While there are ample social media platforms that harness the power of influencers and creators, there are not many platforms whose initial focus is on leveraging creators as the foundation for the social media platform’s growth and success.
Clubhouse is one of the few that focuses on the latter. Their objective, from the beginning, was to make a creator-centric social media platform that enables them to create, engage and later monetize their influence.
Although Clubhouse is a new social media platform with an audio-centric approach, their unique yet diverse host of creators makes this platform one of the leading phenomena.
Despite being an invite-only platform, this audio social platform’s sudden growth has propelled them to introduce support initiatives for the creators and broadcasters via their Creator First accelerator program to a select group of creators to provide the users with financial support during their content creation journey on the platform.
If you are a content and audio creator in exploring new social media platforms to improve your sources of monetization, Clubhouse is one of the evolving platforms. Here’s what you need to know.
What is Clubhouse?
Clubhouse is an audio-chat-based social network developed by Paul Davison and Rohan Seth of Alpha Exploration Co. This is an invite-only platform that was initially only available for iPhone users, but popularization is now available on Android and Windows.
The majority of the users who have actively used this platform regard it as attending a live podcast platform with discussions around varying niches.
Once you register and open the Clubhouse app, you are faced with a range of rooms with hundreds or thousands of attendees in a single room hosted by an expert. Additionally, you can also create your own room to start a discussion.
Since the platform is audio-centric social media, there are no pictures, videos, or hardly available texts. Also, the content is not saved, which means that you wouldn’t be able to get back in once you leave your invite-only access unless you have an invite again.
Although the concept surrounding this platform started small, it gained massive notoriety after celebrities like Drake, Virgil Abloh, Elon Musk, and even Oprah joined in on the trend. Ever since then, the platform has gained over 10 million users, the numbers increasing rapidly.
Aside from the unique concept and the uplifting opportunities for the creators, the platform’s exclusivity provides the users with an optimal sense of security while hosting essential and insightful conversations in the designated room.
Another reason that has pushed the growth of the content on Clubhouse is the ephemeral nature of the content. The content isn’t saveable, which means that you have to listen to the live audio discussions instead of saving it for later listening.
How did Clubhouse go Viral?
Although the platform isn’t an old one, it has managed to catch the users’ attention span, all thanks to their range of famous influencers, including Elon Musk and Naval Ravikant.
Musk made his debut on the platform in January 2021, wherein he discussed various topics surrounding softball, space travel, crypto,
Artificial Intelligence, and even Covid-19 vaccines. Following his initial conversation and Q&A session, Musk also interviewed Vlad Tenev, leading to 5000 people listening concurrently in the room.
The popularity of such conversations with Musk and other influential people wasn’t limited to just Clubhouse. Some of the listeners created secondary mediums of listening, including YouTube streaming. Musk’s influence on the platform provided it with the validation and momentum it needed to break the records.
Besides Musk, even Naval Ravikant brought in a lot of popularity to the platform after conducting a session on Startup Bharat and Balaji Srinivasan. Right within a few seconds of the session, creators, influencers, and entrepreneurs were scrambling for invites to listen to the live audio streaming.
Several other notable figures, including Oprah, have brought in a lot of fame and recognition to the platform ever since its inception.
How can Creators Leverage Clubhouse?
Not just for solo creators, Clubhouse has now become a sensation among brands too. Given that this platform is in trend right now, more and more brands are harnessing most of this platform to channel notable results for their marketing strategies.
The lack of videos, pictures, and texts makes this platform riveting for creators who have the talent but didn’t feel confident enough in front of a camera. This audio-centric social media platform enables them to channel their best and showcase the talent that they have likely repressed till now.
The best thing about Clubhouse is that it provides an upper hand to the creators and their influencing power. It gives them the free will to channel their magnetic personalities to attract the listeners’ attention on the platform.
The concept and the different types of rooms in Clubhouse also make it accessible to a wide range of audiences, especially in terms of the topics of discussion. The platform is also targeted to not just millennials and Gen Z; it also hosts influencers who are older.
Creators can Leverage Clubhouse to:
- Create audio-centric content for brand promotion, personal stories, and achievements too.
- Create a multi-channel source of income for the creators.
- Harness the ideologies propelled by Clubhouse to further up their business game.
- Be part of the pilot creator programs to learn, polish, and implement your skills in real-time.
How Creators are Leveraging Clubhouse
For a platform that started in 2020, Clubhouse didn’t gain a massive following in a matter of days or even months. It started with 1500 or so people on the platform, which has now amounted to millions and over $1 billion in valuation.
So, it isn’t surprising at all that the platform is a safe haven for creators now. Aside from the platform’s co-founders, Rohan Seth and Paul Davison, who have 5.1 million and 4.6 million followers each, several other independent creators, business enthusiasts, actors, and comedians have managed to score a leading following for themselves.
According to a curated list of the top influencers on Clubhouse by Read This Twice, some of the leading creators on the platform include:
- Tiffany Hadish (4.4 million followers)
- Marc Andreessen (4.1 million followers)
- Jared Leto (4.0 million followers)
- Chris Lyons (4.0 million followers)
- Shaka Senghor (3.8 million followers)
One of the leading examples of creators leveraging Clubhouse is with the hot session conducted by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, who are both popular venture capitalists and discuss new ventures, investments, and a range of business ideas.
Felicia Horowitz with over 3 million followers is known for hosting her Saturday night dinner parties wherein she features celebrity guests like MC Hammer and even Oprah Winfrey.
The majority of the users on the platform have recognized that the platform is focused more on subjects like Bitcoin, AI, technology, and other popular technology-related niches.
Monetizing your Content on Clubhouse
While Clubhouse has managed to score quite a following over the course of time, there are limitations when it comes to the methods of monetization. Yes, there are chances of standard influencer marketing options with sponsorship deals with the brands that want to enhance their presence on the app.
However, that’s about it.
There is no current straightforward mode of monetization for the renowned creators on Clubhouse. Several of the leading tech investors have questioned the mode of monetization for the creators.
Much like how YouTube creators leverage Adsense and OnlyFans users leverage the use of subscription fees, influencers and investors are skeptical and on the edge with the business strategies in the platform.
Several influencers have even suggested that there should be ways for them to directly monetize their skills on the app. However, Clubhouse has been extremely particular that they don’t want to monetize their platform using advertisements.
However, Clubhouse has recently launched its Creator First Accelerator Program, under which the selected influencers will be provided with the needed financial support and later be able to monetize their efforts on Clubhouse.
Clubhouse co-founder, Paul Davison said that the selected creators will get the necessary support for their content creation process, by sending them equipment, helping develop concepts, and helping them land sponsorships from allied brands.
Also, Davison has mentioned that the creators selected under the program will be assured with a minimum of $5000 in monthly income.
Drawbacks of Clubhouse
Aside from the lack of straightforward monetization methods, there are a few other drawbacks of Clubhouse that users have complained about.
One of the leading issues that the Clubhouse users have identified is the lack of accountability of the speakers. Since there are no saving options and the content is more or less ephemeral content, it doesn’t leave behind any records of the inappropriate statements made during the conversations in the designated rooms.
Some of the former users of the platform have reported that Clubhouse has failed to provide enough safeguard options for the users. Several users have complained about experiencing instances of antisemitism, homophobia, transphobia, misogyny, racism, to say the least.
However, Clubhouse has retorted to such statements saying that the company is constantly working to reduce the risks of hate speech and violations of rules by reviewing the conversations happening in each room.
Conclusion
Clubhouse has experienced phenomenal growth despite the lack of visual imagery on the platform. More than the uniqueness and the exclusivity of the platform using Clubhouse app invite, it is the event-like approach that has bolstered the growth of this platform to new heights.
However, with the good side to this social media app, there are a few drawbacks that the developers need to work on in order to make it one of the leading platforms for the influencers out there.
It is crucial for the influencers to understand the hidden concepts and robustness of the platform and also have the vocal presence to attract enough listeners on the basis of just audio.
Not just influencers, even brands can reap a lot of benefits from this platform, provided that they use it the right way. Some brands are even experimenting with sponsoring rooms on this platform.
All in all, Clubhouse is a burning sensation at the moment and something that leading and budding influencers can leverage to further create additional sources of income in the future.
Co-Founder, Gleantap & Mastera