think audio will become even more important in our marketing strategy and our businesses. Because audio is so easy to consume while you’re doing something else AND cuts down on screen time, people are spending a lot of time on the app listening, learning, and connecting!”
Audio is very intimate, and during a pandemic, we all need more conversation!
DR. LINDSAY PADILLA, CEO + CO-FOUNDER OF HELLO AUDIO
Lindsay’s number one tip for growing your Clubhouse following is to host regular rooms. “Connect with other folks to co-host,” she said. “Show up and support your friends you make on the app. Your following will grow the more you speak on stage and provide value.”
Clubhouse Following the Movement of More “Waves Per Second”
Arjun Rai, founder and CEO of HelloWoofy.com thinks Clubhouse is going along with the movement for more “waves per second” or how much more audio content can be made accessible per unit of time. “Radio started but was limited to an actual radio, the car, the home etc. We then expanded to podcasts but that was limited to episodes and cyclical. Today, Clubhouse is the largest series of conferences that never ends and we have more ‘waves per second’ or audio content being distributed where people spend hours on LIVE audio,” said Arjun. We’ve gone from social media networks that promoted only images, to images and videos, to videos only, explained Arjun. He predicts that soon the two movements mentioned will converge.
Right now, TikTok LIVE or Instagram is massively limited in non-inclusive but with “rooms” of 2000+ people joining Clubhouse, it’s just a matter of time [until] we see real-time audio/video 24/7 distribution of content.
ARJUN RAI, FOUNDER & CEO OF HELLOWOOFY.COM
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