Have you heard about the Clubhouse app?
But you have no idea what it is or how it works? Or maybe you even feel a little skeptical to join?
Well in this post we want to help cure all your headaches and frustrations and show you everything you need to know to be a pro at Clubhouse, step by step.
Let’s get to it!
What Is The Clubhouse App?
So essentially, Clubhouse is a live audio app with a very interesting experience.
In this app, users can walk into a room, listen in on a variety of different discussions, and contribute to the discussion.
But that is only if the moderator allows them to speak.
You can imagine walking into a conference or big event like SXSW and there are a lot of different Q&A workshops going on.
The Clubhouse app is similar to that except the conference never ends.
You don’t see the live faces of people, and you don’t even see pictures or videos.
But, you can listen and talk to others as if you were on a conference call.
Probably the most interesting thing about the Clubhouse is that rooms are not recorded. So after the discussion ends, it is gone forever.
So it takes some of the pressure off the people in the room.
And the conversation is treated like a conversation you would have with a group of people at lunch.
BUT it also creates an incredible amount of urgency by creating FOMO (fear of missing out).
That’s why users seem to stick nicely on the platform.
Now this is great if you are in business and you want to build brand awareness or you are trying to improve your marketing.
The amazing thing about the Clubhouse app is you can connect with people easily from all over the world.
It’s like networking on steroids.
You can join rooms on topics that you enjoy while simultaneously connecting with people who enjoy those topics as well. And instantly connect.
Now we’ve identified some of the things the pros have been doing on the Clubhouse app, and want to share them with you.
Alright, let’s dive in!
Top 5 New Clubhouse App Updates
1. Clubhouse App Rooms Functions
The first thing you need to know about is how rooms on the Clubhouse app function.
A room in Clubhouse is like a room you would walk into during a presentation.
When you walk inside a room, there is usually a speaker or sometimes multiple speakers on stage.
When you get inside a room, you’ll see several options.
a. If you get into the room and you don’t like it, you can choose to leave quietly.
b. And you can also choose to raise your hand. When you do, the moderators are notified and can choose to bring you up on stage to add to the discussion or ask questions.
c. Sometimes the raise hand feature will be grayed out.
And that is because the speaker wants to finish his thoughts before hearing from the audience and doesn’t want to be distracted.
That is usually turned back on when the speaker is done.
d. If you are really enjoying the room and have some friends/followers you want to invite, you can hit the plus sign to invite others into the room.
e. You can tell who is speaking because they’ll have a little shape around their head and usually bounce a little bit.
g. The mute sign in the bottom right corner is how you mute and unmute yourself.
This is especially important if you’re on stage and you are not talking, because you don’t want to distract everybody with your background noise.
Now, a cool thing users are doing is if they are on stage and love what the speaker is saying, then they will mute and unmute themselves quickly.
This is to signal that they are clapping their hands or agreeing with what the speaker says.
Now here’s where networking starts to come into play. When you’re in a room, you can click on anyone and immediately see their bio.
When you click on their bio and swipe up, you can start seeing more information about them such as:
- how many followers they have,
- their full bio, and
- even some of their social media accounts
And one important note is that at this time, you cannot send direct or private messages on Clubhouse.
So, if someone wants to send a message to you via text, then it’s important you have your social media accounts connected.
You can also see who they are following and when you do that, you can see what clubs they are following as well as who they are following.
And this gives a great insight into their social circle and may give you some ideas on who to connect with for yourself.
At the bottom of a user profile, you can see what clubs they are a member of.
Now, clubs are the big value opportunities on the clubhouse app.
This is where brands and businesses can create content and start developing a deeper relationship with their audience.
Someone joining your club is like someone who decides to:
- follow you on Instagram,
- become a fan of your Facebook business page, or
- subscribe to your YouTube channel
Starting a club, getting your audience to join, and being active is what can bring you a lot of business value on Clubhouse.
So you can click on a club that someone is a member of and see what the club is all about.
You can see who created the club, follow the members, and of course, join the rooms.
There are clubs on almost everything you can imagine. There are:
- car clubs,
- business clubs,
- reality tv show clubs,
…and so on.
The bottom line is the core of the Clubhouse app is clubs.
Now when you are on someone’s profile, you have a few different options.
You can click a bell to get notifications and you can see 3 different options.
- always
- sometimes
- never ever
So the awesome part of this Clubhouse app is that whenever someone you know goes on stage, you can get notified and listen in.
So if your best friend is brought up on a stage in the Clubhouse app, you can stop what you are doing and immediately listen to what they’re going to say.
It’s like being connected to your best friend 24/7 on the Clubhouse app.
Pretty cool.
By default, the notifications are set to “sometimes.”
But even that can get crazy because some people take the stage a lot. So you have to choose wisely.
And when you choose always, it turns the icon to this shape here.
Now to the right of “Following” is a little star icon, and when you click it, it shows suggestions of other people you can follow who are similar to that user.
2. How to Set up Your Profile
You will see your picture or grayed-out profile picture in the top right corner.
From here, you can edit your profile.
a. Settings
Under your Settings, it’s recommended that you change your notifications to not include trending rooms.
Additionally, you’ll want to turn the frequency to very infrequent.
Otherwise, you’re going to get bombarded with a lot of constant notifications throughout the day.
Also in Settings, you are able to change what interests you have, which will help the Clubhouse algorithm better serve you.
b. The Hallway
When you click this icon, you are set back into what is called the “Hallway” on Clubhouse.
In here, you are going to see other rooms that you could join.
Those rooms are based on your interest, the clubs you are in, and the people that you follow.
c. Start a Room
Now when you scroll down to the bottom, you’re going to see this big green button that says “Start a room.”
You can create 3 different kinds of rooms – an open room, social room, and closed rooms.
- Open rooms – are random rooms that you can create that people from all over can choose to hop into.
- Social rooms – are rooms only available to the people who are following you.
- Close rooms – are for people who you specifically decide to invite.
A critical part of starting a room is to add a topic.
And your topic is like your headline. The amount of users that decide to click and join your room will often depend on how appealing your headline is.
You can always edit your topic before you launch your room, but, you cannot do so after the room has already started.
So make sure you have no typos in your titles otherwise you’ll likely have to start the room over again and that could lead to some people dropping off.
Also, we recommend adding emojis and attractive phrases to catch more attention.
When you are starting a room, it’s a good idea to assign moderators so they can help you manage it. This is especially true if you have a big room.
Moderators have the ability to:
- bring people on stage,
- put them back into the audience,
- mute people who are on stage,
- add new moderators, and
- turn on or off the hand-raising feature inside of a room
d. Who’s Online
Now going back to the Hallway, if you swipe right, you can see which people you are following are online and what rooms they are in.
For example, we can see that Vante Poole is in this room and was currently active 1 hour ago.
To the right, you will see this green plus room button. If you click on that you will invite that person to a private room.
So don’t click that unless you really want to talk to them one on one.
e. Explore Content
Now if you still want to explore content, you can go to the Hallway and click the magnifying glass which will help you discover new people and clubs.
You can type in “seanstandberry” for example and you’ll find one of LYFE’s co-founders. You can also look for specific clubs as well.
Also in Explore, you will see the People to Follow section.
These are going to be first filled with people who you have the phone number of and have Clubhouse accounts.
After that, you are going to start seeing people that the Clubhouse algorithm recommends.
This again is based on your interest, who you follow, and the clubs you follow or are a member of.
As you continue to scroll down, you will start to see:
- a directory of categories
- clubs
- and people on Clubhouse
3. Invitations
As of now, Clubhouse is an invite-only app which means you have to be invited to the app by someone who is already a user in order for you to join.
The envelope with the star at the top is where you will see how many invitations you have to give others.
It’s important to know that you can only invite people who have an iPhone or iPad at this time. And they have to be on your phone’s contact list.
You can get more invites simply by being active on the platform and people accepting your invitations.
For instance, one of our team members who is on Clubhouse says that he started with no invitations.
Then he got 3 invitations and he earned up to 5 invitations.
Now you may be wondering why invitations are so important.
Well on your profile, people can see who invited you to the platform. And it stays there forever.
So essentially if you invite someone and they end up being a really active user of the Clubhouse app, they will naturally attract thousands of followers.
And possibly even millions of followers.
So since you invited them, you will also get thousands and possibly millions of impressions.
And that is simply by being the one who invited them to the platform.
So it’s important to invite the right people, but also invite as many people as you can because you never know who will become a rising star.
4. Calendar
So now going back to the Hallway, you will see an icon at the top that looks like a calendar.
It’s going to show you all the scheduled events that have started in the last hour or are starting soon.
And if you see an event that you like, you can click the notification bell to be alerted when the room is active.
You can also:
- get a preview of the event,
- look at what it’s about,
- who started it,
- view their profiles, and
- you can even share it if you want to get others to be aware of it as well
If you don’t see any events you like, you can scroll up and select all upcoming events which will give you more options.
Now keep in mind that not all rooms are scheduled. In fact, most rooms are not scheduled.
So it’s important to go down your Hallway, to see what rooms are open as well.
And turn your notifications on for people or clubs you definitely don’t want to miss.
5. How You Can Get Discovered
So of course, you want to make sure you are doing the basics right.
You need a great bio, preferably adding things that make you credible like your accomplishments.
And as we mentioned, you want to have your accounts on the best social media platforms connected.
Also, you want to invite as many people as you can so you can show up on other people’s profiles.
But after that is done, then what? There are two things that we think will help you earn more connections through the Clubhouse app.
a. Use rich keywords
Clubhouse, like other social networks and search engines, is driven by keywords.
So when people are looking for clubs or people to follow, you want to think about which keywords they may search for.
And then, make sure your rooms or profile includes some of those keywords.
How you use keywords in Clubhouse is similar to what you would typically do for your SEO campaign.
For example, when we search for sports cars, these profiles and clubs come up.
So think about how you can do that within your particular niche and interests.
b. Get on stage
When you have an opportunity to speak in the room, people who are in the room naturally will want to click on your bio and learn more about who you are.
Unlike most other social media platforms, you have an opportunity to showcase more about yourself, which could instantly build connections.
We’ve seen people grow their followers by thousands just by getting on stage and speaking to the right room.
Final Takeaway On The Clubhouse App
So there you have it! Everything you need to know about the Clubhouse app in 2024.
We think this platform has enormous value for content creators and people who are trying to build their brand.
So if you are still exploring ways to grow and haven’t committed to any channel yet, then Clubhouse could be a very good option for you.
But if you want more, guaranteed results from your marketing campaigns, our social media management company is happy to help.
Contact us today at 404-596-7925.
