Clubhouse has been a buzzword this year and with good reason. This new audio-chat-based new social network is gaining traction and loads of attention from others partly because of its exclusivity. There’s definitely a lot more to Clubhouse than meets the eye, and the opportunity for potential growth and valuable connections are limitless. But before you can go ahead and download the app, there are a few things you should know.
What is Clubhouse and How Does it Work?
Clubhouse is a new social network that functions similarly to other social networking apps where you have followers and people you follow. The app asks you to outline your particular interests which could be anything from marketing, business entrepreneurship to environmentalism or languages. There are many options, and if you’re interested in something, chances are someone’s talking about it on this new social network. Unfortunately the app is primarily open to iOS users and so isn’t available to those who have Android phones.
Clubhouse Rooms
After selecting your interests, you can follow people from your contacts, but you’re also welcome to follow industry experts or even participate in rooms that deal with the topics you want to listen in on. Rooms function in a way that is very similar to virtual events, there are moderators who have organized the chat and there are listeners. If you’re a listener you have the chance to actually raise your hand and be added to the conversation. If you’re a moderator, you have a little more control over how the conversation goes, you can even disable the ability for others to raise their hands if the discussion doesn’t need it. When you are in a room you have the opportunity to network and follow others in the conversation so that you’re notified when they’re attending or hosting a clubhouse room themselves.
If you don’t feel like the room is discussing anything of interest, Clubhouse gives you the option to actually leave quietly (it’s represented by the peace out sign emoji) and you can simply exit without notifying others this is great because it streamlines the process.
Clubhouse Clubs
Clubhouse also gives you the ability to join clubs, clubs are communities where like-minded people have several rooms or several talks happening around a certain topic. After you’ve hosted 3 or more rooms yourself you can actually host a room yourself, when you submit an application for a club Clubhouse’s team will manually check your application. Once approved you can start hosting rooms and getting your followers to join it. Clubhouse normally allows for one club per user though so you have to make sure you’re really settled on the club you’ve chosen.
Why is Clubhouse So Popular?
Clubhouse built the popularity of the app primarily on its exclusivity. The app has been around since March 2020 with a steady growth of 1500 users when it first launched. The moment of itsit’s boom could be attributed to the time Elon Musk and Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev held a talk on the app, which brought a huge influx of people onto the app, as of today clubhouse has around 10 million users hosting and listening to rooms, creating meaningful connections and networking.
The growth in popularity of the app has people scrambling to get invited to the point that some are even being sold on eBay and retailing for around $89. If you’re waiting for your invite, Clubhouse is planning to open to the public soon with plans to also expand to Android users. In the meantime, you can actually download the app and reserve your username till an invite becomes available.
What is the Future for Clubhouse?
Clubhouse is flourishing in light of the pandemic and will probably continue to grow since it allows for connections remotely. It is currently being backed by Andreessen Horowitz the venture capitalist firm along with 180 others.
The competition will become fierce though as social networking giant Facebook and Twitter are attempting to create similar apps of their own to try to rival the Clubhouse app on itsit’s monopoly.
Still, the app continues to draw in users day by day wanting to connect with each other remotely and conveniently. There are other apps out there that are similar however, if you want to learn more about them you can read our article on The 3 Best Apps for Active Business Networking.