Welcome to Boostly Podcast Season 10 Episode 9. This is a recap of my Facebook live video where I talked about the Clubhouse app.
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Transcript from the Episode
So in this episode, I wanted to talk about a new app, a new social media channel that a lot of people are talking about right now. And that's called clubhouse. Now, if you haven't heard of Clubhouse, it was created back in 2020. It's been live for about six months now, but only in the last sort of six to 12 weeks as it got really popular. And you may have noticed a lot of people, maybe in your circles talking about it. Because I've been talking about it mostly on Instagram, or on Twitter or just in WhatsApp groups.
And what it is, is that at the moment, at the time of recording this, which is the start of January start 2021 is an app that is only available to Apple users. So Android users, I'm sorry, you're not allowed on it at present moment in time, but they are announcing that they are going to be open and open to everybody very shortly. So when you go back and listen back and listen in the future, whenever that may be, it may be a case that is open up.
Why Clubhouse is so popular
And the reason why it's proven to be addictive. The reason why it's proven to be so popular is that it is just audio. So there are no algorithms, there's no direct messaging, there's no video, there's no typing. There's no posting, there's no copy, there's none of that is literally an audio app that is not recorded, and you can't even record on your device, you will get banned if you do so.
So the reason why audio is such a powerful form of content to create is very similar to podcasts. So for those of you that are listening to the audio version of this whether on your phone or on your Alexa device or wherever it may be. The reason why audio is so popular and this is the reason why I personally love podcasts and audiobooks is because with audio, unlike any other form of content, it is not disruptive.
So right now if you're watching this live with me, I am most probably disrupting your evening or day or whatever you're doing. So you have to stop to pay attention to what I'm doing. And again, when you read a piece of content, you have to stop what you are doing to read it so whether you're reading a blog post or a social media post, or even an email, you have to stop. But with audio, you can do it while doing other things. ie walking the dog, in the car, in the gym, going for a run, cleaning beds, making breakfast doing all those things. You can do two things you can listen to audio and I do so when I'm driving in my car, you know I'm not really listening to the radio or music. I'll have a podcast on or I'll have Clubhouse on and this is why clubhouse is really addictive. And this is why people are paying a lot of attention to it right now. It's not recorded because you can't catch up on it people are spending time in.
How it looks like
There are loads of different types of discussions that you can have on there. It doesn't have to be just Airbnb related, it can be entrepreneurs business, got people talking about mindset. What I love about it is that there are people all over the world that are using it. And you can literally have discussions with people about any topic, whether it's parenting, football, you name it, there are discussions going on all the time. And because this is a new app, and because marketers haven't gotten install it, it's really unique. And the access that you have, right now to some of the biggest names in the business is crazy. You've got loads of very important people from the world of business that they're spending their time on.
How can hospitality owners use Clubhouse
This is a platform that is either going to go one of two ways in six to 12 months, either it's going to get really, really popular grow and grow and grow. And more and more people are going to use it, it's going to be around here, it's going to be, you know, like Instagram and Tiktok, for example, that is just continually here.
Or it's going to be a platform in six months that people decide that is not for them. But I believe it's going to go the form, I think it's going to be something it's going to be around because audio is so powerful and so popular and podcasts are just getting more and more and more popular. I think this is going to be a real nice addition to the social media networks that are out there.
So how can hospitality owners How can you use this platform to spread the awareness of your business? Well, number one, if you can join. So and again, at the moment, it's invite only, you have to be invited by somebody who is using the platform to join the app, which is a really cool idea invite only if your name is not on the list, you're not getting in.
Personally, I only had two invites when I first joined and I use them. And I now have to wait for more invites to let people in. And it's the same for everybody else that's using it, you only get allocated a certain amount of invites to let new people in. And again, you have to be an Apple user at the present moment in time. So it's really exclusive, exclusive that you feel. And again, because not many people are on there, and people are talking about it. This just means that more people want to get in it's a very clever marketing idea. If you step back and look at what they're doing the founders, it's a really clever idea. And this is why it's getting more and more popular.
What I would be personally looking to do is I will be looking to become the local or niche based person of influence. So as I'm always saying, relationships, relationships, relationships, this is how you build your business. This is how you build your online brand. From a local level, go and create relationships with local businesses similar niche to you. And even go and create relationships with you know, the local delivery driver drivers with the restaurants, local restaurants, days out things to do nearby you, you build those relationships, you build those networks, where you can recommend their services and they can recommend yours.
And it just makes your life a whole lot easier trying to get direct bookings and people coming through your door. You'll just have literally have people always messaging you or saying listen, I've been recommended to you by a local person.
And you can do the same thing on Clubhouse you can create local rooms you can create, you know if for example, Scarborough based you would create a Scarborough or a Yorkshire based room. And again, you would just start to join in these conversations, you will start to join into discussions and if nobody's creating these discussions, then what you will do is you'll start to create them yourself.
What I do in Clubhouse
So what I'm personally doing on Clubhouse from a from a Boostly point of view is that I am joining any discussion in and around property. But not really any hospitality conversations on there. There's not really accommodation marketing conversations. But there are a ton of Airbnb discussions.
So what I'm doing is I'm joining these rooms, and I'm sharing the tactics on Listen, you don't just have to rely on Airbnb, I'm giving marketing advice when it comes to Airbnb, but I'm also leaving them with food for thought and just talking about other tactics and tips on how to increase their own bookings and direct bookings, and telling them about PMS and digital guidebooks. And that's what I'm doing.
And I'm also creating rooms and, and, and drawing people in with the keyword but Airbnb and booking.com and Expedia because people recognize that, but I'm always then given loads of value and loads of tips about saying, well, this is what else you can be doing. So then that's, that's how I'm doing it.
But if I, if I was going to put my host hat on, then I will be looking to create either that local room or that niche room. So again, if you're a property that focuses on vegans, or if you are solopreneurs, if you have got a resort where people come away to meditate, and all those sort of things, or whatever your niche is, are we creating rooms around that and creating that discussion.
And again, because it's your house, because it's your room, because it's your pie that people are coming in on, then you will become the go-to, and I talk about this a lot, becoming the go-to guy.
So the exact same thing about building those relationships, if you can be the person when someone's coming into these rooms, and they're inviting you up to speak, or you're speaking about the niche and talking about these topics. And again, it's not overselling yourself, you're not going in just to talk about you and your property and how good it is. But if you go in and talk about a topic that you are excited about that is based around, you know, maybe your farm-stay property, or whatever you may do, then you will naturally then, people will start inviting you into their rooms to talk or they'll start joining your rooms when you start to join this discussion.
How Clubhouse works
And just the way that the app works, because there isn't any links to your website, or anything that's built into it, the only two places that you can send people to one is your Instagram account. Two is your Twitter account. So for me, everybody's just going into the Boostly Instagram, and my Instagram account more and more and more and more people every single day, every single day that I use this app and I speak in a room, more people are following me and reaching out to me on Instagram. And then that's where discussions are starting.
So again, that's what people will be doing for you. And it's really interesting that they're not sending people to a Facebook page, they're sending people to an Instagram account or Twitter. And this is really, really interesting.
So again, I think for a lot of people, it's really getting them interested in using Instagram or Twitter. So again, Clubhouse is a brand new app. For some of you, you may never have heard of this. But what I recommend everybody starts to do is to look into it. And if you are an Android user, and when you do get the ability to go on, do go and check it out. If you're an iPhone user, go and download the app and try and get somebody that you know to invite you in and start to use it.
It's a great platform, one that I recommend, and it'd be really interesting to see how this goes over the sort of the next six to 12 months and just to see how hospitality owners can use it.
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