How Clubhouse has us hooked
A look at the Clubhouse phenomenon through Nir Eyal's Hooked model.
I had done a short intro, What on earth is Clubhouse? on Jan 30th, to the tearaway social media app. Seems like years ago as post that heavy duty visitors like Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg have turbo-charged the app’s growth. Most of that is being driven by intense #FOMO.
However, as most seasoned marketers are well aware, getting large numbers to download an app is one thing. Getting them to stay engaged and not to go dormant or worse delete the app needs a lot of work. A good model to understand the levers that drive consumer engagement is Nir Eyal’s Hook Model:
Triggers: It starts with getting a user to come back to your app. There are two kinds of triggers-external and internal. Initially, external triggers do the heavy lifting. The most common of these are notifications. A relevant alert message may make you click and even if you switch off notifications, most of us are driven by the urge to click when we see the number count on the top right of the Facebook/Twitter/Instagram icon on your mobile screen climbing. Internal triggers is the search for nirvana for an app. Once an app connects with a motivation, example need for social connect in the case of Facebook, the behaviour becomes automatic.
Action: This is when usability design (UX) really kicks in. How easy is it do a task, how attractive is it to do based on understanding the user leads to an action. Ease of ability to take an action is perhaps the single most important reason that Twitter took off. Everyone has thoughts they want to share but not everyone is/was cut out to be a blogger. Twitter’s character limit suddenly meant you didn’t have to write 1000 word blogs.
Variable Rewards: Feedback loops have been around for ever, the beauty of the Hooked model is the concept of variable rewards. Predictable rewards don’t create anticipation. The anticipation of the unexpected creates a far larger surge of dopamine. Take TikTok. The appearance of a video on your timeline that seems totally random not based on any obvious signals that you have given but gives you great viewing pleasure is one of the magic potions of the platform. The ability of the algorithm to surface a mix of the expected and the unexpected is its key strength.
Investment: This is the critical phase where the user does some work. Puts in time, effort, data, social capital. Something that makes the experience better the next time around. Inviting friends, posting pictures, building virtual assets all increase the chance of the user coming back to the service.
That brings me to Clubhouse. Early days and the model will get clearer so treat this as Clubhouse Hooked Model Ver 1.0:
Right now, the external triggers are in full flow. Notifications of rooms coming up and live by folks I follow and also rooms live now based on my stated interests.
The moment I click on a notification I am taken straight to the room. I have taken action. If I stick around and feel I like what I am hearing I may end up ‘raising’ my hand. To ask a question or contribute with my knowledge. I have been a learner and a teacher in different groups that I have been in and I suspect that would be true for most unless you are just sitting around in the room you have started.
The variable rewards then kick in. Raising your hand usually gets you on stage but not always if the room is really large. However, when you do speak and people clap at what you are saying and start following you, the dopamine starts kicking in. And if a moderator (who you respect) spots you in the room and either because she has heard you before or is impressed with your bio, invites you as a speaker the high is even better.
The investments that people are making are starting their own rooms (they disappear after you close it) and clubs (which are permanent) eg Marketing Club, under which each day rooms are launched on various topics. Some of these room are on 24 hours! With multiple moderators taking turns.
And so to the next external trigger that will bring one back. Till the internal trigger of building your personal brand kicks in automatically and Clubhouse finally has you hooked.
I am a partner at AcceleroBiz LLP. We deliver growth ideas, tested for market fit, at speed.