Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past few years, you should already know that social networking has taken the internet and the rest of the world by storm. Sites like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter are all excellent platforms you can utilize to promote your podcast and acquire new listeners. Best of all, using these platforms for promoting your podcast is easy and often cheap or free, depending on what social media marketing strategy you choose to engage in.
Keep in mind that your social network marketing efforts don’t have to end with just the “big” sites. There are a number of niche social networks you can tap into. For one, take a look at services like Ning. Ning allows its users to create their own social networks, often for very specific interests. Seek out and become a member of these micro social networks. Through them, you may not be promoting your podcast to many people at once. However, if you’ve carefully selected the right networks to tap, you will have a much easier time convincing people to listen to your show. They have the same interests, after all!
Targeting by Groups, Fans, Likes, or Dislikes
Most large scale social networks employ some method or function that allows users to tag or become part of a group related to a topic they are particularly interested in. Take the time to find these niche groups of fans and promote your podcast to them. If you’ve successfully picked groups that cover the same topics as your show, you will garner much more positive attention among users than if you were to attempt this in unrelated groups or those with broader interests.
Bulletins & Announcements
Utilize your social network’s announcement system. Have you recently released a new podcast or do you have some exciting news to share with your audience? Let everyone on your friends list know about it. You may spark interest in people who haven’t thought about your show for a while, regaining old listeners. Remember, not everyone uses RSS feeds or has the time to keep up-to-date with all their favorite sites. However, it certainly does seem like everyone has time to log into their favorite social network to see what’s going on.
Getting the Most Out of Your Friends List
Trying to add as many people to your list as quickly as possible can be time consuming, expensive, and most likely very ineffective. Instead, consider what kind of people listen to your show. If you can, try and compose an audience profile. This should include such information as the average age of your listeners, what gender tends to listen to your show more (certain shows may have a very high number of female listeners or vice versa), and what their relationship or financial status is. By targeting your efforts to individuals that seem to fit your typical audience profile, you’ll produce much more valuable results.
Social networking sites are powerful platforms and, if used correctly, they can be one of the most effective ways to promote your podcast. When trying to use these platforms for marketing, always remember to be genuine in your efforts. As long as you try to promote yourself to people who will actually be interested in what you have to say, gathering a very large listener base through these sites will not be an unattainable goal by any means.
Jeannine Grich, CVA, MVA, EthicsChecked™, provides marketing and social media support, training and consulting to busy entrepreneurs. For information about finding a VA, download her FREE 10-Step Guide to Finding the Right VA, or to learn why Social Media should be an important part of your marketing plan check out her FREE Report, Social Media Marketing Benefits, visit: https://accbizsvc.com/, or contact her at [email protected]
Ready to find out how to take your business to the next level? Schedule a 30-minute complimentary session to discuss your marketing and website/social media presence, here!