Should I be on Clubhouse?
Melissa Blum , CEO and founder of M.T. Deco, and her daughter Lucy.
Every day it seems a client asks if Clubhouse is worth investing time in. Since they have this question (and we answer it regularly) we’re sharing our insights with you, too. Before we dive in, it’s important to note that there is always a risk with jumping on a new platform and putting effort into publishing. If it takes off, there can be huge reward for being an early adapter, or if it tanks, you’re left with nothing except wasted time [which is cough, why you should be prioritizing your owned platforms, but let’s assume you already are].
If you haven’t heard of Clubhouse yet (or have heard about it but haven’t taken the leap to download it or try it out) - it is a new social platform filled with audio-only chat rooms that cover a ton of topics that disappear after a conversation has ended. Or, as one of our friends eloquently put it, “In its best moments you’d say Clubhouse chats are impromptu communities and conversations revolving around shared interests minus the duck faces and glam filters.” It makes sense it took off during the pandemic -- you can chat without the pressure of video. After all, who needs one more Zoom call?
At this moment in time, the future of Clubhouse is being actively discussed. As outlined in this thorough and interesting article “The Buzzy, Chatty, Out-of-Control Rise of Clubhouse” by Steven Levy in Wired, the app became the tech crush of the pandemic but now it needs to maintain its “global gabfest, without the toxicity.”
Clubhouse has no problem with growth and popularity. From mid-January to mid-March, users jumped from 200k to four million. “Thousands of rooms were open at any given time and 10,000 clubs had formed.”
Haven’t used the platform before? Here’s a quick breakdown: each of these chat rooms contain speakers, listeners and moderators. The moderator sets up the chat and is the only one who can invite listeners to become speakers. Anyone can start a chat, make it private or public, and invite followers [who can then invite their followers, and so on].
To create an actual club on the app, you have to moderate a chat for three weeks in a row -- minimum -- and then apply on the website for approval. At the moment they only allow one club per user, but users can join as many as they want.
So regardless of whether or not you want to become a moderator and initiate conversation, the app is worth exploring, especially if you are a podcast fan. The beauty of audio platforms are that they allow you to do multiple things while listening in, so while it can be annoying going into a room and hearing a bunch of worthless conversation, you can also easily hop in and out to find a new conversation quickly.
That aside, let’s say you’ve been invited and you’re deciding whether or not to produce on the platform. Here are some pros and cons to consider:
PROS
Cool stuff is happening, including news-making moments - from philanthropist Felicia Horowitz’s 5pm celebrity dinner parties with hundreds of attendees to the end of January, when Elon Musk tweeted he would be joining the tech news show “Good Time,” there have been a number of news making moments. For example, thousands of people joined Musk’s chat and spilled into overflow rooms. During the session, he called the CEO of Robinhood to the stage and questioned him about suspending trades of GameStop. It was a huge moment that threw the app’s popularity into overdrive
They are piloting projects where creators can make money - there is hope that people will eventually pay for premium access to content, similar to Netflix, and there’s a plan for four potential revenue streams: a cut of admission fees for sessions, membership dues for clubs, tips, and commercial brands sponsoring rooms
CONS
Safety features have been glitchy - there’s been a host of issues that have come up with the surge in users that aren’t unlike the challenges other social platforms face, but with the nature of the live audio format, it’s been a lot more difficult to manage. Controversies range from a proliferation of disinformation, to paid trolls piling into rooms, to issues of anti-semitism, to the appearance of seedier rooms like “Strip Club” where people pay others to expose themselves, among many other situations. It seems that the minute one thing gets addressed, another pops up, which is not ideal
Competition isn’t far behind - a bunch of apps including Discord, Wavve, Riffr and Spoon are all in the same business of hosting conversations. Twitter also has their feature called Spaces and Facebook has a similar product in the works. It’s safe to say that whether or not Clubhouse is your audio platform of choice, producing and creating audio-based content is likely a move that will land somewhere, if it makes sense within your digital strategy of course
Tough to search and discover great conversations - the ease of use in going in and out of rooms is great, but we often find ourselves spending more time messing around searching for rooms, rather than enjoying our time actually in them. Might just require more time spent on the app, but we feel like it causes us to waste more of our time than other social platforms
In general, our point of view is that you always have at least some time to play on emergent platforms and that experimentation is core to your digital strategy. Ideally you have content planned out for your blog, for example, and from there it can be easily applied to all social platforms, including Clubhouse.
So the hard-line answer? Yes, you should be on Clubhouse. But only if you like it and feel like you can add value. You should try out moderating a couple rooms. If that works out and you’re able to bring in audiences regularly, then you should consider building up to a club.
Just make sure heading into it that you A) know what your audience wants from you and B) are putting forth a high quality product. Just because it’s audio conversation, doesn’t mean you can wing it. You still need it to be thought-out and produced.
We’re curious to see how Clubhouse evolves and what the competition brings to the table as well. Where do all of you stand? Are you bullish or bearish on Clubhouse? We’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments.