The Latest & Greatest Social App You Should Know: Clubhouse

Posted: April 27, 2021

There's a new social app in town, and it's becoming more and more popular. Clubhouse is a podcast-style platform, with one big difference - everything happens live in a real-time room. But before you commit to diving into yet another app, it's great to hear the thoughts of a social media pro. Although there's still some question whether it will be a valuable tool for the outdoor industry, it may eventually find a place in your marketing strategy. Michelle Scheuermann, editor of the Archery Wire, shares her thought on Clubhouse and its potential value to the outdoor industry.

The Latest & Greatest Social App You Should Know: Clubhouse

Those of you who are waist-deep in social media marketing already know the latest craze to hit our phones in the last few months: Clubhouse. And those of you who like to ignore social media, allow me to fill you in – Clubhouse is an app available only to iPhone users (at this time), that has rooms where users can come together to chat about whatever they want. This is a voice-only app. No video. Think about it as a non-recorded podcast where you can ask questions in real-time with the rooms’ moderators, who may or may not be famous. (Tesla’s Elan Musk and comedian Kevin Hart have hosted rooms on Clubhouse.) Clubhouse is still in beta, technically, so you must have an invite in order to gain access to the app. As a user of Clubhouse, I started with three invites. However, the more I use it, and the more invites I spin through, the more invites I receive to hand out. If you want an invite to Clubhouse – email me with your cell phone number (yes, really, this is an app after all) at michelle (at) bulletproofcomm (dot) com. Ok, that might be premature to ask you to download the app and get all excited about Clubhouse when I haven’t explained it. I’ve been on Clubhouse for over a month and the verdict is still out on whether I think this is a valuable platform for us in the outdoor industry. However, this is what I know:

I’ve connected with folks I haven’t talked to in years, which has been fun. But not necessarily profitable or helpful – yet.
I’ve been able to start my own room with two friends on social media for the outdoors (see below for more on that) and it’s been fun, although it also eats away at my time – and my cell phone battery.
How I look or who I am doesn’t really matter in Clubhouse – it is all about my voice and the value I bring to the room.
I’ve jumped into random rooms (chats) where I’ve gleamed good advice about anything from how to start my day better to SEO marketing to HTML code.
I’m starting to meet new people in the outdoors space thanks to being in rooms and hosting rooms. It’s been interesting to hear their challenges and opportunities.

For the past few Fridays, Chuck Rossi of OpenSourceDefense.Org, Justin Morrissey, Social Media Manager for NSSF, and myself have been hosting a room on Clubhouse to chat about social media challenges & opportunities for outdoor brands and individuals. It is too early to tell if we are changing the world, but I do believe in the adage, “If you build it, they will come.” And from what I’ve heard in the seminars I’ve recently held on social media marketing for both ATA and NSSF, folks in the outdoor industry are HUNGRY for information on how to make social media work for them. I think the draw for Clubhouse is that we are actually talking to one another again – on a social media app! Blows my mind. But instead of broadcasting messages out for your customers to try to pick up amongst the millions of other messages, why not meet them on an app and have an IRL conversation? (IRL – in real life.) My last thought I’ll leave for you to ponder over is from Chuck Rossi, who replied to my indecisiveness about Clubhouse by explaining his reasoning for being there was to establish the outdoor community inside of Clubhouse. Because if we don’t go there and share our truths by joining a room or creating a room; if we don’t utilize this app that millions of others have already found and have REAL and HONEST conversations and share that with others, then other people will do it for us. And friends, we’ve learned, we don’t want what they’ll say about us because it will be false. Send me an email, get an invite and see for yourself – Michelle Scheuermann, editor, Archery Wire.