Clubhouse App: What can event profs learn from its success?
Find out the reasons behind Clubhouse’s overwhelming success and what event profs can learn from it.
Clubhouse is buzzing. Founded a year ago, the company raised over $100 million in January at a $1 billion valuation.
Celebrities like Elon Musk and Oprah Winfrey are turning up at Clubhouse rooms. Invitations to the app have been selling for as much as $125 on eBay.
But what exactly is Clubhouse?
The iOS-only app is based on a simple concept: people gather in audio-chat rooms to talk. There is no video, no pictures, no text, only audio.
Entering the app, you are in a virtual hallway where you see rooms in progress based on who you follow. There, you can also start your own audio-chat rooms.
The rooms are essentially divided into two groups. The moderators are room admins, can bring people on stage, mute people, and make others moderators. The audience can only listen unless granted speaker permissions by the moderators.
Clubhouse users range from creative artists and influencers to venture capitalists and investors to professionals working in tech and marketing. Likewise, its virtual rooms cover various topics, including arts, social issues, politics, music, tech, and more.
So, what has fueled Clubhouse’s growth? What can event profs learn from it?
This article lists some of the app’s decisive success factors and how event profs can use these concepts for their events.
First, Clubhouse is strikingly simple to use. The user experience is both fun and seamless, as dropping in and out of rooms is only one click away.
In terms of content discovery, users can browse exciting discussions and creators as they please.
Furthermore, you can instantly switch between passively listening to a conversation to actively participating in the discussion without difficulties.
Therefore, event organizers could learn from that usability, designing events with a smooth customer experience and easy navigation.
Exclusivity
Then, a vital Clubhouse characteristic is its exclusivity. The app functions on an invitation-only basis, as joining is only possible if you get invited by an existing user.
Above all, that barrier to entry contributes to a sense of exclusivity, being part of a club, and missing out if you are out of it.
Importantly, Clubhouse rooms are not available on demand. As you cannot get access to conversations after they happen, it incites fear of missing out.
In that sense, even planners can promote exclusivity through different tactics, such as capping attendance, offering VIP experiences, and giving out perks to attendees.
Community engagement
Alongside exclusivity, community engagement is a powerful Clubhouse asset.
Clubhouse rooms bring together diverse people – most who haven’t met previously – around a shared topic of interest. Event profs can learn from the success of Clubhouse that virtual deal rooms are becoming increasingly popular. By creating a virtual deal room, event profs can provide a safe and secure space for their clients to discuss and negotiate deals. Furthermore, virtual deal rooms can be used to facilitate networking opportunities and create a more engaging experience for attendees.
Distinctively, users are not limited to commenting on chat such as on YouTube. Listeners can request to speak by clicking on the raised hand symbol, and moderators can bring them to the stage to contribute to the ongoing conversation.
Empowering the audience, coupled with making spontaneous connections, is undoubtedly one of the app’s critical success factors.
Similarly, event organizers could consider involving attendees as integral contributors to the event debates.
Using specialized platforms, organizers can upgrade viewers to speakers and set up social feeds for attendees to share their opinions.
Authenticity
Clubhouse rooms have been called unedited live podcasts. The power of voice humanizes and personalizes, making it easier to establish an emotional connection with the audience.
Additionally, the fact that recording a room is against the rules contributes to unfiltered and authentic conversations.
Indeed, as participants know their conversations won’t be replayed elsewhere or cut by an editor, they can express their views and ideas more freely. In that sense, discussions feel more genuine and less scripted.
Unavoidably, that comes with downsides as discussions can potentially spiral out of control. However, event professionals can learn from this authenticity by favoring live sessions and open debates rather than pre-recorded content.
Conclusion
In brief, Clubhouse’s usability, exclusivity, community engagement, and authenticity have fueled its exponential growth and massive popularity.
Giant tech platforms have already taken note of it, as Facebook and Twitter are building similar audio-chat products.
Event professionals could also undoubtedly benefit from the lessons Clubhouse rise lays bare, integrating some of its core concepts into their event design considerations and planning decisions.
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[hubspot portal=”5958648″ id=”de0c0cbb-e144-4596-8bde-5ca391770991″ type=”form”]About the Author / Gabriel Marin
