Clubhouse is all about authenticity, conversation, and connections. When you are new to the platform though, it can be hard to get into those conversations or find the right connections. We are going to give you 10 ways to grow your following on Clubhouse to get you started.
Before we do though, I want you to think about what your motive is for using the app. Are you on Clubhouse because you want to get some great information, get connections, and take in all that you can get? Or are you on the app because you want to add value to a conversation, and serve the people in the room you are in? If you live by serving, you’ll naturally have a larger following; that is just a simple fact of life in general.
Since Clubhouse is all about connection, listening in to rooms and adding value to the people inside, or speaking up when you know about something (when you can), will grow your following along with the information you gain, the new connections you make, as you take it all in. So let’s jump in and get you connected, serving, and adding value to the circles you form.
10 HACKS TO GROW YOUR CLUBHOUSE FOLLOWING
1. Get Creative With Your Profile Photo:
Clubhouse is an audio only app so no one can actually see you. The only glimpse they get of you, is the little odd shaped square-ish circle, (squirkle?) you have as your profile picture. If you are on Clubhouse just for fun, or you are an influencer who already has an established brand, feel free to keep the same profile picture you use on your other social media sites. If you are using it for business purposes or just want to mix things up a little, change it up to reflect who you are and what you do.
You can stage your photo to reflect your personality or your brand. I personally have a picture of myself with three marketing awards in the background, a podcaster might pose with a mic, a makeup artist with their brushes or a specific look displayed, maybe you’re a gamer and you have your console of choice in the background, or items from games you like to play, a photographer with their camera, the list goes on and on. Remember this is an audio only platform so this is the only glimpse of you and your life that most people will see. Another tip is when you take your picture, look directly into the camera. It makes it feel like you’re actually making eye contact with the person viewing your page, and it’s a nice personal touch.
If you want a border around your picture to set you apart, represent your brand, or just compliment yourself better, don’t use the borders from Instagram or Facebook. These borders are hard squares or complete circles. As mentioned above, this picture is more of a “squircle” shape so neither a square or circle border is going to fit it, or look right on it.
If you want an actual Clubhouse border or you want to customize it to match your brand, head over to Fivrr.com and search for Clubhouse borders. There you will find a designer who can customize what you need for around $5-$10.
2. Create A Compelling Bio
Make sure you have an awesome first two lines. This is your hook. This is the first thing people will see once they click on your picture. If you are on for fun or just to learn more, you can put some basic info or fun facts and interests in your first two lines.
If you are on more for business I suggest using this approach:
“I help “target market” achieve “awesome result” without “pain point”
For example; “ I help mothers achieve a six-figure side hustle during naptime without neglecting your family” or “I help employers achieve comprehensive occupational medicine reports and results without the waiting game.”
As you can see you’ve identified your target audience, shown what value you can offer them, and shown that you know enough about them that you know what they dislike and how to help them avoid it.
Once you have your hook down, use the rest of the bio space for your story. There is a lot of room in the bio section of Clubhouse so leverage that to your advantage. Look around at what other’s bio stories look like in your connections, or the connections you want to make, and model yours from there.
Format this in a way that is easy to read and eye catching. You can do this in the notes of your phone so you can use emojis and other special characters, then copy and paste it into your bio. Also, make sure that you have relevant, searchable keywords in your bio. That way when people start their initial search for their “people” you will have something that pops up and connects them to you.
3. Through Your Hands In The Air (Quick)
Your goal in Clubhouse is to get on the speaker stage or become a moderator in a conversation. Set calendar alerts, and get into your room as early as you can and shoot that hand up the moment you get in. Ninja style. Just like that kid in school who knows the answer, you can get pulled up to the speaker stage because the moderator or admin can see that you came on time and were ready to talk and bring value to the room. Sometimes if you’re on early enough you can be chosen not only to be on the stage, but to help moderate it, just because you’re there and ready.
If you are in a room early enough that you have that little bit of lull between the conversation starting and people entering the room, ninja throw that hand up and try to talk with the speaker or moderators beforehand about the topic. Again, bring value to that room or just to that person by asking a quick question, or saying thank you for being here, for sharing, for stopping in, whatever. As you bring value, and highlight value in others, people will follow you. Literally.
4. Take The Stage
You got in the room early, you ninja’d your way to the stage and now you’re listed as a speaker; so speak! Get on that stage, speak on that stage, and stay on that stage. You chose that room for a reason, because you have some kind of connection to it, and you likely have an experience or a story that others are waiting to hear. It may be “just” a story or “just a day on the job” to you, but to someone else, it may be the little nugget of knowledge they needed, the inspiration to get started, the idea that changes their mindset. So actually speaking up when you are presented with an opportunity on a stage is what is going to make that connection and that is what Clubhouse and the room are all about.
5. Offer Massive Value
Go Back to the question in the beginning about if you are on the app for value extraction or value creation. Are you trying to get all you can get, or give all that you can give? When you lean into a community and start sharing and adding to the conversation or adding value to your speakers and mods by calling out the good work they did, or something you noticed on one of their social media accounts, people will remember you. We can all remember a time when someone said something that changed us, whether directly or indirectly, and that’s what you have the opportunity to do here. Be that person and others will ask you to speak on their stage or to help them moderate.
6. Get Promoted to Moderator
The people who get clicked on the most in Clubhouse rooms are the ones with the green circles and little asterisk * in it. You know it’s true because if you’ve been on the app, and you’ve done it.
Your followers have access to your rooms and your connections. So the more rooms you are in, the more people come with you. The more people come with you, the more connections they make. The more connections they make, the more you can join into the rooms they’re in and get connected with their connections. It’s all cyclical.
Some ways that you can bring value to a person and show them that you would be a great moderator, is by doing a breakout discussion after their room is over, or find them on Instagram and share some of their work and tag them in what you gained from them. You can even DM them and say “Hey I really enjoyed…we had a great discussion about…in the afterparty room. I would love to help you out next time you need it.” People who care enough to keep the conversation going, or share out on other platforms make for great moderators when you start your next room.
7. Swap Your Profile Pic and Bio
Yes, we have already talked about both profile pictures and bio, but hear me out. The same way that you code switch between how you talk at work, at home, and with your friends, can be done in Clubhouse. Let’s say you go into a room that talks about something related to your business. You have your professional head shot up, and your professional bio, you’re speaking the language, and if anyone wants to reach out and connect they can see what you’re doing in your business. Now you see a room recapping the newest episode of your favorite TV show. You may not catch as many people to follow you from that room, if you still have your Marketing face on. Switch to a more casual picture, to a picture of someone from that episode, and change your bio to the hobbies or shows you like. Then when people click on you in this room they might find that you have other hobbies or TV shows in common and follow you.
Keep a file of different bios in your notes so you can switch them up easily and better connect with the people you are conversing with. You can even change your photo in the middle of a conversation if your listeners need a visual if something you’re talking about like an app, or a screen shot, a product. Just change your picture real quick and then jump on the stage and tell everyone to pull down and refresh and they’ll see what you’re talking about.
As for your profile picture, you can change it as many times as you want and there is no dreaded “Profile Pictures” folder that they all stay in forever. You can have your professional headshot in one room, a photo of the video game you’re playing in the next, then a picture of you and your kids after that. It’s just like face to face interaction. You’re going to act more professionally in one setting and more laid back in another. That’s who you are, and that is fine. That’s how you make connections and how you gain more followers from all your different circles.
8. Build Lasting Relationships
If you haven’t noticed yet, building relationships and connecting with people is the whole purpose of Clubhouse. And if you’ve made it this far down the list and still haven’t realized it, you need to bring value to people, let them know they matter, and help them out. One of the easiest ways you can do this is to look around who is in the rooms you are in. If you notice there are a lot of people with those little party crackers in their photo, that means they are brand new to Clubhouse and this might be their first room. If you are on the stage, give those new users a shout out so others go check them out, and invite them on stage if they have their hand up. Give them a confidence boost to speak up more.
If you have been on for awhile, consider hosting a “Welcome Room” for people who are new and open it up for them to ask questions, give them grace, and share what you have learned so far, and go ahead and give them a follow (if you’re comfortable with it) to help them get into rooms and grow their following. Also, if you do a welcome room let everyone know to go to growyour.club and it will link straight to our YouTube playlist about Clubhouse.
Another reason relationships and connections are so important is because the way rooms are set up is by highlighting the speakers and moderators at the top of the page, and then a section called “Followed by the speakers”. This is where they list the people who are already friends of anyone who is on the speaker panel. This is going to help you out especially in a larger room, because the moderators don’t always scroll all the way to the bottom to find people with their hand up, to pull up to the stage. You are more likely to get pulled if you are already close to the speakers, or the speakers are going to be looking for you to pull up on stage with them.
9. Apply to Create or Moderate
I will warn you that there is currently a pretty long waitlist on creating clubs, but go ahead and go to clubhouseguide.com and apply. Before you say “I don’t have an idea for a club” or “I don’t know what to talk about.”, let me remind you, that yes, you do have something to say and it’s something that someone else out there either needs to hear, or is looking for as well. You would not be on an audio only platform if you had nothing to say.
As for not having an idea, think about what you’re passionate about. What are your likes? What is that one thing that you could go on and on about? Ask your friends and family, they’ll straight up tell you. Also explore Clubhouse a little and look at what some of the rooms are in different categories. There are so many platforms and niches out there that you are bound to find something that others want to talk about too. If you don’t believe me See the editor’s note above.
Once you get your idea and fill out your application, there are still a few other things that you need to do in order to get your application approved. You must have modded at least 3 rooms, and use that calendar tool so they can see you are an active member of the club. Using the calendar reminds you of when stages start, it shows that you actively make time for these rooms, you show up in rooms, and you participate. You’re a good Clubhouse member.
Once you get a club going you will have a lot more people wanting to follow you after they join your club. People follow a club, find the admins, and then follow them. It’s just a fact.
10. SFC – Search, Find, Connect
While you are listening to a room, if you really enjoyed a conversation or resonated with what someone said, search for them on their social media accounts. (They are usually linked in the person’s bio.) Look through their content, give them a follow, and then send them a DM and connect with them. You have to be genuine when you reach out to someone in their DMs. No one wants to be spammed with messages like “Hey I’ll follow you if you follow me!” or someone trying to sell you stuff.
No. Be sincere. If you enjoyed the topic, send them a quick message saying “Hey I was in your room ______ today and I really enjoyed what you had to say. Thank you so much for sharing.” If you were invited up on the stage for the first time, find that admin that pulled you up, and say “I really appreciate you letting me be a part of the conversation today. Thank you for allowing me on stage with you and for hosting a great conversation.”
These are those small things that mean a lot to people. They will likely respond to you and give you a follow back or remember you the next time you pop up in one of their rooms and pull you up again. Please, please make sure you are sincere about this though. People can tell when you’re faking it and that is not who you want to be known as.
Those are my 10 steps to growing your influence on Clubhouse and making some really good, genuine connections. The most important part of Clubhouse is to have fun with it. Don’t stress yourself out to the point that you miss out on some great content and conversations. Jump in for a little while, if it’s not your cup of tea, leave quietly and find something else.
If you want a jump start on connections make sure to follow me, @steezdiaz and my wife, @chelseydiaz. We have a lot of connections to rooms that can at least get you started. Plus if you text the word “club” to 530-298-0747 we will send you notifications about special rooms just for our Rainmaker family. This will be a great time to connect with others and learn a little along the way.
Let us know in the comments if you tried any of these methods out and how they worked for you, what you did differently, or how we can help you out. We can’t wait to celebrate your success with you and see you on the stage soon!
Resources:
►►►Where to get a customizable border for your profile
►►► How to apply for a club and find any other information related to the app
https://www.clubhouseguide.com/
►►► Our YouTube video for how to grow your following on Clubhouse
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPLgktlQizg&t=366s
►►► How to use the Clubhouse app
