Pod Pointers

In the world of remote meetings, we’ve all experienced a poor connection. If you’re interviewing a guest remotely, be sure to let them know how critical a strong internet connection is to the interview. If they are on a weak connection, consider having them disable video to improve their audio quality. If the guest’s connection is incredibly weak, you’ll be better served to reschedule when you can meet in person, or they can connect from another location. You won’t be doing yourself any favors by having them dial in by phone if their internet connection is weak. Most interviews held over the phone capture an immense amount of background noise, and if your guest is like me, you’ll record every step they take as they pace around the room.

When interviewing a guest, especially if you’re doing so virtually, give them an overview of best practices before you begin. Keep in mind, your guest wants to come off sounding just as good as you, and technically they are the featured component of that particular episode. One important thing to remind your guests is to lean into their microphone. As you chat, guests have a tendency to get comfortable and lean back in their chair. The problem is that as they lean away, their voice will become distant, and the sound quality will be degraded in post-production editing. Remind them to keep those lips close to the mic to ensure they sound clear and crisp.

Podcasts are typically thought of as audio content consumed from smart devices. This is true, but as we’ve seen in recent years, the phones we carry around, as well as cellular service providers, are getting faster and better at supporting HD video quality. With this in mind, think of your entire audience. From the MySpace to TikTok generations, each likes to consume content differently. Recording your podcast sessions is one more content medium you can share and promote through YouTube and other video platforms to expand and maximize your audience reach.

There is a lot of fancy equipment out there today. From mixing boards to microphones, you could easily spend thousands of dollars for what is promised to be the best possible sound quality. If you’re just starting out, don’t drive yourself into debt by trying to buy the best-in-class items. Focus on quality content and consistent episodes. If these items are intact, utilizing the microphone within your laptop is going to be fine in the short term, and you can clean up echoes and static in post-production. Listeners will be more forgiving of the occasional sound hiccup if the content quality is consistently delivered. When you are ready to invest in equipment, be sure to check out our blog at thepodops.com/blog, where we cover microphones and headphones at several price points and quality levels.

Being a good conversationalist begins with being a good listener. When you have a guest on, you should have prepared for the interview in advance by researching the individual, getting to know a little about their area of expertise, and having prepared questions to drive the conversation forward. As your guest begins to open up and share, be sure to listen for interesting points. These may change your line of questioning, but having a genuine interest in your guests also puts them at ease, as well as makes them comfortable to share more personal details. You’ll find some of the best one-liners and soundbites come from those unplanned moments that arise when the guest is sharing their story.

I hate to say this, as it has become a marketing term that is vastly overused, but you need to be authentic, as in your real self when recording. If you create a persona for your podcast, keep in mind you are committing to acting for each and every episode. This can be exhausting as well as come across to your listeners as being fake. When you are not yourself behind the microphone it becomes difficult, if not impossible, to speak from a place of experience. If you find your personality and the content aren’t enticing listeners, consider pivoting the show to topics more in line with your voice, or consider adding a co-host. A second personality can positively change the dynamic and place less pressure on you as a host to carry the show.

You have a podcast. You have a website. These are two key pieces to your podcast platform, but in general, they are typically one-way communication paths. Your audience may be able to leave a comment, but they aren’t that likely to see a reply, nor have the ability to deep dive into a discussion with you or other listeners. By creating a Facebook group, you are giving your audience the ability to build a community around your podcast. As you release new episodes, you can direct listeners to your group, where timely episode-based discussion topics are posted. This gives your audience a way to connect with your content and one another in a more meaningful way.

As podcast hosts, we are very familiar and comfortable being behind the computer screen. Tucked away in our homes and studios, we have a non-physical wall between ourselves and the audience. By creating a podcast hotline, you can give your audience a place to call and leave voice messages and commentary on episodes. You can also promote this at the end of your episodes by featuring clips of messages that have been left by listeners. Be sure to ask people to leave their name and location along with their message so you can call them out by name in future episodes. It’s one more way to grow and deepen your audience relationship.

There are all kinds of events, not just about podcasts, that are opportunities to make connections. Show up with your podcast logo on your shirt, hat, or whatever it is you’re wearing. Like any business opportunity, being able to give someone a card with your contact information and website is a good approach and ensures they won’t forget you after you walk away.

Many podcasts are heavily scripted, almost like a television sitcom. There’s nothing wrong with this. It’s not the only approach. Try going unscripted. Some of the best content is produced when you are not reading a script but being present in the moment and speaking as the industry expert you are.

If you have setup a website, or at least a web page for your podcast, you’re probably aware that podcast players are not the best when it comes to search engine optimization. These players are small bits of code that lack headers and text, which are the primary things being looked for as search engines crawl your site to categorize the content. Adding transcripts to your podcast website can be beneficial in helping search engines more accurately define and rank your page. On top of this, if someone decides they’d like to quote you or write an article with a reference to your show, a transcript makes it much easier to ensure they are getting the language correct, rather than trying to transcribe directly from an episode.

You may be surprised to know that not everyone knows how or where they can listen to podcasts. The first thing you should do when launching your new podcast is to setup a website or webpage about your show. Depending on where you are hosting your show, you can typically grab a bit of code and plug a player directly into a web page. This is something we provide to you in your PodOpst Hosting account. In case you were wondering. In addition, you can add links to major platforms like Apple Podcasts, Pandora and Amazon Music, or wherever you want to direct users. Then, when you post on social, you can always use this as a primary link to your podcast, making it a hub for all the places people can go to access your show on their devices. It’s also one more way you can monitor traffic around your show to leverage sponsors.

In the movie Clueless, there is an insult where the main character refers to someone from a distance as a Monet. More or less, when people see your podcast cover artwork, you want them to see something with wow factor, not something that looks like a big old mess up close. This may mean having to make changes along the way and getting some outside assistance from a graphic designer. You may need to make several changes and tweaks, or even update the name of your show for branding purposes. In the end, your goal is to produce a highly polished, brand cohesive cover that resonates with your listeners.

This probably seems simple enough, but you should have a plan for every episode you are intending to record and produce. Think of it like the podcast you are listening to now. I mapped out dozens of topics before we began recording. I had topic evolution in mind as the goal is to support you as our listener in growing your own podcast. When all of that was in place I began to record and produce. If I had sat down at the microphone and pressed record without these items in place, you’d be hearing a lot of long pauses as I tried to pull from thin air concepts to be useful. Planning goes a long way and ensures your end product is polished and meets the objective promised in your show title.

You’re so excited to drop your new episode. You’re talking all about the latest news headline. You spent hours, days, even weeks doing research and putting together the perfect episode. The only problem is you are sharing a topic that is not fresh, people are not excited to hear about this topic, and you probably aren’t able to share an angle so new that it’s going to pull in listeners. Add on top of that, you are unlikely to rise above the noise of major news outlets on the same topic. My point? Whatever your topic is, be timely and fresh. People want to discuss things happening in the moment, not something that started a year or two earlier. If you can be at the forefront of trends, you’re going to see your audience numbers grow rapidly.

Most people are happy to talk about themselves and their businesses. However, it’s not always easy to find guests, or cheap. When you have a guest, say a local bakery, you can have the guest share a promotion at the end of your interview. Think, buy one muffin get one free on ‘X’ date. Then, you can share the promotion via social the day the show drops, and the guest is highly likely to heavily promote the episode as there is a greater benefit to them doing so. Keep in mind, guests can get lazy when it comes to sharing their interviews on their social channels and you may need to prod them. Offering a promotional plug is an easy way of getting them to engage.

You need to do your homework two-fold for a podcast. First, if you’re just getting started, dive into other shows that you love and make notes on what is engaging to you. Is it the host, the topic, or the guests? Think about what components you can make your own and bring into your show. The second thing is in regard to content. If you are presenting facts and figures, or grilling a guest on a topic, make sure you are well read on the topic. Never make up statistics, nor rely on a single source of information. For any fact you present, you should have verified it with at least two different sources to ensure it is accurate and can stand up in a debate.

This seems like it should be obvious. You want to be passionate about your podcast show’s topic. Your enthusiasm, or lack thereof, will carry through the microphone and right to your listeners. If you’re lackluster about the show’s topic, you’re likely to have a monotone voice and fall flat. This will make you less entertaining to your audience. On the other hand, if you love the topic of your show, you’ll be enthusiastic during discussions with guests, you’ll engage your co-host, and if you’re running a solo show you’ll be able to keep your audience gripped and looking forward to your next episode drop.

A listener persona is a written description of a fictitious person. For example, Gaby is a mother of two, podcast listener, yoga instructor, and a social influencer with over one million followers. She loves true crime podcasts and sharing the shows she is enjoying with her followers via TikTok and Instagram. As you define these people, and there can be more than one, it helps you to define the content you want to produce. If Gaby is my target, we are going to need episodes that touch on true crime in some fashion. Then consider how to touch on a niche of the genre. Perhaps you will focus on 1950’s cold cases in the United States that appear to be the work of serial killers. The more niche you go within a genre, the more likely you are to have unique content. The more definition and clarity you bring to your listener personas, the more clearly you can define your content goals.

You’ve taken the plunge into the world of podcasting, recorded your first episode, and nobody is listening. It’s okay! Think of it like this; Nobody is great at something the first time. Your first episode may kind of suck. Maybe you’re a bit nervous, or you’re still trying to fully define your listener persona, or even your show’s tone. All of these things can be worked out and adjusted as you record a few more episodes. Read your podcast reviews, even if they’re critical and consider the comments as constructive criticism. Ask friends and family who are a little more likely to be blunt to listen to your first episode and get feedback. You can always make tweaks to your show’s tone and format. Don’t be afraid to do so. By leaning into these things early on, you’ll more quickly find your groove and see the positive audience response.