by Are you using the Clubhouse app? Wondering how to start and moderate an engaging Clubhouse room?
In this article, you'll discover how the pros host and moderate a room on Clubhouse. Learn how to add other moderators, bring people to the stage, mute people, and more.
To learn how to create and moderate a Clubhouse room, read the article below for an easy-to-follow walkthrough or for a guided tour of creating and moderating a Clubhouse room, watch the video below.
Note: This article assumes you've set up a profile with Clubhouse app. Read this article to learn how to get started with Clubhouse or watch this video for a comprehensive guide to getting started on Clubhouse.
#1: Schedule a Room on Clubhouse App
You can start a room on Clubhouse two ways. You can either schedule a room or spontaneously spin up a room.
There are several advantages to scheduling a room. You get a link to the event that you can share, your followers will be notified (and it shows up on the notifications menu), and you can add a detailed description of the event.
To schedule a room, open the Clubhouse app and tap on the calendar icon at the top of the screen. On the next screen, tap on the calendar icon with a plus sign on it.
Next, you'll see the New Event screen where you can schedule your event.
Start by typing an event name, which can be up to 60 characters. You also have the option to add a co-host to your event. A co-host will be able to cancel, edit, and remove people from the event so be careful about who you assign to this role.
And, of course, select the day and time of the event. If you belong to a club, you have the option to assign the club as well.
The last step is to add a description of your event. Clubhouse gives you 200 characters to describe your event so you can get really detailed if you want.
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When you're done filling out your event details, tap Publish at the top right. Your scheduled event will then show up at the bottom of the screen. Tap Share if you want to message your event to other people. You can also tweet it, copy the link, or add it to your calendar from here.
After you schedule your event, you can edit it at any time or delete it.
To find your event, just tap on the calendar icon at the top of the screen and tap on the Upcoming for You menu. Choose My Events from the pop-up menu to see all of the events you've scheduled.
When you're ready to start your event, load Clubhouse a few minutes before the event and tap on Start Room. You'll then see your scheduled event listed and be able to start it.
#2: Start a Spontaneous Room on Clubhouse App
When you spin up a spontaneous room on Clubhouse, you lose some of the advantages of a scheduled room. You won't get a link you can share or be able to add a description.
To start a spontaneous room, tap Start a Room from the main hallway. You'll then be prompted to choose from three types of rooms: open, social, or closed. An open room is open to everyone on the platform, a social room is only for people you follow, and a closed room is just for those people you invite into the room.
After selecting which type of room to start, tap on + Add a Topic and give the room a topic. The topic is exactly the same as the event name you use when you schedule a room and limited to 60 characters. Keep in mind that you won't be able to edit it after you begin.
For this example, I'm opting for a closed room so I'll need to add someone to the room before I can begin it. To add someone, simply tap on Choose People and search for the person you want to add.
Keep in mind that you can start a private room and take it public at any time by tapping on the Open It Up button at the bottom of the screen.
Pro Tip: I recommend you start a private room and invite a few people you plan to work with. Talk among your group before you decide to open it up to others.
Whether you're starting a closed, social, or open room, it's easy to ping people into the room. Simply hit the plus sign at the bottom of the screen and search for the people you want to invite.
Whenever someone you follow comes into the room, you'll see a little notification across the top of the screen. They'll automatically be in the audience and muted. They only get the opportunity to speak when they raise their hand or they're brought up on the stage.
#3: Moderate Your Clubhouse Room
When you moderate a room on Clubhouse, one of the first things you want to do is establish the rules of the room. Introduce yourself, the topic of the room, and the rules:
“Hey everybody, welcome to the room. My name is Michael Stelzner. I'm the founder of Social Media Examiner. Today, we're taking questions from Social Media Examiner staff. Go ahead and raise your hand by clicking the button in the bottom-right corner. You'll be put into the queue and we'll bring you on stage one at a time.”
A good moderator makes sure that the conversation flows naturally. Here are some tips and features you can use to control the dialog, manage speakers, and keep the discussion on track.
Periodically Reset Your Room
People will be constantly coming and going from your room. If you want to see how many people are currently in the room, tap on All Rooms at the top of the screen. In the bottom left, you'll see your face as the moderator of the room, the face of the next person, and a plus sign and number.
If you notice that this number keeps going up, you may want to reintroduce yourself and explain what's going on in the room—also known as a room reset.
Here's how to do a room reset:
“Hey everybody, there are a lot of new people in the room so I just want to do a quick reset of the room. Here's what we're here to accomplish today… Here's how to participate…”
Do a reset every 10 or 15 minutes depending on how many people are coming into the room.
Add Another Moderator
Consider adding at least one other moderator to your room. If you have to step away for a phone call or get booted from the room and you're the only moderator, the room will end and you won't be able to recreate it. But if you have another moderator in the room and you need to leave, the room will be able to continue.
To add another moderator, tap on the profile of someone who's on the stage and choose Make a Moderator.
Immediately, that person will be upgraded and a little green symbol will appear next to their name.
As you upgrade people to moderator, you might want to tell them that you'll handle bringing people up on the stage. The moderators have the same control you have so they can decide to turn hand-raising off or bring people up on stage.
Assigning someone to the moderator role is also a prestige assignment and it's something people can earn just by providing value to a room. If you're upgraded to the role of a moderator in a room someone else has started, it doesn't mean you should start bringing people up on the stage. You want to relinquish control to whoever is in the upper left-hand corner of the screen.
Manage the Stage
When you moderate a room on Clubhouse, you decide how the room will operate. I feel like the best rooms are Q & A types where it goes something like this:
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GET THE DETAILS“Hi everyone. Today, I'm joined by Mitchell Dong. Mitchell oversees our YouTube channel for Social Media Examiner. We're here to answer your questions about YouTube and marketing. If you have any questions, go ahead and raise your hand and we'll bring you up on the stage.”
People raise their hands for different reasons. Some people in the room are there purely to add value and they want to be on the stage because the topic is very relevant to them. And there are other people who truly want to get their questions answered.
If you see a message that someone has asked to be a speaker in the room, you can invite them to the stage, dismiss the message, or do nothing, in which case the message will disappear.
If there's a number at the bottom of the screen, it indicates someone is in the queue. Tap on the raised hands icon to see who wants to speak. You can tap on their profile, see who they are and what they're doing, and decide whether to bring them to the stage.
Keep in mind that speakers aren't automatically muted when they join the stage. They often don't realize that they're supposed to mute themselves so Clubhouse lets you do it for them. Just tap on their profile and tap on the microphone icon to mute them. That person will then get notified that you've muted them.
When people on the stage have something to add, it's normal for them to unmute themselves for a couple of seconds and then remute themselves. If the other people on the stage find their comment valuable, they'll often rapidly mute and unmute as a way of applauding.
Pro Tip: Clubhouse rooms can go on for hours and people can stay up on the stage but not really be present. To remove inactive people to clear the stage, periodically say something like, “Hey speakers and moderators—if you're still in the room would you rapidly mute and unmute yourself so I know you're here?” If someone doesn't respond, send them back to the audience because maybe they aren't still there.
You want to clear the stage and move people back to the audience so you give opportunities to other people to come up on the stage. Your screen is limited to about 12 faces. So when you limit the number of people on the stage, you'll be able to see who unmutes and claps and won't have to constantly scroll up and down the screen.
Keep the Conversation on Topic
When you're a moderator, you need to be in control of the dialog. When a lot of people are on the stage at once, you might want to consider assigning someone to answer the question. Good moderators will say something like:
“Lisa is very well-equipped to answer that question. Lisa, I would love to hear your thoughts. Then Mitch, go ahead and chime in.”
When someone's question is answered, you might say, “Jason, did that answer your question?” And if Jason says, “Yes, thank you so much,” then move him back to the audience. To do that, you simply tap on his profile and select Move to Audience.
If the conversation goes down a rabbit hole and people start talking about a topic that's not relevant to the room, it's important to get the conversation back on track. You could say something like, “Thank you so much for that. Now we're going to get back on topic. Just as a reminder, this is what we're here to talk about today….”
There may also be times when someone else takes control of the room. Maybe they'll ramble on and on. You can handle this situation in a couple of ways.
If the person has the confetti icon in the bottom left of their avatar, they're new to the platform and may not understand the rules. In that case, give them a little grace.
If they don't have the confetti icon, you could unmute and wait for a suitable moment to interject. Then jump in and say, “Awesome, thank you so much, Joel. We're getting a little off topic. For those of you in the audience, if you have answers to Joel's question, go ahead and message him on Instagram. But for the sake of this discussion, we're going to get back on topic.”
But don't just move that person right back to the audience. Give them a chance to make a final comment. Then you can go ahead and mute them if you want to move them back to the audience.
The key point to remember is you need to retain control of the room because if you don't, someone else will.
Turn Off Hand Raising With High-Profile Speakers on the Stage
As a moderator in a Clubhouse room, you'll get notified if someone you follow enters the room. It might be someone who has a high profile, giving you a unique opportunity to stop everything and invite that person up to the stage.
Wait for them to raise their hand or invite them but don't wait for them to accept. Just continue the conversation at hand. They may not be in a place where they can immediately accept or may not want to come up on the stage. If they hit the button that says “Maybe Later,” move along.
When someone with a big following does join the stage, you might want to turn off the raised hands feature because a rush of people may start raising their hands all at once to talk to that person. Each time someone raises their hand, you hear a notification sound so a lot of those notifications can throw off your rhythm.
To turn off the raised hands feature, simply tap on the icon and move the slider to off. Everybody in the room will then be notified that it's off. To toggle it back on, you simply tap on the icon again and it will reset all the raising of hands.
#4: End a Clubhouse Room
The hardest part of Clubhouse is actually ending the room. One way to do it is to tap on the three little dots at the top, thank everyone for coming, and tap End Room.
The other way is to exit the room as the only moderator. You'll then be prompted to end the room.
But if someone unmutes and says, “I'm willing to take over the room,” the room can continue literally for days as long as there's a moderator. In addition, you can come back to a room that you've left as a moderator. Because you started the room, you'll always be in the upper left-hand corner and you can regain control at any point when you come back into the room.
Tips to Grow a Clubhouse Room
Now let's talk about some ways to quickly grow a Clubhouse room.
First, ask your audience to help. You could say something like, “Are you finding a lot of value in this discussion? If you are, would you please consider hitting the plus sign and pinging five people you follow into the room?” Their friends will then be notified and once they start coming into the room, it can quickly grow.
Second, look who's in the audience. As a moderator, you can tap on anyone's profile and decide to invite that person up to the stage. If they have lots of followers, their followers will be notified the moment they come up on a public stage. This will bring lots of people into the room and allow you to grow quickly.
The third way is the best way, which is to just keep providing value. People will come and go from rooms constantly but they'll stay if you provide lots of value.
Conclusion
Starting a room on Clubhouse is the easy part. Creating an amazing experience for everyone who's in the audience is a little trickier. The key to creating a great room is to be a great moderator.
In addition to the tactics outlined in this article, there are two ways to continue your moderation journey. First, I recommend that you go into other rooms with amazing moderators and watch what they do. Second, you need to actually dive in and start your own room.
If you're relatively new to the platform, watch this video tutorial to learn the ins and outs of Clubhouse.
What do you think? Have you started a room on Clubhouse? What was the moderator experience like for you? Share your thoughts in the comments.
More articles on Clubhouse App:
- Discover what Clubhouse is and why it might become a breakout social platform.
- Learn how to navigate Clubhouse and how to use Clubhouse to build your authority and your business.
- Find out why businesses should be active on Clubhouse, discover how content discovery works on Clubhouse, get tips to grow a following on Clubhouse..
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