Scrolling through open rooms on Clubhouse on any given night, you could enter a discussion about Greek politics, a Bachelor-style matchmaking event, or join the thousands listening to a live interview with Elon Musk. Roaming through Clubhouse is like wandering through a massive convention center simultaneously hosting ClownCon, eCommerceCon, and BravoCon, only instead of paying hundreds of dollars to attend, you are able to scroll by real people sharing their expertise on everything from the beauty industry to Spanish language learning sessions.

Clubhouse is the newest buzzy social-networking app, where users enter audio chat rooms to speak on a theme, or to quietly listen as experts and amateurs talk, off-the-cuff and unseen, into their phones. Launched in April 2020, the invite- and iOS-only platform has exploded in popularity over the last few months: per Statista, there were 600,000 users in December and eight million in February.

It’s been compared to TikTok for its widespread adoption, and there are reports that Facebook is already trying to build a comparable feature for itself. But with the vibe of a virtual conference, or a podcast whose hosts are live to answer your lingering questions, Clubhouse is less like TikTok and more like the new way to network.

Clubhouse is like LinkedIn’s cooler cousin, or like TikTok who graduated and is looking for a job. Anything could happen in a room. Anyone could drop by, and it could be somebody that you really admire, who you thought you’d never get a chance to interact with. In the first room I stumbled into — a chat about PR with Allure editor-in-chief Michelle Lee — Sophia Amoruso of Nasty Gal and #GIRLBOSS fame popped up in the audience. The moderators noticed, and Amoruso accepted their invitation to impromptu become a speaker herself.

A Clubhouse room requires a moderator, speakers, and an audience. Anyone can “raise their hand” to be brought “on stage,” to ask a question or promote their side hustle — but consult the club’s ground rules about what’s appropriate. After following a club, an admin might reach out with an invitation to become a member, enabling more speaking opportunities. A room can last for 10 minutes or several hours, and is capped at 5,000 people.

Anyone can create a room, and the most active users who regularly host and moderate clubs ( a least 3 times a wee) can also create clubs. While many clubs host rooms on repeat themes or series, every conversation is a unique event that can’t be recreated. There’s no text log, and screen-recording is a violation subject to suspension. FOMO is key to the Clubhouse experience.

It’s that element of surprise that’s missing from existing social media — or pandemic life in general. With Zoom, you’re always talking to people you know. You’re never on a call with a ton of random people. But on Clubhouse, you can really bump into new people, like a real conference, and many people say they are super impressed by the quality of people they met through the app.

If you can add value to the conversations happening on the app, you can cut through the noise of follower counts and clout on other social media app. Many people are successfully growing their followings organically, all on their own, because what they are growing is a strong community.

Not everyone can create a Clubhouse account. While someone you know probably has an invite to spare, they are also being sold for $40 on eBay - (please don’t buy an invite - just leave a comment below and I will invite you). In the meantime. Clubhouse developers are working hard to scale the app to “open it up to everyone,” per an open letter by the co-founders, and to implement features like tipping, tickets or subscriptions paid to creators.

Clubhouse has personally become my main source of networking, but because the app has no DM function, it’s more like a launch pad to discover people, organizations, and ideas that primarily live elsewhere. People aren’t mad about it. It actually feels less spammy that way because you have to put in the work to reach out on a different platform and think of something thoughtful to say.

There’s an art to making professional connections, especially when you haven’t actually met in person. On Clubhouse, despite the lack of DMs, it’s easy: If there’s someone cool speaking, tap on their avatar to pull up their bio. This will show the clubs they’ve joined, who invited them, and their linked Instagram and Twitter. The audio will keep playing (the still-beta app’s most genius feature) so you can “stalk and talk”.

If this person is your dream collaborator, approach them how you’d want to be approached.” An email is probably better than a lengthy DM. Give a specific example of something they said in the Clubhouse room that resonated with you, to demonstrate your genuine interest. Be direct and specific. Do not ask to pick their brain.

It’s so 2019 to attend your college’s alumni night or try to awkwardly slip someone your business card at a party. Clubhouse is 2021’s answer to “the beginning of a beautiful friendship,” one possibly made while wearing pajamas.