What is Clubhouse?
Lately, you might have seen Clubhouse being in trend on social media every once in a while and even more, if you follow business or tech-minded people such as Tesla. As you might also already know that this trending app – Clubhouse is one of its kind social media with exclusive invitation-only so far [IOS app only]
Let’s discuss What is Clubhouse & Why is this new networking platform is such a hit in the market especially in many segments of society in this new Covid-19 era.
Many stated that Clubhouse is dubbed the next big thing in social media 2021, which seems to have caught on fire by almost everyone including Malaysians as well over the past two weeks due to the hype created by Elon Musk, Tesla Founder which have a discussion room with Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev early this February 2021. The event maxed out the app conversation room limit and was live-streamed to YouTube. This event caused Clubhouse to the top of the startup charts and sparked a scramble for invitations – not to mention that Clubhouse invitation are also on sales on certain places now, as low as 29USD online
Clubhouse was founded by Paul Davison and Rohan Seth in March 2020 this app was already valued at around US$100 million (RM405 million) despite just having 1,500 users at the time.
Last weekend many Malaysians were desperate to get invites to the “for now exclusive” app which is still in the rollout phase and only available to IOS users.
How to Join Clubhouse App?
Join Through Waiting List of Clubhouse
You’re only able to join Clubhouse if you’ve been invited by existing members. However, there still a chance for you to join if you haven’t, by “reserve your username” to put yourself on their waiting list.
Join Through Invitation from Friends
If you happened to have friends that already in Clubhouse, the chances of you joining is way faster.
Buying Exclusive Invitation (Not Recommended)
There are also Clubhouse invitation is on sale RM89.00 Shopee Malaysia on Shopee, but I don’t recommend it—especially when the app’s team is planning to release it publicly. Alternatively, The invitation are also on sales here with as low as 29USD online.
How Does Clubhouse Work? Any Special?
Clubhouse is basically an audio-based social media app that can be described as a new type of social platform based on voice. This app allows people from every part of the world to chi chat, tell stories, develop ideas, deepen friendships, meet interesting new people, and even more – voice version of LinkedIn/Facebook for networking/social around.
You can also know more about the participants within seconds by just clicking on their profile that appears in the discussion rooms. Their bios help you to decide if you want to connect with them – one glance at their profile to know about them, just like your typical Facebook or LinkedIn profile. This app consists of a lot of different chatrooms with a variety of subjects and the best thing is that you can choose to join and remain as a silent observer in each room –
The app can be running while you are using other apps on your phone. That’s what makes the app different. One of its main rules is no recording, you can’t video grab ongoing sessions and there are no save options for playbacks.
Which Malaysian is in Clubhouse? Why Such A Fuzz Here?
Other than Elon Musk, Clubhouse focusing on people that consider elite, for example, business start-ups, lawmakers, or even just random people that you might not know but is famous.
In Malaysia, our Malaysian lawmakers like Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation Khairy Jamaluddin, Muar MP Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman, Selangor Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Amirudin Shari ,and Lembah Pantai MP Fahmi Fadzil were actually one of the members on the app. In Addition, Amirudin was using the app to answer various questions about some issues like the Selangor water crisis on his chatroom – it became like a virtual press conference, where Malaysian able to ask a question to the mentri besar casually on the app.
Besides that, AirAsia’s Tan Sri Tony Fernandes and Malaysian hip-hop artist and rapper Yogi B were popping into various discussions over the weekend and sharing their thoughts on the app as well with their audience. Furthermore, Ahmad Izham Omar who is the Executive Director of Content & Creative of Disney, and singer Dasha Logan talking about challenges in the entertainment industry in this Covid-19 era too – source: Malay Mail.
What Can We Learn From Clubhouse For Your Business?
Emotional Targeting – FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) Marketing
Clubhouse trend is successful due to one important factor in Marketing – emotional perspective, FOMO. FOMO marketing is a form of marketing where you leverage the consumers’ desire to grab every opportunity that they get. The messaging in it is framed such that you push the customers to make an impulse purchase rather than regretting the lack of action later.
Once again, humans are very attached to emotions in many ways in terms of working, decision making, purchasing, and more. We are always fear of missing out on knowledge, something new in terms of trends, even some gossip with friends as everyone wants to feel special in a way and not to miss out on anything around them. This kind of FOMO marketing been implemented long ago with the proven fact that whenever there are incoming sales included with a certain time frame example: Black Friday Sales just for 1 or 2 days, people tend to panic, trying to browse around to find the best deals which end up impulse buying.
In the case of Clubhouse, when Tesla Founder, Elon Musk announced that he will have a discussion room on Clubhouse with Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev early this February 2021, the spike of users and craving for invitation link to join Clubhouse as people scared to miss out any new information from the discussion.
As a business, you probably would like to replicate such a strategy to make such a trend for your business too, but how?
Set a Time Limit for Sales
Humans are conditioned to respect deadlines since our childhood – as we must to complete tasks under pressure with deadlines given, for example, homework from school. This stands true when we’re making purchase decisions as the time is ticking away. For this reason, we always end up making impulsive purchases, especially during sale periods. However, do keep in mind that the deadline that you set has to be absolute in order to make FOMO marketing works. If you keep extending your sales period or even frequently having sales, your customers will get used to the fact that the deals will be available even after the sales ended. This is one of the reasons why Luxury Brands will never want to have sales as this will hurt your brand reputation because you’re not abiding by your word. This strategy needs to align with your brand’s identity before executing it.
Social Proof – Highlight Missed Opportunities
Another great way of implementing FOMO marketing is by posting and sharing testimonials on your social media posts/business websites from your existing customers. When people read positive experiences other consumers had with your brand, they’ll be more likely to purchase from you.
A good example will be – reviews from your products/services page when you are selling products on major eCommerce platforms in Malaysia such as Shopee or Lazada, reviews on your shops/purchase history are super important for customers as this helps to persuade them to purchase from you instead of other shops on those platforms.
Power of Influencer Marketing – Elon Musk, Kanye West & More…
Influencers or celebrities can be a great way to promote your brand and products, as Clubhouse had proven that it works well. When they are talking about your products/services, you should quote them on your website and give a boost to your FOMO marketing campaign. This could be through paid promotion method or even an organic method to start with. If your business considering expanding through influencer marketing, you should look into the relevancy of the influencers as they are representing your brand image. If you are able to combine both methods of marketing, this can give a significant boost to your sales. Influencers will increase brand trust, get you more traffic and leads, and you can use their message to get even more sales.
A very good example will be Samsung Malaysia’s collaboration with multi influencers in Malaysia that relevant to Technology, such as lowyat.net, technave and more when they are releasing their latest Samsung Galaxy S21 Series recently. Influencer marketing as you refer to is doesn’t limited to individuals that you might think of, but also those websites/bloggers with good authority on their topic which relevant to your business audiences.
Learn More About How To Grow Your Business Through Social Media Marketing – Social Media Marketing Agency
Conclusion
FOMO marketing has been the main strategy of Clubhouse which makes them successfully create such trends now in this era of covid-19. This would be one of the good strategies for your business to replicate such strategy accordingly for your business in 2021 in order to be competitive and unique position in the market.
Do you think that this hype will continue and eventually become one of the successful startups for social media like another big player in the markets or this is just a temporal trend that will fade soon?
