Pod-Crashing: Episode 32

Building your community. We hear a lot about that. If you’re a podcaster and it’s not your thing. You’ve still gotta get on board. Posting your episodes on the digital platform without using the other tools is like walking into a restaurant just to use their bathroom. You didn’t buy anything. You used their water, paper products and their customer service space.
I’m amazed at how many podcasters aren’t on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Even more shocking are the number of talkers that won’t go anywhere near a blog to help push their numbers up. I love Mix.com. It’s free. Post the URL and let your episode take a ride on the wild side.
Communities are organic. As much as it hurts knowing how long it takes to shape a listening audience it’s not always a good idea to fork out money you’re not making to a group that’s promising you more listens and followers. Kind of a dangerous game to play if your podcast features copyrighted music. The more people you’ve get hooked up means the streaming fees are going up up up.
Posting on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pretty much means your circle of supporters are the only one’s getting it. Unless you gain the courage to start accepting people you don’t know. That in itself sinks a lot of podcasters into a mode of self-protection. When I bring it up to podcasters I usually get shrugged shoulders or oh hell no. I don’t a huge community to feel like I’m doing a good job with my episodes.
I was listening to Joe Rogan’s Facebook live rebroadcast as a podcast. The master of all things digital media loves the idea of inviting friends over to do nothing more than sit around smoking pot and talking about everything under the sun. And oh boy do they. In an odd ball way I found it to be engaging.
The only downfall that served as a constant reminder to bail was how bad the vocal quality sucked.
The episode was unbelievably unedited. It wasn’t as studio smooth as we’re used to getting. But you’ve got to hand it to Rogan. The Dude’s got a plan to keep his numbers alive and kickin.
The way I Facebook Live and or Skype the conversation is by running the computer through the control board. While the cameras are on the Adobe Audition is capturing everything. Maybe it’s the commercial production person from terrestrial radio trying to push he’s ego into the mix. The one thing that’ll crush your somewhat healthy or new list of followers is the horrid echo caused by the room.
I love the idea that podcasting can be recorded in any place of choice. Building that community requires you to be in the public eye. I have a great time hosting 5 to 7 telephone conversations while sitting on the patio at Panera Bread. I’ll invite guest hosts to join me. It creates talk while listeners watch.
I talked with Holly Frey and Tracy V Wilson from the podcast Stuff You Missed In History Class. They totally dig doing their episodes in front of group of people. It requires a lot of confidence to put on the earphones and get locked up in talk while sitting in public. I had a program director stand next to me at a live radio event during the 90’s. Every time I talked on the road he’d come over on live radio and hit me, throw nurf balls at me and make wild faces that would bust open a giant can of laughs.
Learning how to tune out your surroundings allows you to stay focused on your community that’s tapping in via the digital platform. Then again maybe your episodes don’t require that. No matter where you stand there’s still got to be a left or right hand on the heartbeat of why you’re reaching for analytic numbers.
Building that community. Before I was kicked off SoundCloud I’d personally write a note to every person that checked in. I don’t know why the other platforms don’t allow you do that. I was getting some hot numbers because time was spent saying two words, “Thank you.” I got kicked off the platform because of my music interviews. Itty bitty snippets of sound from a new album or catalog from the past were being used. I was talking to the makers what’s the big deal right?
Unknowingly I was breaking copyright laws and was forced into SoundCloud prison. Here’s what made the entire process preventable. When I started using the platform I had a different email address. After a couple of years I stop using it. SoundCloud was sending me warning letters over and over. I was totally disconnected from the email. So they booted me.
That’s another area you need to be careful with. What email are you signing up with? That would be your business community. These people need to always have a place to get your attention. When something’s not right they’re not coming to your front door.
Speaking of that email. Are you letting your listeners send you mail? Yeah yeah that’s just another way to be slammed with a virus. Create a second or third Google account. If it smells like a virus on that page it’s gonna be instantly tossed into Spam.
It’s fun to answer questions on the air from listeners. It opens the door for you to talk about episodes that were posted a week or a month ago. Your community will love you more if you take the time to slip in a billboard. The question is asked and your answer is totally promoting the episode. All the more reason to never do this on Facebook Live cuz you may think you’ve got a good memory until the stuff isn’t instantly working its way to the listening audience. Then your episode gets weighed down by ums, ands and well hell I forgot.
So what’s the moral of the story? Don’t just stand there with your hands in your pocket. You’ve been given a world of tools to craft a huge community of faithful followers. But for some reason we think they’re gonna just pop up and love ya. Even if they did what’s happening on the next episode that’s gonna keep them there?
Picture yourself on a kayak four miles out on the Atlantic Ocean. That’s your podcast. Unless you’re looking to become a human raisin, you’ve gotta find some land! Water! A worm for your hook so you can eat seafood!
Building a community means getting into the community. It means utilizing the strength of why we podcast. To make connections. To create conversation. To be accepted for your hardcore passion and drive for professional wrestlers that wear bowling shirts while trying to enter an upscale nightspot.
Set aside 15 to 30 for each new episode. If you talked about peanut butter and the brand that’s made it famous. Let your community expand by posting your episode on their Facebook or by hash tagging their beautiful name. Use your @ symbol. Your community will begin to grow and the only thing you spent was time massaging the ears of people you may never meet.