Clubhouse is the new social media app that has gained great popularity in revolutionising the way entrepreneurs, investors, inventors and industry experts interact with the general public.
Now a social media darling, the app was launched in the middle of the pandemic in April 2020 and spread like wildfire after Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk appeared on one of its chats in February 2021.
Reaching a valuation of $1 billion in the latest round on 24 Jan 2021, the Clubhouse app has since been installed 5.5 million times around the globe – and counting. While this voice-based social media app is giving some of its bigger rivals (think Twitter) a run for its money, it is providing radically different features from existing social media platforms. Some of its features make it particularly appealing and useful if you want to expand your circle of acquaintances and competence, leveraging on its features to grow your brand.
Providing Free Access To Innovative And Successful Individuals
To understand why Clubhouse is so popular, it is important to first understand how access to successful individuals was restricted pre-Clubhouse, especially when the pandemic first emerged.
Pre-pandemic, one of the few ways you could get a seat at the billionaires’ table to listen in on the likes of Jack Ma and Elon Musk speak live was at a fireside chat or a major conference. If you weren’t at Davos, it would probably take you quite a bit of effort to get a rare glimpse of these entrepreneurial movers and shakers. Without the conferences, video content featuring these individuals dried up as well.
With Clubhouse, not only do you get immediate access to these individuals by tuning in to their live podcasts, but you can even voice your own opinions and ask questions — almost like having a conversation. This has the effect of putting you at the seat alongside some of the most influential changemakers in the world.
Clubhouse niches (craftsmen, singer-songwriters and other creative pursuits) can be a fun way to pass time — listening to interesting people talk about topics you care about, often with no pressure to participate. Users can weave between different Clubhouse formats and explore topics that interest them ranging from the whimsical and banal to serious and life changing.
How You Can Use Clubhouse As A Business Owner
Currently, Clubhouse is available only as an iOS app, and its rooms can’t be accessed via Android devices or the Web. It’s also invite-only for now, meaning you need to know an existing user to use the app, and existing users need to give the app access to their entire iOS contact list to send any invites.
After you’ve downloaded and opened the app, there will be an onboarding process where you can indicate your interests and what topics you prefer to listen to. This feature personalises topics that are recommended to you. After the onboarding process, the main dashboard will appear, showing you a list of live podcasts that you can attend.
The audio starts automatically after you join a room. The host of that room functions as the moderator, managing the speakers and participants. He/she can decide who can speak in the room and participate in the discussion. Additionally, you can “raise your hand” if you are interested in joining the discussion.
The app’s strength, the openness and freedom to participate, also happens to be its biggest weakness (for now). Since it was launched, Clubhouse has faced criticism over reports of misogyny, anti-Semitism and COVID-19 misinformation on the platform despite rules against racism, hate speech, abuse and false information. Also, the app has had some early issues moderating content. The application is completely audio-based. So, it relies on “hosts” — moderators to control the content quality.
Why Business Owners Should Give Clubhouse A Shot
Although the app has only 5.5m downloads compared to its other more dominant peers, the immediacy that people enjoy from live podcasting is relatively new and refreshing. As more people join the platform, opportunities will be abound for businesses and business owners who are able to leverage Clubhouse to grow an audience of engaged listeners.
#1 Learn From Experts
Clubhouse is one of the best platforms for those who are willing to learn and that too from the experts of that field. You can participate in any chat session, for example, marketing, AI, finance and business. You can learn various new things from the experts.
It offers you a fantastic opportunity to listen to the top industry leaders. You can get free advice from these entrepreneurs. In addition to this, you easily reach many bigwigs like Elon Musk and other up-and-coming CEOs and business leaders.
#2 Engage With Like-Minded Individuals
As a business owner, you have a chance to discuss various topics with likeminded individuals and this will help you in solving business problems. From accounting to seeking VC investments, you can listen in or make friends with entrepreneurs who have faced similar challenges and know the best solutions for each problem, allowing you to skirt around issues that may have cost you significant time and effort to resolve.
You can listen to popular business owners and participate in their discussions while engaging potential investors who can help you grow your business. Just like reading a book or listening to a podcast, you may come across 1 or 2 nuggets of wisdom that allow you to improve your productivity or sales by 5-10%, when compounded over time can become a significant advantage over your competitors.
#3 Share Your Expertise With The World
With the Clubhouse application, you can start chat rooms and share your work with the world immediately for free. You can initiate conversations in your areas of expertise. You can also help others to get quick answers to their questions, building your reputation in the process.
Start hosting daily chat rooms and AMAs (Ask Me Anything sessions), where you speak on various topics and answer people’s questions. You do not need to be a heavy social media user to participate in this exclusive community, but you will have fun connecting with people and sharing information with them, thereby gaining new ideas and potentially new leads and business connections.
#4 Great Networking Opportunities
The Clubhouse offers great networking opportunities with people across industries that represent Internet 2.0. That is why networking with Clubhouse gives a different feel compared to other social media apps. Now, it becomes easier to create and share online information or learning material on the platform, one of the reasons why it is a new social media darling.
Finally, people have a revolutionary app in their hands to build an immediate audience, share their thoughts, collaborate and/or communicate.
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For those who can see the potential in a budding social media giant, Clubhouse is a gold mine for nuggets of wisdom, potential opportunities and a soundboard to get feedback on your work or how to improve various facets of your business.
You can be a creator, speaker, investor or simply just a listener; Clubhouse is rewarding for its dynamic flow of conversations. If you apply critical thought, understand that not everything should be taken as gospel truth and accept that there may be times when misinformation occurs, Clubhouse may just be the right app for you, at just the right time.
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