So we’ve already tackled how to promote your podcast online, but what about how to promote your podcast on social media specifically? Social media is an excellent tool for any podcaster to utilize when it comes to promoting their podcast, but it can be hard to know what to do in order to promote yourself most effectively. Here are some of our tips and tricks to get the most out of your social media accounts.
Create a social media calendar
A key part of podcast promotion across social media is to create a consistent posting schedule. Creating a social media calendar is important for this process.
A social media content calendar helps you stay consistent. It gives you structure so you can create quality social media content quickly.
For instance, simply asking questions is a powerful way to engage your fans. You could ask at least one or two questions per week to stimulate discussion. Theming your days is an easy way to create a solid brand and to let your audience know exactly what to expect from you and your show. Pick certain days for audience engagement posts like polls or questions, days you want to use audiograms, days you want to post quotes from episodes and days to promote your latest episode.
Even if you don’t give each day a theme, you should create your content in advance. It’s usually easier to brainstorm lots of content ideas at once, rather than try to come up with them as you go. Keep a document somewhere with links, images, videos, and notes to pull from when it’s time to make a post.
And you don’t have to limit yourself to one post a day, you can post as many times as you want. In fact, in terms of engagement the more posts the merrier!
Post audiograms/soundbites on social media
Almost all social media is pivoting towards favouring video in their algorithms. A good way to capitalise on that is to take snippets from your show and use them to create audiograms.
An audiogram is a combination of an image, a soundwave, and an audio track. Sometimes it includes a transcription of the clip (like subtitles).
Audiograms are a great way to give your audience sneak peaks of your latest episodes and to promote your shows to a new audience. One of the biggest aims of podcast promotion is to get people to listen to your show, and audiograms allow you to pick the best moments from a given episode that can be easily shared across any platform.
Customize your posts for each social media
Every social media platform is different. What works on Facebook doesn’t necessarily work on Twitter. People expect different types of content on every site. Facebook, for example, prefers longer posts and video content. Twitter is used for short updates. Your Instagram posts will only do well if there’s a strong photo attached.
So don’t blast the same social media posts to every platform. Customize them so they’re attractive everywhere.
Use your guests as free promotion
If you are an interview show, then leveraging your guests’ fame will be your bread and butter. But any genre of podcast can benefit from inviting guests on and using them to share and promote your show.
Guests are an easy way to expand your audience. People who follow your guests will be introduced to your show through them. If people like your guests enough to follow them on social media chances are they will be willing to support them in any of their projects, including by listening to your podcast.
Even one post about your show from a high profile guest with a large following could do wonders for your numbers. Sometimes just being able to associate your own posts with a big name can help with building a following for your show.
It’s a promotion that you don’t have to pay for. Most people who take time out of their schedules to appear on a podcast often have no problem promoting their episode or sharing your online posts across all of their own platforms.
Reshare each episode a number of times
Don’t think that once you’ve shared your latest episode once you can sit on your laurels and be done with it. More posts = more exposure.
Try to tease each episode a few days before the release, with an image or an audiogram. Then, once your episode is out, release your dedicated post and link to it. Do this a number of times with a bunch of different content, 3 times per episode would be ideal.
Dedicated fans will listen to an episode upon launch but multiple posts could remind less dedicated followers to listen or help to encourage new followers when they come across your show. The more active the feed the better and the more promotion, the better the chances of increasing your listens and downloads.
The main thing about promoting a podcast on social media is that there aren’t any shortcuts in growing a large social media following. Gaining an audience and promoting your show takes time and patience, but hopefully following these easy tips will help you build an engaged audience and a community that fervently await for each new episode of your show.
At The Podcast Studios we work with companies, organisations, and individuals to help them tell their stories in audio form. If there is any part of your podcast journey that needs a professional touch, from start to finish, get in touch today by contacting us at [email protected] or visit our website at www.thepodcaststudios.ie
