Treat your podcast like a brand and stop focusing on followers
TL: DR For This Issue
- Podcast Marketing Advice that Works
- What’s the real value of podcast listener attention
- Which is better for a content creator: YouTube or TikTok?
Podcast Marketing Advice that Works
As a business owner or content creator with a podcast, you might have heard that having a strong social media presence is essential to your success. However, the truth is that you need to go one or even two steps deeper than just followers. Relying on most social media content marketing advice yields average results proving that the stomping might not be worth the juice.
So, what actually works? Treating your podcast as one part of a larger brand.
[in the voice of Jon Heder from Blades Of Glory]
“What does that actually mean?“
All jokes aside, it does actually mean something. Let’s dive into the world of branded content and in particular podcast marketing and break it down for you.
What I’ll Touch On
- Why followers don’t matter
- Fun story about the history of social media
- Why you should stay away from TikTok trendy styled content
- Briefly touch on how to create a successful branded video podcast
Nike & Goliath
Remember the story of David and Goliath? Just like David with his sling, small businesses, and content creators are up against giants like Coca-Cola and Nike. You might think that having a massive social media following is the key to success, but the truth is that it’s not about the size of your audience. It’s about the quality of your content. And more specifically what your content does to the end user and more importantly, what they end up doing with your content.
Does it make them keep watching to the end?
Do they share it with people they know?
Do they save it for later because it was so damn valuable?
Do they click on the link to find out more about your podcast and listen to the full episode?
Do they generally do something that is moving the needle toward brand affinity (which is a fancy marketing term for when someone feels aligned with you because you are speaking to them and their problems/beliefs)
Why Followers Don’t Matter
Whether you are a brand that monetizes your organic content with sponsors or you are trying to drive sales of your product/service via your organic content – I’ve found that the follower count mostly doesn’t matter (more on the mostly thing later).
Quick social media history lesson summed up by me that is mostly factual and slightly altered for brevity/humor:
In a time long ago (15-20 years back) there wasn’t really an algorithm on social media platforms that I know of. In the MySpace and early Facebook days you had friends and fans (Note – Followers didn’t become a thing until Twitter came in and changed the game). It was like an online forum aka Reddit before Reddit (shoutout to my early 2000s forum people!) There was also a chronological feed that just showed stuff to said friends’/fans’ feeds as you posted it.
It basically showed most if not all of your content to all the people that used the platform. It worked for a very short time until… it didn’t work.
It was annoying and made people hate and strongly dislike the apps, therefore, pissing off advertisers (who pay the bills to keep the apps alive).
Fast forward a few years (estimating between 2010-2015) and all the platforms abandoned the timeline feed to make way for more complex algorithms. The reasoning was to show them more of what they wanted to see regardless of time, etc. I would say that YouTube pioneered this with their recommendation engine and now TikTok’s “For You” page has supercharged that concept, for better or for worse.
Now we are in the present day – so let’s get back to the follower number not being so important.
An analogy that might help with follower numbers is to think of it more like a club with people inside and people outside waiting in line. We all know that the line outside is a game of optics and vanity metrics to make the place look like it’s “popping off” and everyone not in the venue is missing out.
But what’s actually happening inside of the club? I’ve got so many questions if I was standing on the streets looking at the line of people dressed in skimpy clothes that are not appropriate for the weather.
Who are these people inside the club? What do they do when they aren’t at the club? How much are those people in the bar spending? What are they buying? How good is the actual entertainment, music, and food to keep these people around?
Yes, humans love to follow other humans but only worrying about how many people are on the line or in our case followers that you have, is a waste of energy.
Alternatively, the number I highly recommend you focus on is views per post. Mainly the average and median views per post/video and what engagement (likes, comments, shares, saves) is actually happening on most if not all content platforms.
Actionable Task
Instead of focusing on growing your follower count, focus on creating content that is informative, entertaining, and overall extremely valuable to your target audience. You should know what that is if you’ve done your “why does this podcast need to exist audit” before you hit record for your first episode – but that’s a story for another day.
Why TikTokky stuff doesn’t work for podcasters and brands
TikTok is fun for some people and annoying for others. Trendy dances and challenges? Nope, don’t do it. TikTokky influencer-style, day-in-the-life documentary stuff? Not worth it. As a brand/company, it usually comes off as cringe and try hard.
You end up looking like this…
Unless the TikTokky style is what your brand naturally does, I highly recommend creating content that’s informative and valuable to your audience. That’s what really matters.
Also, don’t get caught up in the technicals of video production. Most of your potential customers/clients don’t care that you have the latest 8k high-end DSLR camera, with a $4,000 lens and you can do masking CGI edits that look better than the latest Marvel blockbuster. Just keep it simple, make sure you’re well-lit, and make sure your audience is learning something new that they can use in their lives.
Not Very TL: DR
Alright, so this is getting long. I promised early on that this newsletter’s format would be short (Content On The Go) because business owners ain’t got time for that. But I do know that this stuff is juicy and valuable so I’ll save part two for a later issue.
To tide you over in the meantime, if you want more value check out a few things I’ve found on the internet to help you create better video podcasts and grow your brand.
What’s the real value of podcast listener attention
This is a fun formula that Annalise Nielsen, Editor at Pacific Content created to objectively quantify the value of a podcast listen against other content mediums. They pitted it against video and blogs and I’m sure you could easily create a formula for social media, etc. This is a great argument as to why branded podcasts have so much sticky and staying power with your end consumer.
Learn what the real value of podcast listener attention is here.
Which is better for a content creator: YouTube or TikTok?
Creators have differing opinions on whether YouTube or TikTok is the better platform for growing their creator business. Traditional YouTubers tend to view TikTok as a platform for dancing and lip-syncing, not their “thing,” while TikTokers believe that YouTube is intimidating and that authenticity is more important than polished editing. Despite many creators having a presence on both platforms, the question remains: if they had to choose one, which platform should they focus on?
To settle this debate, two experts were invited to share their insights with Creator Wizard (yes that’s what he calls himself and he’s damn good), Justin Moore. Thomas Frank, known for his expertise in productivity, learning, and personal development, has built two massive YouTube channels and generated $120K a month through tutorials and Notion templates. On the other hand, John Hu, a TikToker, raised $5M for his business Stan and effectively utilized TikTok to build his personal brand and create awareness for his startup.
By the end of this episode, you’ll know:
- Whether certain types of creators or businesses are better suited to grow on YouTube or TikTok
- Whether you should double down on one or the other to make more money
- Who is a better Creator Debater: Thomas or John?
Learn which is better for your needs here.
Shakeup Your Content Marketing Education With These Surprising Tips
The Top Mistakes Podcasters & Content Marketers Make
Are you tired of creating the same old boring content that nobody seems to engage with? Do you want to create content that is fresh, exciting, and actually drives results for your brand? Look no further than video podcasts!
In this blog post, we’ll explore a panel discussion that covers how to use video podcasts as branded content. We’ll cover everything from learning by doing to understanding your platform and creating non-marketing content that engages your audience. Let’s Go!
What You’ll Learn
- [00:02:10] Learning from Twitter
- [00:03:51] TikTok’s growth and marketing.
- [00:08:49] What’s next?
- [00:10:35] Chopping content for scalability.
- [00:15:02] Coming up with ideas.
- Learning by doing
- Understanding your platform and the best way to do it
- The power of non-marketing content
- How and why your content should stack starting from a podcast
- Much More
Listen, watch, read and learn it all here.
Notable Quotable
If you’re not doing it for them (the customer/client/consumer of your producer/service) then it’s always going to be an uphill grind.
That’s a wrap for this issue.
