Clubhouse: Why You Need to Pay Attention
By now you’ve probably heard the word on the street.
A new social media platform, Clubhouse, has entered the online space.
This actually happened in 2020, but over the past few weeks it has been rolling out to more and more people.
You may be wondering if it’s worth your time or energy… because, let’s be real, it takes serious energy to learn a new platform!
As we’ve said before, we do not advocate that every single church leader, ministry leader, or person of faith uses every single platform.
Know your audience and go where your people are.
However, we do think it’s important for faith leaders to keep their finger on the pulse of what Clubhouse is and why it is shaking up the social space.
As of the writing of this article, we have been on it for exactly 1 month. We are not pros, but we know enough to be dangerous.
If you’re already active on Clubhouse, scroll your way on down to the “why you need to pay attention” section. If you haven’t taken the dive yet, consider this your crash course.
Click here for the video of this post!
What is Clubhouse?
Clubhouse is an audio-only social media app that allows people to connect easily via mutual interests and connections.
When you sign up for Clubhouse, you will plug in some key interests… you can always add more later. You will then be able to view tons of different “rooms” related to your interests.
Rooms
A “room” is a space on Clubhouse where admins who started the particular room and moderators who may be assisting them can control a conversation.
This may look like only the admins and moderators talking and sharing their insights among one another. However, often, others who are listening in on the conversation in the room will be invited to “raise their hand” and join in the conversation by asking questions or sharing additional perspectives.
Until you are invited to speak “on stage” with the admins and moderators, you are muted. After you ask to be on stage and are accepted, you are able to share in the conversation that many others may be listening in on, just as you first were.
Live
Imagine it like a podcast, often with multiple people on at once, but it’s all always live.
That means it’s raw, it’s sometimes messy, and it is not able to be recorded and replayed.
Connections
As you listen to various people share perspective and/or ask questions on Clubhouse, you may find others you want to continue connecting with beyond that particular room.
Clubhouse makes it very easy to connect via Twitter and Instagram by linking these other platforms directly on your profile.
You can also “follow” people on Clubhouse. When you do so, you will be alerted anytime someone you follow schedules or leads a room.
This means you can follow all of your favorite thought leaders and teachers and be alerted any time they are speaking live.
Not only that, but if and when the admins of the room open up for questions, you can also be talking directly with your favorite thought leader or teacher.
How cool is that!?
Exclusivity
Another way Clubhouse is different from other social media platforms at this time is that it started out in a highly exclusive fashion.
Rather than being an open platform where anyone can make a profile, new users were selected and provided invitations that they could share with others.
Invites were and continue to be limited, so people are still phasing in slowly every day.
Another way people find Clubhouse exclusive is that, as of this writing, you can only use the app on an iPhone. That means it is not compatible for any Android users whatsoever.
Things to Know if You Get on Clubhouse
Get Involved
Most people we’ve talked to about Clubhouse say that the best way to make connections and gain value from Clubhouse is to actually get involved.
Join rooms, raise your hand, ask questions, engage others.
Doing so will allow you to connect via mutual interests with people you’ve never heard of.
Some rooms will occur once and done. Others will be daily, weekly, monthly, or at another interval. Pace yourself and join at a rate that makes sense for your personal capacity and availability.
Also note that you are not able to record in the Clubhouse app. While you may have dozens or even hundreds of people listening in on your question or conversation, you likely won’t hear what you said repeated over and over like you might on a podcast episode or on the news.
Send Your Invites Carefully
As we mentioned, you will have limited invites to share on Clubhouse. Use your invites well and research how to share them before you try to.
Many people accidentally lose their invites because they either send them incorrectly or try to send them to someone who can’t get on Clubhouse yet… for example, someone without an iPhone.
Do your homework before sharing so you don’t lose what you have!
Be Intentional with Your Bio
The two best ways to use your bio well are to:
- Connect your Twitter account and Instagram account. This makes it easy for people to continue following along on your journey outside of the live Clubhouse conversation.
- Describe yourself well in the first 3 lines. The reason you focus on the first three lines is because people can see these lines via a noncommittal browse of your name vs. visiting your entire profile.
If you make these first lines interesting enough, people will be more likely to either click your profile or follow you on the spot.
Why You Need to Pay Attention
Okay, church leader, so what does this have to do with you?
There are a few things you need to pay attention to when it comes to how people engage the app.
Live
As we mentioned, Clubhouse is always live.
Most social media platforms allow us to hide behind pretty graphics or scheduled videos. Even stories, which seem very real-time, are up for 24 hours at a time.
Pay attention to the way Clubhouse encourages raw interaction between people. It is very similar to your live streams and Zoom rooms, but with a more open and engaging aspect added in.
Accessibility
While Clubhouse can be arguably extremely inaccessible, it also introduces an accessibility we’ve never seen before.
How can that be?
Well, remember, Clubhouse is invite-only and its audio-nature does not allow for deaf or hard of hearing folks to jump in easily.
However, Clubhouse makes space for teachers and students to share a stage… without any travel to a conference or a physical podium for learners to walk to.
Just this week Elon Musk was on Clubhouse.
Oprah, MC Hammer, and Kevin Hart have also been reported as app users.
Most people don’t consider it feasible to ask any question of anyone they want at any moment…
In rooms, this all changes.
Pay attention to what that could mean for you as a church leader. You likely do not want to be accessible all of the time.
But, when you are logged in and consenting to being accessed, imagine how an app like Clubhouse make you more approachable to those who would never come to physical office hours to share, listen, learn, and ask.
Audio Only
Being a platform that is almost purely based on audio, Clubhouse allows for more flexibility than most social platforms.
You can listen to rooms while working out, share your perspective while gardening, or ask questions while driving in your car.
This opens a new type of live space where you do not need to be on video.
You can hop into a room before you are even out of bed! No need to fix your hair for a Zoom call or plan your day around hopping on a podcast episode.
Pay attention to how much easier it is for people to flow in and out of conversations like this.
Many people report that this style of engaging others feels so natural that they are able to stay on for hours – while doing dishes, finishing up a project, grabbing groceries, or more.
Other Platforms Jumping In
Just like we saw Snapchat’s quick-form videos turn into Stories on multiple platforms and TikTok’s style of goofy music-oriented videos become Instagram Reels, Twitter is already jumping on this with Twitter Spaces.
This doesn’t mean audio-only spaces will blow up tonight or this year, but it’s important to recognize this is a new way to engage people digitally, and some would even say it offers a closer connection than other avenues.
Next Steps
If you are already on Clubhouse, be sure to give us a follow @digivangelism. We would love to connect with you and pay attention to the ways you are using digital ministry to be church online.
And if you’ve made it this far and are not on Clubhouse but are interested in a Clubhouse Invite, here are a few steps you can take for one of our remaining invitations:
- Share one of our posts on any social media platform you’d like.
- Tag us in the shared post (@digivangelism on pretty much everything!).
- Include a sentence about the food you MOST miss enjoying at potlucks or dinners where everyone would contribute a dish (hey… we like potlucks!).
That will be our signal that you are interested in a Clubhouse invite.
We’ll wait a few days, pick our favorite submissions, and contact you on the social media profile that you tagged us on!
That’s it for Clubhouse, DigiFriends.
If you are interested in more digital ministry tips and trends as well as exclusive tools along the way, be sure to subscribe to our email list for weekly updates from the Digivangelism Digital Ministry Guides.