On using Clubhouse to build your personal brand & thought leadership

A social media platform built on .. voice?! Count us interested. Our mission is to scale the reach of thought leaders’ voices, after all!

Clubhouse seems to be today’s TikTok. So much hype & buzz surrounds Clubhouse, leaving many of us wondering whether we should be on it and few of us clear on how to use it best. 

Add to it the exclusivity factor of needing an invite to even get access to the app, as well as the fact that it’s still only available to iOS users, and Clubhouse feels like not only the newest kid on the social media block but also the coolest.

As is the case with any new platform, there is one big upside: jumping in early to capitalize on first-mover’s advantage and building a following quicker now than if you wait. 

However, here are some cons:

=> you can’t outsource brand building on Clubhouse because it’s predicated on your voice and your thought leadership. You can have a ghost editor for your written word but can’t quite do it for your spoken word (not yet, anyway).

=> Clubhouse following grows only in two cases: you are already well-known and people search to see whether you are on there OR you are an active participant in discussions. This is not only a high-quality-of-content game but also a high-frequency commitment. 

And now, some pros:

=> People without recognized brand names seem to be spending entire days on Clubhouse - but their commitment is rewarded by rapidly-scaling numbers of followers. There is unquestionably an opportunity to grow a following fast on Clubhouse - which makes it highly appealing to anyone interested in scaling the reach of their voice.

=> Clubhouse is the first platform to place thought leadership front and centre. There is no room to write anything so you can’t get away with clickbait platitudes. There is no place to upload your beautifully-filtered pictures. No feature that allows you to leave a disparaging comment and disappear into oblivion. 

=> The platform is fully built on an exchange of thoughts, ideas and opinions. This makes it unique and compelling (and mildly intimidating).

When you remove the gimmicks, the distractions and the fluff, you either stand out with your thought leadership or realize you don’t quite have any. The good news? If your thought leadership just doesn't seem to connect with perfectly-filtered Instagram pictures or Facebook posts, Clubhouse may be a good option for you. Based primarily on intelligent and compelling ideas & dialogue between passionate people, Clubhouse may be the anti-filter platform. In-the-moment compelling ideas only.

Ready to give Clubhouse a shot and see if it’s right for your personal brand?

Here are 6 tips to get you started: 

=> there is no messaging option. You have to connect your account to Instagram or Twitter so that you can be contacted directly and privately. 

=> you can change your handle - but only once. Most of us signed up with our names but many people ended up getting creative with our handles. Mine is @personalbrands (no surprise there!)

=> you can form your own club but you need to apply for it. To apply, you need to host 3 meetups (3 rooms) first. 

=> your avatar will have a party hat emoji next to it for the first week. That’s how you can tell that someone is a newbie.

=> when you join a room as a guest (not a speaker or a moderator), nobody can hear you. You can raise your hand to speak and, once a moderator brings you up on the virtual stage, your microphone is automatically turned on.

=> want to know when one of your favourite influencers is in a Clubhouse room? Follow them and click on the bell next to their name to be notified every time they are speaking.

=> follow Brand of a Leader! Our founders’ handles are @personalbrands and @stefanofaust. 

The most important factor to underline is that thought leadership can be built on all social media platforms, some, or none at all. As long as the platform feels “on brand” for you and your audience is there, then it might be one to try. Otherwise you will find this to be yet another rabbit hole to dig yourself out of. 

Marina Byezhanova is the co-founder of Brand of a Leader. She has given talks across the globe & has been featured in media outlets including Forbes, Inc., Success Magazine, Yahoo!, the Financial Post & more.