The wait is finally over. After remaining mysterious for over a year, Clubhouse has opened its doors for everyone. Despite being an invite-only app initially, its popularity had soared after personalities like Elon Musk, and Mark Zuckerberg showed up on Clubhouse.
This audio-only platform, whose beta version was launched in April 2020, has been an invite-only app for over a year. It was available on iOS only, but in May 2021, its beta testing started on Android. After all this testing, the app is fully functional now, and anyone can join it. Since July 21, 2021, when the app lifted the invite-only system, there have been over 10 million downloads.
Let’s start our exploration with a fundamental question.
What Exactly Is Clubhouse?
If we tell you to stop by to listen to what others are saying, you’ll probably call us bizzare. Well, this is exactly what is happening in the Clubhouse, and there’s nothing weird about it – that’s what the platform is meant to do! It is social networking over an audio chat – more like a podcast.
Clubhouse is a space where you can meet and interact with people from around the world. You can go online either to chat with those you follow or be a casual listener in one of the rooms.
Much before it started accepting anyone and everyone, this simple tool for conducting a conversation had become a rage among social media users. This platform gives everyone space to create their room. But this freedom didn’t go very well with China, and it banned the platform on February 8, 2021.
How To Get Started On Clubhouse
Not an invite-only app anymore, so you can head to App Store or Play Store and download the Clubhouse app. Interestingly, the app doesn’t have any official logo. The platform every month puts up a black and white picture of a real-life user of Clubhouse.
Currently, the platform uses the picture of Justin Meezy Wiliams, an entrepreneur, manager, and one of the all-around greatest people of Clubhouse.
Figure 1: The Clubhouse logo in August 2021. Source: Clubhouse
While some people are in awe of the innovative design choices, others think it makes it hard to find the app on their phone as the headshots keep changing every month. Regardless of the opinions, such an icon definitely shows that the platform focuses on democratizing things.
Getting On Board
1. Welcome to Clubhouse!
Figure 2: Welcome screen of Clubhouse.
2. Enter number
Once you download the app, the platform asks you for your phone number and sends you an OTP before you sneak in.
Figure 3: You need to put in your phone number.
3. What’s your name?
Once you feed your number, it will prompt you to put in your name.
Figure 4: At Clubhouse, you need to put in your full name.
4. What’s in a username?
And just like in Twitter, you need a handle; in Clubhouse, you got to have a username.
Figure 5: Choose a cool username for your Clubhouse ID.
5. Smile, please
Clubhouse will prompt you to use a photo once you are ready with a username. But it is up to you if you want to upload a picture or skip it for now. You can always come back and update it later.
Figure 6: Upload your profile picture.
6. Phone-a-friend
Next, the platform encourages you to connect it to your contact list to find friends. But you have the choice to skip it.
Figure 7: Do you want to give Clubhouse access to your contacts or not, is your choice.
7. Forging friendships
Even if you deny Clubhouse permission to access your contact list, once you enter the hallways, it will give options to make new friends.
Figure 8: You get to make some new friends, as it offers you a list of people.
8. Hello world!
Once you follow some people, the hallways doors open, you are ready to join a room or create your own.
Figure 9: You are all set for action on Clubhouse.
How To Get Involved In Clubhouse
Exploring the potential
You’re in! Now, the app has a lot for you to offer – a page full of topics to follow. You can choose your interests, anything from tech to knowledge to wellness, to faith. You think of it, and it is there. Choosing your interests will help you personalize the platform for you. There are no groups here, only rooms or clubs. In each club, you’ll find people interested in what you like, and you can follow them. As you start following more topics and people, you will start getting better suggestions.
Rooms appear and then disappear as conversations end. The Clubhouse team reports that around 500,000 rooms are created every single day. The conversations are recorded, however, these aren’t retained. Recordings are saved only in case someone files a complaint while the room is still live. This recording is discarded once the room is closed. The users, however, keep trying other methods to record chats.
Audience limit
Currently, one room can accommodate 5,000 people. But things can take a different turn if someone like Elon Musk comes calling. When Musk made his debut on Clubhouse early this year, users started live-streaming the conversation on YouTube — busting the room’s limit.
Getting on stage
The style for holding a conversation is pretty flexible. While in one room, it may sound like a casual conversation among friends, in the other, a manager might be interviewing candidates for a new vacancy. Ordinarily, like Zoom webinars, you can also raise your hand to put forth your point of view in Clubhouse. But it’s up to the room’s moderator if they want to let you talk or not.
Just for listening?
Yes and no! The Clubhouse app is built for conversations where you can listen or even choose to type it out. Clubhouse, in July 2021, launched “Backchannel” so that users can chat with their friends via direct messages (DMs). You can DM your friends if you all are in an active room or even after that. Speakers can use it to get audience feedback.
Anything for influencers?
Like any other platform, content creators can also make money by promoting products or services. Then there is something called paid rooms. Brands generally use these. To be a listener here, one needs to pay. And this is an excellent opportunity for you as an influencer. The brands could hire your services as a moderator or a guest speaker. Besides that, there is a direct contribution from listeners. Using the payment service, which you can find in the settings, the listeners can directly send money to their favorite influencer. Clubhouse doesn’t charge a dime!
Earlier, to promote those driving traffic, Clubhouse had launched a Creator First Accelerator Program. Its results are soon going to be out.
If you are wondering how things work on the brand’s side, read our blog to know more: Clubhouse Decoded: How Brands Should Approach For Max Audio Impact
How To Use Clubhouse
It is like any other medium, where you can exchange ideas. But where other mediums focus on a photograph, written word, or video, Clubhouse comes with a pleasant change. All you need to do is either speak or listen. It is like meeting a friend over a coffee in cyberspace. You can discuss anything and everything under the sun or even beyond it! All you need to do is search for different clubs or rooms that share your vision. You may not share all your likes and dislikes with one or two friends or even in a group of friends if you are an extrovert in real life. But in the cyber life of Clubhouse, you will find many friends with whom you can bond over different topics. Someone out there will share your tastes, for sure.
Clubhouse is being hailed as a possible place for healing rifts too. Various rooms allow people from around the world to come together and talk out their differences or present their side of the story. There are a variety of topics to bond on and to hold a debate over.
As an influencer, you might feel that Clubhouse being a new medium, might not generate income. But that’s entirely not true as we have already debunked this notion.
Need professional help with influencer marketing – and connecting with the right brands on Clubhouse? atisfyre is here to help. All you need to become your boss is sign up!
