Leave it to Steve Pratt of Pacific Content to have the best overall take on Clubhouse from a podcaster perspective as well as a general social media perspective:

First and foremost, whether you’re a creator or a brand, you need to answer this question: what’s the job you’re hiring audio to do?

Once you know the answer, you can determine what to make, where it should live (podcasting, Clubhouse, radio, etc), and how to use it. There are lots of great uses — and some not so great uses — for Clubhouse. Here are a few ways to think about when and where it makes sense.

I’m still very skeptical that it will stay at it’s current level of interest once (if?) the pandemic is over, and being valued at $1B is insanely stupid regardless of who’s on the app.

Requiring SMS messages (and phone numbers) to send out invites feels like they have evil plans in mind for that kind of data given that there’s no reason AFAIK they couldn’t just use an email address - other than someone more easily setting up multiple accounts I guess?

There’s a false narrative of scarcity that creates demand, exclusivity, and desire that all crumbles as soon as they open the doors to anyone that wants to join. And that kind of marketing bs turns me off big time.

They do seem to have done a better job of enabling moderation for channels, and are attempting to deal with the scum of humanity that finds their way to everything on the internet. So I’m optimistic in that regard.

Twitter also has their own audio social app coming, called @TwitterSpaces, that looks interesting. If they can launch it and scale it in time I think it will easily surpass Clubhouse in use just because of already having connections on Twitter to draw from.

If you’re curious how “normal” folks are using Clubhouse, my buddy Matt McGee has a thread on his experiences connecting with the real estate community that seems to line up with my theory: it's a great pandemic pastime. Something we’ll all reevaluate once we can meet in person.

For now, you can find me on Clubhouse at @iChris.

If you've read this far and want to try out Clubhouse - and know me well enough to share your cell number with me - send me a DM on Twitter and if I still have an invite, I'll be happy to share one with you.