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These days, it’s impossible to grow without knowing how to promote a podcast on social media – it’s as much about marketing as it is about actually making the content. In this article, we’ll teach you how to level up your podcast social media game to turn followers into listeners.
In this article...
It goes without saying that everyone is on social media these days – Facebook alone has 3 billion monthly active users, with the other platforms not too far behind. This means that it’s both a great way to reach people, and another channel for discovery, but also incredibly noisy – you need to put some genuine effort in to make people see and engage with your posts. Don’t just send another “Check out my podcast!” tweet.
It’s a fantastic idea to get listeners involved and make your social media feel like a community rather than a soapbox – ask them for questions, do polls, ask them to share episodes in exchange for shout outs or exclusive rewards.
While you should have a presence on all social media channels, even if only to make sure the username doesn’t get taken by someone else. With that said, you’re better to pick just one or two to really focus on and turn into a community – unless you’re part of a network or a larger podcasting team, no one has the time to run 5 different social accounts effectively, so you’ll just spread yourself too thin.
That’s a great question – and if you’ve read our previous blogs, you’ll be able to guess the answer: your Listener Avatar!
Your avatar is your target audience distilled into a single person – you’ll know their age, income level, hobbies, how much free time they have and what they eat for breakfast. From that information, it’ll be super easy to extrapolate their social media app of choice.
For example, someone who is in their late teens and enjoys watching short clips of skateboarding tricks, you can make a safe bet that they’re on TikTok. Someone in their early to mid 20s who works in marketing and enjoys photography, chances are they’ll be on Instagram. Someone who is over 30, working in accounting and wanting to grow their professional network, they will most likely be on LinkedIn.
Sprout Social has some interesting stats on social media demographics. For example the biggest age group on Facebook is 25-34, Instagram is 18-24 whereas LinkedIn is 30-39. You can read the full report on social media demographics broken down by age and gender here.
If you’ve already got a sizeable following on a given social media platform and decent engagement, it makes sense to use that, too!
Well, pretty often – if you feel like you’re posting too much, remember that people who follow you aren’t likely to see everything you post, so you don’t have to worry about spamming them. A daily tweet is a great place to start.
It is important to consider, though, that you should be having more meaningful interactions than just constantly promoting yourself. Having genuine, real conversations with people not only shows that you care about your topic outside of yourself, it also positions you as an authority figure within your niche. The results aren’t instant, but over the long term it will pay dividends.
Don’t just post a link to your episode and say “check this out”. People will just automatically tune it out – you should post something that will actually grab and hold attention. That could be a pull quote, a clip of the best moment, or a picture of your famous interviewee.
Tag any guests in your post and ask them to share it too. This doubles your audience – make it nice and easy for them by creating an engaging graphic for them to use.
Make your profile look appealing and professional – a snappy bio, a quality profile picture and links to your website and contact information are essential. If it’s appropriate, try to convey a little of your personality with what you post.
Every day is “something”-day – National Popcorn Day, World Sleep Day, National Pie Day, there are more than you can keep track of. Check out this handy calendar of all the year’s awareness days and see if you can make use of any relevant to your podcast.
There’ll be a lot of people on social media in the same boat as you, trying to reach a similar audience. Find them and reach out – offer to share their content in return for them doing the same, exposing one another to a whole new audience.
Different apps have different features just waiting to be used – Facebook, Instagram, Reddit and Tik Tok all allow you to go live, Twitter and Instagram let you pin key posts to the top of your feed to make sure new followers see them. Whatever you’re using, make sure you’re using it to its full potential.
Posting a sound bite on your feed will communicate what your show is about far more effectively than a thousand written words – and it’s much easier for listeners to digest quickly. Attention spans are short, use an audiogram!
Similar in principle to soundbites, videos of key moments from your episode engage all the senses of viewers – it shows them instantly whether they’ll like what you’re doing and allows them to connect with you and your style in a second.
Give yourself accountability by using a scheduling tool. Not only will it ensure that you stick to your calendar, you can also see in black and white how much you’ve already posted.
Facebook groups are a really great way to connect with people interested in a given topic – if you find a group related to your niche and share your podcast there in an organic way, you could have a whole host of new fans on your hands.
Twitter is a great way to grow and connect with your audience. Pin your trailer to your profile and make it easy for people to check your podcast out when browsing your profile. Post engaging tweets such as video clips from episodes or Twitter threads to pull out the key takeaways from an episode. Keep an eye on what is trending on the platform, contribute to Twitter chats and get involved with relevant conversations related to your podcast. You can also ask your audience questions and run polls that you can use in episodes.
YouTube is really blowing up for podcasting, with a whole host of new features just for podcasters. You really do need to have video to make any waves on the platform, though – if you’re just posting a static thumbnail and an audio file, it’ll likely go totally unnoticed.
YouTube videos are also shown in Google search results, which is great for SEO.
Given the nature of LinkedIn, it’s naturally a great place to share your podcast if your topic has anything to do with business, employment or entrepreneurship, as the platform’s users will be naturally predisposed towards that sort of thing. You can also embed episodes directly into your newsfeed.
Instagram discover is a really great way to get found by those who don’t follow you. The types of posts that do really well are either engaging pictures and infographics carousels or TikTok-esque style reels. Including video clips from your show is a great idea.
Ah, TikTok – it’s really taken over the social media landscape, and loads of other major apps have been in a real rush to copy it. If you’re a regular user and you’re on top of which trends are in at the moment, you can use the popular sounds of the moment to promote your show in a meme-ified way.
Yes, hashtags are still relevant and help to add context to a post, they also increase reach and engagement. There’s a balance with how many hashtags you use as you don’t want to appear spammy. Each platform has its own recommendations of how many to use for example on Twitter the optimal is 1 – 2, whereas with Instagram the optimal is 3 – 5. Here’s a great resource for learning more about how and when to use hashtags on social media platforms.
No, it’s not really a good idea – not only are the demographics totally different, but the features and algorithms are too. Twitter rewards more conversational posts, whereas Instagram and TikTok favour videos. You’re better to invest the time in one channel rather than doing a lot of them poorly.
Followers, likes, comments and impressions are all good metrics to track. When you have a business account (free to set up) as opposed to a personal one, you’ll be offered more in-depth reports of your impressions.
A lot of digital natives automatically scroll past ads without even noticing them – organic engagement is more effective, generally, but if you’ve got the budget then it might be a good idea. You’re better to spend money on good podcasting equipment, first, though.
Obviously, advertising does work, or the industry wouldn’t be as huge as it is, but as a podcaster first starting out your money is probably better spent elsewhere.
The main thing to do is just ignore it – you love and believe in what you do, so don’t let someone else’s perception affect you. If it’s consistent abuse, block and report.
You can, however, turn negative comments around to reflect well on you. If someone is falsely decrying your content or has left a negative review, a public response with the facts of the situation shows that you’re level headed and authoritative.
You can schedule in-app on most platforms, or you could use something which consolidates them all, like Agorapulse. Don’t forget to actually go into the apps to respond to comments and have those meaningful interactions, though!
Yes, if you had an older episode that did well, it’s a great idea to post clips in order to expose it to a new audience. That episode could be the gateway into the rest of your content.
Social media can be a great way to connect with your audience and expand your listener base – it’s essential to engage with your audience authentically, turn your social media into a community, and choose the platform that aligns with your target audience.
While it’s beneficial to have a presence on multiple channels, really zeroing in on the one or two where your avatar hangs out can yield better results. It’s a long game – building up your authority and presence takes time, but really pays off.
Ben is a content writer and podcast support expert for Captivate, and has been with the team since 2021. He has a first-class degree in Journalism, and uses these skills to help new and veteran podcasters alike level up their content: reviewing tech, crafting product guides and sharing cutting edge podcasting news. Ben is always on hand to help Captivate podcasters with anything they run into, from when they first import their show to advanced questions like how to grow your audience or where to start with monetization. He loves what he does, and is committed to helping podcasters grow their show using Captivate. He’s always been a podcast fan - current favourites include Steven West’s ‘Philosophize This’ and Bob Mortimer’s ‘Athletico Mince’.
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