Clubhouse: 7 exciting ways your charity can use it
Clubhouse is mobile and iOS only at the moment ( photo credit )
What’s all the hype about?
If you are yet to hear much about Clubhouse you soon will. The newest social media platform in town has just hit a $1 billion valuation and rising. It was bizarrely valued at $100 million when it only had 1.5K users.
So what’s the big deal? At the moment Clubhouse is by invite - and only on iOS for now. An Android app will soon be developed. It’s a voice only platform, and you can’t send written messages to people - instead you can pull people into a virtual room for a quick chat. Users schedule talks about anything they like, and the rooms are extremely varied in content.
‘Mindset Hacks for entrepreneurs’
‘Silent meditation: Observe what arises no judgement’
‘Breakfast w/Brand Marketing & Comms specialists’
‘Powerful Black Women’
‘Mandarin Learners Club’
Pretty much anything goes. You find a room you’re interested in, enter, and listen to the people who are ‘up on stage’ talking. If you want to speak, raise a hand, and you might get a slot. Rooms vary in size from one or two people to thousands when the more established speakers are going at it. If you want to talk about something, open a room, ping some people to join and have a spontaneous chat.
When the Rockstar names appear in rooms, the 5,000 capacity is met very quickly ( photo credit )
Will Clubhouse rival and replace more traditional conference offerings?
There are niche groups as well: Arsenal Supporters Forum, Foodie Nerds HQ, Braincare club; you get the idea. I’ve been using it for a week or so now and have had mixed experiences. But I keep going back. At the moment it feels like a cross between a conference - where you’ve got no idea who the speakers are and radio, with no quality control on the content. It can be excellent - or bad. At worst it’s boring and repetitive; at it’s best it’s informative, random and exciting.
How your charity can innovate to reach new audiences
So is this a platform that could potentially be of use for charities and nonprofits? I think it could well be if you want to invest some time in building a community there. How?
Run special events with donors through Clubhouse - maybe a Q & A with your service staff talking about what it’s like to work with homeless people regularly or to provide end of life care for people living with cancer. But you can do that through Zoom or Whatsapp or any other platform, right? Yes - but Clubhouse is full of early adopters at the moment - people you may not usually reach - new prospects. And access is relatively straightforward - you go into a room, ask to speak, and people listen. So it could be a good way of building a new portfolio of High Net Worth connectors.
Ask your ambassadors to promote your cause through Clubhouse. Celebrities command popular rooms and large audiences. If you have something to promote, a Fundraising event, an awareness day, a big problem you are trying to solve - celebrities and influencers pushing through the app will drive considerable reach. Celebrities are already on the platform - Oprah, Kevin Hart, Drake, Chris Rock and Ashton Kutcher, to name a few. This will grow exponentially as the app itself grows in user base. An ask to host space on Clubhouse might just stand out as unusual and novel to an agent.
Tipping, tickets and subscriptions are likely to come as features soon. Celebrities and creators with large followings may consider donating tips and tickets to your cause if you can convince them to do so! Having a following and being present on the platform will put you in an excellent position to leverage these new features.
Pitch your cause to people that want to get involved and support it. There is already a regular room called ‘Pitch your Nonprofit’ run by Liberty Maddison. The group claims they have raised $82.5K so far. Try it, experiment, learn.
Take your cause global. Clubhouse has a broad, growing geographical base that feels extremely diverse in all characteristics. If you become an early adopter you will see the benefits of widening from your usual audience - simply connecting with people and brands you don’t usually get exposure to on more established platforms like Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.
Panel events and awareness days - use the platform to hold regular shows and talks about your cause. Some Clubhouse users have access to large platforms - Instagram accounts, podcasts with colossal reach, Twitter followers. Reaching these people to tackle myths and misconceptions may bring significant rewards in terms of awareness and connections. Clubhouse is quite spontaneous and informal - so you can experiment and judge what returns and value you see from this with little outlay needed.
Have a problem you want to solve? Maybe you need some communications, programme delivery or fundraising inspiration. Why not open-source your problem and hear from other experts in your specialist field, who could offer solutions? It could be really interesting to hear how experts in the commercial world might improve the brand recognition of a small charity or how you might grow your digital product offering from entrepreneurs and founders.
Problem areas
There are many opportunities yet to arise for your nonprofit. However, it isn’t all rosy. Conversations are rarely stringently moderated, and people have reported content running down highly uncomfortable lines around race in particular.
Other criticisms of the platform so far have focused on a lack of accessibility for people with hearing loss, adding to a sense of a lack of inclusion at some levels for the fledgeling platform. Clubhouse also has an accountability problem. Accounts are not verified at a high-volume level. When Elon Musk made his much-hyped appearance it was pretty hard to work out who was who.
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‘There is an utter lack of accountability on Clubhouse that feeds into the culture the platform provides. The app provides no way to confirm the credentials of those giving advice.’
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The possibilities are endless
I’m sure many other brilliant uses will emerge over the next 12 months. As ever it’s about experimenting and learning. These are early days for Clubhouse. Jump aboard the hype train and see where it takes you! In lockdown, we all need a little of the unknown to brighten up our lives.
Let me know what you think in the comments about future possibilities for charities to leverage Clubhouse.
Please connect on the platform - I’m @henryrowling
If you want to chat about Clubhouse, or ways your organisation can innovate drop an email to hello@flyingcarsinnovation.com
Big thanks to @leon.green for inviting me on to CH | Check out Leon’s work at https://www.yakulabs.com