I had my first Clubhouse experience yesterday.

One of my favorite writers, Bobby Hundreds, promoted a Clubhouse room where they were going to talk about NFTs. I’m very interested and excited about NFTs so I thought it would be a good idea to check it out.

I know what you’re thinking. What’s Clubhouse?

Clubhouse is a new social media app that is completely centered around audio.

It’s a platform that acts like a giant conference call. People can be invited or join a room, and then the admins of the room are the only ones who can speak. If the admins want, they can bring people up to the “podium” where they can be granted permission to speak.

Think of it as a virtual auditorium.

So I’m in the Clubhouse and my first impression was that the app was pretty easy to use. The speakers seemed engaging and everyone was very excited about the topic.

Around 10 minutes into the conversation, I went on Twitter and I see a lot of people tweeting out quotes from @garyvee and @bobbyhundreds.

So then I thought to myself…

“Half the people in this Clubhouse aren’t even paying attention. They’re all on Twitter. Then I thought, “wait a minute, I’m on Twitter. Am I even paying attention?”

Right then and there, I left the room and I went back downstairs to hang out with my wife.

My View on Social Media

During the pandemic, I made a choice to actively start working on building my Twitter following. I really enjoy Twitter and I find it to be the platform that can generate the most results when it comes to selling products and building authentic relationships.

I can easily say that within the last year, I’ve seen great results from Twitter. I’ve got about 1000 followers and I feel more and more engaged with the people who follow me. It’s exciting.

I’ve been a big hater on social media for years. I see so many people running around from one social platform to the next, practically begging for followers and participating in a weird cyclical circle jerk where they use social media to talk about socail media and make content about how other people should follow them so they can also learn how to get followers on social media by talking about social media.

With that being said, there’s no denying the power of having a large social media following. It has been life changing for me, and I only have 1500 followers. Imagine what it will be like when I have 100,000 followers.

My Twitter following alone has slowly changed my view on social media.

Along Comes Clubhouse

Everyone says that Clubhouse is going to be the next big social media app. It is funded by a16z and it is riding the coat tails of the podcast / audio movement that has been consistantly growing over the last 10 years.

I’m still skeptical.

Skeptical Hippo (@sceptical_hippo) | Twitter

When social media gurus start talking about the “next big thing”, they never talk about all the apps that were also the “next big thing” that no one remembers. Do you remember…

periscope?
meerkat?
yikyak?
vine?

How much energy did people spend trying to build followings on those apps? Where is their audience now?

When I think of these repeated disasters, I have a hard time taking social media marketing seriously. But this time, I am taking a different approach.

This time around, I’m going to be open minded about Clubhouse and try my best to accept it into my life without constantly rolling my eyes.

I think a lot about what my Twitter following would be like if I was consistant on it the last 5 years as opposed to the last 12 months.

With that, let me lay out some potential positives about Clubhouse.

An Audio App is a Great Idea, and I’m Suprised it Took so Long

When you sign into Clubhouse, you see how it operates and you think to yourself “I can’t believe I didn’t think of this.”

Most people forget that audio is the most natural form of learning for almost every person. Before there was the written word, before there was math, before there was video, there were stories. People will always gravitate towards audio content because it is comfortable for us as a medium of learning.

Clubhouse excites me for that reason. As humans, we always want to be listening to stories and hearing voices. That’s why when you listen to podcasts, you feel like you can truly “get to know” the people speaking.

It’s embedded into our brainstems.

My Commitment

I’m now 124 episodes in to my podcast.

I created my podcast simply because I wanted to conquer the fear of speaking to people. I grew up with a slight speech impediment and so I felt podcasting would be a great way for me to get over my angst in conversations.

I say that to aknowledge that as my podcast has grown, so has my understanding of how effective the spoken word can be as a marketing channel and I don’t see Clubhouse going anywhere soon. It’s hear to stay.

So I will give it an honest effort.

BUT… I will not put Clubhouse in front of the things I am already doing.

It’s hard enough being a good writer. Now I’m supposed to be a good speaker, a good podcaster, a good tweeter, a good selfie taker, and a good presenter?

No thanks.

In my view, this is why most millenials fail, because they have no focus. They see everyone else around them doing something exciting and they put down what they’re doing to go and do something else. With this constant back and forth, they never see the benefits of compounding interest of their efforts.

My priorities remain the same.

Good writing.

SEO.

Email.

My podcast.

Twitter.

and now we’ll throw Clubhouse in the mix for good measure.

We’ll see what happens.

The Blank Page

My Thoughts on Clubhouse