As one of my podcasts approaches 1.5m downloads and the the other 50,000, I thought I'd share a few things that I've learnt over the past 3 years on building a successful podcast ๐Ÿ‘‡

1) ๐‡๐จ๐ฌ๐ญ๐ฌ ๐š๐ง๐ ๐ ๐ฎ๐ž๐ฌ๐ญ๐ฌ > ๐‚๐จ๐ง๐ญ๐ž๐ง๐ญ
If you're not a 1 man band, the hosts and guests are more important than the content. I listen to @arseblog ArsecastExtra with @gunnerblog religiously and when one of the two aren't there, I delete the episode.
Podcasts are intimate. You build relationships with your audience, and a community if they cross pollinate. Your audience feels like they know you, the host, more than you realise.
2) ๐Ÿ–/๐Ÿ๐ŸŽ ๐€๐ฎ๐๐ข๐จ ๐ช๐ฎ๐š๐ฅ๐ข๐ญ๐ฒ
To the naked ear, your audience can't tell the difference between 10/10 audio and 8/10 audio. The content is more important. If it's gripping and good people will stick around even if the audio quality is average.
Buying nice football boots when you're no good doesn't make much sense. Start with getting the content right, get your audio up to a decently produced level and then build from there.
3) ๐–๐ž'๐ซ๐ž ๐œ๐ซ๐ž๐š๐ญ๐ฎ๐ซ๐ž๐ฌ ๐จ๐Ÿ ๐ก๐š๐›๐ข๐ญ
Be consistent with your distribution whether it's a day of the week, or consistently after an event. Podcasts are audio on demand, but most podcasts retain listeners by becoming part of their weekly routine.
4) ๐€๐ง๐œ๐ก๐จ๐ซ ๐œ๐จ๐ง๐ญ๐ž๐ง๐ญ
Use your latest episode as an anchor piece on your social media profiles/website. Everything you do post launch, should be done with an aim to draw as many impressions to your pinned anchor piece of content as possible.
5) ๐‹๐ž๐ฏ๐ž๐ซ๐š๐ ๐ž ๐ฒ๐จ๐ฎ๐ซ ๐ฌ๐ฎ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐จ๐ซ๐ญ
If someone takes their time to reach out and tell you they enjoy your show, ask for something back. Ask them to review your show and share your latest episode. Getting an audience is one thing, generating growth through them is another.
6) ๐”๐ฌ๐ž ๐ ๐ซ๐š๐ฉ๐ก๐ข๐œ๐ฌ
Some of us have our attention grabbed by visuals. Use graphics and social cards whenever you post your show. The impression and link click rates are often a lot higher and it also shows your podcast to be something that is 'more than audio'.
@threadreaderapp unroll

You May Also Like

My top 10 tweets of the year

A thread ๐Ÿ‘‡

https://t.co/xj4js6shhy


https://t.co/b81zoW6u1d


https://t.co/1147it02zs


https://t.co/A7XCU5fC2m
"I lied about my basic beliefs in order to keep a prestigious job. Now that it will be zero-cost to me, I have a few things to say."


We know that elite institutions like the one Flier was in (partial) charge of rely on irrelevant status markers like private school education, whiteness, legacy, and ability to charm an old white guy at an interview.

Harvard's discriminatory policies are becoming increasingly well known, across the political spectrum (see, e.g., the recent lawsuit on discrimination against East Asian applications.)

It's refreshing to hear a senior administrator admits to personally opposing policies that attempt to remedy these basic flaws. These are flaws that harm his institution's ability to do cutting-edge research and to serve the public.

Harvard is being eclipsed by institutions that have different ideas about how to run a 21st Century institution. Stanford, for one; the UC system; the "public Ivys".