Spreaker Live Show #110 for May 3rd, 2017

Our Topics This Week:
- Podcasting vs. Radio, what are the differences
- Is there an ideal length of a podcast
- Tip of the Week: 3 Simple Ways Podcasters Can Reach Listeners and Get Them Engaged
- Your Feedback and Comments

Show Duration: 57 minutes

Host: Rob Greenlee, Head of Content, Spreaker @robgreenlee - rob(at)spreaker(dotcom)
Co-Host: Alex Exum, Host of “The Exum Experience Podcast” on Spreaker
- At PodSummit.com in Calgary, Canada this Sat, May 6th, 2017

Podcasting vs. Radio, what are the differences?
- Format: Podcasts: Longer with fewer breaks & Radio short segments of long programs
- Podcasts have fewer commercials ideally
- Real Beginning and End
- Less vocal extremes in presentation
- National and Global Focus, Radio is mostly local with some exceptions

  • Is there an ideal length of a podcast?
  • We have discussed this topic in the past on this show, but has come up after NAB panel
  • “Myth” isn’t that shorter-length podcasts are more popular than long-form ones.
  • Is it true that shorter, is more appealing than longer to more people?
  • Appeal = potential usage, not simply historical and habitual usage.
  • Casual listeners may want shorter and passion fans want longer
  • Length topic distracts from deeper issue, which is quality.
  • While it’s true that any listener can stop listening whenever she wants, if you see a time-code for the show and it’s long, you may believe a little bit of listening is worse than none at all.
  • Some other research shows longer shows as an obstacle for new listeners. Really is a misinterpretation of the research data.

Tip of the Week: 3 Simple Ways Podcasters Can Reach Listeners and Get Them Engaged

  1. Distributing your podcast
    The heart of your podcast distribution lies in one, perhaps unassuming, link: your RSS feed. By submitting your RSS feed link to the variety of podcast networks and podcatchers out there, like iTunes or Stitcher, you’ll be adding your podcast to some of the most popular app catalogs out there. That’s actually where a lot of listeners look for podcasts to browse through, sample and subscribe.

Spreaker provides an RSS feed link for every account, podcast, and episode you create, and to find out how to obtain and submit them to iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play Music (which heard podcast are moving to YouTube), TuneIn and more, take a look here. Once you’ve set things up, every time you publish something new on your spreaker podcast page, it will also get automatically published to those directories.

Similarly, you can set your podcast to export to SoundCloud and YouTube, as well as become a part of iHeartRadio’s and SONOS’ networks. To get your episodes exported automatically to SoundCloud and YouTube, go to your settings in the CMS. From there, just click on CONNECT:

iHeartRadio and SONOS require submitting your podcast through an approval process, but if you do get accepted

  1. Engaging your listeners
    In order to get the conversation going with your listeners, you’ll want to place yourself in a space that allows for dialogue. In this case, you’ll really have to leverage the “social” aspect of social media. Posting your podcast to Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and the like allows listeners to truly interact with you. They can like, share, and leave comments directly under your episodes – in other words, respond and exchange their thoughts and feelings about your podcast with you.

Getting onto those social networks is key, and to facilitate that are the auto-sharing options available through Spreaker’s CMS. You can see exactly how they work here.

The best example of how this can play out is on Twitter. When you share a link of your episode to Twitter, Spreaker’s embedded player will generate automatically. Listeners can like and share your episode, as well as get a full view of your podcast’s artwork.

One way to include a “subscribe” call-to-action to your arsenal is to export your podcast to YouTube, You should especially want things to be easy for your potential audience to subscribe.That’s where you can use the YouTube subscription link to encourage more people to subscribe to your YouTube channel.”

  1. Cultivate listener loyalty
    Listener loyalty is what every podcaster ultimately strives for – to get listeners returning eagerly to every new episode or piece of news. To ensure their return, aim to prolong their listening experience in some way.

Reaching out to listeners and getting them to continuously engage with your podcast is the most important part of the podcasting process (once you’ve completed recording and editing). Make sure that when you do lay out your strategy, you keep all three outreach components in mind in order to really connect with your listeners. You’ll find yourself with a solid fanbase to support your podcast.

Listener Feedback from Episode 109:

Tamara @ Shelf Addiction
Is there an event in the US with a similar one day program as PodSummit?
Keep an eye on podtopod.com

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rob at spreaker.com

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Twitter: http://twitter.com/alexeum
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