From early adoption to mainstream – Clubhouse gathers momentum. 

It’s the hottest social media platform on everyone’s lips: Clubhouse. But if you want in, you better know the right people.

Still in soft launch phase, the audio-only platform has managed to attract some of the biggest names in the world and is making waves with a proposition that feels familiar and ground-breaking at the same time.

Though live since April 2020, it wasn’t until Dogecoin-touting, iconoclast Elon Musk propelled the platform into mainstream consciousness in early 2021 that it has started getting traction.

Since then, everyone from Mark Zuckerberg to Kim Dotcom has made an appearance, sharing their real-time, unfiltered perspectives in chat rooms akin to a giant conference call… full of strangers.

But what is Clubhouse and is it an ephemeral phenomenon – a by-product of the COVID-19 Teams / Zoom era – or does it possess real longevity?

If you’re not on the inside yet, you’ll need a friend with an invite. Clubhouse is like that party you want to get into, but you need to know the right people.

The invite-only model has been a smart move, drawing on the fundamental economic principle of scarcity to draw people in, taking a leaf out of Gmail’s 2004 beta playbook. This has served a number of purposes:

1. It’s allowed Clubhouse to scale and stress test its infrastructure
2. It’s produced a visible wave of hype and curiosity
3. It’s created a verified community of members that insists on the transparency of using real names

All over LinkedIn, Clubhouse invites are being publicly offered up as a form of networking currency and with each celebrity or powerhouse CEO joining the club, the urgency to see what the fuss is all about swells.

And once inside, Clubhouse holds a myriad of conversations, moderated in real time and attended by hundreds and thousands of people. Crazy about Cryptocurrency? Clueless about how to seek venture capital to scale your business?  Mindful about mindfulness? Or just straight up down to have a drink with random people? Clubhouse has got your back – and tailors suggestions to your preferences.

In an age where social media is flooded with fake profiles, fake news and keyboard warriors typing furiously behind the veil of anonymity, Clubhouse represents a more transparent, more wholesome arena of discourse.

It’s voyeuristic, informative, inspirational and arguably easier to navigate in the singularity of each room’s subject matter. As live, long-form content, it demands more attention and in many ways, is the antithesis to the white noise of endless scrolling behaviour prevalent with so many social platforms.

For Communications professionals, Clubhouse presents immense potential for experimentation. Whether it’s as an alternative forum to conferences and panels, to how brands can creatively ‘hack’ the medium, the platform is a new and exciting canvas with a highly engaged audience.