Today we’re going to be talking about a brand-new app called Clubhouse. It’s invite only, and it’s exclusivity has recently attracted the likes of Drake, Kevin Hart, and many other celebrities who have been using the app. Essentially, I look at it as almost a new version of radio talk show hosting, where you use solely your voice to communicate. This app is similar and is accessible to almost anyone. Before we get too deep into discussing the app, you’ll want to know that currently Clubhouse is only available for Apple iOS devices. So, if your messages don’t come in blue you’re out of luck for now.

The app has got a handful of different interesting features.

Once you open the app, you’re greeted with a feed of different live conversations that are happening. You’ve got your follow button where you can scroll through and anybody that you’re connected with on your phone/ popular accounts you can follow those people. Next you have the calendar. This is going to show you any upcoming discussions and talks that are happening, and it’s going to be sorted in chronological order. You’ll see your notification tab which shows you who followed you and anything that’s going on with your friends list, just like any other social media app. And then of course you have your profile.

You also have a schedule at the top of the app that shows you any upcoming scheduled talks that will be happening. At the top of the chat, you can see the people that have either hosted the chat or are moderating it. You can also see anybody at the top that has raised their hand to speak in the discussion or the conversation below that. You’ll see a separate secondary group of people that are followed by anybody who is a speaker in that conversation. Think of this as the popular kids in this conversation because they are followed by the people who are actually hosting or speaking inside of that discussion.

If you want to be somebody who’s utilizing this app, and not just somebody who’s listening to other discussions you can then take on the role of being a host.

You can also set up clubs on the app. I’ll talk about that in a second, but let’s say that you wanted to start a room. You can choose between a few different types of rooms you can start. The options are an open room, a social room (which is only a room with people that you follow) and then a closed room, which will be a private room. The only people that can join would be the people that have that dedicated private link, or you can just choose people directly from your friends list.

Community guidelines are always present in every room. And essentially you can just talk about things. To put it simply, you can think of Clubhouse like being at a large (digital) party. While there you’re with a group of people having a discussion and somebody else walks up and says, “Hey, what’s up? What are you talking about?” And then they join your discussion.

An effective way to use the app is by creating an event.

You can set the date and time that you want to do an event and then you can choose the event name. So, I can say, I want to do room that’s titled first thoughts about clubhouse app and then I can choose a description. Now, the more descriptive you are the better, because details are what make people feel confident about joining your room and listening to what you and others have to say. I could then go ahead and schedule this out.

When I do that, it’s going to show up in my upcoming events at the top of the app. It is going to show that I have an upcoming event. When it’s time for that event, you’ll get a push notification on your phone from the clubhouse app that will actually ask you to start the room. When you’re ready and begin the event, then you’re going to wait for your followers and anybody that has your event on their feed to join your discussion.

Now, the big question and the elephant in the room is how do you get invited to the clubhouse app?

The one barrier you may face is getting an invite to the clubhouse app, which I know is the hardest part. The best thing that I can recommend that you do is open the contacts on your phone and look through all the contacts you’ve ever saved. Try to think of the people who are likely to have access to the app. Now, the likelihood of you being invited is kind of just a toss-up. It’s really a 50/50 shot.

Be sure to go through your friends list and think of who could possibly have a spare invite laying around. What can you do for that person in exchange for them inviting you? If you can’t think of anyone, the best thing you can do is to go ahead and get on the waiting list. When you get on the waiting list for clubhouse you’ll reserve your username, which is pretty critical. Then you enter in your phone number. Doing this will actually alert anybody that is in your contacts that you have now joined the wait list and they can, if they want, bump you to the front of the list.

That’s what happened for me.

I went ahead and reserved my username and my spot in line and it alerted all of my friends in my contacts list on my phone that I had joined the waitlist. One of my friends went ahead and helped me bump the line. That’s how was able to get access to the app. Nobody’s telling you to do that. So, go ahead and join the waitlist. When somebody invites you, they’ll see that you joined and hopefully within a short amount of time, you’ll get a notification. You’ll click that link and boom, it’ll put you right into the app. This is most likely your best bet to get an invite to the clubhouse app.

So far Clubhouse is pretty cool, but I’m not entirely sold on the longevity of the app.

It’s currently valued at around a hundred million dollars because it’s founded by former Google employees and some other well-known individuals in Silicon Valley. It is a fun app, but I find that you have to spend time really finding discussions where the people leading are people who have actually experienced leading a discussion. For example, it isn’t fun to listen to people ramble. Personally, I haven’t found myself really finding a ton of value in some of the discussions that have been going on. However, I am glad that I had an invite to the clubhouse app.

So those are my initial thoughts so far on Clubhouse, tips on how you can potentially get an invite to the clubhouse app, and my recommendations on how to do so as quickly as possible. I’ll do my best to keep you guys updated throughout my journey on the app!  Make sure to get connected with me on there. I will be hosting discussions on marketing and running a business for anybody that’s in their twenties or thirties and feels like they could use some advice in that area.

In addition, there are many other topics that I’m interested in aside from marketing. There’s MMA, cars, and fashion, to name a few. You can find me with the username @mykemetzger as well as on my YouTube channel here. And, for more blogs like this, head to my blog page!