Sounding it Out: Podcasting for Influencers

Podcasting may not be the route for every influencer, but it can be a critical tool in your tool belt, especially if you’ve got more to say on a subject and your audience knows it. Instagram, TikTok and Twitter are all built, intentionally, on quick, easy-to-ingest stories or chunks of story, but if you’re ready to take the leap and you aren’t looking to write a book or make a movie, podcasts are the preferred long-form method for bringing people in in a new way.

How Does Podcasting Help Your Brand?

Podcasting, being long-form, is an opportunity to suck people in to your story for longer – this gets them even more involved in your presence, and interested in what you have to say. When people say “influencer,” it’s based on an aggregate of short posts that combine into what people think you are, and what they think you think. It’s important to remain true to your interests, but feel free to expand. This can make your brand presence deeper, and help spread the word about you to new groups.

How Do Podcasters Get Engagement?

Beyond the basics, which you already know about – aka, posting about the episodes you release, as you release them, on social – the big thing is cross-promotion and collaborations. Bringing in guests from different parts of the internet and the world will help spread the word about you to your interviewee’s audience, and vice versa. Posting regularly – it doesn’t have to be weekly, but it should be on schedule – is huge. It’s a time commitment on the back end, but banking episodes gets easier as you go.

Is It Easy to Set A Podcast Up?

If you go through a turnkey podcast service, you’ll be up and running in minutes. Paying for even a basic package has you set up right away. Most places, like podbean or libsyn, make it easy to submit your podcast directly to Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify and all the other big hitters, though those four are considered the basics you definitely want people to find you on.

How Do You Integrate Social and Podcasting?

This is the hardest part – people who want and need long-form stuff aren’t always social media people, and it’s often true in the reverse. Your best bet is making sure that your podcast presence is an extension and expansion of your social presence, and that your social postings make it clear that you’re offering a deep dive on what they already love.

Summary

Podcasting, like any method of communication, takes time and commitment. A team can always help reduce both of those things, though you should always make sure that, like your social presence, you stay consistent. Talk about the things that you’re interested in and people will flock to you. Keep a good schedule and they’ll stay with you. Hearing you in their ears every week or two will make them feel like they’re really there alongside you in your latest adventure.