Getting It Right: Podcasts & Thought Leadership
As an entrepreneur or business leader, time and time again podcasts as a format have proven to be excellent platforms for thought leadership and establishing a strong personal brand. Through a podcast, listeners develop intimacy and are getting the benefit of the closest possible access to you outside of meeting you in person, and can be introduced to a host of concepts that may also be tied to products and services you provide.
But getting it right and establishing and growing an audience can be a real challenge. There certainly are more examples of executions of this gone wrong than right that we could point to, but we’ll focus for now on some of the key pitfalls you will want to avoid if you are looking to create a podcast around your personal brand and thought leadership.
Have A Niche—And Be Really, Really Good At It
There are so many podcasts that cover the broad strokes of an entire industry that can make it really easy to get lost in, and conversely hard for a listener to find what is truly relevant to them. Think of the specific audience you are going after and what their key challenges are. As an example, if you are an executive coach who works with people in the finance industry, that industry comes with its own specific challenges and issues that are likely not relevant to those who are in the creative industry. Your specific expertise as it applies to that audience is going to be super valuable, so you should focus your energy on creating a podcast concept, branding and set of topics that really speaks directly to them.
Consider Total Audience Size
Speaking of niches and finding the audience to whom your thought leadership is most valuable, it is important to think about what the total realistic audience size and appetite for this content might be. Just like your business has a corner of a total market share, so too do podcasts. If the topics you want to talk about geared to the audience you want to reach are already saturated in the podcast space, find a different angle. Do your research and see who the big players are in the space you are getting into and learn about what they are doing exceptionally well and what they are missing. You might find you can be advantageous of what your potential competitors are leaving on the table.
Quality, Quality, Quality
Unlike some other forms of content marketing, podcast listeners have become accustomed to over time to high-quality audio, eye-catching graphics and searchable and engaging show notes. Luckily, these are some simple elements to get right, but it does require the right tools, resources and guidance to execute correctly. Uploading rambling, unpolished audio with weak branding isn’t going to inspire potential listeners to engage with your content, so this is something you absolutely need to invest into.
Don’t Miss Opportunities To Get The Most Out Of Your Content
Many folks are wrongly focused on generating a high volume of podcasts and get distracted by creating content for content’s sake. But more content isn’t necessarily better and can leave a lot of opportunities on the table to maximize the value you might derive from fully supporting one episode at a time. Think of your podcast as your content-generating machine, creating quotable elements, snippets, video cutdowns and blog posts that can drive more listeners to your podcast. You likely have a not-insignificant audience on LinkedIn and Twitter, for example, that you could easily convert to your listenership if you take what is compelling about your podcast and package it in a way that makes sense for those audiences.