Are you aware of Clubhouse and have you started activating it for your demand generation?

As we enter into our third nationwide lock down here in the United Kingdom (UK), it certainly seems like the "return to normal", (whatever that means) that people hoped for in November 2020 is a long way off.  Vaccine or no vaccine. 

The time has finally come to embrace virtual selling, remote selling, digital selling, social selling or whatever it's called this week.  One of ways you can do this is with Clubhouse, but let's get into what it is.

What is Clubhouse?

Clubhouse is a new social network, it's currently in beta and therefore invite only, it is also currently only on Apple.

If we think of "social media" as being social on some form of media, then this is what Clubhouse is all about.

You create, voice only discussion groups and talk.  That's it.

No advertising, no cold calling, no spam email and no pitching.

Why Should I be Interested?

In a recent article by social media examiner they stated:-

"It offers the ability to connect and engage with professionals outside of your industry or niche.

The typical social media algorithms that help people create echo chambers on other platforms are replaced with spontaneous rooms filled with real-time chats on a variety of topics.

The focus is on high-value conversations rather than produced content.

Clubhouse users are already fiercely loyal and protective, so much so that they’ve been very particular about who they invite to join the app with them.

Most of all, Clubhouse is finally bringing into social media the factor other platforms largely ignore: audio. While other platforms focus on visual and written media (such as captions, images, and videos), Clubhouse shifts the focus to an audio-only format.

Within minutes of joining the app and scrolling around, your mind will be brimming with options for how to use Clubhouse to network, grow your authority, or expand your knowledge."

I've added some more suggestions for the use of Clubhouse at the end of the article.

Covid19 Has Changed The World From Interruption to Content

As Kipp Bodnar, the CMO at Hubspot said about some recent research from the whole of the Hubspot client based from 2020 as to what "works" and "what does not". "we have doubled down in our investments in content.  And what I will tell everybody.  The more educational the content the better it is."  

When he talks about content for 2021 he says "educational content has to be at the core of that."  

Clubhouse is the platform to demonstrate your expertise and share that expertise ..... from that business will flow. 

So What Do you Do on Clubhouse?

This article puts it nicely  "Think of Clubhouse like being at a party (remember those?) where you don’t know anyone, so you casually poke your head into conversations and chat with people around the room. 

The keyword here is “chat,” as in with your voice, because it is an audio-based app where you literally talk to others in virtual rooms that you can hop in and out of. 

You can upload a profile photo of yourself, but aside from that there are no options for images or video. Fear not introverts/people who hate the sound of their own voice — you can join any chat you want and mute upon entry!"

So, it’s not a dating app?

No. Clubhouse is not a dating app.

Why Is Clubhouse so Popular? 

"In a word? Networking. Because the app is currently available to a small group, the opportunity to connect with this exclusive network of tech giants, celebrities, and activists is one of its most alluring features. People are jumping at the chance to make personal and professional connections they may not otherwise have access to. And because every user is able to join a room and have a real conversation with anyone, there is a sense of intimacy that you just don't get on other platforms.

Since the chaos of 2020 has taken away so many jobs and physical connections, some might consider this the next best thing. “A synchronous conversation feels more personal than typing something out,” says Janelle Hinds, founder of the Toronto-based non-profit app Helping Hands. “There’s a reason why we jump on a Zoom rather than email back and forth.” After many months of endless scrolling and screen fatigue, I can see the appeal. Any app that doesn’t rely on curated visuals (or require me to learn choreography I will surely be bad at!) feels refreshing."

I want in! How do I get an invite to Clubhouse?

"Because Clubhouse is only in beta testing, and therefore invite-only for now, you’ll have to wait until someone asks you to join. Every new member is allotted one invite —  I got mine through an Instagram friend and I used my one invite for someone I thought might enjoy some women in tech rooms. Unfortunately, there is no real trick to getting in. For now, like pre-COVID times, you just have to wait for someone to invite you into the club."

More Examples of How to use Clubhouse

Social Media Examiner also makes these suggestions as uses of Clubhouse.

Community-building for virtual events: 2020 saw a surge in virtual events and summits, but with it came privacy concerns and expenses trying to get attendees together into a live setting. Clubhouse offers an intimate, exclusive community in the form of a club that can accompany virtual and even in-person events for attendees to connect and engage with each other.

Curating content for content creators: Recording and transcribing conversations in Clubhouse rooms without every participant’s permission is strictly against the platform’s Terms of Use. However, you can start a new room for the purpose of curating content by adding your intentions to the room’s public title and description. Then you can use a room to ask questions, interview other members, grab tidbits and advice on various subjects, and put together articles.

Note: Once you start a Clubhouse room, you can’t edit or change the room’s title or description so you can’t decide to begin recording once the room has started. This is a decision you must make when setting up the room so you can add the appropriate notices for people.

Collaboration for projects and networks: Because anyone can start a private chat with one of their connections, Clubhouse is a great place to have private conversations regarding networking or collaboration opportunities. And once the chatroom is closed, nothing is saved, making the entire conversation private and protected.

Podcast communities: Again, this might be hard to do while Clubhouse remains in private beta, but once the app is public, you can use Clubhouse clubs to build communities related to your podcast without having to add a lot of content creation and overhead to keep your community engaged between episodes.

Networking with experts in other industries: We all know the value of networking and learning from experts within our own industries, but imagine the value of learning from other startups, small business owners, multimillion-dollar CEOs, and tech giants. For many of us, we could only dream of being able to hear them speak on stage. Now Clubhouse has built a platform that makes it possible to share a stage with them, ask a direct question, and receive a response in real time.

It's Time to Stop Being Analogue and Transform to real Digital Marketing

Clubhouse is just the start of a movement away from analogue / interruption / broadcast marketing methods.  Seth Godin, wrote his book "Permission Marketing" 22 years ago and it certainly looks like, finally what he foresaw is coming true.  In this world of digital, people don't want interruptions (adverts, cold calls, emails, pitches) that want to be educated, they want insight and it's down to us as business leaders to empower our team(s) to do this.

A CEO Just Said to Me Recently

 "there is a race on.  First we need to shock people into understanding that the world has changed.  Second, we need to give them the skills to work in the changing world."  

He went onto say "By giving my team(s) “new world” skills will gives us a competitive advantage."

Interesting that he finished by saying

"The thing is there is a “burning bridge” and we need to make sure we are over that bridge."  

Where Do We Go From Here?

Just give me, or one of the DLA Ignite team and hour of your time and we can walk you through what we are doing for other companies.  No hard sell, just take you through what other companies are doing to transform.  For example, how we are increasing revenues by 30% and reducing sales cycles by 40% ..... and there has been no reduction in these sort of outputs during the pandemic, in fact results have gone up.

So if you are a business that is struggling for pipeline, want to increase your win rate and rather than playing on social, you want a methodology that is proven to give results.

Please contact me here or one of the DLA Ignite team here, so please pick one of our industry experts or one of our experts in your geographical locality.  Our website is here.