The new audio based social media app ClubHouse has seen huge growth over the last 6 months. Still invite only (as of Jan 2021) it first opened up to users in the US, and more recently users in the UK. It’s seeing huge growth and those who have been lucky enough to get an invite, are benefitting from being early adopters with fast follower growth, great networking, business deals and more…
But whether or not you have access yet, the key to ClubHouse success is hosting a great room and also knowing how to work a room when you join as a speaker. I’ve put together the following tips after spending my first 30 hours on the platform. Keep in mind some people may tell you different things based on what you’re using ClubHouse for. But my tips focus on the core purpose of ClubHouse… not just churning out leads.
1. Remember that ClubHouse rooms are about connection, not room size and follower count.
This is possibly the most important point when it comes to ClubHouse (and any social media platform for that matter). The creators of ClubHouse have made it clear that the platform was designed to create quality connections so keep this in mind in everything you do. Although the rooms with huge numbers of listeners can be exciting, and often feature famous names… it is much harder to get involved and users are less likely to be engaging with others in these rooms.
2. Decide how you’d like to run your room and then make the rules clear.
There are an unlimited amount of ways to run your room, the way you manage it and speak to your participants really drives the experience. You can run a totally fluid room with a very broad topic, which is a great way to grow a room quickly. Or you can Have a focused topic and question based room, and bring speakers up for smaller time slots (usually a few minutes each) to share their stories and experiences. The best way to manage your rooms, will depend on your personality, the point of the room and the type of participants you’re attracting.
But whatever you decide, make sure to repeat the rules and how you’re running things throughout the duration of your room. That way new listeners will know how to best engage and get involved.
2. Use a room topic (title) that draws listeners in, but isn’t TOO niche.
There are a couple of ways to name your room. Use a broader topic to draw in more listeners and inspire a more fluid and changing conversation. Or you can use a more specific topic to nurture a smaller room with greater engagement and a more intimate feel. I recommend trying both.
Don’t go crazy with the emoji’s, use a few to add some visual queues and fun but not too many – it looks spammy and many of the real experts (and people you probably want to connect with) will avoid your rooms.
3. Limit the number of speakers on stage to encourage fairness, and quality conversation.
Focus on creating mid sized rooms with 6 – 12 speakers at a time, and really get each speaker involved. Bring up new speakers and those who want to ask questions and ask if they’d like to stay up on stage, or if they are happy with what they’ve said and then move them back into the audience (by clicking on their image) to make space for others.
Hogging the stage can be an issue, so don’t be afraid to politely say thank you to a speaker, and then move them down to the audience if they are stopping less confident speakers from chiming in.
4. Remove inactive users from the stage, and bring up new participants.
A common practise in larger rooms, where the goal is really just to grow the following of the moderators is leaving moderators or speakers on stage for hours even if they aren’t contributing. Of course, keep your besties up on stage but by having too many inactive users on stage your room will offer less value to listeners. Again, focus on offering the best possible experience and content to listeners while encouraging genuine connections.
5. Don’t sell, share and give value instead.
Following on from point one, ClubHouse is not a platform for selling and pitching. It’s all about sharing great stories, experiences and expertise to help others and connect. Of course, selling happens and “humble bragging” is already an artform on ClubHouse. But don’t be that person who only jumps into a room to sell and offer no value to anyone else.
A good way to balance sharing your credentials while still speaking in a way that benefits everyone else, is to perfect your introduction so you can share what you do in less than 10 seconds. That way you can introduce yourself quickly, let everyone know how you can help them without stealing the stage and “pitching”.
For example “Hey guys, thanks for inviting me up on stage. My name is _____ I’m a ______ and I help _______.” Then ask your question or share your story.
People don’t mind you sharing this basic information, because everyone wants to be known for the right things and make the most relevant connections. But long sales pitches or direct selling is a big no-no and will mean listeners leave your room quickly and will be less likely to come back.
It can be helpful to practise this in advance and time yourself.
6. Remind people to ping their connections, but don’t go overboard.
Remind participants to ping in their friends and network if they’re enjoying the room. This is the best way to grow your room if that is your goal. Remind listeners HOW to do this too in case they are brand new.
However… don’t ask people to ping every 5 minutes because this makes it clear that your goal for the room is purely exposure and not to get people involved in the conversation.
7. Make notes on those in your room for better conversation and also connections AFTER the room ends.
You can do this yourself if your room is on the smaller side, but good moderators can help you with it too. Take a moment to introduce your speakers briefly when they come up, and in larger rooms note down questions or points from them if you need to circle back or bring them in later.
8. Link your Instagram profile and add a link in case your room grows unexpectedly
Sometimes, your room might do WAY better than you anticipated. All it takes is for a famous user with a large following to join, and this will drive their following to join too. Plus, if a listener has a lot of followers to ping you might see a sudden jump in listeners and users raising their hands.
When this happens, you want to make sure that people have a place to go if they do want to reach you outside of the app. So link your Instagram profile so that people can direct message you over there and add a link to your website on Instagram too. This is a great way to make new connections but also generate leads for your business (and if you’d like to learn more about lead generation on Clubhouse specifically, check out this awesome article here).
9. Make sure to beef out your bio/description.
Following on from the last point, make sure you write out a great ClubHouse bio/description so that people can click your image and find out more about you. Focus on what you do if you’re there to make business connections… but also share some personal things too. ClubHouse is all about making great connections, and you’ll enjoy the app much more if you’re connecting with people you actually like.
10. Build up a team of awesome moderators to help you and grow your network.
As you host more rooms and start to build a following, it gets tricky to host and moderate a room all at once. As you have to remember the order of people coming on stage to keep things fair. So make sure to connect with people who are naturals at bringing others together, and ask them to be moderators for you in your next room. Once you have a small group of people open to helping you out, you’ll find that you ALL benefit from working together.
BONUS TIP
You’ll hear the term “resetting the room” a lot, and this simply means clarifying the topic of the room and introducing the host and moderators to new people in the room. It’s good to reset your room every 15 – 30 minutes based on how large it is.
Be yourself, connect with others and enjoy becoming addicted to ClubHouse!
If you’re anything like me, you’ll become a huge fan of ClubHouse very quickly and really enjoy some of the awesome rooms and people you get to spend time with. You’ll learn a lot, and get the chance to network with those you may never have otherwise.
Have any questions or experiences you’d like to share? Make sure to leave a comment below and share this article.
Enjoyed this? Come and follow me on ClubHouse by clicking here to take part in my rooms which focus on a range of topics including paid ads, marketing, entrepreneurship and more.
