Acast is correct: have a look at podcasts as a social channel to succeed
Opinion
Podcasts and podcasters don’t exist in a vacuum, and advertisers want to consider them as a part of influencer tradition.
We have to perceive that podcasters are influencers in the identical manner as profitable creators on Instagram, TikTok or YouTube are influencers – they’re specialists in self-publishing a spread of content material in a manner that an viewers responds to, irrespective of which platform they began on.
As Acast CEO Ross Adams instructed The Media Chief just lately, podcast is not a purely audio medium — it must be thought of an influencer platform alongside TikTok, YouTube and Instagram.
Podcasting follows the principles of all social media. It’s a self-publishing platform; the content material is particular to the platform; you may publish as typically as you need; anybody can do it; you may construct an viewers over the long run; you may work together with that viewers and — like different channels — podcasting has particular algorithms that time to success.
As with all social media, success lies within the energy of your viewers and in understanding the options that make your content material successful.
After all, with podcasting it additionally helps to be an skilled in a few of the particular technicalities concerned, however not each profitable podcaster begins out with these expertise.
Podcasts want a multichannel technique
Sure, podcasting is a standalone platform, however probably the most profitable podcasts don’t see it as solely an audio medium — they take a multichannel technique as a place to begin, curating completely different content material for various platforms as they go.
YouTube is arguably the third greatest distribution platform for podcasting after Spotify and Apple, which is why few podcasts at the moment are recorded in a darkish, non-descript audio bunker.
The Information Brokers, for instance, understands that its content material might want to work throughout platforms, so that they movie (in addition to report) the reveals in a studio that’s not not like a Newsnight studio.
“The operating theme with Boris Johnson is – it’s another person’s fault, and guidelines are for different individuals.”
The Information Brokers on the ex-PM admitting he misled Parliament- however solely as a result of he was instructed to.
On @GlobalPlayer
🎧 https://t.co/SdyBDl7qyY pic.twitter.com/FWCLespK1z— The Information Brokers (@TheNewsAgents) March 21, 2023
Our personal collection, Dish, has Angela Hartnett and Nick Grimshaw in a kitchen, which — in addition to making the friends really feel extra snug — appears to be like significantly better for different platforms.
Likewise, The Remedy Crouch is YouTube/Instagram prepared from the outset, because of the cosy setting and the skilled hair and make-up of presenters Peter Crouch and Abbey Clancey.
So long as the concept all the time sits firmly within the center, podcasting works throughout completely different audio and visible social media.
The purpose is to make content material that travels, driving a wider attain to construct affect and enhance the ability of the franchise.
Steve Bartlett’s Diary of a CEO typically runs effectively over an hour, so chunking that as much as run briefly clips makes the expertise extra accessible to a wider viewers.
Podcast creators interact in lengthy conversations, however all the time with an ear for shorter clips that they know will journey.
It is smart to ask sure forms of questions — typically the extra divisive ones — to engineer soundbites that can carry out effectively on different social media.
What about search in podcast?
Podcasting, nevertheless, nonetheless trails different social media relating to search, which is another excuse why it’s so helpful to be throughout platforms, the place search is extra developed and environment friendly.
In audio, it’s not as simple because it might be to search out the content material you might be in search of, or to find new reveals, however this could begin to get simpler over time.
Google talks about bringing audio content material to the fore and making it extra part of pure search — and that is the place having a visible clip will serve a podcast effectively, as a result of individuals are naturally drawn in direction of footage if they’re out there.
Totally different social platforms supply alternative ways of measuring, too, which opens up entry to new knowledge and suggestions.
Take into consideration eyes, ears and clicks
While you make a podcast, you’re fascinated with ears, eyes and clicks, discovering methods to create a number of touchpoints that construct audiences through completely different routes, bringing a wider vary of customers inside attain.
Not that different social media is there purely to drive site visitors: even probably the most devoted podcast listeners typically like to maneuver between Instagram, TikTok or YouTube looking for visible references to enhance the audio experiences.
However all of us spend plenty of time on our telephones and on social media, so we’ve to have the ability to make all of them work collectively.
Podcasting continues to be a novel, formidable standalone platform in its personal proper.
With a podcast, you get the immersive expertise: it retains you firm, requires your full consideration, takes you deep right into a topic, and provides advertisers entry to engaged audiences who spend for much longer with the content material than they do on different social platforms.
However audio doesn’t exist in a vacuum, and podcast stars are as a lot part of influencer tradition as any TikTok, YouTube or Instagram stars.
The entire territory has opened up for an enormous vary of expertise, and podcasting should declare its rightful house in that dynamic.
Ben Kerr is managing director at SE Inventive Studios.
