Clubhouse for LinkedIn Discussions

Clubhouse is the new audio-driven social media platform - are you on it? 

The one media that isn't well supported in LinkedIn is audio. Other than sharing links to podcasts, audiograms, and using voice in messages, audio hasn't been leveraged the way video has. Imagine if you were watching a LinkedIn Live, and rather than participating in the chat, you could put your hand up to get on camera and join the conversation. Well that function is available via the 3rd party streaming apps, but it is clunky. And you need to be 'camera ready', whatever that means to you. If you could participate via audio only, one barrier to being live is removed.

Enter Clubhouse, a community platform driven by voice alone. I got on the waitlist and was invited onto the platform early January and really love the potential. It adds a layer to LinkedIn and is a great place to get to know your network. I'd love to see a fusion of Clubhouse and Groups.

What is Clubhouse?

Clubhouse is a network based on real-time voice chat for those over 18. It operates through spoken conversations in “rooms”. Being audio only you can listen while doing other things, and speak from anywhere. It’s like live talkback with a panel, where you can just listen or choose to participate if appropriate. Have it on in the background, or be actively involved, the choice is yours. It is quickly becoming another way to stay connected in a time of physical distancing.

I’ve listened to some great discussions and participated in a few, mostly about LinkedIn run by fellow LinkedIn expert friends, or professional speakers sharing their tips and social media specialists who are helping others get started with Clubhouse. The discussions cover so many topics, in fact you could spend all day in the app, and some do! It can be addictive, given the FOMO people feel when they are not their live, but the biggest tip is to turn off notifications and be in control of the time you invest in listening, participating and leading discussions. It is a great place to build visibility as a leader in your field, build relationships and meet new people.

According to founders Rohan Seth and Paul Davison "The intonation, inflection and emotion conveyed through voice allow you to pick up on nuance and form uniquely human connections with others."

Chat to friends, colleagues, industry leaders and strangers around the world—to share ideas, learn, ask questions, debate, share stories, host book clubs, or fireside chats, and have human to human conversation. Deliver a performance with a live audience, whether you are hosting a comedy show, playing music, singing, or receipting poetry, get creative and connect with your audience in a personal way. Join massive public groups or intimate private groups, or host your own. But at this stage, it is iOS only, while in beta, and is invite-only.

App Interface

When you log in you are in the 'hallway', here you find any scheduled chats, and rooms that are chatting live that you can join.

Across the top are the menus from left to right;

• Search - to look for a member or club using a name or keyword.
• Invite - Find your invite credits here. You can only invite people in your phone contact list, which you must give the app approval to access.
• Calendar - View upcoming room chats, click the arrow to see all events, those for you (based on your interests and network) and your own events. (Hat tip to Andy Foote for pointing out where my own scheduled events are!). Once in the area you can select the icon to create a new event.
• Notifications - See activity relating to you and your network, such as who is following you, just signed up, pinged you to join a room, scheduled a room, started a room or to welcome newbies.
• Profile - View or edit your Clubhouse profile.

To access your profile settings, go to your profile and select the cog at the top right. Here you can adjust notification frequency and interests which helps chat topic suggestion. Connect your Twitter and Instagram account for users to learn more about you, and access community guidelines, terms of services, privacy policy, news and contact info from Clubhouse.

Profile

Use your real or everyday name, so it is easy to find you, and set up your username which may be related to your name, your brand or what you do. Mine is @LinkedInConnect. Names can only be changed once, so chose wisely, and double-check the spelling.

Ensure the first three lines are your positioning statement or most important brand info, as this shows up in preview when people check out your profile.

Craft your bio outside of Clubhouse, that way you can check it for typos, layout and have a backup copy. Use emojis or symbols to create lists, write in the first person, and position yourself with personality. Have a bit of fun and be relatable. Add your Twitter and Instagram links, and include a text link to LinkedIn, or tell people how to find you through search.

Photo

Choose a head shot that represents your brand, ideally the photo you use across your social media profiles for recognition. Get creative by adding some colour, background or border to stand out. Take a look at mine to see the red/orange circle around my photo, which I added using Canva. Another tool to get creative is Profile Pic Maker, a free web-based app to remove your background, add colours, shapes, and patterns. (Hat tip to John Espirian for this tip).

Rooms

Chats happen in rooms, which you can start or join. The roles of participants are moderator, speaker, or listener.

• Moderators host the room and can bring listeners onto the stage to participate, remove participants and close the room. They either schedule or start the room or are promoted to moderator after joining a room and can be identified by the green star.
• Speakers are audience members who have been invite 'on stage'. They are able to turn the microphone on to speak and have the icon at the bottom right of their profile photo.
• Listeners passively participate and have no microphone icon, and are listen-only attendees,

New members have a party emoji at the bottom left of their profile photo which is removed after 7 days.

When first entering a room, you join the audience as a listener on mute unless you started the room, then you are a moderator with the ability to speak and control the room. It is good practice when joining a room to listen first to get a feel for the room. If you have something to contribute, indicate that you would like to speak by raising your hand (icon at the bottom right). The moderators then need to give you permission to get on stage which is the area at the top of the room. Moderators can also invite you up to the stage if they wish you to speak, but you do not need to accept, particularly if you aren't in a position to talk, such as while driving, in a noisy room or in the bathroom!

Each room runs differently, hence it is important to get familiar first and be a respectful participant. Some moderators open up questions and discussion to anyone at any time, others do a round-robin, inviting people to speak by name, and many invite people in the order they are on stage. Take time to determine how it works rather than jumping in and hijacking the conversation. I prefer rooms where the moderator invite you by name to speak, as when it is a free-for-all those who don't like to speak over others may not say anything - that was me in my first room as a speaker! Part of being a good moderator is to communicate the best practice and guidelines of the room routinely in a conversational way, as new people will join after the room has started.

You can choose to go back to being a listener when you have finished actively participating, or wait for the moderator to 'reset the room' which means removing those on stage giving space for new people to participate. You will hear the term PTR or Pull to Refresh, which is a reminder to pull down to refresh the view of the room. When ready to leave, hit the 'leave quietly'.

Multi-task, and even use other apps on your phone while still listening on Clubhouse. Drop-in and out of rooms without any pressure to stay or engage, and no need to say 'goodbye' verbally. It would be nice to have some way to engage as a listener by way of emoji reactions such as applause, thumbs up, laughter and a wave.

Clubs

In addition to Rooms, there are Clubs you can follow, which are communities within the platform who host regular rooms.

To find Clubs, use the search icon and select the Clubs tab and type keywords or names to seek out communities to follow. Also find clubs in the hallway, on the events calendar, or at the bottom of people's profiles.

Apply to start your own club, ideally once you have hosted a few rooms. Share your intention for the club and your schedule for hosting a room.

Networking

While listening, go to the profiles of other participants by clicking on their names to learn more about them and follow them. You can also follow them on Twitter and Instagram, and look them up on LinkedIn until the platform offers a live link.

While in a room, particularly one that has people coming and going, you may want to refresh the screen. To do so use your finger on the screen and pull down, like most apps.

Click the icon at the bottom right or swipe left to see which friends are online, already participating in a room or when they were last online. Join a room that a friend is in or start a private room with them. If appropriate you may decide to open up the chat to others.

Rules

Be sure to check out the community guidelines. Here are a few to take note of;

No spam, violating IP and copyright, and nothing illegal of course.

"You may not transcribe, record, or otherwise reproduce and/or share information obtained in Clubhouse without prior permission." So no audio and screen recording allowed at this stage, which means no repurposing content from Clubhouse. Don't use the in-built iPhone screen recording, as you will get a warning - I tried in a test room.

Screenshots aren't against the terms of service unless you are using them in a way that does breach the guidelines.

You can unfollow people and block them if you need to, and you can always report violations.

Join Clubhouse

Being in beta Clubhouse is invite-only so you need to get on the waitlist and a current user can let you in with one of their invite credits, or by being in their phone contacts. Get the app here or head to the app store on your iPhone.

On being approved you immediately receive 1 credit to let someone else in. After 7 days you receive another 3 credits. After another couple of days I received 3 more credits, which may have been a reward for hosting a room and being active (unconfirmed).

Clubhouse Tips

Read these tips before you sign up....

1. Before signing up make sure your contact details including phone number are in your colleague's address book - that way they will be notified you signed up and may be able to let you in.
2. Sign up with your real name and set a username - choose wisely as you can only change once. You may want to use the same username across your social profiles to make it easy to find you or use a username including the main keyword you want to be discovered for. Mine is @LinkedInConnect
3. Complete your profile. Add a bio with keywords making sure the most important info of your positioning statement is in the first three lines (about 125 characters). Write your bio outside of Clubhouse to have a backup copy and include some formatting such as emojis.
4. Add links to Instagram and Twitter. Use Linktr.ee on each including a link to LinkedIn. If you add links in your bio copy, they aren't live, so restrict to super simple ones or tell them to go to the link in your Insta or twitter bio.
5. Add interests to share your experience and frame what you see.
6. Follow people and clubs that are of interest to you.

Once you are on Clubhouse join rooms to learn about Clubhouse from people such as Lisa Monks and Fiona Lucas, and look at topics you have an interest in.

Participation Tips

1. Join rooms and listen first to get familiar with the etiquette. Joining is listen-only until invited 'on stage'. 
2. If you want to speak put your hand up to be invited ‘on stage’, then turn your mic off until it is your turn to speak.
3. When you want to speak tap your microphone in and off a few times. Or wait to be asked to contribute by the moderator (with a green star under their name).
4. When you do speak, don't waffle on about who you are. That is what your bio is for. Get to the point whether it is sharing your insights or asking a question. Your expertise will shine through and those interested will click to look at your profile while speaking.
5. Consider those not looking at the app buy starting with "This is Jo..." and end with "This is Jo Saunders, I'm done". This closes the conversation and makes it easy for the moderator.
6. Turn your mic off when not speaking to reduce background interference, but having a mic on in response to laugh or agree is usually acceptable too depending on the context.

Hosting Your Own Room

Host your own room to be seen more and bring people together on an area of expertise or interest,

1. Determine a topic and time
2. Will you run the room alone or seek support?
3. Set up the room and add moderators.
4. Create an event plan for actions, and who is doing what.
5. Promote across socials.
6. Set up Events on LinkedIn and Facebook - invite people who could be interested.
7. Post in the event leading up to the event.
8. During the room, encourage people to post resources, info, and further questions on the event to continue the conversation.
9. Take screenshots to share across socials, and encourage participants to share and tag speakers and moderators if appropriate.
10. Review what went well, and what needs improving.
11. Repeat

I hosted my first room Monday 11th Jan https://www.joinclubhouse.com/event/GxoyDk1m and have been a host, moderator and speaker many times since.

Get started by hosting a private room with a colleague to get familiar with the settings such as how to ping people into the room, invite them on stage, mute and unmute, made people moderators etc.

Follow me by searching for Jo Saunders or @LinkedInConnect and check out my upcoming discussions.

Hope to see you there or in a future room that I host. I'm open to hearing about the specific LinkedIn topics you would like to see discussed - add your suggestions in the comments.

Take part in my latest POLL about Clubhouse or view the previous POLL results LinkedIn poll about Clubhouse.

What are your thoughts about an audio-driven platform?

#Clubhouse LinkedIn #Connectfluence #Audio #Connectfluence