Whatever your activity field is, you must have already heard of Clubhouse app.
You might have already joined the social network or only heard about it on forums or other groups. Whichever situation you’re in, read this article to get to know how you can make the most of the latest hotspot of social networks.
What is Clubhouse?
How to join Clubhouse
How to set up a Clubhouse profile
– Your Bio on Clubhouse
– Add a picture to your Clubhouse profile
– Link your Twitter and Instagram accounts to Clubhouse
How to use Clubhouse
– Clubhouse Hallway
– Clubhouse Rooms
– Types of Members in the Rooms
Reasons You Should Join Clubhouse
What is Clubhouse?
Clubhouse is a voice-based invite-only social network for iOS devices, centered around rooms where people can have conversations about different topics. You start out as a listener in every room and can be upgraded to a speaker at the choice of a moderator, or you can create a room of your own where you can invite friends and other people around the world to debate topics of interest.
In a time when every social network’s success is measured on how many users log in per day or how many they have acquired in a small amount of time, Clubhouse comes and breaks all those rules, being an invite-only social network working on iOS devices only (iPhone, iPad, iPod).
They have, from the start, based their model on exclusivity and only the ones that have been lucky enough to have been invited could join.
Clubhouse, the audio-only social network, brings to the market more privacy than all the others – but more about this in the next chapters. After all the scandals around the world on data breaches, Clubhouse is a breath of fresh air in what privacy is concerned.
During the last years we have always heard that audio is king and that it will grow and become more and more used and here’s the proof: Clubhouse has been following the trend and even moved it further in creating a social network about it.
How to join Clubhouse
As we already said before, Clubhouse only works on iOS for the moment and everyone wished it worked on Android as well or hopes it will do soon.
And it is an invite-only social network. So if you know someone that’s already in, you should talk to them ASAP and check if they have an invitation for you.
If they do, make sure they have your correct phone number, because the invitation is sent by iMessage. You can only register with the phone number you’ve received the invitation on. So check prefixes, the right order of the numbers and everything before providing your phone number.
A second way to join Clubhouse is by registering on a waiting list. You download the app, select a username and the contacts that are already in receive a notification about it and can directly send you an invitation, if they have one available. If they don’t, you just have to wait for your turn.
How to set up a Clubhouse profile
After you have been lucky enough to join Clubhouse through one of the options mentioned above, you can start setting up your profile.
Your Bio on Clubhouse
Just like any other social network, Clubhouse lets you write an introduction about yourself: who you are, what you do and any other details that you consider relevant for both your industry or other industries you might have a relevant word to say in.
Choose a username that can easily be recognizable when talking about you: whether it’s your real name or a nickname you’re known in your industry by.
Be concise when writing your bio and make sure that the information you write within the first three rows is the most relevant because it’s the preview everyone will see along with your profile picture.
Select your interests and based on those and the people you follow you will receive suggestions of rooms to join.
You won’t be able though to add any external link to your bio. The only clickable external options that you are given are your Instagram and Twitter profiles. That’s it. And you can choose to use them, or not and still be comfortable about it.
Still want to add links to your profile, despite the fact that no one can click on them? Make sure they are representative – such as your personal or your business’ website – and concise. So that people can easily remember them and write them in their browser.
Add a picture to your Clubhouse profile
Looks are important and if you look as professional as you can get, you can gain more traction with discussions and interactions.
Choose as your profile picture one that represents you and where you can be easily recognizable.
Showing your face in a portrait where you’re smiling is a good tip because you show that you are willing to get into a conversation and also look professional. Because you never know who you’re going to meet there and what kind of opportunities will arise.
Link your Twitter and Instagram accounts to Clubhouse
If you want other users to connect with you on other social platforms as well, you can add your Twitter or Instagram accounts to Clubhouse. The only clickable actions you can do on this social network.
The actions to take to add those two profiles are the following: go to the bottom of your profile within the app and when you see “Add Twitter” and “Add Instagram”, tap on whichever you want first. You will be taken to both Twitter or Facebook to log in to the social networks and then your profiles will appear on your profile.
You can, at any time, disconnect them. You just scroll down on your profile again, tap the “Disconnect Twitter” or “Disconnect Instagram” buttons and your profiles will be deleted.
How to use Clubhouse
Now that you know how to set up your profile in a professional way, what’s left is to tell you how you can use Clubhouse to your advantage; how does it work and who can you find there.
Clubhouse Hallway
Hallway is the main screen of the app.
You can find there:
- rooms where people you follow or interests you are into are live at the moment you enter the screen;
- search for a member if you know their name or handle;
- invite new users;
- check the calendar for the events you have registered to;
- see notifications about who else has joined, who followed you or topics you are into;
- start your own room with a topic you would like to develop or find out more from other experts in the specific field.
Clubhouse Rooms
Rooms are the places to go when you want to talk about a specific topic or a random one, depending on how you feel at the moment or that are available. If you don’t find any room that suits your needs, you can easily start one yourself. And if others are interested in your topic, they will join.
There are two types of rooms available on Clubhouse:
- the private ones that you can create with your friends and talk about whatever you please. No one else than the ones invited can join nor find the room.
- the public ones are the ones that you can join or leave at any time. They are based on specific topics. With their latest update, it is now possible to search for a member in the room or share it with others that might be interested in it.
Types of Members in the Rooms
When we’re talking about the public rooms, there are three types of members you will meet in every room you might join. Those are the following:
1. The Moderator(s)
Every room will have one or several moderators. Those are the people that lead the discussions around, invite or allow others to talk and take part in the conversations. You can also upgrade or downgrade other moderators’ status.
In order to become a moderator, you have two options:
- open a room;
- ask some other moderator to promote you to the same status.
2. The Speaker(s)
As a speaker, you are invited to the room’s stage to talk about the topic you are into. As you want to take the floor, you must unmute the microphone and do the talking. When you’re done, it is nice to mute your microphone and let the others do the talking.
Depending on the size of the room, moderators can choose how many speakers they bring to the stage and how many questions/ answers they are allowed to share with the audience.
Another way to become a speaker, other than being invited by a moderator is to raise your hand. You can do that by tapping the hand button on the bottom of the screen and a moderator will allow you to talk.
3. The Listeners
What the majority of the people on Clubhouse are. When you first join a room, you do it as a listener. You just sit there and listen to what others have to say. If you want to express your opinion, you can raise your hand. Depending on how often you joined a specific room, a moderator can turn you into a speaker at a certain time.
Remember: when you are a listener, you always have your microphone on mute, until you get the chance to speak.
Reasons You Should Join Clubhouse
And here there’s no right or wrong answer. Because the reasons can differ so much from one person to another.
See some of them here:
Podcasting
Yes, podcasting can be a reason to join Clubhouse. It’s audio and encrypted. If you don’t necessarily have a platform to record a podcast, you can do it here. Start a room, invite a second or third moderator to join your cause and launch it out there. If other users are interested in your topic or guest, they will join and listen to a very authentic podcast, live streamed. No edits, no cuts, just people taking.
Get in touch with experts in your field of interests
There has been no greater time than this one when it’s about getting in touch with so many professionals from over the seas.
Have you always been dreaming of talking to experts in your field or just listen to Elon Musk talking about entrepreneurship? It is possible to do it now. Just follow them on Clubhouse and you will be notified when they are part of a room and you can also join to either listen or talk to them. This is a new way of networking with people that were this accessible before.
Brainstorming
Let’s say you talk on the phone, you can’t always make a conference with clients and colleagues when it comes to brainstorming. Or you just don’t want to use any chat app to do this. Then the simplest solution is to create or be invited to join a private room on Clubhouse and do it there. And what’s best about it is that you can have your phone locked and still hear what others are talking about in the room. So you can just leave it aside, participate in the conversation and take notes at the same time.
Building up communities
Maybe the most important part of a social network that Clubhouse still has is the building of the community side. Once you start rooms on certain topics and people recurrently join them, you can create clubs. And all the people that are interested in the topic can subscribe to it.
A club is a place where you can hold either private or public conversations, depending on the mood or people that have joined it.
There would be so much more to talk about the new buzz in the world of social media, but we’re waiting to see other updates and what will it bring to the stage.
Are you an iOS user? Then don’t hesitate to join Clubhouse for the reasons below, and we’re sure you’ll also find others that will fit your needs!
And if social media is your jam, check out our article about the best social media engagement tools to discover which one is good for you, and overcoming the dread of managing social media will be a thing of the past!
