[00:00:00] Thank you so much for tuning in this week to The Podcast Therapist. I'm your host, the Shan Man-- radio broadcaster, podcaster, and podcast producer. Today we're talking all about Clubhouse. It's the brand new social media app that is out there right now for everyone who is on iOS. To join and participate in, and it's a social app and we're going to get into that here very shortly.
[00:00:24] I should let you know that this is actually the second recording of this podcast because I recorded an earlier version today. But upon going through some of the terms of service with Clubhouse, there's some important information that I needed to share with you on this particular podcast. We're going to get to that here very shortly, but I'm gonna try and cover a lot of the same things that I talked about in the first recording and hopefully readjust.
[00:00:47] To what, these terms of services as terms of service have listed out for you, the user especially if you're the podcast or so it's very important that you listen to today's episode. If you're thinking about using the platform for podcasting and repurposing content.
[00:01:02] For from the platform as well. Of course I did some some form of this on my YouTube channel. So you can go ahead and check it out. If you want to get the basic gist of what Clubhouse is all about and whether or not you should, you use it for your podcast. You can go on over to my YouTube channel.
[00:01:13] You can get there directly through my website, the Shan man.com and go to the navigation bar to the YouTube section right there. And you should be able to get directly linked to my YouTube channel. Let's jump right into it and talk about it real quick. What is Clubhouse? So you've heard about it.
[00:01:26] You've seen people on Facebook talking a lot about getting on this app. If they have, if someone has an invite, can you send an invite to some, send me an invite. I want to get on Clubhouse. But you only have to have Yoko only have an iOS device, in order to join it, it is not an Android capable app.
[00:01:42] And so this is leaving out a major part of the market who was very interested in this app, but what is it exactly? Think of it as an audio social app. It's a social media app just for audio. So what happens basically is that you download the app after you've gotten your invite, you go in and you fill out some [00:02:00] information of what some of your favorite.
[00:02:02] Interests are about in your life. And you can start following topics and conversations that revolve around those topics. Now, what ends up happening is that when you jump into a conversation, there may be a bunch of people who are listening in on this conversation. The conversation is moderated by of course the creator it's the moderator, and he can control, which direction the conversation is going.
[00:02:25] It's very live radio ish. And so this is what. You know what you're getting, basically, when you jump into Clubhouse, a bunch of people gathering in one place to hear conversations. It's like having a conversation in a bar, but you're not actually at the bar. All right. Now think of it like Facebook, or maybe even think of it.
[00:02:41] Like Facebook live, someone goes, live on a Facebook live, then all of a sudden, everyone gathers around and they all want to. Convene and hear the conversation that is happening at that time. But instead of you messaging on text, you can actually communicate through audio using your mobile device. Only.
[00:02:59] This is a mobile device only application. Something that you should be aware of when it comes down to a Clubhouse and just know that there are other players in the marketplace for this. I don't know they're going to be fighting for this part of the marketplace. Twitter has their own version called spaces.
[00:03:14] You may have heard of this. This is in a beta test format right now. It is only available for a select few and we will see. Twitter jumping into this space and trying to dominate it the same way that they dominated Periscope before Facebook live dominated Periscope. So you're going to see a lot of evolution with this application, and I think it's worth noting that you should be paying attention to who is the, who are the major players in this now, as of this recording, Facebook is in the works to create a clone of Clubhouse.
[00:03:45] Why? While a couple of weeks ago, I'm sure you had heard, maybe you didn't. Mark Zuckerberg was actually in a Clubhouse and he was talking, but I would think that was actually Mark Zuckerberg, probably doing market research. That's what I think it was. [00:04:00] And according to the New York times, as of this recording, Facebook is working on obviously this new clone that is going to be similar to Clubhouse.
[00:04:10] It's not a shocker. It really isn't a shocker there, but some other things that I think you should be aware of when it comes down to Clubhouse is that according to billboard.com. Clubhouse is pivoting toward testing direct payments. This was published on January 25th. What does this mean for you?
[00:04:28] The creator, what this means is that there's going to be this ability to earn tips, maybe even create subscriptions and ticketing within the app itself, which is very cool for the creator. So it gives more people, an incentive to join the app and earn some money possibly. This is what I'm gathering, but earn some money from the application.
[00:04:52] It's all came on that on the heels of that news, where it was reported that the founders of Paul Davidson and Rahan Seth announced that there's going to be a new set of funding to work towards getting a new Android app. So there's more people on the application, but also to build out more infrastructure technology and safety and security, which I would imagine that if you're going to be submitting a credit card information or private information, that they want it to be secure.
[00:05:17] So this is something that I think is very interesting. Now let's talk about this from the podcasting perspective, because I've seen a lot of conversations in different forums and groups online. Facebook has been the most prominent one, and there's a lot of podcasters with interest in doing podcasting on Clubhouse.
[00:05:37] And there is this question of whether or not pod-casters can use Clubhouse. To basically kill two birds with one stone. You create content on that platform and then repurpose it as a podcast later. So the short answer to this is no, you cannot record your Clubhouse meetings into a [00:06:00] doll or anything like that.
[00:06:01] This is the news that I needed to update actually with this podcast. So you can not record any of your conversations that happen inside of Clubhouse. Because it is a violation of their terms of service. That's something very important to note, you'll be violating the terms of service with Clubhouse. So it doesn't matter if you have a mixing board that you can connect your phone to and patch audio in.
[00:06:30] We all have these little hacks that we use to record different pieces of audio, but just know that you would be violating the terms of service with Clubhouse. And get kicked off of the platform if you were caught doing this. So let's go into that. Let's talk about some of the things that you can and can't do inside of Clubhouse.
[00:06:49] So if you go into the app and actually I know a lot of you probably don't have access to the app. I'm going to help those who are maybe on an Android device, or maybe those who just haven't gotten an invite. If they are on iOS, I'm just going to go over the basic cliff notes of the terms of service, where I think it does matter.
[00:07:05] So number one you can't engage in any conversation or upload any kind of content that is protected by intellectual property. So it's recommended that you're not pulling movie quotes or you're pulling anything that has intellectual property, audio books, things like that. I would recommend that you don't do that.
[00:07:25] So that's something, that seems pretty obvious. That you shouldn't be doing. There are specific rules that go all around this. Obviously nothing that's obscene or pornographic hateful, anything that is going to be libelous, you cannot do inside of Clubhouse whatsoever. So that's one part of the terms of service.
[00:07:44] The next part is obviously you can't record any portion of the conversations. You can't do anything like that. So that is That is prohibited. Now, if you do have consent from the speakers who are involved in, yes, you can record it. So there is a little bit of a gray [00:08:00] area there, but if it were me, I just probably wouldn't even record anything that has to deal with Clubhouse.
[00:08:08] If there's going to be terms of service, if there's going to be rules like this, I just don't really want to do that. I just, I don't see it as being beneficial for you. The podcaster. Another thing is that you cannot share information on Clubhouse or elsewhere that the speaker explicitly stated was to be treated off the record.
[00:08:27] So remember you had to be very careful about what you are sharing on the platform. And of course, as I scroll down and look at a couple of the more important things, one of those being you cannot harvest or collect email addresses, or other contact information of other users. From the service by electronic or other means for the purposes of sending unsolicited emails or unsolicited communications.
[00:08:55] So what does this mean? This means that you can not just start collecting emails, haphazardly, and randomly. They would have to go through a process where they are going in and maybe go into your website and giving permission to basically get a download or something like that. So that's something that you have to be very concerned about.
[00:09:17] So from what it sounds like to me, if I'm reading this correctly, this is more of a social app. This is not a marketing app, even though there's a lot of marketers on the application, this is all about social interaction. Now it doesn't mean that I don't, I have not seen people selling on this platform because I have.
[00:09:39] Heard of people on Facebook telling me that they are selling on the platform, but obviously they're not caught. So just something to think of. All right. You can't advertise our offer to sell or buy any goods or services for any businesses or any business [00:10:00] purpose that is not specifically authorized. So selling.
[00:10:03] I don't know, man. That's very questionable. If you ask me. So those are the main things that I think that you should really pay attention to. When it comes down to the terms of service, I would recommend that you go in and you read the terms of service. For Clubhouse so that you make sure that you're not violating anything like that.
[00:10:25] Legally, I just wouldn't want you to get involved with something like that. And if you ask me if you're trying to go around this and you want to create the content that you could be able to repurpose, somehow, if you got permission from someone, it probably going to be that one person that's going to come back and bite you in the ass.
[00:10:42] So that's just something that I think you should think about. If you're asking me. I would much rather build content that is original for podcasting platform than go onto Clubhouse and try to game the system. We've seen this with Facebook. We've seen this with Instagram. We've seen it with Twitter. I just wouldn't gain the system.
[00:11:06] I wouldn't do that at all. Now I had on my list of things that I was talking about in the first recording of this podcast, I said, can podcasters use Clubhouse to kill two birds with one stone by repurposing content? I said, cautiously, yes, but you have to give the content perspective. And I think this is the part where I think if you take the repurposing part of Clubhouse out and saying that you're not recording anything.
[00:11:35] You have to take this into perspective when it comes down to building content on Clubhouse. As I mentioned, this is not a podcasting app. This is specifically a social app. So the things that you have to consider, because it is a social app. And if you want to create content on it, knowing that the content will disappear, it's only in the [00:12:00] ether.
[00:12:01] It's going to be. On the content creators and to be responsible of writing down the notes of what they talked about and being able to recapture that in a podcast of some sort, if you're asking me, that's the way I'm looking at it, right? So things that you have to consider are how many times a week will you host a Clubhouse and will it be worth your time to go in.
[00:12:28] And start developing content for a Clubhouse, if it disappears and you can not purpose. Yeah, me, that's not really worth my time might be worth someone else's time, but it's not worth my time. Another thing to consider is how much time can you commit showing up to other people's live streams to network, to be a part of their group and con and make those connections.
[00:12:56] For me. I love the idea of networking. I really do. But when it comes down to you creating podcasting content, you have to remember that content is King above. All it is King is what shows up on your website and it is what you can share on social media. So I would be more interested in building the content than anything else.
[00:13:22] Another thing to consider is. Are you and your website assets prepared to serve an audience. You may not necessarily be marketing directly to these people on Clubhouse, but eventually somewhere down the line, if you start coming into contact with people, and you network on another social platform, is your website ready to serve those people?
[00:13:49] That you met on Clubhouse that you are now communicating more on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram. The terms of service don't mean that it doesn't mean that you can't network [00:14:00] with other people, but you can also network with them on other platforms. And maybe that is where you can serve those people.
[00:14:06] So as your website set up and prepare to serve that audience of people that you are looking to communicate with, And have you identified what your website and your podcast objective is? Are you super clear about that next, when you do live content on Clubhouse, are you going to wing it or are you going to prepare yourself to create value on the live stream that will engage the audience?
[00:14:36] This is where I think the big. Challenge will be for podcasters because podcasters love to record, then press stop, start over and record again. You don't have that opportunity on something like Clubhouse. You have to really be on your game. And really when you think about it, if you're jumping on Clubhouse and you don't consider it as a podcasting platform, it's just a conversation that you're having with multiple people.
[00:15:05] That's all it is. It's just a conversation. So consider it as such. That's where I think you need to reposition your thinking about the app itself. If you're thinking about getting on the social network now is the app overrated or underrated? I'm taking a little bit of a cue here from Gary Vaynerchuk because I saw him post about this on his Instagram.
[00:15:36] A while back. It was a couple days ago and someone asked him, is the app overrated or underrated? And he said that it is underrated, which I will agree with him. It is very underrated because it is still early days. We don't know what the capability of the app will be. We don't know what is all involved with the development of the app.
[00:15:57] Right now. It's very bare bones. [00:16:00] So we don't know. But were going to ask me my opinion on whether it's overrated or underrated. I will say that yes, it is underrated as an application for social networking. It is overrated by a bunch of podcasters who are trying to turn it into a podcasting platform. I get it, but it is not a podcasting platform in my eyes.
[00:16:26] This is my opinion.
[00:16:31] Clubhouse will be used. Great for community growth. That's where it's underrated. In fact, I think this format should have been implemented long before we had Facebook live and Periscope and anything that was a live video. I don't know why we didn't do that because I think that's how people like to consume content.
[00:16:52] They like to consume live streams, just like radio. We'll I think it's do I think it will succeed? I don't know, maybe as an app and a social network with Facebook coming out with their own clone and Twitter already testing. I don't know. I really don't. But what I do know is that participating on live streams, listening, it's a time commitment and the time commitment I'm talking about is appointment listening.
[00:17:26] If a content creator is going to create these normal meetups inside of the application itself. If you're asking me it is the responsibility of the content creator to set a specific time in which they will go live so that they can have people come in and communicate and listen and network
[00:17:53] and with business people. When it comes down to being consistent with something such as a live show, it can [00:18:00] be a challenge because they have meetings. They have deadlines, but people like me in radio, we have to be in a studio and we know the value of what it means to be there for your listener each and every single night to provide them value.
[00:18:16] And you know what, the hardest thing about doing a live shift on the radio. Is coming up with the content that is valuable every single night, not every night is a home run. I'll tell you that it is not a home run. Not every morning with a morning show is a home run, but you learn a craft over time and learn what your audience enjoys.
[00:18:38] And I think that you can learn that if you do create Clubhouse gatherings and build a community, but you have to do it at the same time. Every week, that's just something to consider. Okay. Now, do I think it's going to be like a live radio streaming platform? I don't know. I'm S I'm unsure about this.
[00:19:00] Cause I don't know enough about the app. I don't know enough about the developers. I don't know enough about what their intentions are. It's still very early days, but most of these podcasters who want to do this live broadcasting. Don't realize that there's an actual craft that goes behind live performance.
[00:19:20] It can be a challenge. So with that being said, if they're already podcasting, are they going to be as anal with live broadcasting, just, and it's not even doing a podcast, it's just live broadcasting. The thing they have to really keep in mind is that number one. Hey, you can't record the conversations. You can't rebroadcast anything and everything that is live disappears cannot be repurposed at all.
[00:19:52] Unless you have consent. Of course, with people. That's something to consider, but for the most part, [00:20:00] I don't know if it will be a live radio or streaming platform. Technically, I don't think that the tools exist yet for it because it's only mobile. It's mobile only. But if I were to take a guess, there will be enough noise made to say, Hey, this should be a podcasting platform, a live podcasting platform, but I will tell you this right now, this already exists on Castbox and with pod bean.
[00:20:27] So I don't see the reason why podcasters are going directly to Clubhouse to try and do these things. They can already do it on Castbox and pod bean. They don't need an invite. They just got to push an audience over there. To listen live and they can take callers the same way that, Clubhouse is allowing people to speak in that chat form.
[00:20:47] So technically, I don't know if the tools exist for this to be like a live broadcasting platform, would this, if it does and it expands to desktop, I would think that there would need to be more tools. There would need to be live mixing. There would need to be shortcuts, some type of proprietary software.
[00:21:03] Maybe. I don't know. But I just know that it's just going to be a social media app. That's what I believe it's going to be. It's about building community. That's really all it is. It's just about building community. If creators want to do live radio, my opinion is that Twitter spaces, Clubhouse, Facebook.
[00:21:20] They have to create the tools. But I don't think it will be a broadcasting platform. I honestly don't. The mobile format is limiting as it is. So that's just something that you have to think about when it comes to Clubhouse. So my next point is, will Clubhouse kill live radio now? I don't think, I don't think it has anything to do with radio.
[00:21:41] Quite honestly. It's a live format. Yeah, I get it. And you could go in and you can start talking and you can present and you can share thoughts. I think it's, again, it's a social media app. It is not a broadcasting app is not a podcasting app. It's just social [00:22:00] media. That's all it is. It's people getting together and having a good time, but let's take it to the next step.
[00:22:05] Let's say that Clubhouse does want to try and jump into the game of making it some type of broadcast. And this is just, we are just imagining from a radio perspective, I would say this in my opinion, I would think that there is going to have to be some type of advertising. Strategy behind clubhouse, how will advertisers deliver advertising and these live streams, if that, if that is the case, if we imagine that clubhouse transforms into something like that, we don't know if clubhouse is anything like Facebook or tries to be anything like Facebook.
[00:22:45] They're going to figure out a way. To monetize it, turn it into some type of ad platform, especially if you're doing something live, but I don't know how that's going to work. I just don't. This is just imagining though. So bottom line really clubhouse is just a social media app. Again, I can't reiterate this enough.
[00:23:05] It's a social media app, not a professional broadcasting app. You can't even repurpose the content. You can't record someone else's voice. At all without consent. And if it were some type of a broadcasting application, I'm going to tell you this right now, amateur podcasters or amateur broadcasters, they're going to have to build a whole new set of skills to present information.
[00:23:33] It's not a possible to learn these skills, but they're going to have to build brand new skills to present in a live format because there are nuances that come with presenting live. There's a lot of multitasking when it comes down to presenting live. So if we were to imagine, again, this being a broadcasting platform and the tools existed, if they did, [00:24:00] there would probably be more apps that were becoming out for shortcut keys that you could use for sound boards on an iPad or maybe some type of tablet of some sort.
[00:24:11] That could be easily used on an Android or an iOS device. But again, I don't see it happening. Clubhouse is a social media app. Now, is it worth it? Is it worth your time to jump in and start playing around on clubhouse? I would say give it a look if you want to give it a look, but I would say the most important thing.
[00:24:31] And I've mentioned this previously, the most important thing. Is to focus on building your own content that you can put on your website platform, that you can create a podcast for, to drive traffic to. If you do not have elements of your products and services and merchandise listed on your website, there is no real reason for you to be spending.
[00:24:53] Or if you're asking me wasting time on clubhouse, I think it's great for going and hanging out for a little while, but I wouldn't spend hours because I've seen people spend hours. We're not talking one, two, we're talking four hours on the app itself. And I just don't think that is a productive use of time.
[00:25:13] I honestly do not. So those are my thoughts about clubhouse and whether or not, I think it's great for podcasters. It's great from a networking standpoint, but from a technical standpoint, I wouldn't even give it a shot, a try just based on the terms of service alone. That's it. So I recommend you go read those terms of service.
[00:25:37] If you want to learn more. So tell me what you think about clubhouse. I'd love to hear from you. And I would love to hear your voicemails or I'll even read your emails, just head on over to the podcast, therapist.com and scroll down to the contact me section, and you can leave a voicemail right there. And of course you can also leave me an email as well, and I'll read it on the podcast for the next podcast episode.
[00:25:59] Hearing you [00:26:00] guys communicate back and forth with me over voicemail is actually a very cool thing. Just let me know your thoughts. If you have an opinion about clubhouse, how are you using clubhouse and what do you intend to use clubhouse for? I'd be you interested in sharing that with you guys on the next podcast episode.
[00:26:14] Before I jump out of here. I want to go ahead and read a review that I got recently on Apple podcasts. So I would command or recommend, I want to encourage you to head on over one of my website, the podcast therapist.com. And of course there's a link right there on the front page to go to Apple podcasts and open up the app, whether it be on your phone or on your desktop, and you can leave a rating and review the ratings and reviews definitely help show up in the feed of other people on Apple podcasts.
[00:26:39] So they know what this podcast is all about and how it can help them. Create a better program. I want to read a comment. From, sorry, not from world-class guy. That's the name of the the comment, but it's from Liam Angelo, 86. And the title of it is world-class guy. And Liam, I would assume your first name is, he says I've been following the Shan man on YouTube for a couple of years now.
[00:27:01] I had a podcast that I did. All the wrong things with and started taking the advice of this groovy gentlemen and reworked and revamped a much more popular show. Thanks Shan, man. So you're very welcome, Liam. I really appreciate it. Thank you so much for leaving the rating and the review five-star rating and review.
[00:27:17] That means a lot to me. And thank you so much for watching the YouTube videos. That means a lot to me too. So if you want to leave a rating and review, I highly encourage that you head on over to Apple podcasts and do so because not only will it help someone else, but. You're helping other people.
[00:27:30] That's really what I'm trying to do here. You're just trying to help other people. So in the meantime, I'm going to leave it right there next week. I'm going to be talking with a guy named Steve Moynahan, and we're going to jump back into the monetization game and share with you the thoughts of Mo monetizing off of your podcast.
[00:27:46] But from a radio perspective, this guy is in sales here at the radio station, but he shares how you can create opportunities within your podcast. In the form of sponsorships, but how [00:28:00] that runs way deeper than just having an ad running on your podcast. So make sure you're tuning into that next week. I promise you, you will not want to miss it.
[00:28:09] It's a very interesting episode in the meantime. Thank you guys so much for listening to this week's episode of the podcast therapist. I really appreciate it. We'll be talking to you next time. Take care.
