Here is the second part in the NFT Marketing Basics series, which might also be called: “Things I wish people told me when I started marketing my NFT’s” (be sure to check out the first part on Twitter as well). While Twitter is crucial for dynamically steering people towards clicking your NFT links, Clubhouse is often the app that gets you on people’s radar in the first place. If I had to rate percentage of importance of various marketing methods, personally speaking Clubhouse has been more than 60%-70% of the picture for me while Twitter has been the remainder (and Facebook, Instagram being close to 1%). Just like any other ecosystem, Clubhouse has its own unspoken rules and ways to maximize your networking efforts. Here are some obvious ones you should become familiar with!
The Basics: Your Bio
Whereas with Twitter, arranging the top of your profile is the first thing you should do, in Clubhouse, setting a profile picture and writing a solid bio with links to your Twitter AND Instagram is key. Whenever you are speaking in any room, you can be sure that a good majority of the audience will immediately click on your profile and quickly scan your bio. If you have no bio and no links, that would be the end of the road. However, if you have a solid bio (not too short, not too long, formatted nicely with paragraph breaks and maybe an emoticon or two) and links to your Twitter and Instagram, you can be sure that at least a portion of those people will be funneled into looking at your work and likely earn you a few followers. Not having this in order would mean cutting off an opportunity for people to get to know you. Just consider this as the “dressing properly” for the event.
Read the Room: Listen First, Then Talk
This one is a bit counterintuitive in an app that is solely centered around talking, but I believe it is one of the most important parts of the space. There is nothing more off-putting than someone who newly enters the room, doesn’t take the time to listen to the conversation that has been happening, and then launches on a long, unrelated rant. Because we are always going back and forth in various rooms, oftentimes we end up in rooms that have started long beforehand, where the content and the “rules” of the room have already been discussed. If you wait and listen long enough, you will not only get a sense of how the room is being organized and what people are talking about, but you will also likely hear a “resetting of the room” where the main moderator will briefly explain all those things.
Sometimes rooms will be freeflowing (anyone can talk at any point), and sometimes rooms will be run in a very orderly way where the main moderators will call upon people to speak. It can be a good idea to observe which style is going on before you start speaking in case it is the latter scenario. Also, generally it is encouraged to let people finish their statements before the next person speaks– for common courtesy sake, but also because when there are multiple people speaking in an audio-only app, it can immediately be quite confusing who is talking when someone is interrupted. Unless you are in a rapid fire, freeflowing room, you can be sure that interrupting someone in the middle of their statement is generally a faux-pas. Of course, there are exceptions to this (if someone is saying something absolutely ridiculous, trolling, or going on for too long inappropriately, etc), so use your best judgment just as you would in any real conversation.
Be Active and Prepared
On the other hand, if all you do is listen in the lower part of the audience and never come up to the “stage” and talk, it is entirely possible that no one will notice you. This is fine if you are just trying to gain knowledge, but if you’re already spending time on the app, you might as well use it to its greatest potential and come up to the upper stage part by “raising your hand” and requesting to be a speaker. Being on stage, even if you don’t say anything, will increase the likelihood that you will be noticed by other people who are checking out the room, which means more views and clicks on your bio and social media links. (FYI, This tip is basically stolen from Clubhouse mastermind JR)
And since there is a good chance that as a speaker, you’ll be asked to introduce yourself, write out and practice a short introduction script that briefly explains your background and your work. If you prepare a long (~3 mins) and short (~30 seconds) version that will be even more helpful- because sometimes you will be in rooms with dozens of people waiting to talk, and you don’t want to be the one who is making others wait while you speak about yourself for a long time in these situations. Even if you feel like you are a gifted public speaker (and especially if you don’t feel like one, or if English is not your first language), it can be helpful to write out and practice these scripts out loud multiple times before saying them in Clubhouse- because I can guarantee you, the first time introducing yourself to many people in audio-only room will be a disorienting one.
Audio Etiquette: Muting, Opening, Closing
Then there are simple things such as making sure your mic is muted as soon as you go up on stage– this is to make sure that ambient sound or feedback from your phone doesn’t interrupt the current speaker and cause everyone to stop and ask you to mute. In general, when you aren’t talking, muting yourself is the right thing to do, for the same reasons. When it does come time to talk and if it is not going down a strict order, it can also be helpful to orient people to where you are in the room (ex: Hi guys this is Sunjae, I’m near the bottom with the blue cat picture) so that people can know who is speaking. When you’re done speaking, it is also common etiquette to let people know that you’re done speaking as well (“Thank you, this is Sunjae and I’m done speaking”). These are common sense but very important pieces of etiquette to ensure that this format of audio-only large group gatherings can go smoothly.
Use “PTR” to Your Advantage
“Pull To Refresh”– pulling down from the top of the room will refresh people’s profile pictures and also update the order of the room (any new moderators will be brought back up to the top of the room). Some people use this to great effect, showing various pictures that are relevant to the conversation, and other times there will be rooms where everyone is asked to put certain themes of profile pictures up as well. You should think of the profile picture not only as your avatar, but also as a place where you can occasionally temporarily highlight other people’s work or anything else you’d like to show the room– just don’t forget to change it back!
Show up and Support Regularly
You will notice that at first, it is a sea of unknown faces and voices, but eventually people’s voices and personalities will start to become recognizable the more you see them in various rooms. The same goes for you! The more that you show up, especially as a speaker, and especially when you are speaking in support of others, the more people will become familiar with you and your community will naturally grow. Be diligent and show up to other people’s rooms and support them. The best thing you could do is to check out other people’s work, engage them in conversation, and give comments of appreciation and support rather than always promoting yourself. If you are just there to sell NFT’s and don’t care about the community, it will be immediately evident and your network will likely not grow too quickly (unless you’re already a celebrity). Remember that this space is all about building community first and selling art afterwards, and if you use Clubhouse to do so, you will be richly rewarded with a global network of new friends and like minded artists!
NFT Marketing Basics: Clubhouse
Here is the second part in the NFT Marketing Basics series, which might also be called: “Things I wish people told me when I started marketing my NFT’s” (be sure to check out the first part on Twitter as well). While Twitter is crucial for dynamically steering people towards clicking your NFT links, Clubhouse is often the app that gets you on people’s radar in the first place. If I had to rate percentage of importance of various marketing methods, personally speaking Clubhouse has been more than 60%-70% of the picture for me while Twitter has been the remainder (and Facebook, Instagram being close to 1%). Just like any other ecosystem, Clubhouse has its own unspoken rules and ways to maximize your networking efforts. Here are some obvious ones you should become familiar with!
The Basics: Your Bio
Whereas with Twitter, arranging the top of your profile is the first thing you should do, in Clubhouse, setting a profile picture and writing a solid bio with links to your Twitter AND Instagram is key. Whenever you are speaking in any room, you can be sure that a good majority of the audience will immediately click on your profile and quickly scan your bio. If you have no bio and no links, that would be the end of the road. However, if you have a solid bio (not too short, not too long, formatted nicely with paragraph breaks and maybe an emoticon or two) and links to your Twitter and Instagram, you can be sure that at least a portion of those people will be funneled into looking at your work and likely earn you a few followers. Not having this in order would mean cutting off an opportunity for people to get to know you. Just consider this as the “dressing properly” for the event.
Read the Room: Listen First, Then Talk
This one is a bit counterintuitive in an app that is solely centered around talking, but I believe it is one of the most important parts of the space. There is nothing more off-putting than someone who newly enters the room, doesn’t take the time to listen to the conversation that has been happening, and then launches on a long, unrelated rant. Because we are always going back and forth in various rooms, oftentimes we end up in rooms that have started long beforehand, where the content and the “rules” of the room have already been discussed. If you wait and listen long enough, you will not only get a sense of how the room is being organized and what people are talking about, but you will also likely hear a “resetting of the room” where the main moderator will briefly explain all those things.
Sometimes rooms will be freeflowing (anyone can talk at any point), and sometimes rooms will be run in a very orderly way where the main moderators will call upon people to speak. It can be a good idea to observe which style is going on before you start speaking in case it is the latter scenario. Also, generally it is encouraged to let people finish their statements before the next person speaks– for common courtesy sake, but also because when there are multiple people speaking in an audio-only app, it can immediately be quite confusing who is talking when someone is interrupted. Unless you are in a rapid fire, freeflowing room, you can be sure that interrupting someone in the middle of their statement is generally a faux-pas. Of course, there are exceptions to this (if someone is saying something absolutely ridiculous, trolling, or going on for too long inappropriately, etc), so use your best judgment just as you would in any real conversation.
Be Active and Prepared
On the other hand, if all you do is listen in the lower part of the audience and never come up to the “stage” and talk, it is entirely possible that no one will notice you. This is fine if you are just trying to gain knowledge, but if you’re already spending time on the app, you might as well use it to its greatest potential and come up to the upper stage part by “raising your hand” and requesting to be a speaker. Being on stage, even if you don’t say anything, will increase the likelihood that you will be noticed by other people who are checking out the room, which means more views and clicks on your bio and social media links. (FYI, This tip is basically stolen from Clubhouse mastermind JR)
And since there is a good chance that as a speaker, you’ll be asked to introduce yourself, write out and practice a short introduction script that briefly explains your background and your work. If you prepare a long (~3 mins) and short (~30 seconds) version that will be even more helpful- because sometimes you will be in rooms with dozens of people waiting to talk, and you don’t want to be the one who is making others wait while you speak about yourself for a long time in these situations. Even if you feel like you are a gifted public speaker (and especially if you don’t feel like one, or if English is not your first language), it can be helpful to write out and practice these scripts out loud multiple times before saying them in Clubhouse- because I can guarantee you, the first time introducing yourself to many people in audio-only room will be a disorienting one.
Audio Etiquette: Muting, Opening, Closing
Then there are simple things such as making sure your mic is muted as soon as you go up on stage– this is to make sure that ambient sound or feedback from your phone doesn’t interrupt the current speaker and cause everyone to stop and ask you to mute. In general, when you aren’t talking, muting yourself is the right thing to do, for the same reasons. When it does come time to talk and if it is not going down a strict order, it can also be helpful to orient people to where you are in the room (ex: Hi guys this is Sunjae, I’m near the bottom with the blue cat picture) so that people can know who is speaking. When you’re done speaking, it is also common etiquette to let people know that you’re done speaking as well (“Thank you, this is Sunjae and I’m done speaking”). These are common sense but very important pieces of etiquette to ensure that this format of audio-only large group gatherings can go smoothly.
Use “PTR” to Your Advantage
“Pull To Refresh”– pulling down from the top of the room will refresh people’s profile pictures and also update the order of the room (any new moderators will be brought back up to the top of the room). Some people use this to great effect, showing various pictures that are relevant to the conversation, and other times there will be rooms where everyone is asked to put certain themes of profile pictures up as well. You should think of the profile picture not only as your avatar, but also as a place where you can occasionally temporarily highlight other people’s work or anything else you’d like to show the room– just don’t forget to change it back!
Show up and Support Regularly
You will notice that at first, it is a sea of unknown faces and voices, but eventually people’s voices and personalities will start to become recognizable the more you see them in various rooms. The same goes for you! The more that you show up, especially as a speaker, and especially when you are speaking in support of others, the more people will become familiar with you and your community will naturally grow. Be diligent and show up to other people’s rooms and support them. The best thing you could do is to check out other people’s work, engage them in conversation, and give comments of appreciation and support rather than always promoting yourself. If you are just there to sell NFT’s and don’t care about the community, it will be immediately evident and your network will likely not grow too quickly (unless you’re already a celebrity). Remember that this space is all about building community first and selling art afterwards, and if you use Clubhouse to do so, you will be richly rewarded with a global network of new friends and like minded artists!