I’m Fionna, a product manager, YouTuber and late-night FM DJ.
Every Sunday I share a story on what inspires me to be creative and musings that week. I’m fascinated by design, technology, people, languages, and the idea that I can use them to reinvent myself.
You will find that I express myself through different languages, witty mEmeS and impeccable formatting. Intrigued? Want more content like this in your inbox?
Clubhouse is all the rage lately. Finally something good that happened to our social life in the Corona era.
Clubhouse is a space for casual, drop-in audio conversations—with friends and other interesting people around the world. Go online anytime to chat with the people you follow, or hop in as a listener and hear what others are talking about.
*Currently invite only and iOS only.
I’ve been using it since Feb 1, and boy has it been been fun. From not only listening to the conversations, but the act, pure act of discovering something new during this unprecedented time. Let alone a new social network, when the world is in desperate need of social connection. Bonus, you don’t need to be presentable or stare at a black hole 🖥.
Here’s what I noticed about people’s bios and how you can build yours. Yes, I said build, because even though it’s positioned as a “social” app with links to Twitter and Instagram (not LinkedIn), you can hang with friends, meet new people or even find a partner. But in this day and age, your online presence is your brand. The resume to your dream job, the proof that you’re credible, and in some cases the reason why you were dropped.
Clubhouse is not only a new social media to satisfy your curiosity, it can also be a platform to drop knowledge and build your network, business, audience or patrons.
I’ve read hundreds of bios so far and they more or less fall under these 5 categories.
1. No bio bio
Perhaps putting CEO is too lame and coming up with something interesting is too hard
aka those people who #breakclubhouse whenever they are on.
They don’t write much in their bios, in fact, they don’t write anything. The name or handle says it all. As for avatar… something that adds to their personality, or a random photo they have on hand.
2. One-liner bio
In MKBHD’s words, “so clean, I wish it were matte too”
Either they are highly concentrated in one field, or they’re just lazy.
I think these are the best bios. If you could tell the world who you are in a single sentence and they get it. Congratulations! It could be a sign that you’ve made it (whatever this means to you).
3. Emoji bio 👌🎉
Yes, I’m using my profile as an example
Online communication feels incomplete with emojis 👀🤷♀️. From FB reactions to Twitter hashtags, emojis play an important role in self expression and replacement of words or objects 🙏. Clubhouse isn’t shy to capitalize on this trend 📈.
When you were setting up your account, you must have seen this screen:
Select your interests screen during Clubhouse onboarding
Every interest is lead by an emoji that corresponds to the text. It accomplishes 3 things.
It makes the app look “young” and “hip”.
It makes viewing and selecting an interest easier thanks to the added visual aid.
This almost excessive use of emojis could be Clubhouse setting the tone for the app, and encouraging or making it “acceptable” for emojis to be used throughout the app. (This is my guess, there could very well be psychology research behind this.)
Back to the bios. Why did I incorporate emojis in my bio? I want colors and personality to show through, and that I’m lazy to type out the full words 🤪. Most importantly, the format of using an emoji to set the context followed by a brief description is visually effective and makes it easy to read and get who I am or what I do.
4. Numbers bio
Exact or approximate, quantify your achievements and prove to us that you’ve completed your KRs!
Personally I’m not a fan of this, because not everyone can relate to these numbers, and that it’s unlikely the reason I follow you. I hardly remember a time when I followed someone just because they have ### followers, or they were #1 in something.
Using numbers is the fastest and most direct way to establish credibility online, but without personality or genuinely, it can be seen as a show-off. Again, it could be a different story if a sponsor is reading it.
5. Over-the-fold bio
This refers to bios that go beyond the “fold” of the phone, and makes you scroll to get to the end.
Clubhouse doesn’t have a character limit for bios, and I see some users really pushing-the-limit on this. “More is not always better” describes this situation perfectly. Just like how I recommend people to have 1 page resumes since recruiters spends 7-15s on reading (actually skimming) them. I doubt we spend more than that on these bios.
Instagram and Twitter have a reason to cap their bios to 140-150 characters. There’s a lot of good content here and it’s formatted nicely, but I wonder how many people are reading them and getting the full value.
Profile photos
At first glance, this app is… different. Visually, it unlike facebook or instagram or twitter. The profile photos all look… very professional, but not the LinkedIn kind. Everyone, especially the moderators, have professional headshots with a non-white backgrounds. Something vibrant that create a bright yet pleasant contrast, which influences the overall app experience.
Moral of the story
Looking at these 5 types of bios, what can we take away to write ours?
Make it as succinct as possible, keep it above the “fold” - know your target audience and pick your most relevant qualities
Use emojis to replace words and add variety & 🧨✨💥 - use it sparingly with clean formatting
Use numbers when you think it’s going to help you
Pro tip: only the first line in your bio will be shown when others search you in the app. Make that your headline and make it 💥.
How you wish to use Clubhouse is reflected in what you put in your profile photo and bio. There is no right or wrong, best or worst way. It’s a “face” that you add on to your voice, a little something that you leave with your audience to “imagine” and paint a picture of you. Unlike your name and handle, you get to pick and change your profile photo and bio whenever you like. Have fun with it, and experiment what feels right for what room.
Let’s connect on CH and share our favorite rooms! My handle is @fionnag :) If you would like an invite, I have 5+ to share! Leave a comment below.
If you found this amusing in anyway, I’d love it if you could share it with a friend or on social media - whichever floats your boat :)
Leave a comment below if you have any questions or feedback, happy to keep the conversation going. See you next week!
Great article Fiona! I've been trying to learn as much as I can about Clubhouse in the last week, as I'm still not on it.
I'm curious, in what ways do you think it will be utilised over the next year or two? And do you think it has the potential to become one of the power players in social media?
Great article Fiona! I've been trying to learn as much as I can about Clubhouse in the last week, as I'm still not on it.
I'm curious, in what ways do you think it will be utilised over the next year or two? And do you think it has the potential to become one of the power players in social media?