Twitter has a very active podcast community, and so it follows that it could be just the social platform to help you seriously boost your podcast following and help you grow your show’s reach. But before you dive in head first and start tweeting up a storm, you need to do a quick check to see if a Twitter marketing strategy will work for your podcast. There are two simple questions you can ask to figure this out. Number One: Are your loyal listeners active Twitter users? Number Two: Is your target audience in general active on Twitter? If the answers were “Yes!” and “YES!” Then Twitter should most definitely have a place within your podcast marketing strategy.
As a side note, if you answered “No” or even a tentative “Maybe?” to any of the questions, it certainly doesn’t mean you can’t actively use Twitter as a place to share podcast-related content. It just means that it might not be the platform that helps you effectively grow your audience. But there’s nothing stopping you from trying out these Twitter strategies and seeing where it leads you!
Now that we’re all on board the Twitter Train, let’s get down to business! We’ve got seven solid strategies to share with you today that will arm you with all the knowledge and practical know-how you’ll need in order to make Twitter work for you and help you grow your podcast community.
Let’s get to it!
1. Focus On Brand Identity
The first step when it comes to getting Twitter to work for you is to make sure that your Twitter account matches your brand identity. One quick glance at your account should tell users exactly who you are and what your podcast is all about. You want to include all the essential information, but you should also try to add some personality and your own unique flare. You’ll need to do this all in no more than 160 characters, so this can take a little time to get right. You obviously want to include the link to your podcast somewhere easy to find, and this could definitely be your bio, but you could also consider putting your link in your pinned tweet if you want to maximize the characters in your bio. Remember, your goal is to use your Twitter feed to drive your followers to your podcast, so you need to make it easy for them to do this.
Bonus Tip: Make use of that pinned tweet! It could be the place where you share your show’s link, but you could even consider using your pinned tweet to share the link to your most recent episode, and then use other content you share to direct your followers there.
And while you’re cultivating your brand identity on Twitter, you should also get your thinking cap on to craft your own unique hashtag that you’ll use when you’re tweeting about your podcast. Hashtags make discoverability more likely, but they’re also a useful way to categorize all the content pertaining to your show. Spend a little time crafting your catchy hashtag. You want to make sure it’s easy to remember and easy to spell, and, most importantly, that it’s unique to your show.
2. Tease Some Podcast Sneak Peeks
Now that your Twitter brand has been cultivated, you’re ready to start sharing specific types of content that will convert your Twitter followers into fully-fledged members of your podcast community. And the first type of content you need to be sharing is some sneak peeks or teasers of upcoming podcast episodes. One of the best ways you can do this is to make use of audiograms. An audiogram is an audio clipping (i.e. of your upcoming podcast episode) that has been converted to an animated waveform and placed on top of an image, in this case, that will likely be your podcast artwork. The end product is a video snippet of your podcast, which you can then share via your Twitter feed. Audiograms are a fun way to promote your awesome show and entice your followers with your podcast content. And sites such as Wavve and Headliner make it super easy to create eye-catching, attention-grabbing audiograms in a matter of minutes, so you’ll be able to get your teasers out there, driving people to your show in no time at all!
Bonus Tip: Besides all the curiosity-inducing sneak peeks you’re sharing with your Twitter followers, you could also share some great “behind the scenes” content to your feed. This could be sharing your set-up process, how you prepare for an episode, or even introducing a guest you’ll be having on your next episode. All of this is great, engaging content in it’s own right, but it can also be really effective in driving more traffic to your podcast.
Related read: How To Use Podcast Audiograms to Engage Your Audience on Social Media
3. Create Discussion Videos
Videos make for really effective Twitter content, so besides the audiograms, teasers, and sneak peeks, you could also make some quick discussion videos to share on the platform. This could be something that dovetails off your latest podcast episode, explores a podcast topic in greater detail, or even just shares a random question or topic you’re interested in. These quick, discussion-style videos could help you find a whole new audience who are interested in or intrigued by your discussion topics and who could then be directed back to your podcast to hear more about what you have to say on the subject. Discussion-style videos also add value to your current audience by giving them even more of your valuable content to engage with. They serve to help you establish your authority within your niche as they can show another angle of your knowledge, and they can help showcase your passion for and expertise in your topic by seeing you speak candidly about it.
Bonus Tip: Whenever you pose questions or polls, or share content intended to create conversation, be sure to then engage with your audience! If you get comments or questions on any of your tweets, do your best to respond to them. This kind of engagement and interaction is key to developing a strong podcast community as it helps strengthen the relationships between you and your audience.
Related read: How to Build a Strong Podcast Community
4. Share Your Podcast Recommendations
As we have mentioned already, Twitter has a very healthy podcast community, consisting of both podcast hosts and creators, as well as avid podcast listeners. Following that, another key piece of content you should be sharing to your Twitter feed is your own personal podcast recommendations. Busy listening to a great new show? Share it with your followers! Have a list of shows or particular episodes you turn to when you need a little “pick me up”? Spread the love and share these on Twitter, or share the links to some of your Podchaser lists. You could also create an audiogram of the show’s trailer, or of an exciting piece from one of the episodes and tweet that. And remember to give the creators a shoutout! And while this content is not directly related to your specific podcast, it is content that is focused on the podcast industry as a whole, and can help convert your followers on Twitter to enthusiastic podcast listeners. And by attracting more listeners to the podcast medium, and by getting hooked on some incredible podcasts, you’ll then be able to then get them hooked on your show.
Bonus Tip: We have mentioned above the importance of engaging with others on Twitter in an effort to build connections, and another way you could do this is through requests for podcast recommendations. #podcastrecommendations is a very popular hashtag on Twitter, and you can use this to build connections and gain followers by sharing your recommendations whenever you come across this request. You can, of course, tell them about your amazing podcast, but remember to not only recommend your show, as this will more than likely have the opposite effect of what you’re going for!
5. Create Content-Related Images
Visual content does really well on Twitter, as is the case with all social media platforms, but if you can share visual content that also gives value, you’ve hit on a winning combo! One effective way to do this is to turn your episode content into fun, eye-catching, highly-shareable images. These could be bright graphics sharing tips and tricks related to your niche, infographics sharing some key points, or anything else you can think of that grabs the attention of your followers. Remember, you want these types of images to convey specific information, which immediately gives value to your followers, but you also want it to whet their appetite for more, which they can then get by clicking a provided link and listening to the corresponding podcast episode.
Bonus Tip: Besides content-related images, memes, gifs, and other such light-hearted material is a real crowd pleaser on Twitter. You could even try your hand at some original niche-related inside jokes or memes. Your aim with these is, again, to create highly-shareable content, but these types of content also enable you to showcase more of your personality, which then serves to strengthen your podcast brand.
Related read: How to Build and Strengthen Your Podcast Brand
6. Promote Your Podcast Events
Are you planning a live podcast event? Perhaps it’s a small, intimate affair with limited in-person tickets available, or maybe it’s a virtual event designed to connect with your listeners from all around the world. No matter the type of live event you’re hosting, be sure to promote it via Twitter! Twitter is a great place to share any promotional material designed to let your audience know about the event, and due to the 280 character limit on posts, it also lends itself well to snappy reminder posts in the build up to the event. And by using your unique hashtag, or even creating one specifically for your event, you’re able to really drum up excitement around the event, and gain more and more momentum and following as the big day draws near.
Related read: How To Host a Successful Virtual Podcast Event
7. Go Live!
And while we’re talking about live events, another great way you can use Twitter to boost your podcast audience is to go live! In case you didn’t know it, Twitter has a fantastic feature which allows you to host live video, or even simply live audio, which is perfect for podcasters! And there are so many creative ways you can utilize this feature with the aim of growing your audience and strengthening their connection with you and your show. You could share live recordings of your podcast, with the added bonus of video, or simply just the audio itself. Live recordings can be a little daunting, but they’re also an incredible opportunity to challenge your hosting skills! But if live podcast recordings are just too intimidating, or not something that will work for your show, there are plenty of other ways you can go live! Think about live Q&A sessions, behind-the-scenes snippets, or even additional live interviews with your podcast guests. All of these are great ways to connect with your listeners, show more of your winning personality, and get your followers hooked on your amazing content, all of which can help drive more Twitter users to your podcast.
Closing Thoughts
Before we tie up this post in a nice little bow (it is the Holiday Season after all!), we want to end with one important “best practices” guideline we highly recommend you follow as you actively use Twitter to promote your show. As a general rule, all the content you create and share to Twitter (or on any of your social media platforms, for that matter) must be created with your audience in mind. The focus of your content should always be them, not you. Yes, you want to use your Twitter account to promote your show and gain new listeners, but that won’t be accomplished if the content you’re sharing does not serve your followers. To put it another way, you need to be careful that the content you share via Twitter is not constantly coming across as sales pitches. Keep this in mind, and put the above strategies into action, and you’ll be able to successfully use your Twitter account to boost your podcast audience, strengthen your topic authority within your niche, as well as cementing those all-important relationships between you and your loyal podcast listeners.
Related read: Tips for Using Instagram to Promote Your Podcast and Grow Your Audience
