Thinking Social: Grow Your Podcast Audience With Social Sites
If you're already regularly publishing an audio-based or video-based podcast, one of the challenges you may face is growing beyond your core audience. One way to grow awareness (and increase the number of viewers) is to use social media. Sites like Facebook and Twitter, along with your existing connections through them, can exponentially multiply awareness about your podcast.
There are several ways to use social media to help increase awareness and subscribers to your podcast.
Post updates via Facebook and Twitter.
Two things to do here: 1) In your own Facebook and Twitter account, post the title and link back to each podcast you publish. 2) Within each podcast you produce, ask your existing listeners to share a link to your podcast on their Facebook or Twitter accounts.
Promote your podcast with ads on Facebook.
Local ads on Facebook are relatively inexpensive – especially if you closely define who you're trying to reach. You can control your expense with budgets and by focusing on geography, age, keywords and more.
Post your podcasts to media-sharing sites like E-zekiel.tv.
Post each new podcast episode (or an introduction to your Podcast) to E-zekiel.tv and publish the link back to your podcast subscription page or to your Web site. When adding new media, be sure to offer good keywords (or tags) and a description. Often, visitors come across new media by searching for specific words they're interested in.
Interested in learning more about Podcasts?
Apple, Inc. offers a great resource about podcasts at http://www.apple.com/itunes/podcasts, which includes tips for both podcast fans and podcast makers.
You'll also be happy to know that the E-zekiel Syndication manager can help you start (and manage) the publishing process. Learn more about using the Syndication manager for Podcasts on the E-zekiel support site and knowledge base.
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Next Year – Already?
Technology has proven over the last decade that it's fast moving and culture shaping. Not everything new and shiny on the Web goes mainstream, but there is no arguing that social media is a medium that hundreds of millions feel is worth their time and energy.
So that got us thinking, what will be the question for churches to consider next year? Social media business consultant Jay Baer says we'll stop asking the question of whether we need social media and start asking the question, "How do I know what resources to devote to social media?"
In a presentation to the Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) by Bishop Ronald Herzog of Alexandria, Louisiana, Bishop Herzog noted that social media has the markings of the fundamental shift in communication patterns and behavior that the printing press did 500 years ago. In other words, it's not a fad.
A Neilsen Co. study found that the average amount of time Americans spent on social media sites was up 43% over the previous year.
So, are you where you need to be already? If you're starting, or thinking of starting, down a social avenue – here's a tip. Start by following. Following others that you align with can help you understand the unspoken boundaries of using social media, and perhaps provide some starting points for ways you can meaningfully communicate with your congregation and community.
After you have a feel for the landscape, you'll better be able to answer next year's question, "How do I know what resources to devote to social media?"
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