Creating content on social media helps you expand your reach, build a community, and drive traffic to your podcast episodes. However, it’s difficult to reap results if you only post when/if you feel like it.
Therefore, you’ll want to design a solid podcast social media strategy. This ensures that you keep to a consistent publishing schedule, maintain high-quality content, and adapt to audience preferences to maximize success.
In this post, we’ll break down five steps to create a podcast social media strategy. Let’s get started!
How to Create a Social Media Strategy for Your Podcast (5 Steps)
Social media is a good platform to promote your show and engage with listeners. Here’s how to use it effectively.
1. Choose Your Social Platforms
It can be tempting to post content across every social media platform. However, if you run your show on your own and don’t want to outsource tasks, you could find yourself heading towards podcast burnout.
In this case, it’s best to be selective about the social media sites you use. Here are some useful considerations to help you narrow down the options:
- Look where top podcasters in your niche are most active.
- Think about the type of content you want to publish. For instance, TikTok and Instagram are highly visual platforms whereas Twitter’s character limit makes it suited to short comments and updates.
- Consider where your audience spend their time. In some cases, niche social communities can be more effective than traditional social networking sites (e.g. BikerOrNot for bikers and Houzz for interior design enthusiasts).
This way, you won’t waste time and resources posting great content in places where it’s unlikely to make an impact.
2. Establish a Base for Your Podcast
There are lots of different apps that listeners use to find and engage with episodes. So, when it comes to your podcast social media strategy, you don’t want to be linking to just one podcast directory in case it isn’t the preferred app of your followers.
Instead, it’s a good idea to set up a central hub for your podcast that includes all the info, content, and links that people might need. We recommend creating a simple podcast website using Beamly:
The software is beginner-friendly, so even if you have no technical experience, you’ll be able to design a professional podcast site to impress your visitors.
You’ll get access to beautiful pre-made website templates, automatic episode imports, built-in podcast memberships, social media integrations, and more. You can even upload your YouTube videos and/or create a podcast blog.
Once you set up your site, you’ll want to link to it from your social media profiles. You might consider using link in bio tools to direct people to a simple landing page that contains links to various podcast directories, social media pages, and more.
3. Create Valuable Content
The key to a good podcast social media strategy is producing valuable content.
Before we discuss the different formats your content might take, you need to consider how you’ll make sure it appeals to your followers. Here are some effective methods:
- Solve a problem.
- Leverage popular trends.
- Start discussions.
- Run giveaways and contests.
- Ask for feedback.
You’ll also want to focus on your podcast niche, so don’t stray too far off topic with your content ideas. Plus, your posting activity will likely look different, based on your preferred social platform(s).
Here are some social content ideas and where they’re likely to be effective:
- Podcast clips. These function as teasers to attract listeners and work best on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.
- Audiograms. They’re like podcast clips but for audio-only podcasts. You could use them in all the destinations mentioned above.
- Podcast trailers. They build anticipation for your episodes and perform well on visual-based sites like YouTube and TikTok.
- Static images. You can use them to pique curiosity or highlight key insights/quotes from your episodes. Pinterest, Instagram, and Twitter are perfect for this.
We encourage you to post what feels natural, but don’t be afraid to get creative and mix up your social content. If you’re not sure where to start, you can’t go wrong with behind-the-scenes peaks and episode announcements.
4. Set Up a Posting Schedule
If you’re serious about your podcast social media strategy, you’ll want to create a content calendar. This helps you stay consistent, rather than posting if/when inspiration strikes.
Plus, it adds a greater degree of structure to your social activity, enabling you to plan and prepare well ahead of time.
It’s typically much easier to bulk-generate social content ideas, rather than doing it as you go. Preparing content in advance will also help you design more diverse posts.
For example, you might ask one or two questions each week to initiate a conversation in the comments. Then, you could share a piece of exciting industry news or pull an inspirational quote from your latest episode.
It’s a good idea to batch-schedule posts using tools like Buffer or Hootsuite. This way, your posts will publish automatically on the day and time of your choosing, saving you a lot of time and work.
5. Track the Results
The final stage of your podcast social media strategy is measuring the results. This will give you a better understanding of what works and what doesn’t, and you’ll be able to adjust your efforts accordingly.
Many social media platforms (like Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook) offer insights into audience engagement. The same goes for popular social media scheduling platforms that we discussed above.
Keep an eye on posts and take note of likes, shares, reactions, etc. Then, look for patterns that might inform changes to your social media strategy, like the best times to post and most shareable type of content.
Conclusion
Social media gives you access to a global audience, making it ideal for attracting new listeners and building communities. However, the best results come from a podcast social media strategy that ensures structure and consistency.
To recap, here are five steps to creating a winning social strategy for your show:
- Choose your social platforms.
- Establish a base for your podcast.
- Create valuable content.
- Set up a posting schedule.
- Track the results.
The easiest way to create a home for your podcast is to set up a podcast website. With Beamly, you’ll get ready-made templates, automatic episode imports, and built-in social media integrations. Get started for free today!
