Wendy Marx May 8, 2021 
Branding yourself isn’t a slam dunk, especially when starting out in a new career. How do you create a personal brand and find your audience? It’s a painstaking, slow process. But a new tool has arrived that makes it easier.
The name of this new tool?
Clubhouse.
A quick note: As I also explain further down, Clubhouse is presently an invitation-only app. But if you would like to join, simply text me and I would be happy to extend an invitation. You need to text since Clubhouse requires that I add you to my contacts first before inviting you.
I’ve been familiarizing myself with this new app and have been downright impressed with the results. I’m going to share my own experience and how you too can get started branding yourself on Clubhouse.
But first let’s talk a little bit about your personal brand…
You and Your Personal Brand
We talk a lot about personal branding on this blog, but what is personal branding exactly?
Well, a basic personal branding definition would be how you are perceived by others. Many C-suite executives and brand founders use personal branding strategies to market themselves as if they were a brand. This includes improving their overall image and showcasing their skills.
But personal branding goes way beyond the C-suite. I encourage everyone, no matter your position in a company or if you’re working for yourself to actively cultivate your personal brand. From posting on social media to networking with colleagues to blogging or contributing content, you have many ways to establish and grow your personal brand.
And that brings me back to Clubhouse, an app that anyone can use and which is particularly designed to contribute to the growth of your personal brand.
What is Clubhouse and How It Will Help You in Branding Yourself
Clubhouse is an audio-only social media app that has recently gained popularity, with 10 million users to date. That’s impressive since it had just 2 million users in January. Clubhouse has separated interests and groups of people into what are called rooms, which can contain between a few people and thousands of people. Within the app, you simply walk down a virtual hall and join any room that interests you. Once there you can of course just listen or add to the conversation by requesting to speak by raising your virtual hand.
Clubhouse is definitely a departure from traditional social media networks which rely heavily on pictures and videos. The audio-only feature is a game-changer, since it encourages engagement. Wherever you go, you literally join an active conversation.
This whole setup is particularly useful for personal branding. Simply create a room on an industry topic. Anyone who enters that room will be interested in the topic and actively listening to the conversation — not just scrolling past. People participate by literally commenting, asking a question, or sharing their own insights. And all of this is in real-time.
Within each room, you have participants and speakers. When you create a room, you are a speaker, but you can also invite other experts to join you and become speakers in your room. Others might even ask you to join their room to become a speaker yourself. These interactions can boost the credibility of your room and your own personal brand.
The Perfect Time to Join
This might actually be the best time to join this platform. Since it’s new, you’d be essentially entering on the ground floor, with audiences who are hungry for content and conversations. People have already begun to build a considerable following on the network — and many of those people do not have a large following on other social networks.
But Clubhouse goes beyond being a simple networking hub. It’s also a great platform to collaborate with your team in a real-time, non-zoom environment. Many people have also used the platform to learn new skills —with rooms filled with experts on everything, including digital marketing and social media. You never know what room you’re going to find and what interesting new skills you can add to your arsenal that will help you build a better personal brand.
As I mentioned, because Clubhouse is fairly new and still working things out, it’s by invitation only. You need someone who is already a member to invite you to join.
My Experience Branding Myself on Clubhouse
I recently started using Clubhouse reluctantly. Why did I need another social network? I’m already active on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook building my personal brand. My brief foray onto Clubhouse changed my opinion. All the networks I’ve used offer a lot — but Clubhouse brings something new to the table.
I was blown away by the response I got after I first participated. I commented for less than a minute in someone’s room and the next thing I knew three people connected with me and I was invited to become a speaker in someone else’s room. And 40 people followed me. I’ve never had such an immediate, positive response from any other social media network right from the get go.
I am excited to continue developing my own personal brand on Clubhouse and I hope you too will join. It might just be the best thing you do for your personal brand in 2021.
If you’ve been using Clubhouse for a while, please drop a comment below and let me know how you’ve been using it to expand your own personal brand. And be sure to follow me under my name Wendy Marx and I’ll follow you back.
Photo by Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash
Digital & Social Articles on Business 2 Community
(81)
