Hashtags, Cross-Promotions, and Social Media Secrets for Podcasters

Welcome to the Circle Sessions featuring the Circle Of Experts. The Circle of Experts are Yasmine Robles from Robles Designs. Tonnisha English-Amamoo of TJE Communications. And Don The Idea Guy. I'm Brett Johnson from Circle 270 Media podcast Consultants. Each week, one of the Circle of Experts joins me to talk about critical aspects of growing your podcast. We're focused on marketing, social media monetization, and website design, and the implementation of all of these. This week. Tonnisha is here from the Circle of Experts. Tonnisha is on a mission to help small businesses help the playing help level the playing field through digital marketing solutions. Welcome back, Tonnisha.

Hello, happy to be back.

How's it going?

I'm doing okay. I like the topic we're going to talk about today. Using social media to find your podcast audience, that is probably one of the biggest concerns. Talking to podcasters is, okay, I'm creating great content. I'm throwing it out there. But how do people find me and the social media? What we're going to talk about the social media and all the aspects of social media can be a really great tool, but just going about it can be difficult figuring out how to do it. Yeah. What do you think? I guess each social media has its pros and cons in regards to how to find people, that sort of thing. And you know what I want to ask you, kind of not off topic, but off of what we're going to talk about. What have you found to be a social media platform that's been the easiest for people to find you in your experience? What's been working for you?

So, for me, it's been Instagram. Has it been that's where most people find me, and I would say second to that would be LinkedIn.

Okay.

Yeah.

Because I'm hearing a lot about with Instagram as well. And I don't know whether it's a change in algorithm that's kind of more user friendly, more finder friendly stuff. I suppose, again, you're always relying on those that run the platform to make it easier or hard. So you always hear those a lot.

Of changes all the time, which is why I always tell clients, too, it's okay to be aware of the algorithms, but I don't believe in chasing them because they change direction so much that you will just go crazy trying to figure it out.

Yeah, really?

The companies, they don't even have it figured out, so we definitely won't because they don't either.

Right. I've heard Google changing their algorithms thousands of times, and I know it's probably tweaks here or there, but over a year's time, like you said, you can't chase that. You just can't. You just have to do best practices and do the best that you can as a piece of the marketing. Yeah, exactly.

And I'm sure even now, I know this is kind of off topic, but even with all the AI stuff, I think in the beginning thinking of a huge platform like Google. These AI machines are going to know how to speak to what would show up on that first page of Google. But I remember when I first started working in digital marketing, a lot of people would do something called keyword stuffing, where you'd have a page and if you're selling insurance, you just mentioned car insurance on this page as many times as possible. And then as time went on, Google was like, actually no, that will not help you. So we'll probably see that happen too for a while. These machines are going to be able to get that number one spot. And then, as we've seen with all of these platforms, eventually we get back to the human to human interaction. That is truly why we're on social media in the first place.

Right? Yeah. It's such a short win, short term win. But people really do want that. I guess they salivate over that. They just want to bump. They want to bump in the rate we want to get on the first page for search, we want 100 more listeners, or whatever it might be. But boy, is it really you got to keep feeding that bump machine in regards to guessing what the next thing is, almost playing the stock market the wrong way kind of feel to it.

\Yeah.

You have listed here first of working with hashtags. So maybe first of all kind of explain what hashtags really are. I think we all know what a hashtag is, but what is its purpose? And then kind of figure out deep dive, how to use hashtags.

Yeah. So at this point, every social media platform utilizes hashtags in some way, shape, or form. So hashtags think of it as like your file cabinet. It's a way to organize different conversations. So the pros of hashtags is that if you go into a conversation about podcasts, you will hopefully see only conversations that have to do with podcasts. The downside of hashtags is that some people kind of do keyword stuffing and if they see that a hashtag is trending, then they will insert whatever they want to talk about into that conversation, utilizing a hashtag that has nothing to do with the topic, which happens a lot that I see more on Twitter, because those conversations move so quickly. People tend to do that. But what I've seen over time is that, yes, people may see your message, but people tend to be really turned off by that. If they see you having a conversation, just obviously you're only using that hashtag because it's trending. So hashtags are just a way not only for you to go out and search for content that will help you find your listeners, but also help them find you as well.

Got you. So you could lose your street cred by really abusing hashtags.

Yeah. And it used to be on Instagram where they allowed you to use up to like 30 hashtags. So you would see people make a post and then there's literally a whole paragraph of hashtags because that was the algorithm at the time the wanted you to use hashtags and then slowly over time, it turned into people that were using 30. People were like not really paying attention to that kind of content. And now they're kind of getting back to more. I think the sweet spot people argue that it's three to five or five to seven, but I would say just don't overdo it. And I actually found this post from a fellow marketer. Their instagram is simply media advertising. And she put out this cheat sheet for hashtags that I thought was really great and I've shared it a few times. So the first type of hashtag she recommends is a branded hashtag. So if your podcast is Circle Sessions, then Circle Sessions would be the hashtag. Yeah, that's your first one. Secondly would be the industry. So if we're talking about business for podcasts or podcast marketing, I know you have a client. I actually am subscribed to their podcast.

The people that have the pet shop.

Fangs and fur yes.

Things and fur yes. So a good hashtag for the may be like pets or if they're specifically talking about a type of dog or cat or whatever, they could use that specific hashtag and then your target audience. So for us, we are targeting business owners who may have podcasts. So then that is our target audience. So maybe it's business podcast or for those true crime lovers like me, maybe it's true crime lover or crime junkie or whatever it may be from there, you want to get content specific. So today if we're talking about using social media to find your podcast, maybe one of our hashtags would be social media for podcasters or podcast social media or something along those lines. And then lastly, location she recommends using if we use the hashtag Columbus, Ohio, because that's where we're recording or wherever you may be utilizing those different hashtags. It's kind of her like cheat sheet. If you're not sure what to do, that could be a great place to start.

Yeah, that already gets you up to five hashtags exactly. At least. And then maybe dive into one or two more specific that you know, is pretty key to what you're doing. But no, that's a great start. I like that at least utilizing those five to help you kind of go, where do I go with the hashtags? I don't know, I'm just picking them out of thin air kind of feel to it. Yeah. Next, you mentioned cross promotion with other similar podcasts. This is kind of in the mindset of like an Instagram takeover kind of feel to it or is that something a little bit different you're thinking of?

Yeah, so it can be a mix of both. So, for example, I'm a huge fan of Tenderfoot TV adore love pain Lindsay and everything that he's done. I first started listening to him with up and Vanished and the now his latest podcast is something called High Strange, which is all about aliens, basically, which is not something I'm super into, but because it was Pain Lindsay, I'm like, you know what, I'll check it out. So I noticed when I was leaving a review of the podcast because I definitely try to do that and encourage you all to encourage your listeners to leave reviews, because it definitely helps is that there were a ton of reviews that said, awesome podcast Terry sent me, and there was like a bunch of them. And I'm like, who the heck is Terry? So I kind of just let it go, moved on. And then I was kind of looking for something new yesterday, actually. I'm like, okay, I need a new podcast, though. I'm actually subscribed to Tenderfoot TV and Apple Podcast, which we'll talk about on another episode. And so I'm going through all their stuff since I'm a subscriber, like, well, I got to take advantage of this. And I come across this podcast called Radio Rental, and that is a podcast also from Tinderfoot TV, and the host name is Terry. So he did an episode where basically Pain Lindsay gave him some exclusive content of his podcast to share with his listeners and then told his listeners, leave a review and say, Terry sent me, and then you got to enter into some sort of raffle for a t shirt or something like that. So essentially what happened here. Granted, yes, these podcasts are both produced by the same production company, but because of the topics, both of the podcasts are talking about strange, weird things. So most likely if you're listening to one, you might be interested in the other.

So this could be a great way if you have fellow peers in the podcast industry or maybe you and a podcaster started at a similar time. Topics may be different, but there's some similarities could encourage your listeners to listen to their show and then vice versa. This will definitely take some research. I know there's some people that don't accept that type of promotion or care to do that, but I have a mindset where an abundance mindset, like there's enough listeners for everyone. I actively listen to at least like five podcasts a week, so it's okay to kind of spread the love. And that can be a great way for you to not only get listeners for your show sharing for others, and you can also take this concept to social media as well.

And I was just going to make that point. You hear a lot of that cross promote going on between podcasts, usually similar nature or maybe completely different. The research has been done. But you know what? I think I have not seen a lot of social media to back that up. That okay, you've accepted. You've got a whole new episode in your podcast feed. You're sharing back and forth. But I don't see much promotion on social media to either explain it, why you're doing it, or promoting that you're actually doing it. And I think that's really a missed opportunity if you think about it, because then you're underutilizing both of those other social media streams saying, hey, I'm off this week, but you get to hear sort of thing and explain it. That's a really good idea, but an underutilized piece for social media.

And I've seen a lot of shows where maybe they release on Mondays, but then on a Wednesday it might be a feature from another podcast. And it may only be like five minutes, but if people are subscribed, it still is going to pop up. Like, hey, this podcast has a new episode and you're going to be like, that's weird. It's Wednesday. They usually release on Monday and people may check it out. I definitely think it's something like you said, that is super underutilized. I think the problem is that a lot of people are just afraid to ask.

They're also afraid of losing listeners. They think they're going to lose listeners and they're actually not. Just in your example right now that you'd listen to five podcasts a week, at least that you're thinking, but you're looking for another one to listen to.

Yeah.

Doesn't mean you gave up on one or you deleted one. You didn't say that. You said you're looking for another one to kind of get hooked on to fill a void, at least right now. So I think you're right. If we look at it as an abundant universe that there are plenty of listeners, seriously, only about 50% to 60% of the of the US audience U. S. Population even recognizes or listens to a podcast. There's still a ton of growth with this.

So much because even with one of the creepy episodes I listened to yesterday, I sent it to one of my group chats and I'm like, fair warning, don't listen to this if you plan to be alone tonight. And one of my friends, surprisingly, she's a flight attendant, she's traveled the world. She spends a ton of time in the airport with air pods. But she was like, I'm still not really into podcasts. Like, I haven't really been able to get into it. And so for me to be such, like, a podcast enthusiast and there's still people around me that don't listen to it, I think that's proof right there. I mean, I'm sure we all have a handful of people in our lives that do not engage in podcasts at all and then some that really love it, which proves that there's still growth.

Yes, exactly. Don't be afraid of that losing someone. And I think you could be really creative with that sharing of episodes, too. So let's go to that fear piece to it. And that if you're afraid of putting another podcast in your RSS feed, fear of, okay, somebody's going to get confused like what's going on? And they may delete or you just don't want to share it. There's also the opportunity everybody loves little Easter eggs or little hidden things. You could put a link to that audio in your Show Notes and make mention of it going, hey, for your listener only. I have another cross promote episode in my Show Notes. Click on the link and listen to it. So you didn't really get in, you didn't allow that other podcast to be in your RSS feed, which is fine, but you're giving access at some point in time and you can even promote it as such on social media. Hey, Easter egg time, check my Show Notes for a great episode. If they really like what you're doing, they're going to follow that. It can be fun. It'd be fun to see what you can tell your listeners to do and what will they do.

Of course, there's a trust factor. You have to deliver. So if you're making them jump through a couple of hoops to do a couple of clicks, that episode you're cross promoting or allowing in your feed better be good. So really do diligence on that one. But you can have a lot of fun and just to see what listeners say. And that was so fun to hear something and you had to go to the Show Notes to get the audio, that was fun. You could get a lot of feedback to that. And as you mentioned here, lastly too, you've got to be social on social.

Yes. I feel like I've seen a lot of where we get into the habit of posting but not engaging, which also the algorithms to mention them again are smart. They know when you're just like especially if you're using a third party scheduler, but then you're not on there. Liking, commenting, sharing, these are things that you definitely need to make sure that you're doing. And you can go to those different hashtags that relate to your podcast. And if people are posting about topics that you speak on on your podcast, even if you just start to like things or engage in things, especially on platforms that may be bigger than yours, people will constantly see, like, this person. There's like, a ton of gossip blogs that I follow where you see the same people commenting every single time. And over time, you get curious, like, who is this person? They're always commenting. So you go to their page, you check it out, and then you're like, oh, they're a blogger, they're whatever. So I definitely recommend being social on social. Utilizing Instagram stories like creating polls and questions and trying to get some engagement and feedback I think is super important. And another missed opportunity for people as well.

When you're social on social and you're making those posts, you're making the comments, you're replying back is there some best practices? Is just replying and making a comment enough? Should you do other things like tag people in your comment or do other things that can help with the social? I don't know.

I think it's kind of the same rule with the hashtags, you want to be mindful that it makes sense. So let's say if you're on your personal Instagram or Facebook page and you see a post and you want to engage with it and maybe it's similar to your podcast, you could say, wow, this was great. I host a podcast that talks about this tag it. I think that's fine. I think that's definitely fine. As long as it makes sense, for sure.

Okay, good. I would think so. But I've seen Overboard, really big self promoting to a certain degree. I think there's some nuances that you've got to be respectful of the original person who posted what they're talking about without kind of stealing their thunder, I guess you could say. But adding to the conversation, adding to the replies that people want to keep scrolling down and that conversation continues, that makes it well worthwhile for everybody. That makes sense. That's cool. So if anybody has any questions about what we talked about, how can they get a hold of you? What's an easy way to get hold of you?

Yeah, you can go to my website, tjecommunications.com, and schedule a free 15 minutes chat to talk about social media, email, whatever you're struggling with marketing wise. And you can also follow me on all social media @tjecom. So it's T-J-E-C-O-M-M.

And you can catch me at mypodcastguy.com. Thanks for following and subscribing to The Circle Sessions from Circle 270 Media Podcast Consultants.