Everything You Need to Know About Clubhouse in 2021

After Instagram and TikTok, everyone was waiting for “the next big thing,” and here it is – Clubhouse. The new social network Clubhouse is currently one of the most discussed phenomena on the web. Clubhouse owes its popularity to Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, who decided to join this social media app and gave many other celebrities and company leaders an example. 

The voice-only app from Alpha Exploration Co. hit the market at the height of the pandemic — in April 2020. By December, its value was estimated at $100 million. Everything changed in January 2021, when the venture fund Andreessen Horowitz invested $100 million in the project’s development. And today, Clubhouse boasts an estimated more than one billion dollars.

The new audio network is interesting for those who want to develop their skills, explore new perspectives, and connect with industry experts. Although Clubhouse is still in the development stage, the options for monetizing content are not yet precisely defined. Below you will learn more about Clubhouse and if marketers will benefit from this platform.

Join Clubhouse! What Is It?

When all offline conferences are canceled during the pandemic and lockdowns, new platforms are found — Clubhouse was one of them. The creators of Clubhouse are Stanford University graduates and Silicon Valley entrepreneurs Paul Davison and Rohan Seth.

The social media app was launched in March 2020 and was available to global influencers, celebrities, Silicon Valley investors, and industry leaders. Later the social network became accessible for a larger pool of users, and now its user base is more than 10 million.

Clubhouse is a platform for panel discussions structured by interest‑based chat rooms. In some sense, it is a real-time, conference-wide interactive podcast platform. At the same time, you can participate in the discussions not actively but by listening to the speaker in the background and simultaneously go about your business. The service does not have any personal messages or the ability to chat; you can communicate only with your voice.

Limited-access services have always been over-hyped. Clubhouse initially and still has not become open to everyone. In fact, you can get an invitation strictly from a registered member. Moreover, iPhone users only can join the app; the Android version is still being developed. Up to 5000 people can be in one chat room at the same time. If you miss the conversion, then you will not be able to replay and listen to it.

Today among Clubhouse users are scientists, creators, athletes, musicians, parents, marketers, successful business people, and more. They all came to Clubhouse to learn, talk, laugh, and connect.

What Is Inside?

Once you download the app and get an invite, you are ready to get the most of the service. After registration, the new user fills out a profile, follows friends, acquaintances, and exciting personalities, and selects interest categories. Based on this information, the social network creates a personalized feed of chat rooms. It will be updated regularly, focusing on chats that may be potentially interesting to the user.

The icons at the top allow you to keep track of the number of invites, interesting conversations and receive notifications from the social network. You can enter the name of the speaker’s account in the search bar, subscribe to it, and set up notifications to receive information about the start of a new conference.

Any user can create a room in Clubhouse. Clubhouse never sleeps. Hundreds of rooms function at the same time, each talking about something different. After a new chat appears, the creator’s followers receive invitations to join, then the same works for the followers of those who joined the conversation.

In addition to the chat rooms, you can create private and so-called “club” rooms. Creating clubs is available for those users who have already opened several rooms. Discussions can be public, private, or restricted to club members. In conversations, you can assign moderators – users, who allow listeners to speak out and control the discussion’s tone and topic.

How Useful Is Clubhouse?

Oddly enough, Clubhouse has many different uses. This is an opportunity to make up for the lack of informal communication during the pandemic and a way to gain a new audience or expand an existing one.

Clubhouse is a platform where you can show your expertise to a broad audience, tell them about the product, and then transfer interested leads to other social networks/to the website and close the sale.

What is Clubhouse Helpful For?

1. Becoming a Thought Industry Leader

The perfectionists, who strive to bring their work to a certain ideal, will be able to share their achievements, thoughts, and doubts with a wide range of specialists and interested audiences. In the new social network, you can always “raise your hand,” take part in discussing any issue, and get inspired with new thoughts and ideas.

2. Building a personal brand

On the platform, you can create a specific community of followers for your brand and promote it by sharing your values directly with your listeners.

3. Distributing content

Marketers can create their own audio content and rework existing ones on other platforms (Instagram, Facebook, etc.).

4. B2B marketing

The search of customers, live communication with experts and CEOs of companies, and promoting your product in thematic discussions.

5. Lead generation

In thematic discussions, new people always appear. These people can become your customers, and it is there that you can get a new contact.

6. Finding partners or investors

Rooms where investors and startups meet, are prevalent.

Clubhouse is popular among representatives of the digital industry, so while the application has not become widespread, you need to use these opportunities for effective networking.

Marketing Potential in Clubhouse

Many people praise the app for its simplicity and the ability to create real communities and hold important discussions. But marketers, of course, are more concerned with another question: “Is it possible to find potential for marketing in the numerous rooms of Clubhouse?” There is clearly potential here, but it depends on your business and what you are looking to achieve.

At the moment, Clubhouse demonstrates a huge potential in terms of promoting users as opinion leaders and expanding the audience within a specific niche. The service can help brands share knowledge and expertise, thereby strengthening the connection with the audience. Given the high level of audience engagement observed in the rooms, it is safe to say that this experience will be helpful. The main thing is to choose the right topic for discussion to attract as many people as possible.

The live format guarantees honesty: you cannot predict which way the conversation will go, which means you will not be able to prepare the answers in advance. Such openness captivates the audience and increases loyalty.

The project is not being monetized yet, but it is actively attracting investment. Now, this social network is ideal for working for the future and promoting through a personal brand. Here you can find investors and clients, take part in thematic conversations and make yourself popular. The first users of Clubhouse are geniuses of the IT industry, representatives of the media, and politicians. This is what sets the vector for developing the social network, setting up the audience to exchange cases, and broadcasting their expertise.

Tips for Being Successful on Clubhouse:

1. Detailed profile completion

Before subscribing to someone, users study the accounts. This is the first impression. It is advisable to place a high-quality portrait photo on the avatar. If the goal is to prove yourself as an expert, the photo should be in a business style. Then, the user will visit the account to read the bio. Its first line is immediately displayed in the search, so the essential information should be placed there: experience, place of work, specialty.

2. Active participation in discussions of various rooms

Before you start creating your own rooms, it is advisable to study other people’s rooms. It is better to visit rooms on topics where you can share your competencies and express your opinion. If other users see you as a specialist, they will subscribe to your profile. And when the time comes to create your own room, there will be a lot more participants.

3. Reliable information about yourself

When registering in a social network, the user should specify the name used in other social networks and search engines. It is also recommended to introduce yourself when the moderator allows you to speak and say goodbye when leaving the room.

4. Streaming of expertise in a specific field

You can only be an expert in a particular area. When creating a room or club, it is better to specify one direction. For example, “Promotion of pharmaceutical companies in social networks,” and not “All about promotion.” Each room should have a clearly defined goal and answer a maximum of three specific questions.

5. Inviting other speakers

The participation of other reputable speakers increases the value of the room. In addition, in communication with other experts, expertise is best confirmed. It is also important to remember that when users join a conversation, their subscribers receive notifications about it.

6. Planning to create a room

Do not create chat rooms spontaneously. You can schedule them via the “Calendar” tab. In this case, your followers will receive information in advance and will be able to prepare. They will also receive a notification about the beginning of the conversation.

Probably, when Clubhouse audience grows significantly, the model of interaction between users will change. After that, some analog of targeted advertising or another marketing tool will appear. But now, it is difficult to predict what it will look like since there are many unknowns in the app’s growth path.

If Clubhouse Is So Good, Then What Is The Catch?

Now the application has gone viral among the digital community, but popularity among a wide audience may not happen for several reasons:

1. The invite-only app has a device restriction

An invite-only service creates a culture of “others.” Exclusivity is everything. Only iPhone users can download and use the app. However, many Android users want to try out the new social network, so the developers are currently working on the Android version.

2. Clubhouse is only a live broadcast

If you are busy with work and missed an interesting conversation, you can not listen to it after: recording conversations in Clubhouse is not provided.

3. Clubhouse is not confidential

Yes, the service has closed rooms that everyone can not come to, and in the service itself, there is no way to record a conversation. But trust Clubhouse with your secrets with caution: no one will prevent the people invited to your room from recording the conversation simply on a dictaphone.

4. FOMO

The whole Clubhouse is built on the fear of missing out syndrome, the fear of missing a good opportunity or an exciting event. FOMO is associated with less satisfaction, mood, and life.

5. Not all rooms and clubs have substantive conversations

Often, the process of discussing the declared topic can slide into a heart-to-heart meeting with the organizers. Something similar to an unedited podcast.

6. Clubhouse is a very time-consuming app

You have to be at the right conversation at the right time and listen to it without stopping, even if you are interested in only a small part of it — this is not the text of the interview, which you can run through quickly. Clubhouse is not a social network feed that you can scroll through, placing a couple of likes along the way and throwing a sparkling comment.

7. There are no verified accounts on Clubhouse

Tomorrow, you can see that Madonna or the United States President will come to Clubhouse and schedule a conversation with an intriguing topic. But you do not have a convenient tool right now to figure out if some fraudster is trying to trick you and everyone else.

Conclusion  

Some called it a serious competitor to market leaders; others believed that the “elite” project has no chance to turn into a successful product. Anyway, Clubhouse has already been noticed and copied. 

According to many marketers, the platform can become an effective tool for developing B2B marketing and promoting your brand. Time will show if it is an effective marketing tool or another over-hyped app you should not waste your marketing efforts on. At the least, it is worth reserving your username in Clubhouse app.