In 2006 I first discovered Facebook and LinkedIn, in years when we relied on telephone communication, ICQ, or mostly personal connections. I opened my accounts with the sole purpose of finding and maintaining contacts with classmates and former colleagues. Today, 15 years later, the advent of social applications is flooding us from everywhere, hiding almost endless networking opportunities, but also risks associated with data protection, multiplication of fake news, and hate speech.
A few days ago, I created my Clubhouse account with curiosity, although I had already read several critical articles about data privacy and protecting users who are on the platform.
Called "interactive podcast" and "Lion`s club", the platform describes itself as "a new type of social product based on a voice that allows people everywhere to talk, tell stories, develop ideas, deepen friendships, and meet interesting new people around the world”.
Created by Paul Davison and Rohan Seth and becoming active since May 2020 during the first Covid-19 lockdown in the US, it all started as a social media app where venture capitalists to meet and exchange bright ideas with one another.
The app is still today invite-only and for those who are iPhone owners with iOS 13 software updates.
Short summary of the main functionalities* for beginners
the specific boxes that you will see with titles are the so-called “rooms”;
they are all around a specific topic and are using audio content only as of the whole platform; if you click “Explore” you can see other rooms recommended for you;
you can search for people to follow and see if you have any known names
invites are connected to phone number and you can find them by click on the mail icon;
once you hit on the calendar icon you will see coming events and set-up reminders for you so you know when the event that interests you start;
or you can schedule one by naming the event – and do not expect many people especially at the given point, it is even better to connect 1:1 and dedicate more time;
on your profile page, other users will always see who invited/nominated you - be aware of that;
when you go in a room you see the icons with the people pics and notice that you are not supposed to record or share the content with others;
you can also join specific clubs or communities and then you can schedule specific rooms based on the interests of the groups.
* at the time of writing this post. The future looks bright to me - for those bored by Facebook and fans of the podcast, people looking for business inspiration and networking opportunities with limited borders. My thoughts tonight are on the next steps regarding the opportunity for private conversations, financing of the platform and how it will be used by companies, and especially - in this selected but a crowded community, where you attend a virtual event with over 3000 participants, what is the way to be part of the discussion equally? To be continued. More interesting articles about the platform: Subair, Eni, What is Clubhouse? All you need to know about the exclusive social media app, January 2021 Erin Griffith and Taylor Lorenz, The Hot New Thing in Clubby Silicon Valley? An App Called Clubhouse, May 2020