My First 6 Weeks On Clubhouse
Adjusting Strategies to Deepen Engagement in Less Time
A second Clubhouse article so soon after my first?
Well…things happen quickly on Clubhouse. In the span of about three weeks since my first piece was published on March 3, 2021, the invite-only social-audio app hit several milestones, made a major change to how members can invite new users, and made a commitment to help content creators.
Among the developments:
· The Silicon Valley unicorn turned one year old.
· In mid-March, iOS downloads reportedly hit nearly 13 million. The app is available in at least 150 countries.
· Clubhouse announced that members who don’t share their phone contacts with the app will now be able to invite someone to the app by sharing only that person’s phone number. Prior to this, invites could be used only if the member agreed to share a contact list.
· Clubhouse announced a three-month Creator First accelerator program that will aid select creatives in developing, enhancing, and promoting their work and help them find brand sponsors. Clubhouse will also pay the chosen creatives a monthly stipend for the duration of the accelerator.
· The Clubhouse internal team is on pace to triple in size by the end of March — from nine team members to more than two dozen.
Clubhouse will need those team members — and more — as it scales, especially with the anticipated rollout of the Android version, expected in the coming months.
Clubhouse Burning Questions
My first Clubhouse article apparently struck a chord. I received a slew of texts, emails, social-media interactions, phone calls, and Zoom meeting requests. I even accepted an invitation to speak with a group of Gen Z grad students about my experience.
The comments and questions sent my way are too numerous to detail in full, but they fall into two broad categories:
1. How do I flatten the learning curve on Clubhouse?
2. How can I prevent Clubhouse from taking over my life?
Now that I’m getting my Clubhouse sea legs, I’d like to offer some observations and guidance. I’m still a newbie, so keep that in mind as you read.…
Get Up to Speed Faster on Clubhouse
The process of joining Clubhouse and actually getting something out of it is a bit like committing to a fitness regimen. If you don’t put in the effort, you won’t see results. This is not the kind of platform where you can quickly scroll through a news feed, take in a few headlines, reply with emojis, and carry on with your day. Clubhouse requires an investment of time and attention.
Here are some suggestions for new members or those considering whether to register (and hoping for an invite):
Listen before You Speak (As in…Walk before You Run)
First, you need to spend time on a listening campaign, understanding how conversations on Clubhouse unfold. Notice the types of interactions you hear between moderators (those who facilitate discussions) and those invited to the “stage” to speak. Pay attention to what catches your ear. Is someone a particularly good storyteller? Does a person’s voice convey warmth and sincerity? Note, too, what you may regard as tone-deaf, overbearing, or outright rude.
How do you want to sound when you hit the stage?
Learn the Lingo
Clubhouse has its own language. In order to fully participate, you need to know key terms such as hallway, PTR, mods, and silent claps. The critical ones are covered in my first article.
Ready to Speak? Choose a Small Room
Rooms on Clubhouse are where content-specific discussions take place. They can range in size from one person (you are hoping someone will join you) to thousands. Any Clubhouse member may host a room.
If you’re in a room listening to Elon Musk speak, you can be fairly certain you won’t be invited to the stage to speak unless you wield serious influence. You can, however, significantly increase your chances of being asked to the stage by entering rooms with 50 to 100 people or fewer. The number of members in a room is displayed at the bottom of your screen on the app.
Invited to Speak? You Decide
Invitations to the stage are handled privately via in-app notification. The moderator will ask audience members via notification if they’d like to speak. You will not be “called on” publicly to come on stage. This way, if you’re not ready, you can decline the invitation by tapping “maybe later” on the notification. If you accept, the app will move your avatar to the stage. You’ll wait your turn. Everyone in the room can see who is on stage. The moderator will let you know when it’s your turn to speak.
Be Patient and Prepare What You Want to Say
It’s not uncommon to wait 30 minutes or longer to get the opportunity to speak, even when you’re already on stage. This is especially true in discussions about serious, controversial, or nuanced topics. Use this waiting time wisely. First, when you’re on stage, especially, you should actively listen. Keep an ear out for what speakers before you have said so that you can acknowledge their key points, add to them, or perhaps offer a different take. It’s important to think carefully about what new points you want to raise when you start speaking. What did you come to the stage to say? I’m not suggesting that you write a script. You want to sound natural. What you also want to do is respect everyone’s time.
Make your point. Support your point with facts or experience. If you disagree with what another speaker said earlier, do so respectfully. When finished, thank the moderator. Don’t forget to end by stating your name and that you’re “done speaking.” This allows those who are hearing-impaired (and using assistive devices) to follow the discussion. And ALWAYS mute your microphone when you’re done. Often you will remain on stage for a period of time after you speak; if you leave your mic open and start clanging about, you’ll disrupt the room. As I noted in my first article, I found this out the hard way.
Follow/Join Clubs That Match Your Interests
A great way to find your tribe on Clubhouse (and you may have many tribes) is to search the clubs tab for your interests. Startups? Music? Comedy? Sports? Travel? Wellness? You name it, you’ll likely have one or more clubs to consider. If you don’t see one that’s a fit, you can start your own club. Just follow the prompts in the app to apply. (A prerequisite for club approval is hosting at least three room discussions for three consecutive weeks.)
Can Clubhouse Take Over Your Life?
This question may seem as if it were posed in jest. It’s not. Many people asked me this, with a tone of concern and near-dread.
While Clubhouse has not released detailed stats on the average amount of time members spend on the platform, the retention rate during room discussions, and the like, anecdotal reports from active members put average weekly use between 11 and 22 hours each week. WHAT? In fairness, those figures come from a tiny pool of active early users who reported on Twitter the time they spent on Clubhouse. The actual average time on the platform is almost certainly less. If not, how would anyone have time for a job, a family life, hobbies?
While writing my first Clubhouse article, I easily logged 50 to 60 hours on the platform over a two-week period. At 1:30 one morning, my bloodshot eyes scanned the app calendar and spotted a listing for an in-progress room titled “Addicted to Clubhouse”? There were more than 200 people attending. I kept scrolling (quickly), convincing myself I was just on a “newbie high.”
Should Clubhouse Have a Black Box Warning?
In my third week on Clubhouse, after my first article was published, I had an important appointment. I was running a few minutes early so I sat at the kitchen table, laced up my boots, zipped my layers of jerseys, and adjusted my double masks. I was just about to leave my apartment when yet another notification popped up on my iPhone. I could, of course, have disabled these notifications, but that seemed too extreme.
“This topic is one I’m interested in,” I thought. I tapped on the notification bar and I was live in the room. For many minutes (I lost track), I remained rapt — actively listening without moving a muscle. All with my coat zipped, masks on, and the window closed! I then scrambled to reach my appointment on time.
That’s when the light went on. I needed to get smarter about how I use Clubhouse.
I have since drastically reduced usage. Here’s how:
Less Time, More Value
The range of content on Clubhouse is remarkable. At any given time, there are tens of thousands of active global rooms hosting discussions on themes ranging from world affairs and technology to relationships and personal identity. Conversations take place in numerous languages, and the app suggests content to you based on whom you follow, the types of interests you list in your bio, and the themes of rooms you’ve visited in the past.
There can truly be no better way to describe the reaction of most people when they first join Clubhouse than FOMO. That fear of missing out is what leads to an impromptu 2:00 a.m. “app tap” that transports you to a “must-hear” topic or activates a cajoling voice in your head: “Oh, just 30 minutes more,” as the room time stretches to four hours.
Appointment Listening
I’ve been managing Clubhouse over the past couple of weeks using what amounts to “appointment listening and speaking.” When I’m notified of an event or when I find one on the calendar that interests me, I put it on my own calendar using an in-app “add to calendar” feature. I’m not a security expert, but based on my research, it appears that this cannot give Clubhouse access to your calendar contents; it only allows Clubhouse to push the invitation through iOS using an .ICS file. This has been a big time-saver. I had been entering upcoming events manually until several IT specialists allayed my concerns.
Set a Timer for Every Room You Enter
Depending on my priorities, I allow myself a set amount of time for each room I enter. The first thing I do is set the timer on my iPhone. Some discussions are structured to last for an hour, and the moderators keep to that. Other rooms are open-ended. They can last for hours — or yes, days — with moderators handing off duties.
Raise Your Hand to Speak Only When There’s Enough Time
I will allow myself permission to enter a room if I have 10 minutes or more. However, I resist raising my hand to ask permission to speak unless the likelihood is high that I’ll hit the stage in the time I have allotted. This is hardly a science. Sometimes you think “Oh, I’m so close,” and that phone timer becomes a distant murmur. For the most part, though, these guardrails have created structure around my Clubhouse experience.
Can’t You Just Have Fun?
As with any plan, behaviors are subject to change. And who doesn’t like to be spontaneous?
Last week, I was eating breakfast when I saw the flash and internal pull of yet another notification, this one alerting me to a Jazz Café streaming from Italy. Perfect, I thought: just instruments. No voices.
Turns out this unplanned app tap was the best start to my day in weeks. Uplifting and relaxing at the same time. And…I even closed the app before my timer went off. I’m learning.
Navigating Clubhouse and using it to meet your objectives is a highly individual process. My experiences are not necessarily representative of what you’ll discover. This article is not intended to cover every development on Clubhouse since early March. There are plenty of other resources for Clubhouse deep dives.
(Besides, do you really want the length of this article to rival that of my first Clubhouse epic? Didn’t think so!)
Enjoy Clubhouse. Just keep that timer handy.
RESOURCES
Top Clubhouse FAQs (compiled by Clubhouse moderator Abraxas Higgins @abraxas)
Clubhouse Guide (includes Community Guidelines, Terms of Service, and Privacy Policy)
How It Works: Wall Street Journal Video on Clubhouse and Twitter Spaces (No Paywall)
The Changing Landscape of Social Media Engagement (video interview: CNBC’s Squawk Alley)
Using or Changing Your Legal Name and/or Username on Clubhouse
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