Clubhouse - My First 48 Hours With the Audio Social Network
Clubhouse is the latest social audio network to take off, starting in 2020 and reaching Japan in January 2021
It is designed to replicate real life events and social interactions
It’s growing from Millennial and Gen-X thought leaders
Clubhouse is one of the most recent social apps to take off. Unlike the other major networks, this one is different - it’s audio only.
I’ll talk about what the app is, how to use it, how it’s growing, monetization, and my thoughts on it.
What is Clubhouse?
Clubhouse is a social audio app that is designed to mimic offline events and social interactions.
Think of going to an expo around your interests. There are probably multiple rooms and booths, speakers giving keynotes, discussion panels you can listen to, Q&A sessions, and random run-ins with acquaintances as well as new introductions. You can stop and listen to them, participate, or move along to the next thing.
The app’s design, which I’ll show below, is made to replicate this experience.
Even when a new user joins, any acquaintance they may have that is already on Clubhouse is pinged to welcome them. The co-founders also host weekly talk sessions to welcome new users.
People have been using Clubhouse for just under a year, with the earliest users being allowed on between spring and summer 2020. It began gaining more users towards the end of the year, and started being all the buzz in Japan in late January 2021.
Availability
At the moment, it’s similar to early Facebook in terms of exclusivity. Think 2004-2005 when you needed an email address from specific universities in order to create an account.
Joining is through invitation only so the platform is entirely community-driven at the moment. People receive 2 invites to give out initially and then gain more as time goes on.
It’s also mobile-only and only available on iPhone. Android is aimed to launch in 3-6 months, and they’re building out their development team now, according to co-founder Paul Davison.
Priorities
Clubhouse has 4 general priorities:
Performance - To ensure a good user experience. This is why they’re carefully scaling rather than immediately opening it up to everyone.
Support - To maximize the in-room experience, they want to provide creators and moderators the tools they need
Safety - Clubhouse has a one-strike policy when it comes to misconduct and will ban anyone who breaks etiquette. They feel diversity is the best thing about the platform, and encourage a variety of people to come together to express their opinions and have thoughtful, difficult discussions. They prioritize maintaining that.
Discovery - To help people find the conversations that best suits them, they plan to work on algorithms and optimize feeds.
How do you use Clubhouse?
There are 2 main screens to focus on: The Home feed and the Room.
The Home feed
Home feed
This is a feed of rooms tailored to you. Think of it as a personalized schedule of what’s happening at the expo. This feed is tailored based on the people and “Clubs” (communities, groups) you follow.
Above are a few icons. From left to right: Search (to find people and clubs), Invites (to invite new users), Calendar (a list of upcoming events that are outside of what you follow but may be interested in), notifications, and your account profile.
At the bottom lies the option to start your own room. You can make it “Open” for anyone, “Social” for people you follow or find interesting, or “Closed” and private.
When you create a room, mutual followers will get pinged.
Room
Room
This is the actual event. You’d think it’s intimidating to join because it’s like entering a phone call, but it’s not.
You are automatically muted when you enter, and there are no notifications that go off. You can tap the hand icon to raise your hand for a chance to speak if you want to, hit the “+” button to ping friends about the room, and leave quietly whenever you want. Ghosting is actually encouraged by Clubhouse.
The design of the room is also meant to mimic real life.
The Room is divided into 3 sections.
The Stage (or Speakerbox) - The room creator, moderators, and speakers
People followed by the speakers - Think of them as VIP guests in the front-row
Others in the room - The general audience, where you’ll be in most cases
Growth & Usage
People may think a social platform’s growth is initially driven by the young. While it’s common, Clubhouse is more akin to Twitter, which had a lot of Silicon Valley and tech Millennials and Gen-Xers onboard first. Clubhouse’s early users are of a similar makeup.
This is important for a few reasons.
Clubhouse is extremely reliant on people’s ability to provide users value through audio only. Users need to want to listen to dialogs in order to decide to spend time on the platform and invite their peers. There’s no visual space to show amazing photos or captivating b-roll transitions. Having enough to say in a way that provides value to listeners comes from experience and education.
Rooms need to be moderated by actual people, not algorithms, to maintain a quality user experience. This also comes with experience and practice.
Younger people are more willing to listen to older people or others of a similar age that they can learn from rather than the other way around. This is seen in offline keynotes and speeches as well.
Clubhouse will likely grow beyond these primary, informative and engaging talk sessions, but growing this way allows the platform to establish their core culture and scale better.
Trends
Peak usage is said to be between 4PM and midnight, but the platform’s cofounders are aware that things may change as the Covid situation changes.
Some thought leaders and companies have created Clubs, where members or staff will host scheduled events. This helps build their brand and grow awareness, just like online livestreams.
Clubs are created to host conversations and grow a community, or just to communicate within an organization. To start one, you have to request it manually by emailing Clubhouse support.
This again highlights how companies need to reassess the talent of their staff, and make sure they can help the company maneuver in the increasingly interactive, digital-social environment that our guides our society today.
“PTR”
Clubhouse only has one visual - your profile pic. Because of this limitation, people who want to quickly show a photo will temporarily use it as their profile pic and tell listeners to “PTR”, or “pull to refresh”, before changing it back.
Clear Profiles
Because of only having an icon and first name shown when in a room, it’s best to use a clear face photo of yourself and real name (which they ask for). Almost all users do this. Wearing a mask to an expo with a nickname on your name tag may be seen as poor etiquette, so you shouldn’t here either.
Profiles should be written simply, and due to a lack of messaging capabilities, you should link your Twitter and Instagram accounts to your profile, capabilities provided by Clubhouse.
Monetization
Right now there is no monetization but Clubhouse plans to build out a monetization platform.
They’ve stressed that they only want to make money from creators who are making money, and they don’t want to interrupt the user experience with invasive ads.
While Clubhouse is still working things out, they will likely start with the ability for people to tip creators. After that, they may introduce other monetization methods such as membership dues or tickets to events or private sessions, etc.
Personal Take
My Clubhouse profile: barrettish
Clubhouse has a lot of potential, it’s already buzzing and not many people are yet aware of it. The trajectory of growth may likely be affected by changes related to Covid, but it’ll be around as a dominant platform in social audio communication.
Twitter also is testing their Spaces, an add on function that looks to have similar capabilities - the ability for people to gather in rooms and talk. We’ll see what happens with that, however, it’s important to understand that having the same functionality doesn’t mean the same user experience. Instagram copied TikTok with Reels, but the algorithm, user emotions and experience are different.
I myself am more of a visual person - I take photos, make YouTube videos, learn by watching more than reading. Because of this, Clubhouse won’t become my go-to platform. However, I’d definitely tune in if there’s value being provided to me there.
While the lack of visuals may not be my personal preference, it works well for many and I am enjoying the app. If anything, it lowers the hurdles immensely to create content, host discussions, provide value, and even participate.
No camera. Lower hurdles. Frictionless experience. They're huge.