Clubhouse, which launched in 2020, is a new audio-only social media app. It’s currently available on iOS and access is by user-invitation only. I managed to get an invitation just after the Christmas holidays, so I’ve been on the app since 7th Jan 2021. 

An audio-only social media sounds bizarre, doesn’t it? Don’t worry - I thought the same thing, but you get used to it very quickly and it’s a refreshing way to communicate, network, and socialise. In fact, you get a lot more than used to it - you can easily get hooked! But more on that later.

The best way to describe Clubhouse if you have absolutely no experience of the app yet is to imagine that you're listening to a live radio show or a live podcast. The difference is that you are part of the audience and you have the opportunity to ask a question or contribute to the discussion. So, if you’ve ever been listening to the radio or a podcast and wished you could add your opinion or ask a question - now you can!

But don’t be put off if you’re an introvert or if you have no desire to speak publicly: it is absolutely acceptable to just sit in the audience as a passive listener and leave whenever you want. Indeed, this is exactly how many people use Clubhouse. They just find great conversations to listen in to while they work, drive, or go about their lives. On the flip side, I have heard some great stories of introverts who have been shy on all other social media channels but who have found their voice and their confidence on Clubhouse, which is wonderful to hear.

What sort of content is on Clubhouse?

If you can think of a topic, there’s a very good chance there’s a club or a room for it on Clubhouse. (A ‘club’ is the name for an overarching group topic, while a ‘room’ is the name for a specific event or conversation. This will become more clear as you read on.)

The amount of content that’s already on Clubhouse is both a positive and a negative, and it’s the curse of most social media channels. But let’s focus on the positives for now: if you look around, there’s a very good chance you will find some quality rooms taking place about the topics which matter most to you.

I have discovered amazing rooms on sustainability, marketing, music, and entrepreneurship to name just a few. And I have also seen rooms in the ‘corridor’ (that’s like the app’s home feed) on a whole host of other topics ranging from cannabis to cleaning, unicorns to ukuleles, and “sex and exes” to whale sounds. And if you can’t find the content you’re looking for, then that’s even better because you’ve got the opportunity to be the person who creates it by setting up a new room. If it doesn't exist already - create it!

What's bad about Clubhouse?

Before we look at the good stuff, let’s quickly address some of Clubhouse’s worst attributes.

First of all, suddenly everyone’s an expert. I can’t stress this point enough: do your due diligence on people you find on the app! They might have thousands of followers and an amazing bio they wrote for themselves, but that doesn’t mean anything. Look them up on LinkedIn and their other social media channels to help you build up a better picture of who they really are. It’s unfortunate, but it’s also just the nature of social media: there are a lot of charlatans out there.

Following on from the point above, Clubhouse is providing people with an amazing platform from which to spread misinformation and some absolute bullshit advice. There are also lots of “get rich quick” clubs, some truly abysmal and unethical sales funnels going on, and lots of mods (moderators - the people who host a room) who just love the sound of their own voice and who don’t host good discussions or provide any value at all.

However, don’t forget that this is actually no different to other social media channels! Only the medium has changed and the way they’re doing it. So again, don’t let this put you off, because you quickly get used to spotting such rooms and learning how to avoid them and find the content that matters to you.

What's great about Clubhouse?

Once you find the topics, clubs and rooms which matter to you, and you find your ‘tribe’... wow. The app is amazing and I’m absolutely loving it after just ten weeks. I’d go as far as saying the app is a complete game changer. Let me try and put that into some sort of perspective for you…

If you’re serious about building your personal brand, get on Clubhouse. It’s still early days, so there is a very real opportunity to get on the platform and start creating content around your area of expertise and your niche. The ability to reach a huge target audience of relevant people from all over the world is currently unparalleled, in my opinion.

Followers aren’t the important part. After all, we should focus on quality over quantity, right? Yes, absolutely. But if you can get a high number of quality followers then that’s personal branding and marketing gold. Here’s a direct personal example:

At the time of writing this post, I have 8,592 followers on LinkedIn, which I think I have been on for over ten years in total, and which I have been using almost daily for about three years, publishing regular high-value content.

Compare that to the 8,800 followers I currently have on Clubhouse… after just ten weeks! The obvious question to ask would be how much time I have had to spend on the platform and what I’ve been doing to acquire that number of followers.

In my first few weeks, I won’t lie: I was on the app a lot! Maybe 3-4 hours a day. A lot of that would just be listening into rooms while I worked, but there was also a lot of exploring going on while I looked for great rooms and mods. I then started hosting my own rooms, both inside and out of the Sustainability club (more on that below), and every single one of them has been focused on facilitating a great conversation for learning and collaboration. I’m now only on the app for 3-4 hours per week, which includes the rooms I host.

And facilitating great conversations is where the value is! I’ve seen a lot in the last ten weeks, and one observation is seeing too many people trying to push their own message and agendas on stage (the area in a room where the mods and speakers are) instead of focusing on the audience. It’s the Clubhouse equivalent of writing a post on LinkedIn that is important to you, forgetting that it’s not important at all to your audience.

As a room mod, focus on facilitating a great discussion. It’s not about you. It’s about your audience and what they could learn or gain from attending your room. But I’ll cover this in much more detail in a future post.

But I almost forgot… What’s the absolute best thing about Clubhouse?

For me, being someone who is obsessed with community building, it would have to be meeting and connecting with so many new people from all over the world who are working in sustainability. It has been genuinely humbling, energising, and inspiring. These are people I have never come across before on other social channels, so I definitely have Clubhouse to thank for these great new international connections.