Hey✌️, Malav here from Creatosaurus.
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So I was going through my Twitter feed and saw this and thought the biggest leverage for social platforms are the network effects so why not write a growth hack on this today.
Network effect gets kicked after achieving a critical point and this varies according to product or service, these effects are much needed to succeed if you have a marketplace or social platform where more users mean more value.
To be frank, this time I don't have any hacks for network effects which I have seen to share with you but for clubhouse few observations I have seen which might be helpful to implement in your product or service.
So I started listing down the reasons for the network effects of the clubhouse, so far got these 11 points to Pull a Network Effect like Clubhouse (in random order)
A. Easy Creation Tool
Clubhouse is a content-first social platform where users create content by just talking, easiest and effective means to converse with the audience, this same applies to Tik Tok it also has an easy way to create content. For clubhouse, it's just a click & talk.
B. Private
Network effects are always public which means the platform is easily accessible to everyone but clubhouse created FOMO with private access or waitlist thus helped them to create fear of missing out and in turn made more users to get on the waitlist and ask for invites.
C. Initial Endorsement
It came from celebrities of fields like tech startups, Hollywood, venture capitalist, music, sports and others this helped clubhouse to build trust and reach to more users at scale.
D. Exclusivity of invite/referrals
Clubhouse users can only invite 1 person on the platform, and as already first 3 points made users join waitlist but without an invite, they won't be able to join thus created this viral loop of sharing invite to peers on social media which in turn again got new eyeballs for them and more new users started asking for the invite on threads, groups, forums and all other possible places.
E. Social Currency
With all of the above happening, the users who got the access now feels like exclusive & thus shares to the world about their experience & thus it makes other users join the platform as they also want to earn that social currency & wants to be seen cool.
F. iOS
With times we have seen exclusive apps perform better on iOS than Android, as already the iOS community is very close, connected and more trusted to each other because of the underlying love for platform and apps these type of exclusive apps do perform better there.
G. Public Relations, not PR
Clubhouse got a great start with a discussion of it's $100 million valuation and due to this they first got introduced in the tech world and later spread in other fields and since the launch, they are always in the discussions.
H. Team & Community
Clubhouse team did a perfect job to tap into the communities & leaders and giving access to them to create room on the clubhouse, I still remember around July 2020 or something @jatin10 was telling me to conduct an event on Clubhouse as their community manager or someone got in touch with him to share the invite and will also help with onboarding and further details to plan an event.
I. Timing
I feel the timing of the clubhouse couldn't be more perfect than this, launched in the times when the world was entering a pandemic, a perfect time by luck or strategically I don't know but great timing.
J. Silicon Valley
All locations can create network effect but if done right then Silicon Valley can surely help you start & catapult a network effect to a greater extent as things which are popular here get easy acceptance to a global audience and moreover social currency plays it part in the rest of world.
K. Tailwinds
Unlike connection first platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn clubhouse is creation first platform and it has got some fantastic tailwinds like
the rise of creators
podcast growth
acceptance of the audio first approach
the need for realtime personal connection and engagement
lookout for next/alternative social/cool platform
tech/startup trends
As usual, I was writing for my Twitter thread but after posting thought this could make a good article as well so I have copy-pasted it. This article can be better articulated and written in-depth. I feel more can be added to this, if I remember something then will add to this later.
Let me know if I have missed something or you would like to add & also comment down below to share other relevant hacks & tactics to build network effects in product and services & see you guys in the next one till then happy hacking.
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Till then remember you only live once, see you guys in the next one 😎
PS: yes you can also use the comment section to share clubhouse invites:)