14 Tips for Creating a Successful Podcast

Podcasts have surged in popularity as a favoured avenue for individuals and businesses to grow their brands and connect with their audiences. This increasing popularity has led to a saturated market with millions of podcasts all over the world. Standing out and succeeding in this competitive environment poses a challenge.

Being able to create a successful podcast requires skill, planning, time, and investment. A successful podcast will allow you to truly connect with your audience and build a loyal fan base that will tune into your weekly episodes. Yet, attaining this level of success is no easy task. First, let's talk about what a podcast is and what defines a “good” podcast.

What is a Podcast and What Makes a “Good” Podcast?

A podcast is an audio program that you can subscribe to and listen to on your phone. Podcasts usually release episodes on a regular schedule and are focused on a specific topic. They are very similar to radio shows but have the flexibility of on-demand listening.

What makes a “good” podcast is very subjective. Everyone’s definition differs but some fundamental aspects contribute to its success. For example, an engaging host is always essential. If your host isn’t able to engage the audience, you will struggle to gain traction as a podcast. Having a relevant and interesting topic is another factor. These are just some examples and below we have put together 14 tips for creating a successful podcast.

1) Have An Engaging Host

As previously mentioned, an interesting and engaging host is a key first step to creating a podcast. There isn’t a singular set of qualities that defines a good host. Much of it has to do with how you talk, present, and carry yourself. Engaging your audience is incredibly important to maintain attention throughout long podcast episodes. Below are some important characteristics that a host should have among many others:

● Passion and knowledge for the podcast topic.

● Ability to make guests and listeners feel comfortable and heard.

● Be yourself and authentic.

● Ability to find the right guests.

2) Pick your Niche

As previously mentioned, you need to pick the right topic. Attempting to target everyone isn’t beneficial; instead, find a topic that resonates with your target audience. For instance, a cosmetics company might create a podcast talking about the beauty industry while a student influencer could offer advice and talk about their university journey.

Knowing your target audience and picking a topic that resonates with them will ensure interest and engagement in your podcast. Not only should your target audience be interested, but you need to pick a topic that you are passionate about. Failure to do so might result in a lack of compelling content.

Remember, do your research. With the over saturation of the market, you need to make sure your idea will differentiate itself and stand out amidst a competitive market.

3) Choose the Right Guests

Choosing the right guest for your podcast is pivotal in gaining attention and sustaining growth. If you feature guests with large followings, this can be a great way to bring attention to your podcast. However, you must ensure your guest aligns with your podcast. That is, they need to be relevant. Pick a guest your audience wants to hear from and is knowledgeable about your podcast topic. Otherwise, your guest and podcast will have a mismatch and likely not be of interest to your target audience.

Targeting popular guests can be a difficult task. Mastering the art of delivering an effective pitch for your podcast is an important skill to have. Once you pick the right guest, you can create short clips of the episode and use this on social media for promotion.

4) Post Regularly

Once you start a podcast, creating a posting schedule is imperative. Whether this is weekly, biweekly, or monthly, you must be consistent with content release. Once you start to build a following, listeners will expect regular content from you. Irregular postings will lead to confusion and frustration among listeners. Keeping a regular schedule allows for consistency and loyalty to develop.

However, it is crucial to not overcommit yourself. Set a reasonable and achievable schedule. A schedule will help with tracking deadlines and strategizing content for future releases.

5) Quality

Quality is key. As mentioned before, you need a regular posting schedule but do not prioritize quantity over quality. Quality refers to the audio, the flow, the conversation, the editing, etc. Make sure you take the time to plan, produce, edit, and handle post-production. Making sure you invest the time into these factors can make the difference between a high-quality professional podcast and an amateur one.

Although it can be expensive, make sure you purchase the right audio equipment. Getting the right equipment can be essential in developing great sound quality. A poor-sounding podcast can be the reason listeners drop off your podcast.

6) Be Relatable

Connecting with your listeners is so important. Nowadays, authenticity holds significant value and embracing your true self will allow your listeners to form genuine connections with you and resonate with your stories.

Adopting a persona can appear as disingenuous and this can deter people from your podcast. A lack of authenticity can hinder the perceived value of your podcast.

7) Provide Value

There are many different types of podcasts around the world. Some are for educational purposes and some are simply for entertainment. Whatever the purpose is, your audience will only listen to your podcast if you are bringing them value. What are they going to take away from your podcast? Are they going to learn something new, are they getting advice, or are they simply getting a good laugh?

Listening to a podcast takes time out of your day. So, if you cannot provide any value to your listeners, they will likely stop listening to you over time.

8) Promote Your Podcast

You may have an amazing podcast, but it only matters if people know about it. When you decide to start a podcast, leverage social media, your website, etc. to inform your audience.

Continuously promote it, post short clips, and use guests to cross-promote. This can help to stimulate growth if you use effective marketing strategies.

Beyond marketing your podcast, ensuring good SEO is essential. If you can achieve this, you can drive more traffic to your website where you can feature information on your podcasts including previous episodes, transcripts, etc. You also want to make sure your podcast is optimized for search. This might entail optimizing the episode title, description, show name, etc.

You can use a full-service B2B Podcast Partner that can handle the entire process for you, from finding your ideal client to network with as a podcast guest on your show, to building an audience of your ideal customer niche. They can help you host, manage, and create written SEO, audio, and video content from each episode to grow your business.

9) Interact With Your Audience

It’s great if you have a loyal fan base that regularly listens to your podcast, but it is important to interact with your audience to deepen that loyalty. Develop a strong social media presence whether that be on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, etc. Use these platforms to talk to your audience, keep them up to date, have conversations, and build a genuine community.

Encouraging listener participation by soliciting questions that can be used in future episodes can deepen engagement. For example, if you have a podcast centred around career advice, inviting listeners to submit personal questions they have regarding their careers enables them to feel more involved and valued. By addressing these questions in future episodes, you can demonstrate genuine concern thus fostering a stronger connection.

10) Tell Stories

Stories are a great way to connect with your audience while creating entertaining content. A strong storytelling ability can truly captivate an audience and keep them engaged. Think about the topic of your episode, and what you are discussing. Find a story in your life that relates to the topic and tell it. This allows the audience to better connect with you and understand the topic in an interesting light.

11) Planning is Key

Podcasts are meant to be natural and a casual conversation between guests and your audience. Despite this, it is important to plan and structure your podcast in advance. We still want the conversation to flow but it’s important to have a rough script or notes in case the conversation goes off track. You only have so much time in your podcast so you need to make sure you cover all your points. Planning will allow you to do so and maintain a consistent structure for your episodes.

12) Be Flexible

Starting a podcast is not an easy task. You might have to fail before you succeed. You have to be flexible if you want to achieve success. If you choose a niche that doesn’t end up working, be able to acknowledge that and move on. You might have to try multiple topics before you find the right fit for you.

Being flexible also means trying new things. You may have a good topic that works for you, but you must incorporate new trends that relate to your current theme in order to stay relevant. There are many viral trends online that you can capitalize on to drive growth and popularity for your podcast.

13) Call To Action

In creating a podcast, having actionable content can be vital for success. You might be educating your audience on a topic but having something they can act on helps them to be more engaged.

For example, if you are teaching your listeners how to become an influencer, you might give them directions on how to do this. You can provide them with articles or examples to reference and research. Provide them with resources they can use to learn more. You might give them the task of creating a short video that utilizes current trends. Asking your audience to execute something based on what you taught them is a great way of furthering that interaction with your viewers.

14) Make Sure Your Guests Are Prepared

As we discussed, featuring guests is a great way to gain new viewers from their following. Guests allow for new insights and valuable conversations. You want to make sure this feels natural and has an easy flow.

To ensure you get the most out of featuring a guest, you need to make sure your guest is prepared. You can provide them with questions in advance, notes, or a general outline of the episode. This will allow them to prepare stories, ideas, and responses so they have something to talk about during the episode. You don’t want to be caught in a situation where your guest is unsure of what to say or isn’t able to bring the best content. This allows for a more relaxed, enjoyable, and well-structured conversation.

Conclusion

It takes time and patience to build a successful podcast. Sometimes trial and error is key. Just remember, podcasts are a great way to share your story, and passions, and build a community. If you take these 14 tips, you will be on your way to creating a successful podcast. Now, it’s time to ask yourself, what untold stories and perspectives will your podcast unlock?

Written by Kaitlin Duong

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Jony Studios is a client-focused media production studio offering audio/video production, B2B podcasting, and audiobook services. They have worked with a wide range of clients from small businesses to larger organizations such as Penguin Random House, Amazon, University of Waterloo, Freakonomics Radio and many others.

17 Tips to Build Your Social Media Presence

In today’s digital world, having a strong social media presence is increasingly important for both brands and individuals. Social media serves as a great tool to build brand awareness in the consumer’s mind. Without a presence on these platforms, you may be at a disadvantage compared to competitors who are leveraging social media marketing.

Building a strong and successful social media presence can pose a challenge amidst the ever-growing array of social platforms and mounting intricacies.

Building a presence transcends merely posting an image with a caption. It requires a strategic approach intertwined with creativity and a true understanding of your brand to cultivate brand recognition. We’ll start by defining what a social media presence entails and its importance.

What Is a Social Media Presence and Why Is It Important?

A brand’s social media presence represents their visibility and engagement across various social platforms. It involves building genuine relationships with consumers and establishing online communities. A strong online presence can help to deepen connections with existing customers while reaching out to new ones.

With over 4.95 billion social media users across the globe, this represents a substantial opportunity to broaden reach and visibility for any brand. The use of social media can be pivotal in creating trust and credibility with the consumer, cultivating genuine connections, and expressing your brand’s values and personality. All of these elements can work together to drive brand awareness and foster a positive brand image, allowing for growth.

It is important to note that a social media presence isn’t something that can be created overnight. It requires a strategic mindset and a well thought out plan to achieve optimal outcomes.

With that in mind, we have put together 17 tips to help you build and grow your social media presence.

1) Pick the Right Platforms

With a growing digital landscape, there is a vast array of social media platforms that you can use. However, don’t let this overwhelm you, and don’t try to get famous on every platform. Understanding your brand, your audience, and what platform will best align with these is essential.

For instance, if your brand focuses on creativity and artistry, platforms such as TikTok or Pinterest that allow for creative content would be most suitable. On the other hand, for a sophisticated, established business, platforms like LinkedIn and Facebook may be more appropriate. Nevertheless, it is important to conduct research to identify which platforms best align with your brand and where your audience is most active.

If you use Instagram as one of your platforms, consider some of the best video editing apps to create your Instagram reels.

2) Identify Your Audience

Effective social media marketing relies on your ability to identify your audience. Understanding your market allows you to choose the most suitable social media platforms and effective strategies.

For instance, if you are targeting younger consumers, platforms like Instagram and TikTok would be ideal choices. Statistics show that for Gen Z, 75% are using Instagram as their main platform and 69% on TikTok. On the other hand, if you are targeting older consumers, you may consider platforms such as Facebook and LinkedIn.

Knowing your audience can also help you develop appropriate strategies. For example, Gen Z consumers prefer personalized content and influencers. So, if Gen Z is your audience, leveraging influencer marketing can help establish connections between the consumer and your brand.

3) Make People Aware You Are On Social Media

Sometimes it can be hard to grow a following on social media when you first start. It can be even harder if no one knows where to find you. Make sure you link your social media to your website, email marketing, etc. so that your current consumers are aware of your accounts.

4) Set SMART Goals

SMART goals are:

● Specific: Give concrete targets (followers, views, shares).

● Measurable: quantify or at least suggest an indicator of progress.

● Achievable: Are your targets realistic?

● Relevant: Do your KPIs (key performance indicators) measure engagement?

● Time-Based: Set a fixed point for assessing campaign success.

Setting smart goals will allow you to keep track of what you want to achieve, set realistic timelines, and ways of measuring success. Any successful brand or social media personality has likely set SMART goals to reach the point of success that they desire. Setting goals will hold you accountable and help turn your aspirations into realistic objectives.

5) Create An Editorial Schedule

Creating a content calendar is so important to ensure timely posts. Balancing running a business can be stressful as is. Keeping a calendar will allow you to track when you are going to post, what you are going to post, and on what platform. It will hold you accountable and prevent you from forgetting to make a post. This is also a great way to track and look back at previous posting schedules.

Using a calendar tool like Sprout’s will allow you to streamline your social media planning and scheduling.

6) Be Human

Regardless of the platform you are on, it is imperative to be real, honest, and authentic. Consumers want to feel like they can connect with the person behind the brand. Companies that fail to convey their personality through social media risk appearing cold and ingenuine, which can deter consumers from the brand. Think of ways you can incorporate fun posts like “behind-the-scenes” content of what goes on in the company. This shows viewers the real people behind the seemingly impersonal brands they encounter.

Take Duolingo, for instance. They are a great example of how a brand has effectively leveraged TikTok and created videos showcasing their playful personality to engage with consumers. They have been so successful that they have even made a lasting impression on non-Duolingo users.

7) Leverage Trends

Trends are constantly changing across social media. It is important to stay up-to-date and take advantage of their popularity. Jumping on the right trend that aligns with your brand can lead to viral posts and help you gain exposure. This not only aids in reaching new customers but also shows your current consumers your brand personality.

Consider Chipotle as an example. They are a great demonstration of how a brand utilizes TikTok to showcase a variety of posts ranging from hacks to promotional content to trends. With ASMR videos being very popular, they leveraged this trend and made an “ASMR” video of their Chicken Al Pastor, which they recently brought back to stores.

With podcasts on the rise, this can be another great way to leverage content creation and get personal with your brand as a business. You can use a white glove B2B podcast partner to help you network with your ideal potential clients, while at the same time building an audience in your niche to close more deals easily. They can help manage and create written SEO, video, social, and audio content from each episode to drive more people to your website and increase sales.

8) Make Use of Visuals

A picture is worth a thousand words. Graphics can grab the attention of consumers when they are mindlessly scrolling through social media. Ensuring you use visuals in your posts, like images, videos, infographics, etc., can help your post stand out. Once you grab the attention of the viewer, they can go further to read your caption if they are interested. Don’t underestimate the importance of visuals in having a strong social media presence. It is noted that people will retain 80% of what they see, only 20% of what they read, and 10% of what they hear. Below is an example of a visually appealing social media feed for the brand, Pleasing.

9) Stay Active

Post, post, post! It’s not enough just to create a social media account; you must be active to maintain awareness. Finding a balance between staying active and not posting too much is crucial. Discover the right balance between the frequency and timing of posts. This comes with time! You may start to notice patterns the more you post.

Remember to also stay engaged with your followers. Respond to their comments, share their stories, like their photos, and be responsive to direct messages. This level of interaction can foster loyalty and a sense of connection.

With the overwhelming amount of social media activity that can occur, it can be hard to track and keep up with everything. Using a social media listening tool can streamline this process and collect all relevant online information about your brand on a centralized platform.

10) Be Engaged With Your Audience

Many people will see your content, but it is those who engage with and interact with it that are so important. In order to foster an interactive environment with your consumers, you need to show the person behind the screen. This doesn’t necessarily mean posting a picture of yourself, but allow your personality to come through in your posts. This creates a friendlier and more interactive environment. Respond to comments, ask questions, and prompt your viewers to engage with the brand. This will create meaningful experiences and grow genuine engagement.

11) Don’t Try To Oversell

Trying to push and close a sale may be appropriate in certain situations, but not on social media. Social media should be used as a medium to help grow your brand and its awareness. Pushing the hard sell on these platforms is likely to steer away consumers. They want a brand that is genuine and truly cares about their concerns. Focus on social media to engage with the consumer, offer useful tips, answer their concerns, etc. By showing that you care through social media, this can drive sales in other aspects. A push for sales through social media can come across as bold and intrusive.

12) Track Engagement

It’s great if you are creating fun content and have a good posting schedule going, but you need to know how your posts are doing. Tracking the success and engagement of your posts is a great way to identify what is working and what is not. This will allow you to plan future posts and strategies based on past trends and what has been effective. Using a platform such as Sprout Social, Hootsuite, etc. can provide you with a platform that summarizes engagement data, allowing you to draw key insights and patterns to inform future strategies.

13) Give Users A Reason To Follow You

Potential followers need a reason to follow you! People don’t want cluttered feeds, so they will only follow someone or a brand if they have a reason to. Whether you post exclusive content, tips/tricks, or special sales for your followers on certain platforms, these can all act as incentives for people to follow your account.

14) Host Giveaways

Giveaways are very popular on social media and are a great way to engage and interact with your customers! A lot of brands will ask contest participants to follow them, like a post, leave a comment, share their story, or some combination of these, in order to enter the giveaway. By doing so, the brand is getting people engaged with their page, increasing their awareness, and giving a chance to try their products. This is a great way to create an experience for followers that will create a positive association with the brand.

15) It’s Not All About You

It’s important to post about your brand, what you’re doing, and content that you have created. While doing this, you have to remember that social media is about you and the other person viewing your page. Make sure the followers know you care about them and see their posts on social media. If a follower makes a post and tags you in it, you should like it, leave a comment, or share it on your story. It shows your followers that you are engaged with them, shows authenticity, and makes them feel valued. This helps to foster an online community and relationships.

16) Generate New Ideas

It’s important to stay relevant and capture the attention of your followers. Don’t always share the same thing over and over. This can get boring and lead followers to avoid your account if they know you always post the same thing. Make sure to incorporate innovative, new, and exciting posts that can capture the interest of your followers. Keep in mind that consistency is still key. That is, come out with new content but maintain consistent branding and messaging throughout to send a uniform message across all your posts.

17) Learn from your mistakes and successes

It’s okay to make a mistake! Starting a social media presence can be a hard task, and you will likely see failures and successes along the way. It is important that you take those failures and learn from them to improve your strategies moving forward. Also, make sure to identify what is working. You may notice that your consumers are more receptive to certain types of content. You want to make note of this so you can continue to utilize effective strategies. Social media listening tools like HootSuite and Sprout Social can be helpful in measuring your performance and identifying what is working and what is not.

Conclusion

It takes time to build a strong social media presence, so don’t get discouraged. Stick to these tips and learn from your experience. If you view social media as a medium to create authentic connections with your consumers instead of just a selling method, you will see your business start to grow. Remember, patience is key. Now that we have run through 17 key tips, how will you start to build your social media presence?

Written by Kaitlin Duong

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Jony Studios is a client-focused media production studio offering audio/video production, B2B podcasting, and audiobook services. They have worked with a wide range of clients from small businesses to larger organizations such as Penguin Random House, Amazon, University of Waterloo, Freakonomics Radio and many others.

Top 10 AI Voice Generators

Artificial intelligence (AI) has made many groundbreaking advances in recent years. Developing into such a powerful tool that is so easy to use. AI can imitate humans so convincingly that many industries have picked up the use of artificial speech.

Being able to quickly generate speech that sounds human is so beneficial for many people. But not knowing where to start is an issue that may discourage you. There are many options to choose from, but to make it simpler, here is a list of the best options.

ElevenLabs

To start, ElevenLabs has an amazing variety of tools for users looking for help with voiclines, audiobooks, chatbots, and more. With many voice options and even customizable voices, you can pick the desired language and give it a try.

ElevenLabs offers different levels of subscriptions, providing users with more characters and lengths of use. From $5 to $300, you can choose what level fits you best.

This super easy-to-use site makes your synthesised voice in 60 seconds. With the fully adjustable voice options, not only can you pick the type of voice you make, you can even replicate your voice. 

Murf AI

The studio in Murf AI is extremely user-friendly and professional. You have up to 120+ voices to choose from and a range of languages for any type of voiceover, speech, or reading you need. 

Murf AI is a trusted AI tool for many. You chose the plan you want ranging from $0-$75 a month, depending on your needs. There is also a free trial, giving you access to everything for 10 minutes to see if Murf AI is the right choice for you.

Murf AI is wonderful for getting down to the pitch, accents, speed, and emphasis with their tools. This quickly generated speech is almost identical to human speech, giving you the best quality for your work.

Resemble AI

Resemble.ai provides users with 60 languages, easy-to-use technology, and a variety of voices that can even replicate your own. There are so many tools that can be used on this powerful site. Resemble.ai even has deepfake detection software that will help you find the difference between real and fake voices. 

The basic subscription here starts at $0.006 per second, providing you with the perfect amount of freedom to play around with. You can also demo before purchasing, and if you decide you want more, the pro subscription is waiting for you. All you have to do is contact them and receive a quote.

Speechify

Speechify is an amazing text-to-speech tool that can help anyone who has trouble reading. Speechify can read back anything in realistic human voices, even replicating the voices of celebrities or yourself. 

With a free option, Speechify is an amazing place to start. A pro option is available for $139 a year. This will give you even more voice and languages, higher speed, and imported and scanned text options as opposed to just the text-to-speech feature of the free version. 

Speechify wants to focus on text-to-speech for users with learning disabilities and physical disabilities. Dyslexia, ADHD, vision problems, and more—they want to make reading accessible to everyone. Ranging in a bunch of languages makes this easy for anyone learning languages.

Synthesys

With complete customization, you can create a voice with the perfect tone and voice for any project you need. Using a wide range of languages, you have so much freedom with Synthesys.

Synthesys has options for everyone. With a free option, you can easily use voice, video, and image generations. For creators, they recommend the second option, which costs only $99 a month. Some may prefer the business option, which gives you an even bigger range of features and costs $198 a month. 

Play HT

Play HT has tons of amazing voice options, including an age range, language range, emotional range, and cloning option. They have endless possibilities for what you can do. They have so much more than most AI voice companies because of all the easily customized options. Their character options are also customizable, so you can make them say certain things differently according to your needs. 

With customizable pricing ranging from free to $99 a month, you can customize your plan.

LOVO AI

LOVO is a text-to-speech AI that uses a wide range of characters and languages to produce realistic voices. You simply pick the character with the right tone and adjust as needed to fit whatever you need to read. They also have producer mode, where you can edit emphasis and pauses correctly to fit your needs. 

With 4 packages, you can decide how much you need from them as well as get a 50% discount for your first year in the higher 2 options. 

Not only do they have voices, but they can also do videos, art, and writing. 

Animaker Voice

Animaker Voice is an animation and voice site that quickly and easily generates any type of voice you need. With a simple, four-step method of making a voice, you can get anything you need. 

For around $19 a month, you can get the pro version, which gives you more voices, more storage, more voice options, and more. 

Listnr

Listnr wants to give you the best AI voices possible. They have 1000+ voices in 500+ languages, giving you a wide range to experiment with and customize to fit your needs. Listnr is super easy to use and gives you editing access right where you make the voices. 

The levels of subscriptions are perfect to let you decide what exactly you want from them, giving you the best opportunity to make your voiceovers.

Respeecher

Respeecher is a tool made for content creators. It’s perfect for fillmamkers of any level to add or adjust voices in videos. They can also clone voices wonderfully, giving you the option to add in more dialog without needing the voice actor any more.

Important things to know

While AI Voice Generators are awesome and can come in handy, real-life narrators still have a lot of value and give that human touch that can go a long way. Some platforms don’t currently allow AI-generated narration. For example, ACX (Audible) still does not allow it for audiobooks, it has to be a real narrator.

Also, if you are a business leader who wrote a book and want to grow your brand, there is nothing more personal than narrating the book you wrote to your audience using your voice.

Although it can be challenging to find the time to go to a recording studio, there are new innovative methods that allow you to do it from the comfort of your own home while delegating everything else to a trusted audiobook production partner.

Do you think AI narrators will be able to replace human narrators?! Let us know in the comments below.

Conclusion

With how much technology has advanced, the new world of AI has become one of the biggest tools for many different types of people. From creators to small businesses, AI can help you create everything you need. These sites all have free versions that make it easy to get started. Now that AI has become such a helpful and important tool in the business world, it can only go up from here. Having a reliable source to help you is key to effectiveness. 

Written By Ali Grant

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Jony Studios is a client-focused media production studio offering audio/video production, B2B podcasting, and audiobook services. They have worked with a wide range of clients from small businesses to larger organizations such as Penguin Random House, Amazon, University of Waterloo, Freakonomics Radio and many others.