What is Clubhouse?
If you have been paying attention to social media news, you might have heard of the current fast growing invite only social media platform called Clubhouse. With Elon Musk, Jack Dorsey, Alexis Ohanian and Mark Zuckerberg joining, it now has a $1 Billion valuation.
What makes Clubhouse unique?
Unlike the other social media platforms, Clubhouse is not a visual platform. Clubhouse relies solely on audio. The app has rooms that users can join to hear the ongoing conversation. Users are also able to set up rooms with options to have the following statuses:
- Open (a room open to everyone);
- Social (a room with people that are followed); or
- Closed (a room with people of choice).
Once a room has been created, users inside the room will have the following ranks:
- Moderators — People who control the conversation and have admin rights of the room. They have the right to talk whenever they need to;
- Speakers — People invited on stage to talk; and
- The Audience — This is split into people who follow the speakers and people simply listening in.
How do I get started?
Once you first enter the platform, you are asked what topics you are interested in. This will control the conversations being displayed on your feed and generate people for you to follow initially. We’d advise that as soon as you’re on, you join to the tutorial room “Welcome to Clubhouse 🎉 ( Beginners Guide)”. You will have a party hat on your image when you enter rooms. This will be to show that you’re new to the platform.
What should I be looking out for?
- Clubhouse suggests rooms based on people you follow. This means it’s very important to follow people based on what you actually want to listen to.
- You are searchable based on your name and bio. If you would like people to follow you based on topics you talk about, add this to your bio.
- Join groups that will allow you to get alerts about rooms that are relevant to the topics you’re interested in.
- Attach your profile to your other social media channels (Instagram & Twitter). Without direct messages, this is currently is how people to take conversations offline.
How could this help myself or my organisation?
Currently, there aren’t too many brands on Clubhouse. With the exception of Gymshark, most accounts belong to individuals. Much like LinkedIn, a lot of brands utilising Clubhouse are taking advantage of employee advocacy. There are many open conversations about what people do on a day to day basis for a living, and how it is providing value to the world. Many of these conversations are about Charities, Non-Profit Organisations and Social Enterprises. It gives brands a chance to reach a very effective niche audience that have the potential to share the information they learned outside the app.
What do we think about Clubhouse?
This app has huge potential and opens a brand new space in social media for people and brands to take advantage of. Traditionally, social media being visual would mean people would need to put their best feet forward when they show up dressed to the party. Clubhouse allows people to participate in any condition visually. There are potential issues with people saying the wrong thing. Moderators roles are to ensure this does not happen. Once people are reported and removed from the platform, it is also possible that the people who recommended them can be removed too. So it is very important to consider who you will be using your initial two recommendations on. As it is early, we expect a lot more to be changed/updated with this app, but it looks to be moving in the right direction.
NB: We must state that as this is audio only, the benefits of using this app excludes almost all of the deaf and hard-of-hearing community. It also does not work with most assistive technology, leaving out people with disabilities that use this to navigate devices. It is also iPhone only. As it is still in beta stage, we’d expect to see some of these issues addressed in future roll outs.
If you’d like consultation on how to get started, send us an email at info@socialmisfitsmedia.com
