Episode 3: Podcasters tend to be a pretty well spoken bunch, especially those who do their own editing. There’s no better motivation to improve your diction than having to go back to edit all your ums, ahs, and mouth clicks. Time is money.

With all the time invested in making our shows, it’s not surprising that we’re super eager to do anything in our power to get the word out. If you were guaranteed a 10 percent increase in downloads, would you scream from your rooftop? Heck, I would probably do it for just 10 downloads. It doesn’t work, in case you were wondering.

Guilty of Oversharing

We’re such an enthusiastic bunch that most Facebook groups need to establish and enforce strict rules. Here’s an example from the Podcast Movement FB group:

• No self promotion
• No posting of own show links
• Ask questions, share your knowledge, and become a part of the family

When the admins make an exception, look what happens.

Have you tried sifting through 600+ Facebook comments?! We’re all shouting but few are listening.

As podcasters, most of us are on social media. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn. In an effort to get more listeners, we post about our latest episode — everywhere. How is that working for you? I find that it’s a lot of time spent without a great return.

13,000 Unread Messages

This got me thinking about my email inbox where I get a lot of spam. Nearly 100% is automated. Looking at my sent folder as analytics, here’s an important finding.

How many automated spam emails I responded to? Zero.

How many emails I responded to from people who I know? All of them.

Follow the Rules

This brings us back to the third rule from the Facebook group: “Ask questions, share your knowledge, and become a part of the family.” This is gold and needs to be our focus.

In marketing, this is the difference between social selling and social spamming. When it comes to podcast marketing, we need to be thinking and behaving differently.

Here are some tactics to try:

• Follow more people on social platforms
• Comment on blog posts
• Share feedback and ideas via email or direct message
• Take a social media conversation offline to phone, Zoom, or Skype

Done correctly, great marketers have repeatedly built big dollar, business relationships that began as friendships on social media. If it works for them, it can work for us.

Let’s approach social media in a different way. Stop shouting, start talking.

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