Social media serves as a dynamic platform for connecting, engaging and sharing valuable content. For your disability service’s podcast to reach a wider audience and make a meaningful impact, leveraging your existing social media channels strategically is essential. In this blog post, we’ll explore how to harness the power of social media to promote your podcast effectively.
Why Social Media Matters:
Social media platforms are bustling hubs of activity, where people from diverse backgrounds gather to discover, engage and share content. Leveraging these platforms to promote your podcast offers several advantages:
- Accessible Audience: Social media platforms provide access to a vast and diverse audience, including individuals who may benefit from your service’s podcast.
- Visual Appeal: The visual nature of social media makes it an ideal platform for showcasing your podcast through compelling graphics, audiograms, and videos.
- Engagement Opportunities: Interacting with your audience through likes, shares, comments and discussions can foster a sense of community and build a loyal listener base.
- Discoverability: Properly executed social media strategies can boost your podcast’s discoverability through relevant hashtags, tagging and engagement. The best form of promotion in podcasting is still “Word of Mouth”. Using social media allows your existing listeners to share and promote your show, a digital “word of mouth” if you like. The bonus is finding people adjacent to your listeners who will become listeners through exposure to your show.
Strategic Social Media Promotion:
To effectively promote your podcast on social media, follow these steps:
- Share Compelling Graphics:
Create eye-catching graphics that represent each podcast episode. Use tools like Canva to design custom visuals that incorporate episode titles, guest names, and compelling imagery. These graphics should align with your brand’s visual identity and the content of the episode. The aim is to activate the thumb, on phone screens, and induce a stop and engage moment.
- Utilise Audiograms:
Audiograms are short audio clips from your podcast episode overlaid on captivating visuals. They offer a sneak peek into your content and can entice followers to listen to the full episode. Audiogram creation tools like Headliner and Wavve can simplify this process. I’m a little ambivalent on audiograms. Podcasters love them, the data suggests they may not have much effect but they are relatively easy to set up and may grab a few new listeners so I persist and think you should too.
- Craft Engaging Video Clips:
Video clips, whether teasers, highlights, or behind-the-scenes footage, can capture the essence of your podcast episode. Visual content often garners higher engagement rates on social media. Ensure your videos are accessible with captions or transcripts for viewers with hearing impairments. Video is not audio, obviously and I’ve discussed the importance and power of audio in Season 1 Episode 3 and why a video podcast is usually not a good idea in Season 7 Episode 8 if you want to dive a little deeper on this. However short video clips do seem to have a “stop the thumb” effect on socials so may be worth the effort.
- Highlight Key Takeaways:
Share bite-sized snippets of wisdom, anecdotes or important insights from your podcast episodes. Create quote graphics that encapsulate the essence of your content. These concise takeaways can resonate with your audience and encourage them to explore the full episode. It’s all about capturing the attention of listeners by whatever their way of engagement is: Video, graphics, audio and/or written word.
- Call to Action (CTA):
Include clear CTAs in your social media posts. Encourage your followers to “Listen Now,” “Subscribe,” or “Share” your podcast. Make it easy for them to take the desired action. Stick to one Call to Action and use the mantra: “No content without conversion.” This requires you to consider why each post, of any description, is produced and for what outcome. To be fair, this applies to all content not just your podcast promotion.
- Encourage Engagement:
Engagement is vital on social media. Encourage your followers to like, share, comment, and ask questions related to your podcast. Respond promptly and thoughtfully to comments to foster a sense of community. Engagement requires a two way process. Don’t leave comments hanging, acknowledge the effort expended to interact with your content. It’s a matter of common courtesy.
- Harness the Power of Hashtags:
Use relevant and trending hashtags in your posts to increase the discoverability of your content. Research popular hashtags in your niche and include them strategically in your captions.
Identify influencers, advocates, and organisations in the disability service community. When your podcast content aligns with their interests or values, tag them in your posts. This can lead to retweets, shares, and increased visibility.
- Posting Schedule:
Establish a consistent posting schedule on your social media platforms. Determine the optimal times for engagement by analysing your audience’s online activity. Tools like Buffer and Hootsuite can help schedule posts in advance. The key with most things social is consistency. People come to know you by your actions.
- Stories and Live Streaming:
Take advantage of features like Instagram Stories, Facebook Stories, and live streaming on platforms like Instagram and Facebook. These features offer real-time engagement opportunities and can create a sense of urgency. For more on live streaming, episode 13 from season 1 covers this HERE
- Community Engagement:
Engage with your audience through comments, direct messages and polls. Actively participate in conversations and discussions related to your podcast’s niche. This not only boosts engagement but also strengthens your community. Do not be salesy or pushy, the point is it’s about building authority in the sector.
Measuring Success:
To gauge the effectiveness of your social media promotion efforts, track key metrics:
- Engagement Metrics: Monitor likes, shares, comments, and clicks on your social media posts to assess audience engagement. One of the keys to this is dismissing your own staff’s engagements. You are looking for effects outside your current ecosystem. Be vigilant or these numbers can quickly become vanity metrics without providing the effects you are actually looking for.
- Follower Growth: Keep track of your follower count and analyse its growth over time. Where have they com e from? How did they hear about you? Why are they there? Are all good starting point questions for delving more deeply into what’s actually going on.
- Website Traffic: Use tools like Google Analytics to measure the increase in website traffic driven by social media. Discerning between social traffic, podcast traffic and SEO requires some skill. Add in paid traffic, ads, and the questions become more complex and more important. There’s cold hard cash in the mix. Analysis is never easy but worth the effort.
- Listener Feedback: Encourage feedback from your podcast audience through social media comments and direct messages. Use this feedback to improve your content. If someone has taken the time to give feedback, value it as precious. Think critically about what you are being told and adjust your content, or not, appropriately.
Conclusion:
Your service’s social media channels can significantly boost the visibility and impact of your podcast. Through compelling graphics, audiograms and video clips, you can capture the attention of potential listeners and encourage them to become fans of your show. Building an active and supportive community around your podcast on social media not only enhances the listener experience but also fosters a sense of belonging and shared purpose within your community. By implementing these strategies, you can amplify your podcast’s reach and create a positive impact in the lives of those you aim to serve.
The next episode, #5 in season 8 is all about repurposing what you’ve already created to promote your show!