In this new Metigy Learning series, we’ll follow the Clubhouse app’s growth and popularity to see if and how Clubhouse can raise your brand awareness. When a new app pops up on the scene that could change the way we communicate, we all listen. Clubhouse has a lot of buzz mainly because Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg broke it last month. All of those stories about celebrities and big-time investors of companies are interesting. But there is a gaping question that I keep coming back to and asking myself, ‘What can Clubhouse do for a small brand, business or person?’. In this series, I’ll be closely following Clubhouse and trying to answer that question. We’ll explore the answer through its updates, iterations, hype/buzz and forecasts. We’ll always frame everything through the filter of how this can work best for an SME. Like any medium or platform, Clubhouse has multiple to infinite uses and we’ll soon see more creative ways of using it.

What is Clubhouse exactly?

Clubhouse is an audio-only social media app. Think a live, on-demand podcast with multiple rooms. It’s closer to a live conference or exclusive-curated dinner party and furthest from a Zoom webinar. There are potentially a lot of other uses for it in the future. However, most celebrities and well-known business people are using it to have a talk radio show of sorts or ‘open conversation’, where the general public can listen in. The main focus of Clubhouse ‘rooms’ seems to be around, but not limited to, broad topics such as business, marketing, sales, and technology.  But as more users sign up and it grows, this will expand. I have a very niche endurance running/health & fitness brand, DLake Creates, that focuses on underrepresented voices. I’m hoping there will be more runners, cyclists and triathletes in the Clubhouse app helping each other. Right now, it’s very sparse. I’m sure that will change. If large amounts of people in your industry aren’t in there, I would keep watching that space, searching people’s profiles and checking in regularly. Sign ups have grown exponentially over the last two months in users, as has the company valuation. It went from 600,000 to more than 2 million users in early February 2021. The valuation has rocketed from $100 million to more than $1 billion. That’s extremely fast and promising for such a new app.

How to join this new social media app

Right now, you can’t just sign up like any other social media app and jump in on the fun. Clubhouse took a cue from Gmail and Superhuman by making it invite-only and iOS-only. This tactic gives the app even more exclusivity and buzz. Right now you can only sign up and wait for the public opening of the app, know someone with an invite, or pay for one (yes, people are selling them for hundreds, that’s how in demand it is).

Clubhouse versus podcasting: What’s the difference?

Clubhouse is very similar to other mediums, but its minimalism and simplicity give it an advantage over the different ways we communicate. A trend we are seeing is famous people who like scheduling ‘after-hours’ type rooms. This works well when people finish their daily Zoom calls and emails, they can sit, stand or move around without a screen and still be engaged. Here’s a comparison between Clubhouse and podcasts: As you can see above, it seems like Clubhouse is great for quick, live, and engaging audio-only conversations with your fans, clients, followers and customers. This is similar to a Facebook/Instagram/YouTube live event. If you were considering a podcast, Clubhouse might be a much easier way to be topical and promote your brand and business. However, if you like to make evergreen (content that is still relevant years from now), high-quality, highly produced podcasts and content, then it’s not a threat.

Clubhouse versus talk radio: What’s the difference?

If you zoom out and look at the bigger picture, Clubhouse is shaping up to be one of the biggest threats to talk radio and live events.

Should you use Clubhouse for your brand and business marketing?

Clubhouse can help raise your brand awareness. At Metigy, we pride ourselves on helping SMEs, like yours, navigate the world of social media marketing tools by using AI-powered insights to drive your next decision. These social media marketing tools are just tools and each tool has a different use. Clubhouse is no exception. Does everyone need to use Twitter? No. Some businesses are better suited for Twitter for many reasons. The clubhouse is the same. Based on the previous charts, Clubhouse might be best suited if your prospects and leads are in the events industry. Clubhouse could be a great tool if you already have many qualified people on a list that are already on Clubhouse that you can get on a quick live session and do a Q&A session with them. 

What you can expect in this series

We want to show all SMEs the potential benefits or disadvantages of using Clubhouse. We think any new marketing tool is something to, at the minimum, be considered in your marketing strategy for your product or service.  We’ll be posting updates to this series monthly. We’ll also jump in and report any new and noteworthy events that happen – like when it becomes open to the general public, on Android, and competition from other apps. We will also crowdsource the predictions and forecasts of what people think will happen with Clubhouse as a marketer’s tool.

Predictions on how Clubhouse can raise your brand awareness

We’ve polled our team here at Metigy, receiving some interesting and futurist ideas. Interestingly enough, everyone isn’t as peachy blue-sky utopia about the new app as you would think. “Depends on how fast they grow. It could be the next big thing (exclusivity served Facebook well in the early days to grow the following) and seems like a good differentiator in giving access to the elitist world. Still, if they don’t move fast enough, it could also be the next Snapchat and die if Facebook and Instagram get their versions out and start rewarding existing users on those platforms. they do have the current advantage that they don’t have any bad privacy press against them yet, though.” – Kevin Chen, Performance Marketing Lead “I’ve noticed services like Discord have stuck around as a replacement for BBS/forums for communities – access to a community Discord is a standard Patreon reward for podcasts etc. Those servers often have voice chats used, but the text chat (with its synchronicity) is the main draw. Overall, I’m not sure of the staying power of Clubhouse specifically. Folks have already mentioned Facebook, and Twitter is developing an analogue as well. Even with that, I’m not confident of the staying power of the medium.” – Nick Mather, Junior Full Stack Engineer “I think the sense of exclusivity is driving adoption and a fear of missing out and curiosity. It will be interesting to see if they stick with this tactic because, as we know, the bigger the audience, the more money you can make from advertising.” – David Weinberger, Head of Growth Marketing “I agree with David Weinberger; the technology behind the app is no barrier at all. Apps like Udemy and TikTok has been using more intuitive form of media, video. So the only reason I find for Clubhouse is ‘the content’, being able to grab some big names in your app is a guaranteed way to gain a lot of users, initially at least. I hope for a bright future for Clubhouse and think it’s the next big thing – yet it’s still not the game-changer of the current social media market. To most people and developers out there, this platform will probably become a new icon to share to, that’s it.” – Shelton Han, iOS Developer “Look at who is backing Clubhouse – a16z. Andrew Chen is doing their go-to-market. They will win.” – Brendan Hill, Head of Content

My own predictions

What excites me most about Clubhouse is pushing one of the most underrated, yet passive and personal, mediums (audio) to a bigger audience. I use voice memos to communicate all the time, instead of writing long messages. I also create podcasts and audio stories and documentaries. The main concern is having everyone get sucked into the hype and SMEs who shouldn’t spend time on Clubhouse end up using it. These brands are potentially better off using Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn to deliver their message to the world. Throughout this series, we’ll help you decipher which category you fall into and how Clubhouse can raise your brand’s awareness. Stay tuned for the next post!