What’s the Difference Between Clubhouse and Other Social Media?
While most social networks are similar in nature, allowing images, videos, and text communication, Clubhouse is different. Innovative. That’s because it uses live audio as the media format of choice.
This is a better form of interacting because it’s easier to have a conversation with someone when it’s in real-time. Plus, you’ll get the emotional impact and voice inflection from an audio-based conversation when you’re networking that you don’t get just by reading what someone posts.
When you’re part of Clubhouse, you get the opportunity to join in discussions that are taking place live. It happens in real-time, at all hours of the day and night, so if you miss that conversation, you don’t get a chance to go back and listen to it because nothing about the discussion gets saved.
The site has what are called rooms. You can choose to go into a room and listen to what everyone is talking about. There will be different topics, depending on the room you choose to enter.
Some users choose to open up their own room and hold a conversation with others. There’s no time limit on how long people in a room can converse. What makes Clubhouse special is that the focus is solely audio.
That means you’re not going to have to put up with scrolling through tons of posts to catch up on what’s going on. It also means that there are no comments posting where people are arguing or spewing nonsense.
Since it’s real-time, what Clubhouse does is bring back the humanity part of social interacting. You can’t send other members private messages, either, so there’s no “buy my product” or sales-type gimmicks going on in an inbox.
Instead, you get true value for your time. While you’re in a room, you can listen – and if you have something to contribute, you can go onto what’s called the stage. The rooms can be moderated, and the moderators can choose who gets to speak.
You can glean a lot of information from people from all walks of life as well as professionals or those who are experts in any given field. If you have something valuable to contribute to the conversations, that increases your potential to network within the site.
The thing that makes Clubhouse invitations highly sought after is that it’s currently not open for everyone. This gives it that exclusivity missing from other social media sites.
In addition to the real-time conversations taking place, the site doesn’t allow for any private messaging.
That means you won’t deal with the hassle of having strangers reaching out to you, which can sometimes be alarming, depending on their behavior. If there’s a connection to be made, it’s all within the rooms and public to everyone in attendance.
During the conversations, you might get the opportunity to share more of your input by stepping up to the stage. This is a great opportunity for you to share value and build a good reputation.
Finding Connections That Matter
Just as with other social media platforms, it’s the connections that you make that provide the most value to you. You should make it your driving goal on this site to locate the people you want to learn from – and lead.
This might be comedians, musicians, or others in the entertainment field. Or, it can be marketers or branding experts – other people who are creating a business. Many of these connections may offer the opportunity to take part in a Q & A session.
Many of the connections you can find here are people who already have a huge following on other social media sites. What you want to focus on is finding the people who will want to follow you as well.
That’s how you build your brand on the site. The way to find someone on the platform isn’t that difficult. There’s a search feature that will allow you to go through the member list.
Unlike other social media sites, there’s no way you can hide your profile. So anyone who joins will be able to see who you are as well as be able to read the information you put in your profile’s bio.
As soon as you join, you’ll be able to access the various rooms. When you see these rooms, the app will show you who’s in the room. Sometimes, the room will be packed with participants, but other times, there may only be a handful of people.
As soon as you go into a room, you’ll be able to hear the conversation that’s taking place. But you don’t automatically get the chance to share your thoughts or give advice, because whoever set the room up determines the flow of the conversation by allowing which speaker gets to talk.
If they don’t choose you, then you won’t get to speak. Connecting with others happens because of the links to your other social media sites that you’ll share on the platform. You need to have an iPhone to join, and then you’ll download the app and sign up if no one has given you an invitation yet.
You might interact with other small business owners or CEOs of Fortune 500 companies. Once you do find people with who you want to interact, you’ll be able to use those connections to further your knowledge or build your brand or business.
If you want to, though, you can mutually follow each other and will have the option of creating a private room with someone else so that the two of you – or a handful of people – can carry on a conversation all together on the site.
Because there’s no one area of posts to check out like there is on other social media sites, you won’t glean much if you don’t take part in the room conversations. The biggest benefit to being a part of Clubhouse is all the networking that you can do.
Because of the exclusivity of the site, there are a lot of big names there. You’ll find business leaders and gurus that you wouldn’t normally be able to have a conversation with on there.
You’ll have the chance to interact with these people. To grow your connections faster, you’ll want to join the clubs that are on the platform. If you’re new, you might not know all the clubs that are available.
To find the clubs that might interest you, check out which clubs other members belong to. You’ll find this information at the bottom of a member’s profile if they’re in a club. If it looks like something that might interest you, you can join. The clubs can be arranged by niche, jobs, special interests, hobbies, and more.
Step Up on a Virtual Stage
As soon as you open up the Clubhouse app, you’ll enter a hallway. This is the area that shows users what the active rooms are. Plus, you’ll see the events that are going to take place as well as the plus sign followed by the “Start a room” ability.
Once you enter the room that you choose, you’ll hear the conversation taking place and you’ll automatically part of the audience. If you decide you want to speak up, you’ll have to choose to raise your hand.
It’s up to the room creator or moderator to decide if you get to speak on the stage. You don’t have to worry about everyone talking over each other because Clubhouse doesn’t give this option.
The person who runs the room can mute or boot the speaker. In the room, you’ll be able to identify who the moderator is as well as who the speakers are. You’ll see this information at the top.
The top is known as the stage in each individual room. Anyone who’s being recognized as a speaker is on the stage. You’ll be able to see their profile photo as well as who they are.
There will be an icon on the speaker’s photo if they’re currently muted. You’ll also be able to see who the moderator is. What you want to be careful about is that you know what’s going on in the room’s conversation.
If the conversation is about one topic, and you get accepted on stage to speak and find you’re on a completely different track, you’ll get muted or booted. So take some time to familiarize yourself with the topic and what’s being said so that you not only know but that also you’re not rehashing what’s already been said.
Be humble. Realize that there may be others in the room who know more than you. Talk about what you know or have experienced when you’re on stage, rather than sharing information with no facts to back it up.
If you’re speaking spontaneously about your niche topic, you can talk about the aspects you love about it, as well as what you don’t. You can take about common mistakes or current issues that need addressing within the niche or within your business and ask for advice – or give some.
You can explain how a problem cropped up and how you solved it. Or address their problems. Paying attention to the conversation prior to speaking on stage lets you find out where the audience is struggling. You’ll be able to identify their pain or problem, and by talking about solutions, the audience will find value in what you say.
Tips on Drawing a Large Crowd
The site uses followers to draw in a crowd as one way to create the opportunity to go viral. If you have a connection on the site and that person becomes a speaker, you’ll get a notice.
It’s the same way with you. Once you start speaking, those in your following list will get notified and can drop in on the conversation. You can go from a handful of people listening to thousands.
The more you interact within a room and the more you speak on stage, the more followers you’ll gain. But there are a few key tips to making sure you draw a large crowd that can lead you to viral fame on the platform.
The first is content. You must have something of value to talk about. That goes for any room that you’re in – even if you’re in a hobby room or just chatting about an interesting topic.
Have something to add to the conversation that invokes emotion or informs. Tap into the audience’s emotion and they’re with you. But you can only do this if you understand your audience.
That’s why you need to get to know the people in the room or in the club. The better you know or understand them, the more likely it is that you’ll go viral. Say something that matters and people will talk about it and you.
They’ll check out your links and seek to connect with you elsewhere. This grows your followers. Who you know also matters on Clubhouse. You need to follow the people who are influencers and get them to follow you.
Network with these people and engage with them for the purpose of pairing up. When you join with an influencer, it grows your own following. People will start talking about the content that you’re sharing.
You’ll come across as someone who’s “in the know” and others will want to be part of your world. Make sure that you’re relatable. No one can relate to perfect people. But they can relate to those who’ve felt their pain or struggle – or someone who shares a like-minded dream.
It gives a sense of camaraderie that you “get it.” People will flock to those they can relate to and this can create a viral situation for you. When you speak or interact, give the listeners what’s important and don’t ramble.
Be on their level – even if you have a lot more experience or you’re further along in the journey than they are. Leave room for a two-way interaction or conversation. You build relationships, make connections, gain followers, and end up going viral this way.
Generating Product Ideas from Clubhouse
You might not have realized this yet, but Clubhouse is a place that’s ripe for potential product ideas that you can tap into. It’s also a great place where you can get the ideas that you may have already turned into products checked out by others.
The first thing you want to do is identify what’s missing or wanted in someone’s life. There are so many rooms with a lot of people talking about what they need. You can mine these conversations to find out what they feel they’re missing or what it is that would be helpful to them.
Sometimes during a conversation, someone might throw out a wish that has to do with a business or a personal need. You can dig through the conversations to find product ideas based on solving people’s problems.
You can also look for ways to improve on competitor’s products and bring something better to the marketplace. For example, you might be in a room that’s related to the music industry and someone suggests a need for better distribution services.
That might spark the idea for you to create that service. Or you might come across an audience where some members are looking for better software within a niche. You might realize that you can provide that answer.
You can crowdsource information to help you generate product ideas. You might have an idea, but you’re wondering how it’ll go over with the public. You can use the audience to test that idea.
But be aware that others who are listening might run with it, too. You can present it to the audience in order to gauge their reaction and interest. This will let you see what’s helpful, especially if a large number of people like it.
You’ll know then that you’re on to something that could potentially be a good money maker for your business. Using your followers or club members can allow you to screen as well as test your existing ideas.
You can get valuable feedback from the opinions of others and even find beta testers to try it out. You’ll be able to interact directly with the people to find out what they thought was helpful or what they enjoyed about the idea.
But you can also find out about glitches or problems before you take the product idea to market. This is especially helpful for solo entrepreneurs who may not have a thriving subscriber base yet, but who need real feedback.
Clubhouse also has the potential for you to put your foot in your mouth, if you’re not careful. When you’re posting on a site like Facebook, you can think it through before you hit publish.
But if you’re speaking off the cuff, or someone challenges you in a belligerent manner, you have to be careful not to be inflammatory to a degree where you might alienate your audience or develop a bad reputation.
Instead, focus on using the platform as a tool to help you present your value to an online audience, as well as make lasting connections with others who can help grow your business.