A redrawn Apple emoji, originally designed by Raymond Sepulveda, Angela Guzman and Ollie Wagner
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Clubhouse – a quick overview

First off – you need to have an Apple Phone as it’s an App and only on IOS right now (Android soon!).

  • It’s an emerging audio-based social media platform.
  • It’s like a live podcast or talk radio, but you can put your hand up and join in.
  • Talks are in ‘Rooms’ that you can drop in or out of. Like earwigging at a party, or a networking event.
  • Each Room has the main speakers on the topic and ‘moderators (AKA ‘influencers’ in the rest of the social media world). They run the Room and control who gets up on the ‘stage’.
  • You can choose the topics you are interested in, follow your favourite speakers, and get alerts when there is a Room scheduled, live, or the people you follow, are in conversation.
  • You can start a Room with a topic of conversation – art, branding, cats, coaches, motivation, music, sales hacks (a lot of these), whatever your passion, and there will be someone in the big wide world with those same interests as you or Elon Musk (he’s on there too).

So, like Twitter – Clubhouse is a way to listen to or even join in a conversation with someone you might otherwise never meet.

Listen or lose

It’s not recorded, there is no replay, or repurposed podcasts. So you need to be in the ‘Room’.

Who’s on there

Well, at the moment, the early adopters are people who really like to talk, people who like conversations, big name users, for whom it’s perfect to connect with their fans and critics, like Gary V (yes, lots of growth hacks for all the other platforms). But that’s not all, there are lots of Rooms where you can join in a chat about just about anything, or create a brand new one.

“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.” Clubhouse

How do you get in to Clubhouse?

It’s invitation only right now. The first invitations were for the top people in the tech, entertainment, and media industry. As it has been slowly rolled out, each person who receives an invite also receives invitations to share with anyone they feel would find value from the experience – you are kind of ‘vouching/ sponsoring’ them. I had mine from Krishna, and I now have a few to share if you think it sounds like the platform for you (send me an email, and I’ll need your mobile number).

Should you be bothered about Clubhouse?

If you’ve got something to say, or something to learn, or want to grow your reputation in your area of expertise, and your audience are on there too. Then, yes.

#I’mDoneSpeaking

Fun fact – Clubhouse is already valued at ONE BILLION DOLLARS!!

“Listen with curiosity. Speak with honesty. Act with integrity. The greatest problem with communication is we don’t listen to understand. We listen to reply. When we listen with curiosity, we don’t listen with the intent to reply. We listen for what’s behind the words.”
― Roy T. Bennett, The Light in the Heart