As a brand strategist, I’m always asking myself the question – “What makes this addictive, attractive, engaging?”. I love that question and the psychology of why we love what we love can teach us so much of what may be missing in our own businesses. 

I recently joined Clubhouse in January 2021 but the app started in 2020 and by May 2020 it was valued at $100m.  Now before we dive in, the question is – What is Clubhouse?.  They describe it as –  “a new type of social product based on voice [that] allows people everywhere to talk, tell stories, develop ideas, deepen friendships, and meet interesting new people around the world.“

So let’s dive in. 

The key differences are:

• It’s like you’re listening in on someone else’s conversation.
• You can build relationships fast because you have long and detailed conversations with people and you see them over and over again.
• You can literally chat with some of the biggest entrepreneur peeps – I was in a room and Amy Porterfield just popped in (ummm sure!)
• You can be on ‘stage’ (go to lingo for more info) and be a speaker with 100 odd people in the room.
• I’m in a mastermind group and some of the ladies in there are attracting paying clients in a serious way. 
• Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn don’t have the ability for you to chat in real-time, voice to voice with someone and it’s a game-changer.  

The lingo

When I joined Clubhouse there was and are Newbie rooms where the hosts give you the low down on the lingo, how it works, and you can ask questions. I found this so helpful. 

So when you join you can curate your feed through who you follow, the interests you choose and then the ‘clubs’ you’re apart of. Club are just that – groups that you can follow so when they create a room, which is where people host a specific topic and then people come in. 

In a ‘room’, there are Hosts/Moderators who basically manage the room.  There are three levels of people in a room.  The Hosts/moderator and speakers. They are at the top and that’s called ‘The Stage’.  Below that are people who the speakers follow and that is called ‘the front row’.  Below that is the audience. The audience can’t speak unless they raise their hand and then the moderators can bring them ‘up to the stage’ where they can ask their questions, share their story or talk in general. 

The Bio

When I joined I copied my Insta bio and pasted that but then when I looked around I saw that the bios were so much longer.  I’m sure it will change but here it is –

Business bio, products and services and then some personal info is what I’ve seen a lot of and I like it!  It reinforces the personal relationships element of the platform again. 

Hosting your own room & formats

So I’ve been hosting a few rooms – because….take action! And I think the only way to learn how something works is to dive in and do it! 

When it comes to hosting I’ve been learning from the best and here are some things to think about and do. 

• I jumped into a room with Erika (The Queen of Confidence) because both of us had no idea what we were doing, so we created a closed room which means that we’re the only ones in there. It meant we could see what features the moderators have, how to manage the room, bring people up from the audience onto the stage and everything else. 
• There are different formats. 
  • You could do a panel with a group of speakers on the stage and it’s just the speakers that speak and maybe the moderator asks them all questions. 
  • There is also a Q&A style where there are moderators on a specific topic and then the audience can raise their hand and be brought up to the stage to ask their question. 
  • There is a free for all – which I couldn’t recommend. Not a great room to be in. Total chaos.

Invites

When you join CH you get 1 invite that you can share. That person has to be on iPhone at the moment so I had to find an old iPhone as I’m now a Samsung girl but where there is a will there is a way! 

When you’ve been on CH for the first week you’ll get a party popper emoji on your name and then once you’ve been on for over a week you get 3 invites. (Who knew!?)

I have to be honest. I thought long and hard about who I give my invite to. The way I decided was 

1. Who is going to use it – like seriously use it and make the most of it and not just be a voyeur
2. Who would I invite that could be a great room cohost for me and would be fun to play with on there?
3. Who has a similar audience but does something different and could be a great collaborator

Moderators script tips freebie