Podcasts have exploded in popularity over the last decade, and for good reason. In addition to being a great medium for accessible content, they give businesses a way to authentically represent their brand. Podcasts also provide many ways to quickly produce good marketing content — if you know how to make use of social media.
That said, the idea of using a podcast to market your business can seem intimidating, or even potentially a waste of time. After all, there’s already so many podcasts out there — over 5 million, according to Demand Sage — and that’s a lot of noise to cut through. Who's to say your podcast will be able to reach your target audiences? And even if it does reach them, how can you measure its impact upon your bottom line? How will you know what’s resonating with podcast listeners and what isn’t?
All of these are good questions to ask. And at Casted, we’ve done our homework to provide you with those answers. Below, you’ll find some tips for how to promote a podcast on social media, as well as ways our podcast marketing platform can help you track metrics unlike anyone else. With our help, you’ll be able to craft a podcast social media strategy that is effective, consistent, and — here is the best part — easy to execute. Let’s get started!
Is a Podcast a Content Marketing Strategy?
It definitely can be! In fact, when executed well, a podcast can be the content marketing strategy for a business. But in order for that to work, you need to be able to do a few things, and do them well:
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- Repurpose Good Content — A key thing to understand about podcasting is how versatile the content is. The end product is far more than a recorded conversation. For the purposes of marketing, think of each episode as a potential library of content. Every quotable moment in an interview is a quick video for social media or a conversation prompt on your website. The more you can see a podcast as the sum of its parts, the more you’ll see how much content it can yield.
- Track Engagement (Effectively) — Once you share a new episode, you want to know if it’s resonating with listeners. But traditionally, the only way to gauge this is the total number of downloads. While this is a helpful metric, it doesn’t tell the whole story. Metrics for a podcast can go so much deeper than total listens — and they should, so you can truly see what’s working and what isn’t. This is one of the many advantages a platform like Casted can offer to business podcasters: a more detailed look at your engagement. Through our platform, you’re able to see not only how often your podcast is downloaded, but also where your listeners are from, how many of them are repeat listeners, and even their favorite part of the episode.
- Leverage Established Platforms — We could have a whole other discussion about this topic alone, but being able to use what’s already working is key for growing an audience. This can look like inviting high-profile guests on your show, collaborating with key influencers, and — most relevant to this article — using popular social media platforms to share your content. There’s no need to redo what’s already working; you just have to make it work for your podcast.
So, in short, are podcasts effective for marketing? You bet they are, provided you know how to repurpose their content, track success, and fully use the tools available to you. That’s where social media comes in.
How Do I Promote My Podcast on Social Media?
Social media is an excellent podcast marketing tool, but only when done effectively and with a plan. Here are some tips for getting started on your social media presence:
Step 1: Pick Your Social Media Platforms
In a perfect world, you would have a presence on every social media platform out there… but that requires a lot of resources, money, and time. If that’s not possible for your business, focus your attention on maybe one or two channels. What is the best social media platform to promote a podcast? Well, that depends on who you’re trying to reach, and what they’re using. If you’re not sure where to start, these platforms have a large user base, according to 2023 data provided by Statista and Demand Sage:
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- Facebook (2.958 billion monthly users)
- YouTube (2.514 billion monthly users)
- Instagram (2.0 billion monthly users)
- TikTok (1.051 billion monthly users)
- LinkedIn (310 million monthly users)
Of course, there may be other social media apps that are not as widespread, but far more relevant to your business. In the end, you should use the apps that will most easily connect you to your target audience — no matter how big or small those followings are. If you have a niche audience, look for online communities that center around those interests.
Step 2: Research Your Chosen Platforms
Once you’ve chosen your social media platforms, you’ll need to figure out the best way to promote a podcast on that platform specifically. This means understanding what the platform offers, but also how people use it:
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- Who is the average user? What demographics are present?
- What kind of content is most popular? What format is it in?
- What methods of engagement and interaction exist?
- When are people using the platform, and when is the best time to post content?
- How long does each piece of content take to consume?
- Are you able to add links or connect to other platforms?
Knowing the ins and outs of a platform can help direct the nature of your content. Instagram users, for example, are very drawn to videos. According to Sprout Social, 91% of Instagram users watch videos on the platform weekly, and almost half of social media users watch Instagram stories more than any other video content on the network. This likely means that if you want to see traction on Instagram, you’re going to need a lot of video content. You may be wondering, “Well, if video content is what works on Instagram, then what should I post on Instagram for a podcast?” Don’t worry, we’ll cover some ideas later in this article.
As you research social media platforms, keep in mind that just because a particular format exists on the app doesn’t mean it’s relevant. For example, while videos with sound are available on Facebook, Sprout Social reported that an overwhelming majority of Facebook videos (85%) are watched with the sound off.
Knowing facts like this from the beginning helps you understand how to increase podcast visibility on different social media platforms, and why certain methods may work on one platform, but not the other. Understanding how your audience uses each social media app is not just crucial to successful content, but using your time wisely.
Step 3: Create High-Value Content
Sure, sure — we hear this thrown around all the time, but what does “high-value content” mean, really? Simply put, high-value content is all three of the following:
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- Engaging — Before anything else, your posts have to catch people’s attention. In the case of a podcast, that could be by mentioning a relevant topic or a contentious debate in your audience’s world. And whether it’s written, visual, or aural, the content has to speak in the language of the people you’re trying to reach. That can be literal, but it can also mean using themes they’re familiar with or problems they face. (Bonus credit if it’s a problem your business can solve.)
- Helpful — Usually, if people love a piece of content, it’s because it enriched their life in some way. In the case of a cute cat video, it brought some warm fuzzy feelings into their day. In the case of a podcast clip, it likely taught them new information, provided some advice, or at the very least, gave them something to think about at work.
- Original — This is probably the hardest part, but maybe the most important. Most content creators can get away with achieving the first two qualities (engaging & helpful) by simply copying other people’s successful content. But in the case of a B2B podcast, you need to do more than ride the waves of popularity. If you want to create conversions, you need to first create repeat visitors, and that means building trust with your audience. Part of that comes from having an authentic, one-of-a-kind voice or perspective on the topics you discuss. Not everything you create has to be internet-breaking or impeccably crafted, but it does need to feel like it could only come from you.
As a final note, it may help you to consider the purpose of each piece of social media content. For example, how do you announce a new podcast episode? That’s a content idea in and of itself — a post can be made once, then used like a template every time you have a new episode. The more podcast Instagram post templates you have at the ready, the easier it will be to maintain a long-term strategy.
Step 4: Develop a Content Calendar
As you’re creating your high-value content, it’s also important to consider your plans for sharing it. This is true not just for your podcast, but the social media promoting your podcast. How often are you going to share social media content, and how will that line up with your podcast production? Sources argue on how frequently you should post, but regardless of the number, consistency is more important than anything else. The more reliable your content schedule is, the more easily you will build trust with your audience. It’s not necessary to always know what you will share ahead of time, but it is important to know when you will share it.
What’s a good pace for sharing content? That depends on your platform of choice. In 2021, the CEO of Instagram recommended two feed posts a week and two stories a day as ideal for their platform. You should do research on your platforms of choice, then weigh that against your podcast production schedule to determine the best pace for you. Again, consistency is more important than frequency; if you can only post one thing every two weeks consistently, that’s better than posting every day for a week then sharing nothing for a month.
Step 5: Share Content and Engage with Your Audience
The first half of this step is self-explanatory, but the second part is less so. As nice as it would be to set-and-forget your content, that’s just a piece of the equation. Your followers want to hear what you have to say, but they also want to engage with you directly. This can be as simple as liking comments or resharing posts that tag you. If you want to go bigger, you can have your followers participate in the making of your podcast, whether that’s by submitting questions, or inviting them to a live recording of an episode. There are endless ways to do this part, so don’t hesitate to get creative!
Step 6: Track Engagement, Then It’s Back to Step 1
Lastly, you need to know how successful your endeavors were. This is where a platform like Casted really shines: with our advanced metrics, you’re able to see exactly what was successful for your podcast. Additionally, you’re able to use this data as you go back to the drawing board for future content. Our data allows you to see engagement in a way that’s far more granular than any other platform.
Here’s a great example of why that’s important. Let’s say out of your first 10 episodes, Episode 5 has the most downloads by far. This is helpful to know, but why does it have that many downloads? There could be any number of reasons; maybe it was shared more than the others, or maybe they really liked the guest. But if all you know is total download numbers, that’s all you can work with. And you’re forced to try to replicate that lightning in a bottle.
But what if we revisit that same “Episode 5” scenario with the Casted Insights platform? Well, if we did, we’d be able to see that there’s a particular moment in the episode that’s been played over and over, far more times than any other part. Turns out, there’s a really good quote in there that seems to be resonating with people! Now, we not only have an idea of what’s working, but with Casted, we can highlight that part of the transcript, and one click later, we’ve created a video post out of it. Now we can recapture that success as many times as we want!
What Is the Most Effective Way to Promote a Podcast? With Casted!
Podcasts are popular for business marketing, but with the right tools at your disposal, it’s a lot easier to cut through the noise. If you’re consistent, have an authentic message, and offer a good product, then you’re already set up for success, but you might not know when you’re achieving it. With the help of Casted’s platform, you’ll be able to track engagement in a way that will give you a strong advantage over your competitors.
On our platform, some of the key features include:
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- Accurate transcripts, from which you can create audio and video clips for social media content
- Detailed engagement metrics that let you see what’s working and how to improve your podcast
- Easily publish your content on popular platforms like Apple, Spotify, YouTube, and more
Gone are the days where you post a new podcast episode and wonder “Is it working?” And long gone are the days where you run low on podcast Instagram post ideas, and are left to wonder “What am I going to share today?” With Casted, creating a social media post is as easy as highlighting some transcript text and clicking your mouse. Seriously — it’s that simple.
We could go on about how awesome our platform is, but it’s really something you should experience firsthand. Try a free demo today!
