Clubhouse App How To: A Guide for Online Entrepreneurs

If you're in online business or marketing circles, you've likely heard the frenzy about this new app: Clubhouse. Come learn how to get started and why it's so great for online entrepreneurs.

If you're in online business and marketing, you've probably heard about this new app: Clubhouse.

>>> Btw, it's not "The Clubhouse" just "Clubhouse" ... which is also a verb: "Honey, please watch the kids. I'm gonna' go Clubhouse!" 😂

My Clubhouse Cred

As of writing this post on 01-07-21, it's only my 2-week anniversary on Clubhouse. So full disclosure: I'm not some Clubhouse power user, big-deal moderator, know-it-all. 

Considering it's been around for at least a year from what I can tell, I'm still quite the Newb. But that should serve you well, as I recently went through/am going through all the same things as you, as far as getting signed up and getting acquainted with this new app.

Even though I'm a newb, I can clearly see how much Clubhouse is going to mean to the entrepreneurial and online business community.

So I decided to share what I know in the hopes I can shortcut the process for you. I also want to expand on and give context to the basic instructions that may be provided elsewhere.
 

What is Clubhouse?

In summary, it's a casual "drop in" voice-chat app gaining rapid popularity due to things like its invite-only exclusivity and users' ability to talk firsthand with celebrities, famous athletes, "Shark Tank"-level entrepreneurs, and venture capitalists, to name a few. It's also just a great place to network, start collabs, find your audience, and more.

Back in May 2020, the New York Times called Clubhouse "a social media app where venture capitalists have gathered to mingle with one another while they are quarantined in their homes." So, yeah, that's why you see so many VCs on there.

Clubhouse is probably BEST defined by Clubhouse itself: 

Clubhouse is a place for casual, drop-in audio chats. When you open the app you can see “rooms” full of people talking—all open so you can hop in and out, exploring different conversations. It’s a place to meet with friends and with new people around the world—to tell stories, ask questions, debate, learn, and have impromptu conversations on thousands of different topics.

>> So please keep reading. There's a lot more to Clubhouse and I'll explain it all.

Two main things to know up front:

1. Clubhouse is currently in beta and is invite-only.

2. Clubhouse is currently app-only and Apple-only; no Android availability yet and you can't use CH on desktop

The Clubhouse home page as of 01-11-21

Okay, on to the detailed stuff. But first, I found this quote to be a funny and on-target summation to get us started: 

Clubhouse is working because it’s halfway between a podcast and a party, and people love both of those things. - Nathan Baschez, Inside the Clubhouse

How Do I Join Clubhouse?

Download the Clubhouse app

1. So far, it's not available to Android users. You can only use Clubhouse with an iPhone or iPad. {I've heard reports it can be spotty or glitchy on an iPad so ideally, use an iPhone}.

2. Even if you don't have an invite yet, I urge you to download the app and reserve your username before someone takes the one you want*. To register, you'll need a valid phone number.

👉🏼 Be aware that the Clubhouse app accesses all your phone contacts.

Suggestions: When you reserve your username, you can use your business name or whatever handle you usually use on other social media. However, when you get your invite, you need to use your real name (more on this below under the Profile section).

So CHOOSE WISELY: You can change your @/username only once; you can correct your full/real name only once.

*I first tried for @Erika as my handle - thought it would be cool to be the first one - but alas it was already taken. Tho' @ErikaFriday was available, I ended up choosing @ErikaFriday8 which is actually better in the long run. It matches my handle on all my other social media accounts: Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram. I'm always @ErikaFriday8 ✨

3.  When you search "Clubhouse" in the App Store, various things will come up but this is the one you want.

How to Get An Invite to Join Clubhouse

Ah, the question of the hour! It seems that suddenly the word is out about Clubhouse. So everyone is posting all over their social media channels asking for an invite because we all have #FOMO, especially if we feel that other marketers are getting the jump on us 😊

5 Do's and Don'ts for getting a Clubhouse invite:

1. DO ask your online and IRL friends and followers if they're on Clubhouse and can invite you. The easiest way is if you're in their phone contacts (or if they can add you to their phone contacts). So your IRL friends and people you've done business with are the most likely to easily invite you. And this is the best case scenario anyway, for all the reasons I list below.

2. DO post in Clubhouse "invite chains" in Facebook groups. You list your username (the one I told you to procure above) and agree that if someone above invites you, you'll in turn invite the next person in the chain. Be aware that this involves providing your cell phone number to a likely stranger, so use caution.

3. DO pay attention to your biz-minded friends' social media posts. If they post a request for a co-host/moderator for a room they're going to host, jump in if you can help with their topic. They can get you into Clubhouse merely by you helping them moderate! Better yet, respectfully pitch a friend you know is on Clubhouse with your idea on a room you could co-moderate. Make it super easy for them :)

4. DON'T continuously, obnoxiously post in groups asking for an invite. Don't post on someone else's feed asking them or their friends for an invite. We're all getting tired of seeing these requests already, and the frenzy just started.

Believe me, everyone on Clubhouse knows that everyone else wants an invite. Most of us only had 1 to give and it's already gone to a close friend, husband, etc. Instead, use one of the methods above and handle things via DM with your friends as much as you can.

5. DO be aware that whoever's invite you accept, they'll show in your profile forever-after as who you were "nominated by." So make sure it's someone you're in alignment with, who you'll be glad to be tied to in that way. Note: If that person gets kicked out, I hear they may also kick out whoever that person invited/nominated. So, again, use caution. Just another reason to have someone you really know invite you.

First Things to Do When You Join Clubhouse

Once you get accepted to Clubhouse, these are the first things you should do:

1. Fill in your Profile with 10 things

People will be checking out your profile as soon as you start entering rooms. So unless you're on Clubhouse with entirely no agenda (is anyone??? ha), you don't want to miss the opportunity of those first profile views.

Your profile allows you to make connections based on commonalities, be found for collabs, gain clients and followers on your other social media accounts or website, etc. 

How to fill in your Clubhouse profile: Keep reading; there's info on that below.

2. Follow 10 People and/or Clubs

Like every other app, there's an algorithm, right? So the sooner you "tell" Clubhouse what kind of content aka rooms and notifications you want to see, the sooner Clubhouse will start being what you want it to be.

So right away, follow 10 people in your niche, industry, location, interest topics, etc. When you follow someone, CH notifies you when they schedule a room, shows you their name in the hallway (so you can join a room they're currently in), etc.

I didn't know to do this at first and therefore was seeing a lot of rooms that didn't interest me. It almost put me off Clubhouse altogether; I was wondering, "What's so great about this?" I'm glad I stuck with it and learned how to solve this issue - by following people and clubs in my niche!

How to follow people on Clubhouse: From the hallway, click the magnifying glass on the top left to get to the Explore page. Then find people or clubs by searching relevant names, topics, or key words. 

3. Listen to 10 Rooms for 10 minutes each

The key word here is LISTENNNNN!!! This is SO important. I urge you to NOT enter rooms and start raising your hand and speaking right away, even if they invite you up (you can politely decline; no one minds). Get the vibe of Clubhouse first.

Also, get the vibe of the room first. Many times, the discussion when you join the room has strayed from the stated topic. If you've come in late, listen for a bit to see what the actual topic is now.

Moderators may "reset the room" once in a while, meaning they state again who the moderators and speakers are, what the intended topic is, and perhaps explain how they got off on a tangent, lol.

Other times, the convo just keeps flowing and it may be confusing for new arrivals to figure out. Just "don't be that guy" who enters and starts speaking apropos of nothing because you haven't taken the time to LISTEN first.

How to listen in Clubhouse rooms: The "home page" for the app is called the hallway. It may have a tan section at the top with upcoming scheduled rooms for people/clubs you follow, then a list of all the currently open rooms.

Find one that interests you, click on it, and you're in the room as a Listener. You are automatically muted upon entering.

To be moved up to the Speaker section, you would click the raised hand on the bottom right. BUT YOU'RE NOT GOING TO DO THAT JUST YET. Your mission is to listen to 10 rooms for at least 10 minutes each.

This should give you a good cross-section of rooms, vibes, topics, moderator styles, etc. Then go ahead and start raising your hand to be invited to speak, after entering rooms, then listening for a bit. Down the road, you can start your own rooms as a Moderator.

For a great breakdown on Listener vs Speaker vs Moderator, please click over to this Clubhouse page and scroll down to "Roles." 

What to Include in Your Clubhouse Profile

Profile Name / Handle

As I mentioned above, in the "reserve your name" stage, your handle can be pretty much what you want. If you have a handle you use all across social media, I'd stick with that. For example, I chose @ErikaFriday8 which matches my handle on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest

However, once you get your invite and set up your profile, you need to use your real name (see below). Like Facebook, the Clubhouse terms of use require you to have only 1 account per 1 real person. 

That means that unlike Twitter and Instagram, you CAN NOT have multiple Clubhouse accounts under various names and you can't use a fake name; also, you can't name squat.

From the Clubhouse Community Guidelines: 

• We prohibit any attempt to impersonate any person or entity, or falsely state or otherwise misrepresent your affiliation with a person or entity.
• We prohibit the creation of duplicate or multiple accounts by one individual, whether representing themselves or another entity.
• We prohibit "username squatting," (e.g., intentional registration of "branded" usernames or acting with a bad faith intent, e.g., to sell the handle at an inflated price)

Profile Image

Most people use a nice headshot. A small number like me use their business logo. Others use a random photo. I'm also seeing a few people using a digital image of themselves. I actually prefer the digital images as they're less cluttered and sharper than most headshot images. Since we're accessing Clubhouse on our phones' small screens, clear images are a very good thing.

Profile Text

Unlike Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest, no character limits are given or content limits on what you can have in your Profile. So make of it whatever you like. I've seen everything from empty Profiles to those that read like a full resume or website page.

Note: Apparently, there is such a thing as your profile being too long and you'll get an error message if you hit that limit, whatever it is. 

So here's the top part of my profile, just to give an example of what one looks like. I'm one who uses my business logo as my Profile pic. I'm only on CH - and all social media for that matter - for business reasons. I don't use it in my personal life at all. (A side benefit of using my logo is that it's always really easy to find myself in rooms! Heh).

Below this, I also have sections for "I Believe", "About Me", a quick resume with my 2021 goal, then a quick sign-off. (Yes, I realize the logo is not perfectly centered but the space they give you is a wonky shape).

Most people's profiles are much more braggy, lol. But for now, I intend to listen more than talk, am not trying to amass followers, get invited on stage or to moderate, etc. I actually foresee using Clubhouse to hold private chats with course students, etc. So being super "out there" isn't my goal.

If you WOULD like to be invited on stage, to moderate with others, and/or to gain a bunch of Followers, bling that baby out!! The sky is the limit and it's totally up to YOU.

>> Be aware that none of these are "hot links" so the more simple URLs you use, the better; you can't copy/paste links either so people will have to type them in manually. The only things you can link are your Twitter and Instagram profiles at the verrry bottom.

A good remedy for this would be to list to a Linktr.ee or simple landing page that has all your relevant links. Then people would only have to type in one link to get to all your other clickable links.

Also, assuming people will click your Twitter and IG links to learn more about you, make sure those profiles have your website linked (or whatever info you want them to know about you). 

Here at the bottom you can see who invited/nominated me to Clubhouse. I'm proudly associated with my fellow Kajabian JoAnn Krall (thanks so much, JoAnn!!!). She's an awesome Organizing Coach at The Sensible Organizer.

At the bottom of your profile, you can also see what clubs you're a member of. The way I've found most of these is by seeing what clubs the people I follow are in, since we likely have similar interests. But there's also a search feature you can use by clicking the magnifying glass in the top left of the app.

If you're not sure what to put in your Clubhouse profile, just look around at what the people in your space are doing and follow their lead. You can change/update it at any time so don't stress about it!

For some great inspiration - with permission from JoAnn - here's her awesome Clubhouse profile! Thanks for letting me share, JoAnn.

What's great about JoAnn's Clubhouse profile - she:

1. Succinctly says in the first 3 lines what she does and uses key words.

2. Shares something from her heart, her credentials, and how she helps people.

3. Uses eye-catching emojis to tell more about herself personally, and other things she's interested in talking about.

4. Requests to be a podcast guest and then shares 2 offers that have easy URLs (JoAnnKrall.com/challenges and JoAnnKrall.com/quiz).

5. Links her Twitter and Instagram

6. Joins clubs that not only improve her own feed but also tell others the things she's interested in.

The Rest of the Clubhouse Layout

Now let's go over the rest of the pages in Clubhouse.

Note: I double-checked to make sure; it's okay to share screen shots from Clubhouse, as long as they're not used "in a way that violates our Terms of Service (e.g., directed abuse or hate towards a user)." I purposely tried to use shots that were of more "out there" or celebrity type people vs more private-seeming people or topics.

This is the Hallway where you can see what's upcoming that might interest you, along with all the rooms currently going on.

If you click the magnifying glass in the top left, you can search for people or clubs to follow. For instance, here I searched for musicians and found one of my favorites, John Mayer. Cool. 

Click the calendar icon at the top and find this list of Upcoming for You. This is based on people and clubs you follow and interests you've indicated. 

Click the bell image to share, Tweet, copy link, or add to Cal.

Click the down arrow next to Upcoming for You and filter what you'd like to see here.

Get to Settings by clicking your avatar, then the gear icon. Here you can set things like notification type and frequency, a link to "What's New in Clubhouse" aka release notes, connect/disconnect Instagram and Twitter, and other admin-type things.

This is fairly new: You can also set your interests under settings - topics you want to see in your feed. I got this notification under Activity which prompted me to fill them in. I'm curious to see how this affects my feed.

Clubhouse Tips and Tricks

How to chat with or DM other Clubhouse members

Well, ummm, technically you can't - on Clubhouse. There's no chat or DM feature. The way to communicate with others in written form is to utilize their Twitter or Instagram DMs. 

How to "clap" or show approval for a speaker or moderator

You can tap your mute button on and off (but stay silent), which you have access to if you're a moderator or speaker.

How to remove the "party hat" emoji from your profile image in rooms

That is automatically given to new members. It will disappear once you've been on Clubhouse for 7 days. You may love it or hate it but it's an indicator, to moderators especially, that you're new. And in my experience, everyone is extra nice to the new folks :) They know that we don't know what the heck we're doing yet.

How to get more Invites to share

Apparently, you get 1 invite when you join, 3 more after 7 days, and 3 more at 14 days. However, I just hit 14 days and haven't received any more invites beyond the first 4 (I have none available to share). 

I can't find any written rules about this but have heard others say that the more active you are with speaking and moderating, the more invites you'll be given. Perhaps that's why I didn't receive additional invites on Day 14.

How to listen to replays or recordings of Clubhouse rooms

You can’t and that's by design. Clubhouse rooms are live in real time. When the room is shut down, the conversation is deleted. There are no replays because recording rooms is not allowed per the CH terms. 

I wouldn't go against them, as someone will likely complain and you'll be kicked off the platform; I've seen it happen. Also, isn’t it against the law to record people without their knowledge anyway? Even if it’s not illegal, it’s morally wrong 👎🏼

For instance, I was in a room once where the admin went on Facebook Live simultaneously to Clubhouse; therefore, that's a recording with a replay. Now I can't find her on Clubhouse anymore. If she wasn't kicked off, she should've been. 

How to find information about Clubhouse FROM Clubhouse

Clubhouse Community Guidelines - includes topics of Principles, Roles, Rules, Safety, Legal Note, and Contact

Clubhouse New User Guide - includes Just the Basics, Spaces & Conversations, and A Few More FAQs

Clubhouse Knowledge Center - includes Common Questions, FAQs, Updates & Policies, Feedback & Questions

Please follow my ErikaFriday.com Facebook Page for more tips, tricks, and general Clubhouse news :)

You probably have questions! Please leave a comment below or email [email protected]

xo,