Sahail Ashraf posted on 16 August 2021
Clubhouse was once invite-only. Now anyone can join in the fun. Is it worth it for brands?
Clubhouse is one of those apps that was exclusive, but is now fully open for everyone. It’s the live meeting app that has been used by various people, some celebrities, and even brands. Think of it as a kind of online ‘town hall’ where you can literally join in on voice calls with a huge number of people. It became very famous very quickly because it was a closed-beta. This made it a desirable place to be. Now it is open to all.
The company explains via it’s website:
Twelve never-boring months later, we’re thrilled to share that Clubhouse is now out of beta, open to everyone, and ready to begin its next chapter. This means we have removed our waitlist system so that anyone can join. If you have a club, you can post your link far and wide. If you are a creator with an audience, you can bring them all on. If you’re hosting a public event, anyone can attend. You can bring close friends, classmates, family members, coworkers, and anyone else you like — on iOS or Android.
So it seems that the most intriguing app of all time is now suddenly an open house, where invites are no longer required.
We all knew Clubhouse would become bigger than the industry would have pitched it to be, but it’s now very much a bit of a force to be reckoned with. The big brands are circling, with Twitter and Facebook having their own versions now of what Clubhouse offers, but this has not stopped Clubhouse from growing over the last twelve months:
It’s been a rollercoaster first half of the year, and we’ve emerged much bigger than we were in January. Our team has gone from 8 people to 58. The number of daily rooms has grown from 50k to half a million. We’ve added 10M people to the community since we launched Android in mid-May, and seen 90M DMs sent since we launched Backchannel last week. The average listener now spends over an hour a day on Clubhouse, and a huge percentage of people don’t just listen, but actually talk. That’s our favorite part of the whole thing. Meanwhile the breadth of communities and clubs continues to grow each day, across the world, in all sorts of surprising ways. It’s incredibly exciting, but we know we have a lot more to build over the weeks, months and years to come.
Think about it. The daily room amount has grown from 50k to a staggering half a million. So the platform is now legitimate, and a place where people want to hang out.
As a brand, there are a couple of ways in which you can gain some benefit from Clubhouse. You can use it to network, obviously. A meeting place is a great space to do this. The most obvious benefit of Clubhouse is connecting with more people in your industry. It is invaluable to gain insight from insiders in a number of ways – by recognising trends, broadening perspectives and much more. The real-time aspect makes it very attractive.
You can also hold events in Clubhouse. Your data security company could hold an AMA (‘Ask me anything’) about cyber threats. Or you could have a reveal for a new product and treat it like a press conference.
You could even take the opportunity to use Clubhouse as a space where you could garner live feedback. Your Clubhouse network will allow you to share ideas, which is a great benefit. The immediate input of people within your industry can help you refine your ideas as you go.
Is it worth getting involved? Well, if you’ve ever been to a networking event or trade conference, you’ll know how useful they can be. Now they are one step closer to becoming fully ‘real-time’ online.
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