Are you on Clubhouse yet? You’ve probably been asked this a few times by now. And you may be wondering, “what is Clubhouse, and why should I care?”
The audio chat app has gained notoriety for its exclusivity and has quickly become unofficially known as the “chat with celebrities app.”
The Clubhouse app is an audio communication platform. Imagine a live podcast where you are in an audience that can actively participate. It’s not as complicated or intimidating as it may first appear.
But why are the likes of Elon Musk, Oprah, Gary Vee, and Larry Kim spending their late nights mingling on the Clubhouse platform?
With a waitlist of:
- 6 million people deep,
- 300,000 “successful” rooms per day,
- And the average user spending appx. 60 mins per day listening (reported by Alex Heath, The Information).
You might be wondering what all the hype is about. Why are celebrities in Clubhouse? What is Clubhouse anyways?
Three words: Engagement and Explosive Growth. More on that to come, but first, a little background.
The launch of the invite-only Clubhouse social media app was at the right place at the right time in April 2020.
The Clubhouse app is a live audio app with no records, cultivating an intense FOMO and inspiring authentic conversations. The techie tool of course has its roots in Silicon Valley.
Who created Clubhouse? In March 2020, Paul Davison and Rohan Seth of Alpha Exploration Co. created Clubhouse.
The Clubhouse app gained momentum during the pandemic when cabin fever hit all-time highs for many, and even the most introverted among us were reminiscing an awkward in-person mixer event.
The Clubhouse app is super simple. Yet, many creative uses make it highly dynamic and engaging.
It’s like inviting a group of friends over for dinner and discussing a project you’re excited about.
It’s just a conversation.
Visual people will have to articulate what is on their minds.
It’s kind of like sales. People tend to complicate it with lots of methods and tools, which are all helpful and have their place. But essentially, making sales and being a good salesperson is just having a conversation.
Clubhouse is a great place to start improving your social and communication skills. It’s less intimidating than Speech 101, and you can always bail if you choke or start rambling incoherently.
But, don’t I need a Clubhouse invitation?
The first rule of Clubhouse is… you do not join Clubhouse.
This was a manipulative and psychological mastermind ploy to drive our FOMO minds mad.
It worked.
Clubhouse has 10 million downloads as of Feb. 2021 and appx. 2 million weekly active users.
Remember, those numbers are condensed — this is where the exclusivity with Clubhouse invites comes into play.
Not to mention that celebrities like Mark Zuckerberg and Kanye West are dropping exclusive unrecorded once-in-a-lifetime knowledge and info bombs left and right.
Clubhouse App Tip: You cannot record audio on the Clubhouse app and will be suspended indefinitely. Not to mention, it’s generally frowned upon in the community.
You’re ready to join the VIP party, but first, you will have to find out how to get a Clubhouse invite. No problem!
Android Disclaimer: Clubhouse is only for iPhone at the moment, sorry Bill Gates. ?
However, the Clubhouse app for Android is on the horizon. ?
Clubhouse co-founder Paul Davison mentioned during a weekly Townhall event that the Clubhouse app will come to Android in late Spring or Summer of 2021.
How to Get Clubhouse Invite
- Ask a friend who already has Clubhouse. Every new user account is granted at least 2 Clubhouse invite codes. Just make sure they have your phone number saved in their phone.
- Head to the Clubhouse app website and sign up. If you’re lucky, any of your contacts who are already members might receive a notification that you signed up and can invite you.
- Crowdsource invite codes from social media. Check hashtags like #Clubhouse for resources. Highly active users are awarded additional Clubhouse invites.
How to Use Clubhouse
You’re in! Congrats! ? Now what? Don’t worry. We’re going to break it down for you.
From the main Clubhouse screen:
– You can tap the envelope icon for your invites.
– The calendar for various rooms and daily schedules of happenings on topics you’ve expressed interest in.
– The bell icon is for activity or notifications. This is where you’ll see who has followed you and when.
Also on this home screen is what rooms are popular and happening live right now, in order of popularity.
Jump into a room, get your feet wet and see what’s happening!
You can easily leave a room, just one quick tap away.
Once inside a room, you will see the Clubhouse speakers listed first and the person currently speaking outlined. In the above screenshot, Todd is currently speaking.
The muted microphone next to a person’s name means that person can speak and be a part of the conversation.
All of the people below without a muted microphone are the people followed by the speakers. And further down is everyone else in the room.
If you tap the plus sign on the bottom of the screen, you can invite or ping someone into the room.
Raise your hand! ?
The raised hand icon does what you might expect. It alerts the speakers that you have a question or even moves you right into the speakers section.
This is your time to shine! Be prepared to share your thoughts with the room.
If you get nervous, just imagine everyone in their underwear, right? (They might be, you never know!)
That old saying is terrible advice. What you need to do is see everyone in the room as equals, put your shoulders back, and speak your mind. You can add value to any conversation.
Or just be a listener. It’s equally valuable and entertaining!
How to Create a Room in the Clubhouse App
Next up in our exploration of how does Clubhouse work is how to create your own room.
You’ve joined, you’ve listened, and now you’re ready to partake and conquer Clubhouse! ?
To create a Clubhouse room, tap on “Start a Room.”
Choose your privacy options:
- Open – public and available to all.
- Social – only for people you follow.
- Closed – only people you select can join.
You can always change this mid-course if you started with a “Closed” or “Social” and want to open it up to more people.
Then you can pick a topic, which is totally up to you.
Set the tone for the room to be serious or silly, professional or casual, etc.
Tap “Set Topic” and then “?Let’s Go!”
Why Is Everyone So Obsessed With the Clubhouse App?
Now that we’ve covered “what is Clubhouse and how does it work?” are you still wondering “what is Clubhouse used for anyways?” Or perhaps, “is Clubhouse a dating app?”
Let’s dissect what’s happening on the audio-only Clubhouse social media app.
There is more intrinsic value than being “exclusive” or the FOMO effect.
Clubhouse has become a place of mythic legend business deals. It’s becoming a new version of Shark Tank.
With enough conversational swagger, you can easily rub shoulders with angel investors and raise capital.
Startups are getting funding, partnerships are being made, and Larry Kim has hacked it into a lead generation machine!
Check out Larry’s Top 10 Instagram Marketing Growth Hacks video for a surprising and highly effective way to send Clubhouse traffic to your Instagram pages and other marketing funnels.
On top of all the unicorn networking stories is the Clubhouse app’s newness. Right now is a prime digital marketing land grab for establishing your brand or business on Clubhouse.
If you are a marketer, then you might be curious how to leverage Clubhouse for lead gen. Or perhaps thinking, “how can I make money with Clubhouse?”
With no paid advertising on the Clubhouse platform, no DMs, and no clickable links, it seems far-fetched, but Customers.ai has cracked the Clubhouse code for you!
Clubhouse Growth Hacks
There are many ways to grow your Clubhouse account, but how about driving that growth towards a more lucrative lead magnet?
First, define your goals. ?
Do you want to drive traffic to your website or Instagram, or any other social pages?
Next, sign up for Customers.ai Instagram Tools. It’s still free!
Next, start building your following on Clubhouse.
There are many different ways to build your following, but here are some surefire methods to build a following on Clubhouse.
- Optimize your Clubhouse bio. You want to include the what, why, and who with a CTA lead magnet. An entire article could be dedicated to this, similarly to a business bio for Instagram. But for our “what is Clubhouse” purposes, we will stick to the basics.
- Target and follow people, rooms, and groups.
- Add CTAs to your Clubhouse bio.
- Engage with people that are interesting or knowledgeable in your industry.
Easier said than done, I know, but you will naturally become more comfortable and conversational as you start participating in more rooms.
Perhaps even host a room, be proactive, and you will quickly gain followers.
What is Clubhouse? Explosive Growth Hack #1: Link to Instagram From Your Clubhouse Bio
Larry Kim found a way that generated over 50,000 leads from Clubhouse in just one month, and you can use his same method!
There aren’t many options for a clickable link on Clubhouse, so make use of that Instagram page link!
Verbally ask in rooms to drive Instagram traffic and spell it out in your bio for Clubhouse users to DM you on Instagram.
Here’s the golden ticket, you can ask Clubhouse users to DM you a specific keyword for a free deliverable, such as “Clubhouse”.
Set up the Customers.ai Instagram Auto DM and sit back and watch the lead capture and convert magic happen.
What is Clubhouse? Growth Hack #2: Use Multiple CTAs in Your Clubhouse Bio
There are a few different creative ways to direct traffic to your Instagram page to kickstart your conversational lead gen drip sequence.
Here’s another example of sneaking in a CTA in your profile photo:
Don’t be afraid to be a bit repetitive with CTAs – you want to make it clear to message you on Instagram to tie in with your other marketing funnels.
What is Clubhouse? Growth Hack #3: Automatically Manage Your Clubhouse Leads With Customers.ai
Now that you are inundated with leads due to your well-crafted Clubhouse bio with a link to your Instagram and CTAs, you’ll want to manage those leads automatically.
For the longest time, influencers and brands have suffered the consequences of Insta fame with a deluge of DMs.
The DM inbox was a sorely outdated tool until Facebook updated its API to merge Instagram DM and Messenger.
As a 100% Instagram-approved automation solution, you can now harness the power of Customers.ai on Instagram.
With Customers.ai, all of your incoming leads, DMs, SMS, and other messages are all pulled into one convenient, user-friendly dashboard.
Respond to and sort through your DMs and lead nurturing the efficient way.
What is Clubhouse? Growth Hack #4: Follow Larry Kim @marketingceo
Don’t forget to keep a tab on some of the best digital marketers to follow for the latest growth tips and to grow your network.
If you want the best growth hacks for Clubhouse or Instagram, of course, follow the OG Unicorn Marketer!
See you on Clubhouse!