A Guide To Clubhouse
Written By Noyonika Sircar
Taking over the social media overnight, this new app is blowing the internet. Launched in 2020, created by the Silicon Valley entrepreneurs Paul Davison and Rohan Seth, this app gathered attention after Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk's recent appearance. This app soared popularity for being the clarion call for thoughtful leaders to lead their community and is alluring in its way, to create a space for leaders to filter the digital noise. This app is extensively exclusive, has deep growth policies, invite only, processes organic discussions and has reportedly high data quality filters protecting it from any potential vulnerabilities.
This article addresses the most asked questions about the new kid on the block.
What is Clubhouse?
This app is tailor made for real time conversations, precisely. Clubhouse is place where the people can meet up a host, listen and join conversations within the community. Here, everyone gets a chance to initiate a conversation, lead a discussion of choice, solely with real time interactions. This iOS only app has a roster of topics, hosts a plethora of people, only encouraging live interactions. You can navigate your way to the chat room, participate in a discussion of your interest which is already brewing, or you can be invited to spearhead a conversation for a large group. The choices are endless, giving rhe users their space for anything under the app.The extraordinary feature of this app is the absence of any visual content,no pictures or videos or profiles of people with pictures and voices. Another essentially extraordinary feature is how the conversations are not pre recorded or scripted, making it real to the core. Here is the catch, if you miss a conversation, you cannot trace it back!
Two Important Things
1. This app is not for everyone. This means that you have to be invited by someone who already has an account. You can still download the app and add yourself on the waiting list
2. The app is available for iPhone users only. The app is made for a small group of users to save itself from competition from other social media platforms, keeping the exclusivity intact.This app will be available for android users soon.
3. You cannot direct message someone on Clubhouse. The best bet will be to initiate a one to one clubhouse, that is a private conversation.
How does it work ?
After you download the app, you have to create your own profile and username to get started. The clubhouse hallway appears, which is quite similar to your feed page on Instagram or Facebook. Once you open, you see the search bar, the available invites (exactly like pending requests on Instagram or Facebook),then the upcoming event list, the notifications and lastly your profile. In your profile, you can add a picture and a small bio. On your feed, you will also see a list of active rooms which you can join.At the bottom you will spot a green +sign , which allows you to lead a discussion or start a conversation.
The most popular feature of this app is the Clubhouse Rooms.
Here is where you navigate to decide which discussion to participate, which speaker to follow and also a list of people in the room. There are three sections here:
The Stage: The moderators, or where you find the speakers of the page. The
The Followed by the Speakers: This section is where you can see the people your speaker follows, often an ideal way to meet new people
The Others in the Room: Where you see people who are participating in the discussion. You can also see your favourite people here and discover new people.
When you enter a room, you are on mute as a listener. On the bottom left, you can see options for asking a question, leaving the room or raising a hand, quite similar to zoom.
There are three different kinds of rooms on Clubhouse:
Social Rooms: For being with people you know
Closed Rooms: Private rooms, for this, you need to be invited
Welcome rooms: Orientation places for new people
How do you get an invite to clubhouse?
1. You can either wait for a Clubhouse user to let everyone in
2. Ask a friend to send you an invite.
3. Side door process: When you download the app, the existing friends already get a notification. This is strictly limited to iOS users in your contacts only.
Some tips for your Clubhouse profile
1. Use a good quality headshot. Not necessarily professional, but a headshot works the best, like your instagram.
2. Keep your bio short and relevant, more about you and about your interest to initiate more one to one real time connections
3. Pick a quality username. Since, you can update your username only once, it will be wise to pick one that is about you without anything highly irrelevant.
Let us know how you are using ClubHouse in the comments below.
