Clubhouse is the newest social media platform to grab the attention of small business owners, marketers, influencers, and thought leaders.  But should hypnotists be including Clubhouse as part of their branding and marketing strategy?  I'll give you three reasons why the answer is "No."

New social platforms attempt to stand out by doing something differently than all the other platforms, and Clubhouse is no exception.  Clubhouse is audio only, like being on a conference call.  It provides a space for people to have conversations, and without a camera being involved, that means you can multi-task while doing so.  Think of it like an interactive podcast.  You can be washing the dishes and listening to Elon Musk talk to Kanye West at the same time, and you might actually get to be part of the conversation.  For many this is appealing, but consider the following points:

A Platform is Useless (For Your Business) Without a Strategy for Its Use

If you're joining Clubhouse because it's the new thing, and everybody else seems to be joining, you're really just getting caught in shiny object syndrome.  With new platforms, early adopters are usually the ones who gain the most, so there is an argument for getting into Clubhouse now in the early stages, but if you don't have a real strategy for how to leverage the platform, you're going to be part of the increasing noise without a way to stand out and get noticed.  You'll end up devoting time and energy to a platform that doesn't give you a return.

It's important to keep in mind that there's an entire machine at work behind the scenes, trying to get as many people as possible interested in Clubhouse so that its market value goes up.  Let's look at a little social media history:

2005--MySpace sells for $580 million.
2009--FriendFeed purchased by Facebook for $15 million in cash and $32.5 million in stock.
2011--Google launches Google+ and builds it to 540 million active monthly users
2012--Vine acquired by Twitter for $30 million.
2014--Facebook acquires WhatsApp for $21.8 billion

Of the five platforms listed above, only one is still functioning: WhatsApp.  All the others, despite being worth millions and millions of dollars at some point, have faded away.  They were new and shiny, but now they're gone.

Did people use them to make money while they existed? Sure. But those people had a strategy, and the strategy only worked as long as the platform was active.  Simply being on a platform isn't enough.  Just because I own a piano doesn't mean I know how to play it.  (That actually happened.  It's a bit of a sad story.)  If you're on Clubhouse for your own enjoyment, that's one thing, but if you're there as a small business owner, and you don't have a plan for how to leverage the platform, then really you're wasting time you could be using to support your business in other ways.

Audio Limits Your Productivity

If you produce a video, you can publish that video on one platform and get views.  Then, you can strip the audio from that video and publish it as a podcast on another platform and get listeners.  Then you can have that audio transcribed and edit it into blog posts are social media posts.  You can even grab screen shots from the video to make pics for social posts or website content.  There's more yield when you start with video.

But you don't get that with audio only recordings.  You can still do some re-purposing of the content, but not as much.  This matters when you're trying to maximize your creative energy for your business.

Marketers Ruin Everything

There's a clear pattern that follows the emergence of new social media platforms.  They start out as novel new spaces, the audience grows, and then marketers and gurus flood the platform so that they can sell things to that audience.  They just can't help but want to tap into new audiences, so they'll sign up, watch how things develop, and start testing strategies.  This means the "noise" will increase that much more, and if you're using Clubhouse you'll have to figure out how to get your signal to stand out in all that noise.  The question is: will it be worth your time and energy to do that?

For most of you, the answer will be no, but for some it will be yes.  We're all different in our business acumen and entrepreneurial mindset.  I just think that for most hypnotists, who are small business owners having to wear several different hats each day, trying to keep up with all of these social platforms often leads to spreading yourself too thin.  Maybe you're better off staying in a space where you have a strong presence, rather than trying to carve out a presence in a new space.

I've made more money from my YouTube channel than from all other social media platforms that I've been on, combined.  The money I've made from YouTube isn't from their ad program, either; it's from my videos positioning me as someone with something to offer, and people reaching out to me to purchase my services.  YouTube is the second most popular search engine in the world, after Google Search, and that has served me well for years.

Don't Get Caught in FOMO

I am sure that some cool things are going to happen on Clubhouse.  I'll even go so far as to predict that there will be some hypnotist who becomes "the Clubhouse Hypnotist." They'll look like they're just killing it, and the rest of us will be but mere mortals in comparison.  But for most practicing hypnotists, Clubhouse will be a time suck that doesn't move the needle on your business.  More than ever, the social media landscape promotes the fear of missing out.  It's important to safeguard yourself against that.  Stay true to your mission as a business owner, focus on what matters, and work within the spaces that support your mission.