Good morning and welcome to the Monday morning marketing podcast. I'm Esther
and I'm Melanie.
And today we're talking about clubhouse. What is it? Who's it for and what can you do on it?
Well, what it is is not accessible to people who don't have iOS.
Yeah, we apologise right now to any of the Android users out there, Samsung, etc. and it's at the time of this recording, it has not been rolled out to your devices. But if you can get your hands on IOS or an old iPhone or new one if you can, if you really want. And what's it called? iPad, that sort of thing. It does not work on the computer. OK, but if you can get your hands on another device, then we fully recommend joining clubhouse. Why, Melanie, why do we recommend it so much?
Well, at the moment, it's one of the few places where you can network with people without using a filter or make up.
And let's all let's all be honest here. You know, we have not refilled our makeup since this time last year. But in all honesty, it is a good place to. It is a good place to network with people from around the world that you might never have had the opportunity to network with before and that you will possibly never have the opportunity to network with in any other platform.
Yeah, I mean, we see the likes of Mike Stelzner from Social Media Examiner, Murray-Smith or the big hitters are in there, the people that we would look up to and and get training and support from ourselves. And you can just freely get into a conversation with them as long as the audience isn't typic anyway.
Yeah, but OK, so let's go back a wee bit. So the clubhouse is a social media and application. It is a social media platform that has been what it started in April 2020. From what I can,
It sounds right, yeah.
It is invitation only at the minute. And as we said, invitation to iOS users only. It is a basically chat rooms. So somebody described it to me the other day as it's Zoom has a zoom plus podcast has a baby so you can listen. And it's like listening to your local radio station, but you phone in and you can join in the conversation. Like Melanie says, it all depends how many people are in the audience, whether you get invited up to speak. They call it a stage, but it's basically just where where the speakers will be. So you can start your own conversations, start your own room and eventually get your own club. It's all you know, it's all about spending time on the up, networking, getting to know other people. And that's what we really need right now. And I think because so many of us at the time of this recording are still in some sort of lockdown all around the world, that it's just that human connexion of literally sometimes just picking up the phone and speaking into it and having people listen to you and listen and you listen to them. I find it great for learning as well.
Yeah. I mean, I suppose I frequent sort of podcasting and marketing rooms and what the way it works is you get a hallway's. That's what they call the main general area, like the dashboard area of a website, I suppose. And then you get rooms and clubs that come off the hallway and each of the separate rooms. Somebody has to set them up and they will become automatically the moderator of the room and then they can assign further moderators to help them. Or if they just want to have a like a proper talk between the two of them. So you and I, we actually had a clubhouse room a couple of weeks back then, didn't we?
We did. Yeah, we did. And the great thing is that you can then invite other people in to listen to what you're talking about and invite them in to talk as well and give their opinions and give their advice so you could you can start a room on any topic at all. Like Melanie. I would go into rooms that are talking about podcasting and talking about marketing and talking about other social media. I'm talking about design and web and everything that interests me. But I could also go into a topic that it's talking about, Nil art, or knitting or, you know, there's so many different topics. And if there isn't one there, you could start your own room talking about that topic.
You can also get followers to follow you as a person. And they can click and notify bell that will tell them when your next stop and then, you know, the next time you open a room and over a period of time, if you keep on doing the same room, I think it's over three weeks and maybe do them a couple of times a week. You can then create your own room where you have to apply for it. You have to apply for your
Yeah. Your club. You have to apply for your club. And you can have I think it's a maximum of two clubs that you can have that you can own.
Right.
From what I from what I can gather. Melanie and I haven't got to the stage of owning a club yet. We have to get back in and do another couple of moderating some more rooms first. But it is now one of the big warnings would be that it can suck your time, OK, just like anything else. But if you can have it on in the background and just listen and you don't have to put your hand up to join the conversation or talk or anything, but if you're just listening in the background, it can really give you a lot of good advice for whatever business you are in and how to run your business. But there are also rooms and clubs that you won't want to join, and that's fine, too. You don't have to join them all. You don't have to listen to every single thing there is that "fomo" that fear of missing out. And even when you're in the app, you do feel like you're missing out on another room because. You can filter through and see all the different rooms that are happening and happening at the same time and jump from one to the other, but then nothing is recorded.
Yes, the downside. Do you miss what's being said if you don't stick around? But what I do like about the app, unlike the other apps on my phone, is it doesn't take over. So it's very much like a radio app on my phone and you can leave it in the background and still do other stuff.
Yeah, yeah, and that's sort of like you don't have to be actively listening. It can be something that seeps in while you're cooking, while you're doing your other work, while you're getting the kids ready, you know, you can just be listening and. I'm sure you'll find something to interest you on, something that you can have an opinion about as well. And one of the things that I do like to do is that you can follow the people, the other people that are in the room and find other people there and then follow them on their Twitter and on their Instagram. And that's really
The only way to message them as well. There's no private messaging within clubhouse, so you have to go to the connected accounts if they remember to do it. Not everybody does. And then you can message them there.
Yes. So like we said, it is invitation only, but there are rules as well. So just like every other social media platform, there are rules and you must follow the rules. Like we said, nothing is recorded. I think you have to get a special permission or you have to at least let them know that it's going to be recorded. Otherwise,
the rules are actually called recorded, aren't they?
Yeah, yeah. They would have the little recording room or mention it in the title that it's recording, but otherwise you could lose your access to the app. And that would be a travesty because let's face it, you know, there are a lot of people there and it's growing and getting bigger and bigger all the time. So far, Melanie and I have been on it about a month at this point, and some days I go on it too often, other days I'm not on it at all. It just trying to manage your time on it would probably be the the first place to start.
I think the only distraction that I would put against clubhouse at the moment is the amount of notifications I get
Well I've turned them off.
I feel like I get so many and I'd like to be able to filter them rather than have them completely off. I'd like to be able to filter them. And nine times out of ten, I'm getting another notification of another room whilst I'm in the room. And I touch it by accident because I'm trying to do something else and I'm suddenly out of this room, which really is quite frustrating.
Yeah, there are there are things that they need to work on in terms of design and in terms of user experience, but the good news for the Android users is that they are working on rolling it out to Android as well. And I'm pretty sure it will still be invitation only because it is that that's their model. That's just the way that they've they've started this.
I've got to I've got to ask, actually, we've been talking about how clubhouse works, but we haven't really explained how it can be used to your personal or business betterment. And, you know, it's I think it's very similar, like our podcast, because you can speak you can speak directly to people. I suppose that's the only difference about a podcast, because we're not doing this podcast live. But, you know, you can speak directly to people and get feedback. And it's sort of instant gratification, except it's not being recorded and there's no cameras watching you. So this is your chance to really put out your heart. I mean, I guess there's always there's always a risk. Somebody is recording it on a separate Phone or an iPhone or, you know, so be careful. Be careful what you say always. But, you know you know, you're not meant to be recording. But I think for a business, this is your way of speaking to your audience directly putting out a question, how can I help you? I do this. Would you like some support? And you can get all sorts of backgrounds and types of people on ClubHouse, literally all source from all over the world. I was in a room with a chat from Pakistan. Another in the same room was another chat from where was it from? From Canada and also in the same room with somebody from Norway. And then there's me based in Ireland. We're talking about the same thing.
Yeah.
And it was a totally different time zones.
Yeah, it's great, I mean, it's and again, like you were saying, you know, people from different parts of the world are also different languages and you could learn a language on clubhouse. That's what I've seen as well. You can you know, it's a good place to go and learn as well as promote yourself, not just like any other social media platform. The idea is to be social. So don't just. Opinionate, you don't just, you know, say what you do and how you help people, but also help.
Yeah,
you know, don't just talk the talk, walk the walk. So it's always good to to sit in a room for a couple of minutes before putting your hand up, before joining the stage so that you know what they're going to be talking about. And don't be put off by the billionaires that seem to be everywhere in the clubhouse.
But you can hide those rooms as well. So you don't have to see them all the time as well.
Yeah, no, there there are lots of there are lots of positives to this app and I'm sure it'll only grow and get bigger and better because like we said, it's only been around for less than a year and but it's already, you know, lots and lots of people are already talking about it, wanting to be on it.
As of yesterday, there was over six million people on it.
There you go. There you go. But yeah, if you are lucky enough to be on clubhouse, you can come and follow us. I am @Esther Ocampo and
I am at @Melanie Boylen, we were really creative at this certainly aren't we?
We are. But if we do get to set up a club, we will invite you to it as well. And yeah, just come and follow us, come and find us and we hope to see you there and have the chat
bye bye for now
Bye.