Few things make podcasters happier than a slew of emails from deeply
Speaker:engaged listeners filled with praise for their latest episode.
Speaker:Good work if you can get it.
Speaker:But should you expect and encourage it?
Speaker:Hello, and welcome to another Podcast Pontifications with me, Evo Terra.
Speaker:If there's a universal want amongst podcasters, it's that we want more
Speaker:engagement from our listeners.
Speaker:Trouble is, the feeling isn't mutual from the standpoint of our listeners.
Speaker:When you think about it, most listeners aren't able to engage with
Speaker:most of the content they consume.
Speaker:You got a beef with how Apple re-imagined Asimov's Foundation,
Speaker:who are you going to call?
Speaker:You want to tell the showrunner of Glow Up: Britain's Next Make-Up Star how much
Speaker:you enjoy and appreciate that last episode and have some suggestions for the next?
Speaker:You can't.
Speaker:There's literally no way for you to do that.
Speaker:Those shows wrapped production months, if not years, ago.
Speaker:You cannot engage with those creators.
Speaker:At least, you cannot engage with those creators while they are - while you are
Speaker:actively engaging with their content.
Speaker:That's a reality for every other piece of content you consume
Speaker:that is produced ahead of time.
Speaker:Every book, every movie, every album, every class or course you
Speaker:take, every blog post you read, every meal at every restaurant.
Speaker:Yeah, you could comment on all of those and your comments might actually make it
Speaker:back to the creator of those items, but at no time are you able to engage with those
Speaker:creators during the creative process.
Speaker:So why are so many companies trying to make it easier, and, perhaps, better
Speaker:for people to engage with podcasts?
Speaker:Is that something podcasters want?
Speaker:Or is this something we've been told that we want?
Speaker:And, arguably more importantly than any of that, is it something
Speaker:that our listeners want?
Speaker:I think that at least some of the perceived benefit, or the perceived
Speaker:need, I should say, on both sides of the equation stems from the
Speaker:podcasting versus radio fight that we made up two decades ago.
Speaker:And by we, I mean, yes, I had some culpability in that as well.
Speaker:We pitted ourselves against radio hosts from disc jockeys to sports commentators
Speaker:to politics and even interview shows.
Speaker:They, the radio side, were all limited by the power of their radio transmitter
Speaker:or the size of their syndication network.
Speaker:But we, podcasters, could reach anyone in the world, anyone around the planet, as
Speaker:long as they had an internet connection.
Speaker:But the one thing they could do that we could not?
Speaker:Take live callers.
Speaker:Now, back then, I, and quite a few others, had a foot in both of those worlds.
Speaker:I was hosting a weekly live radio show, as well as producing a few weekly podcasts.
Speaker:I know firsthand the joy of seeing a fully lit phone bank in the radio station.
Speaker:I also know the despair of seeing an empty email box when I've
Speaker:specifically asked for comments.
Speaker:So yeah, the struggle's real.
Speaker:So, should we podcasters give up on the idea of getting more engagement?
Speaker:Well, no, not necessarily.
Speaker:But it does lead me to two thoughts.
Speaker:Number one is engagement doesn't only mean instant live feedback
Speaker:during the creation process.
Speaker:Yesterday, you heard from Pat about how PodInbox aims to increase
Speaker:listener engagement using publicly available messages, much in the
Speaker:same way that reviews of your podcast are publicly available.
Speaker:Now, I think that's a really smart move because it's still inconceivably
Speaker:hard - two decades later in a world where almost all podcast listening takes
Speaker:place on mobile phones - it's still too hard to leave feedback or give kudos
Speaker:or anything other than just lean back and listen to your favorite podcaster.
Speaker:Thought number two is a bit more controversial, and it's
Speaker:listening - or reading or watching, sure - that is engagement.
Speaker:Searching through the podcast apps, finding a podcast or a podcast episode
Speaker:to listen to, subscribing to that show or following that show, all of
Speaker:these are forms of engagement that our listeners are doing right now.
Speaker:It's the kind of engagement, honestly, that podcasts are best set up for.
Speaker:Look, podcasters, we don't want notes in the middle of our
Speaker:recording or our editing process.
Speaker:That's not helpful right then.
Speaker:And that's also not the kind of engagement most listeners prefer either.
Speaker:No, I'm sorry, but the majority of your audience will not get
Speaker:any benefit from engaging more deeply than they already are.
Speaker:Podcasting is not live streaming, just like it's not live radio
Speaker:or live theater or other places where live engagement happens.
Speaker:It's not live, except for the handful of times it is live, obviously,
Speaker:but most of the time it's not live.
Speaker:So we shouldn't want that live feedback.
Speaker:Yes, it is very natural for us to want more engagement from our
Speaker:audience, but we serious podcasters need first to make sure we're giving
Speaker:our audience good reasons to engage with our content in the first place.
Speaker:With that, I shall be back tomorrow with yet another Podcast Pontifications.
Speaker:Cheers!
Speaker:Podcast Pontifications is written and narrated by Evo Terra.
Speaker:He's on a mission to make podcasting better.
Speaker:Links to everything mentioned in today's episode are in the notes
Speaker:section of your podcast listening app.
Speaker:A written-to-be-read article based on today's episode is available at
Speaker:podcastpontifications.com where you'll also find a video version and a corrected
Speaker:transcript, both created by Allie Press.
Speaker:Podcast Pontifications is a production of Simpler Media.