“If you like a lot of chocolate on your biscuit, join our Club.” Similarly, if you would like a lot of tech-savvy visitors to your website, you might be tempted to… join the Clubhouse. However, is this audio-based social media platform simply an over-ambitious upstart or genuinely the future of digital marketing?
In any case, Clubhouse does seem to be becoming something of a pioneer – with Twitter having introduced a similar platform, Twitter Spaces, and Facebook reportedly working on a Clubhouse competitor. So, what exactly is Clubhouse – and should you think of trying to get your brand noticed on it?
Clubhouse is very much a virtual… clubhouse
If the name Clubhouse conveys a strong air of exclusivity in your mind, you probably wouldn’t be too surprised to see how this social network works. The only way to communicate on the platform is through audio chats that unfold in real time in dedicated “rooms” where both speakers and audiences are present.
It might all sound a lot like podcasting, but one major difference is that, on Clubhouse, the conversations are not recorded. Basically, if you don’t listen in on a chat while it’s actually happening, you miss out on that chat for good. By accident or design, this certainly plays on the dreaded FOMO (fear of missing out).
While a large variety of discussion topics has sprung up on Clubhouse, where high-profile speakers so far have included Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk and Barack Obama, Clubhouse membership remains an invite-only affair, while the app is currently iOS-exclusive – though Clubhouse plans to release an Android version.
If you do get a Clubhouse invite, should you accept it?
Of course, the fact that you can’t simply sign up an account on Clubhouse unprompted, and instead have to wait for someone else to approve you for membership first, could lead you to wonder whether there is currently much of an audience worth wooing on Clubhouse anyway.
However, the prestige that comes with being one of the chosen few means that, when someone does join Clubhouse, they are likely to want to listen attentively to what audio chats they hear there. This opens up some exciting opportunities for you if you know how to take particularly strong advantage of them.
How should you start your Clubhouse journey?
If you land Clubhouse membership and load the app, you will enter a digital “hallway” where the currently accessible “rooms” are listed. There will be talking happening in each of those rooms, but you should be selective about which of them you join as you endeavour to build a following.
At least initially, you should avoid those rooms with thousands of attendees, as you are much likelier to get noticed in smaller rooms that have just, say, 20 to 30 people. Sooner or later, you could get invited to speak – and that would be a valuable chance to show the authenticity we can help your brand to demonstrate through various means of social media marketing, not just spreading the word on Clubhouse.
