Founder + CEO of Candybox Marketing and Launch48 [Digital Marketing]
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A new social media enters stage left. Welcome to Clubhouse, the 24/7 live multi-userapp that has been invite-only to grow its popularity amongst influencers. If you don’t know what Clubhouse is, take a few minutes to watch Tech Insider’s 2-minute overview.
Although the app only had 10 million downloads as of February 2021, do not discount small beginnings. It has recently seen the likes of Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerburg and Kanye West host rooms, which have led to a boom in popularity.
From a marketing perspective, it’s been fascinating at how audio-only chatrooms have grown in popularity as many of us marketers find it easy to tune in without being on video with networks like TikTok, Instagram or Snapchat.
From a business perspective, new social networks can become frustrating as we try to navigate an already busy marketing schedule while measuring ROI across our existing multi-channel strategies.
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I do not believe that all brands need to jump onto every shiny new social media network, but some really should consider it. After spending time on the network myself and seeing what brands are doing, I’ve come up with a list of reasons why you may (or may not) want to join the club.
Why should you consider joining Clubhouse?
To Listen and Learn
I never recommend joining social media networks to people who don’t want to consume the content. If you intend only to start speaking about your brand, products or services, it may not work well (unless you are a popular celebrity, politician or influencer). Before you build a strategy to broadcast on Clubhouse, I’d recommend you spend at least 24 hours listening and learning about any topic that interests you. During this time, you’ll learn the ebbs and flows of conversation, best practices when starting a room or club and how to manage the annoying spammers who enter the room.
To Promote Yourself as a Thought Leader
The main focus of Clubhouse is about people adding value to their listeners. The most popular segments include revolving experts answering questions, interviews on how-to’s and connecting people to answers. When done well, this promotes you (yes, you, because you are the brand) as a thought leader in your industry or specialty. Since Clubhouse is about people talking, you need to be comfortable being the brand. This is similar to thought leadership within LinkedIn — both are effective through individual people’s accounts — not generic brands.
To Connect With Customers
The power of Clubhouse is in the emerging audiences who are actively tuning in. Instead of launching a podcast that people may not listen to, there’s a massive community of listeners on Clubhouse today. You can easily move from room to room and connect with listeners from all over the world. During my time in different rooms, I heard legal experts who talked about recording copywriting pick up 20-30 customers by hosting a Q&A session with emerging artists; CEO coaches pick up a few prospects by speaking about goal setting; and even churches gather new audiences by live-streaming their services through the platform.
Right now, there’s no knowing how this platform will transform over the next year as people use it in new ways every single day.
Now let’s get to three reasons why you may want to ignore Clubhouse:
You Aren’t Willing to Put in the Time
Clubhouse is not for marketers who want to allocate a budget instead of time. It takes time to build a following on Clubhouse; there are no shortcuts.
I personally try to commit one hour per day to listening and two hours per week where I host a room, and that’s barely enough to get started. The unique benefit to this platform is that you don’t need to be on camera, so it’s easier to put on in the car, listen in the background or during your daily exercise routine. If you can’t dedicate the time, this platform won’t work for you.
Your Customers, Vendors or Industry Leaders Aren’t on the Platform
It’s hard to tell at this point who is or isn’t on Clubhouse, but it may not be worth your time if you can’t find your target audience on the platform.
Marketing 101 tells us to define our target audience and build marketing plans around those targets, including reach, mediums and frequency. If you cannot find your customers or vendors on the platform, it may only help you become a resource for your own personal development.
You’re Not Comfortable With an Individual Representing Your Brand
Some organizations are not okay with individuals representing them online. These include highly regulated industries, private companies that keep their cards close to their chest or old-school companies that don’t understand the value of personal branding.
My own agency has many team members who have built large personal brands while representing our company out in the market, which works well for us as a thought leader marketing company, but it’s not for everyone.
If you decide that your brand is in the right spot to join Clubhouse, make sure you have a proper content plan and schedule to add value into this emerging social media network. If you decide to pass on this network for now, keep an eye out, as new networks typically change quickly in the first six months as they gain market share.
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Author: Darrell Keezer, Forbes Councils Member
