The Password is: Clubhouse ??

Okay, y'all. I'm on the bandwagon. I recently joined Clubhouse, and probably not for the reasons one might assume. I think there's this idea for people not on the app that people only join the app to chase after clout, but that wasn't what got me in. My intrigue was less about what the shiny new thing could offer me, and more about WHY the shiny new thing was so... well, shiny! Inquiring minds needed to know. And I was/am determined to figure it out.

I think this goes back to my roots in Psychology. I am a marketer by profession, but I look at everything in life through the lens of human behavior. That's why I chose Psychology as my major in undergrad; I wanted to understand people and I wanted to understand myself. A whole master's degree and career-in-a-different-field later, and I clearly haven't strayed too far from my initial thought process. ?????♀?

My goal is to understand what the app is and why people are using it so obsessively. Since I got my invite, I’ve been obsessed with this idea. Not the idea of being on the app to build a following, but rather, obsessively watching what people with a following do to obsessively build their following (do you follow?), and boy do I have some questions:

• How does it work?
• What is the hype all about?
• Who is it for?
• How does it compare with other social media?
• Is it really a new concept or a combination of some half-baked solutions simply compiled together in the right formula?
• Is this the next BIG thing!?

I don’t have all the answers yet, but I think I’m getting really close. 

A few days after I got on, I decided to extend an invite to one of my very close friends. Her name is Kylie. She’s extremely business savvy and one of the most accomplished people I know; I needed to get her take on it. Yesterday, after sitting on my invitation for a couple of days, she finally decided to join and jumped right in (I knew she would eventually ??). We’ve been going back and forth via text about it almost non-stop ever since.

As we were going over the sometimes overwhelming aspects of the app with her being a newcomer, and me (naturally) trying to make sense of it all for her, I wrote the below as a response in our text thread. At the time, it was my most succinct synopsis of the platform:

[In marketing terms,] I feel like the platform is very much in the "awareness" phase of the funnel. More personal brand than company brand, but a platform to share knowledge and value, if you do it right. Some people have no tact and still amass a following on the app and other social platforms, but who [does that following really consist of? What kind of value, what kind of engagement, does that bring them?? What is the payoff for them spending their time and sharing their thoughts?] Ya know?? So that’s where building the relationships on other platforms comes in. It’s still very scrappy IMHO. Like a digital networking tool for people who already are very used to hustle culture [and know how to standout and make themselves heard]. I think for everyone else, it’s a place for connection and belonging where they can be exposed to experts and celebs they might not otherwise have access to.

I had previously defined it on my own Twitter post as an audio version of either Twitter or LinkedIn, depending on whom you follow and what rooms you enter, with essentially no gray area between the two. Exhibit A:

If you understand the two social platforms referenced here (and I hope you do because you're on one of them), you hopefully understand what I'm getting at. They are two completely different audiences with two completely different content and communication styles. More on this later if we need to go deeper on that topic (ps. let me know in the comments if we do!). After more thought, listening, learning, formulating evolutions of this definition, and sharing ideas about the app back and forth with my fiancé, he said:

“You’re right that most of the noise on Clubhouse is like Twitter, but the other side of it is not LinkedIn; it’s EXPERTS.”

BINGO! That’s exactly it.

In my world, the people who are experts in my professional field (Marketing) are on LinkedIn. We're professionals. Our collective set of skills are applicable to the professional world because that's where we exist; we're a fundamental piece to the puzzle that is doing business. It's the market we serve. It's where our audience lives. And we’re in marketing, so having a personality is almost required.

LinkedIn is basically a marketer's playground for the professional side of our personality. The people I follow and interact with on LinkedIn bring their personalities to the platform as they share their practical advice and insights they've uncovered. It works for us, we're good with words, and we understand the science of communication. It's the perfect platform for marketers to show up as ourselves (the professional sides of ourselves, at least) and share our perspective/advice/insights/learnings/etc. Sometimes the sharing of such content enables us to amass a following of our own.

So from my frame of reference, that LinkedIn nod totally made sense.

Well. I stand corrected. We (my fiancé and I) recently started listening to room about Trading & Investing and we both realized that people aren’t just out there giving away this free kind of advice on other platforms like this. This is a topic that before yesterday, I pretty much knew nothing about. Until I listened in on a few rooms my fiancé had joined, and now.... let's just say I have my work cut out for me because I have LOTS to learn about investment strategies. ??

But where else are you going to go where a group of experts is having real, raw, honest conversations about their trading portfolios, long-term investments, and where their stocks are sitting today vs tomorrow RIGHT NOW?? I mean, these stages (how/where people are able to speak on the app) are made up of sometimes 10+ people who know (or at least interact with) and respect each other, who aggressively understand what they’re each talking about, in a single room just... chatting. And we, the common people and experts alike, can HEAR THEM! 

Sure, Marketing LinkedIn shares insights with their audience (and sometimes even Marketing Twitter! In small and much more individual doses) and you can view comments from other industry leaders that may have joined in on the conversation at their own will, but when these thought leaders post their content, they have the time to think about and really craft their statements before they hit publish. NOT IN CLUBHOUSE!

These are real conversations in real-time. You have a front-row seat to how people on the stage think through their strategies. As an audience member, you get insights into their critical thinking skills and get to understand how they problem solve — straight from the source! FOR FREE. Not from a pre-written interview or article in some fancy publication that's been watered-down by a PR team. Or on some blog or podcast that has potentially been diluted by an editor or producer. Not in a paid course where legal has combed through to make sure they can't get sued by what they claim. None of those barriers exist in Clubhouse.

This is straight-up raw information - unfiltered knowledge - being shared by an entire room of people WHO ALREADY GET IT. They are masters of that thing that you have an interest in and want to know more about, #nofilter. And as a listener, you get to be a fly on the wall and soak all. of. it. in.

Where else can you do that!?!?

My hypothesis: this is why the app is so addicting. This is why it's catching fire and in talks of valuation at $1B out of the gate. (Yes, you read that right. You can Google it. It's wild to even think about, but it's true.)

It's a "unicorn" app because the creators of the space, of the platform itself, have formulated a solution that caters to the curiosity embedded in our DNA; it's part of the most basic human nature to assess and understand other humans. It's how we all make sense of our world. This is basic human psychology at play. People are obsessed with learning about people and what they're doing and who they are and why and how they live the way they do.

People are also enamored with the idea of success. What could possibly be better than learning from people you idolize, the EXPERTS in their field, that have already mastered their craft and are willingly talking about it!? Like what is better than learning DIRECTLY FROM THEM, in their own voices, with their own vocabulary, in real-time through a genuine and raw conversation???? Don't worry, I'll wait...

...

...

...But so we don't waste too much time, let me help. The answer is NOTHING. There is nothing more immediate. Nothing that breaks down the barriers (the "highlight reel," if you will) in this way that other, more traditional models of social media are so inherently guarded by. That's why it works!

So now I’ve realized that the app is basically a Reddit thread come to life. In real-time. With real experts. Talking to real people. That’s what it is. 

How you use it depends entirely on you.

Welcome to Clubhouse. ????

PS. If you're interested in connecting with me on the app (or any social media app, for that matter), my handle is @beckyylilyy. Talk soon!