Podcircle Podcast

Mickenzie Vought: 00:00

LinkedIn has yet to tap its potential for business owners. So if you are looking at all the things ahead of you, where should I be investing my time? Social media is wild. I encourage you to invest your time on LinkedIn. No matter your business, you can use it to connect with people in your industry, build trust with your target audience, and promote and grow your show.

Kyle Cummings: 00:18

Totally. And I mean, I'm just looking at the plethora of different clients that we have at Pawtugl. Some in the pet space, one in the e commerce space, in the mental health space, in the coaching space, in the, you know, the faith space.

Mickenzie Vought: 00:30

Yeah.

Kyle Cummings: 00:31

All these people are engaging with LinkedIn and they're getting good results.

Mickenzie Vought: 00:34

Welcome to the Podcircle Podcast, where we bring practical tips and insights for every podcaster.

Kyle Cummings: 00:40

Whether you're just getting started or you're already a seasoned podcast pro, these conversations dive into all the topics that matter most to you. And this week, we're bringing you part 2 of our series on how to optimize LinkedIn to promote and grow your podcast. Last week, we made the case for why you should be investing your time and energy into LinkedIn as a business owner and a creator and outlined a few types of content you can create from your podcast episodes that will promote new episodes and grow your show's reach.

Mickenzie Vought: 01:09

Yes. And today, we are going to look at a few specific LinkedIn platform tools and tips that can take your content to the next level. So before we jump in, make sure you're subscribed to our YouTube channel if that's where you're listening today. We post all of our episodes, and you can follow along, engage with us in the comments. And if you're listening on Apple or Spotify, make sure to subscribe, rate, and review the show so you'll never miss an episode, and you will help more people find our podcast.

Mickenzie Vought: 01:36

Alright. Let's get into it. Kyle, what is the first tip and tool getting more specific into LinkedIn?

Kyle Cummings: 01:43

Yeah. So a couple of things we're gonna start off talking about are LinkedIn articles and LinkedIn newsletters. This is something that we really like using here at Podcircle. We briefly mentioned them last week and you can use your podcast episode. Actually the content from that episode to create LinkedIn articles which is really great.

Kyle Cummings: 02:01

Yes. In other episodes, we've talked about creating blogs from all of your podcast episodes or taking the content and repurposing. We're always talking about repurposing content. And one of our favorite ways to do that is to repurpose podcast episodes because ours are so topical and and a lot of them are they deep dive into a lot of things. It can be really, really helpful to have that in the form of a blog post.

Kyle Cummings: 02:22

You can also embed that video into the post if people wanna consume kind of the video version of it and get a visual component there. But the same thing with LinkedIn articles and newsletters. It's so cool how you can build them out like a blog post, embed video, and newsletters are a great place for people to subscribe. So our newsletter on LinkedIn is called Podcast Pro Tips. We, have a fair amount of subscribers.

Kyle Cummings: 02:44

People seem to really like it because we're just giving we're giving free podcasting content to people that are either already podcasters and they just wanna, they wanna kinda know the ins and outs and new things that are happening and tips and tricks, things like that, what's going on in the industry or people that are just curious about podcasting and just know they all almost wanna book market like, hey, this is a this is a helpful, place to come back to for when I wanna launch. So a LinkedIn article is if I didn't say this before is simply a blog post that's natively hosted within LinkedIn. So LinkedIn wants to keep, you know, they don't wanna send people everywhere. They wanna keep people on their platform. So I think algorithmically, they reward post that link within the platforms.

Mickenzie Vought: 03:25

As opposed to just giving the link to your website where your blog is hosted.

Kyle Cummings: 03:28

Exactly. Yeah. I've just seen that they, I guess, promote those post more in people's feeds. So if you wanna check out how any of that kind of looks, you can have head over to Podcircle's LinkedIn page to check out our recent LinkedIn articles that we've published. And then when you post those articles as a newsletter, people can subscribe to your newsletter and get a notification whenever you post, which is really nice.

Mickenzie Vought: 03:50

Yeah. And if your main concern is, oh, I know I wanna point people to my website, you can get really strategic in doing outbound links in the article to your website. So Yes. We do that to other articles within our blogs. Like, on our website, we link out to a different blog.

Mickenzie Vought: 04:07

We might link out to our YouTube page. You can send them to all the places that you are and get really strategic in that article that's hosted and favored in the LinkedIn algorithm. Another tool or tip that I have for you is optimizing your profile. So if you're a business owner who hosts a podcast, or a business that has a podcast, make sure it's in your profile. Let people know.

Mickenzie Vought: 04:28

We talked last week about the importance of having both a business page and a personal page as the leader of the business. And even if you have a really strategic and active leadership team or members of your your team who really are, like, you're in a startup mentality, you can really mobilize and empower people to go out and be advocates for your brand as employees. I've seen a lot of success with that. So encourage them to do the same. Put it in their profile somewhere, either it's in their about.

Mickenzie Vought: 04:58

If they're a cohost, you can put it in your headline. An example that I love is Career Contessa is a content company that I follow a lot. Their title is career Contessa slash job search and career advice. So if someone was searching that, they would find it, and they have a podcast that's linked in their profile. Or it could be Mackenzie Vogt, host of the Podcircle Podcast.

Mickenzie Vought: 05:18

Like, keep it somewhere. You can either put it in your about. You can put it in your headline, and then you can link to it in your actual profile. So make sure you're linking out to where people can go and get that podcast. And I've actually added the podcast that I'm a part of underneath in the projects that you can associate with the organizations you work for.

Mickenzie Vought: 05:37

So on my LinkedIn, you will notice that both the podcast that I host for my 9 to 5 on-site is linked in there under my projects as is the Podcircle Podcast under my work as a content strategist for pod circle. And last, use your profile image, both your business profile image and your personal image, kind of similar to the way that we've encouraged you to do on YouTube, 2.2 lead gen, podcast, whatever it is. Make sure you're utilizing that in a way, and it'll you can hop into Canva and create a really easy template. And then really make sure that you're using the banner image, both for your personal page and your business page. Similarly, how we have encouraged you to utilize that space on your YouTube page, you'll notice on ours, both on our LinkedIn and on our YouTube, it's pointing to the free lead gen that we have.

Mickenzie Vought: 06:28

You could use that space to point to your podcast. I think it's a really easy way. Hop into Canva. You don't have to be a designer and make sure that the logo of your podcast is easily visibly connected to both your brand and you.

Kyle Cummings: 06:43

Yeah. Totally. So if you go to any of our socials on any platform, the banner has an arrow pointing to our podcast starter kit. It's just basically a screenshot of our PDF, podcircle.com/start. And then underneath, it says premium podcast services for busy people.

Kyle Cummings: 06:57

So kind of everything you need to know or right away, we're giving away a free resource, but also one other quick tip I wanna throw in here is using the featured section of Yeah. Your LinkedIn page, specifically on your personal page. So if you go to, my page on LinkedIn, you will find 3 things. You'll find a link to our free podcast starter kit. I have it designed.

Kyle Cummings: 07:23

It's just like 3 of the PDFs there, and there's a a button to click download. If you hit that, that's gonna take you to podcircle.com/start where they can get your lead gen. The other one that I have right there is Podcast Pro Tips newsletter. That's our LinkedIn newsletter where people can subscribe right there from my page. It says join now and then the third one is the pod circle podcast practical tips and insights for every podcaster, subscribe.

Kyle Cummings: 07:47

So we're just we're giving it all away. We're giving away our expertise, our knowledge. We're building trust. We're establishing, you know, our expertise and authority with those that are visiting our page. So use these features.

Kyle Cummings: 07:59

Use these features. And there's actually there's folks out there on LinkedIn that you can contract to help you optimize your LinkedIn. My wife did that. It was a huge help and I just went stole all of her ideas and implemented them on all my pages. So you can seek that out if that's up your alley too.

Mickenzie Vought: 08:16

I'm learning this in this moment. How do you find your featured?

Kyle Cummings: 08:19

It's right below my about section and I think and I'm fuzzy on this because it was a while ago that I set this up, but I think it's something in the my settings or preferences that I had to go in, and maybe turn on. So Yeah. Give it a quick Google. I'm sure you'll you'll find it faster than I can recall it. So

Mickenzie Vought: 08:36

That's amazing. I'm gonna go do that.

Kyle Cummings: 08:38

Yeah. And use Canva to create the little the thumbnail images of each of those things and, you know, Canva rocks. I mean, you could you don't have to go in there and reinvent the wheel every time. There's tons of great templates and they're really great with, like, hey. I need a Facebook banner or a LinkedIn banner.

Mickenzie Vought: 08:51

They know

Kyle Cummings: 08:52

all the sizing guidelines right away.

Mickenzie Vought: 08:54

It's great.

Kyle Cummings: 08:54

Now are they always perfect? Not always. Sometimes you have to, mess around with them a little bit, but, hey. It's it's better than nothing.

Mickenzie Vought: 09:02

Starting point for sure. So I think another really great tip is that if you are a niche podcast or within, like, a larger industry where there's a lot of collaboration, I would really encourage you to find industry specific groups, networks, etcetera. I am into a couple of mental health network groups. I am in one that's, like, marketers that went to the University of Michigan. Like, there are groups for everything.

Mickenzie Vought: 09:29

Find the group. You can use that group to find guests. You can use that group to share new episodes, gather ideas, get feedback on what your ideal customer might need, and then even just share different insights. Like, hey, here's a learning we had when I was doing research on LinkedIn. That's an example for this episode.

Mickenzie Vought: 09:46

So I just encourage you, especially if you're a niche podcast, and you wanna really lean into collaboration and networking. LinkedIn is a great place to do that. And I love this tip. My last tip for you is CTAs. And I stole this from one of my favorite content creators.

Mickenzie Vought: 10:04

I talked to you about Career Contessa and how much I love Lauren McGowan. And at the bottom of all of her posts, she has a section of CTAs. They're often specific to the content of her posts. And she has a couple that she just rotates in and out. So examples of like, there's like a little bell and it says follow me.

Mickenzie Vought: 10:22

Because of the discoverability of LinkedIn, so many times people are seeing content in their feed of people they don't follow because someone that they follow commented or reshared it. There it's just such a it's so much more organic than any other platform. And then another example might be a headphone and it says, listen to the podcast. There's the little like circle with arrows where she says reshare, like, what do you want your audience to do after reading this post? And if they get to the bottom of your post, that tells you that they are engaged and will more willing to take action.

Mickenzie Vought: 11:09

And it's just And it's just another way to give your audience who is engaged with you a way to give back to you.

Kyle Cummings: 11:16

Totally. And we've talked about how great LinkedIn is with or just organic growth. Now they're an algorithmically driven site just like everybody else. So there are some folks that say, you know what? If you post links, outbound links Mhmm.

Kyle Cummings: 11:31

In the actual post itself that the algorithm doesn't like that. So some people will take all those calls to actions, those links, and they will put them in the comment. And then Yes.

Mickenzie Vought: 11:41

I

Kyle Cummings: 11:41

think you can maybe pin it to the top, of your comments. Yeah. So we haven't experimented with that a ton, but we totally can. But the bottom line is, you know, make that post count. So even if you don't get as many eyes and ears, you know, the algorithm doesn't serve up the post as many people.

Kyle Cummings: 11:58

At least the people that actually read your post have a call to action at the very big very end whether or not it's actually in your post or it's in the comments. But I just think give them somewhere to go to engage with you a little bit further. Give them an opportunity to subscribe or follow you. I just think, that that was a really great finding that you had a little while ago, and I think it's a big reason that our, our newsletter on LinkedIn has grown has grown so much as well because people know how to find it.

Mickenzie Vought: 12:25

Yes. Exactly. Speaking of comments, Kyle, talk about the importance of comments. You talked a little bit on the last episode about the timing after you post to make sure you're getting in there, scheduling time, but why should you be a commenter and not just like a lurker or just throwing out content and moving on with your life?

Kyle Cummings: 12:41

Well, one, because, you're human, and so it's good to interact with other humans

Mickenzie Vought: 12:46

and Human.

Kyle Cummings: 12:48

Not just be a brand, you know, be a human. But the other is because the algorithm loves it, especially when you post within that first 30 minutes. We talked about this last episode. But in that first 15 to 30 minutes after you post, be active. Be active on LinkedIn.

Kyle Cummings: 13:01

Be posting on other people's commenting on other people's posts, liking, and that tells LinkedIn like, hey, this person just posted and they're active on here right now. So they want they love activity.

Mickenzie Vought: 13:13

Yes.

Kyle Cummings: 13:14

They're all about that. So they're, they're gonna reward that. And then LinkedIn is also just all about sharing knowledge and creating connection. Unlike other platforms like TikTok, Instagram, or Facebook that kind of serve as like an entertainment first vehicle and then a learning second. So I think that LinkedIn really distinguishes itself that way.

Kyle Cummings: 13:34

And then we know that the number one reason that people listen to podcast is to learn something new. I I know that's the case with me. I it is a little bit of a juggle between entertainment and just increasing Yes. You know, my knowledge set on something, but, I think that's definitely true.

Mickenzie Vought: 13:50

And the last thing that I wanna talk about is live events. And while we haven't really dove too much into this, I have seen some creators really win with this. The way that it's set up, if you change your account to be a creator, you can do live sessions. You could do an episode follow-up or host a q and a session. You can do it if you're like, hey.

Mickenzie Vought: 14:09

I don't I'm not ready to go live on video. LinkedIn has features where you can do a live audio event and invite other people to jump on and do their audio. And, really, this is an opportunity to have a two way connection with your listeners. You can build a dedicated group of super fans and create a space for them to gather and discuss your show, provide feedback on what they wanna see in the podcast. So if you're someone who really wants to build, like, a dedicated fan base, this is such a great way.

Mickenzie Vought: 14:37

Or if you have a business and a podcast show that really thrives on that interaction, I think that's a great way as well.

Kyle Cummings: 14:43

Yeah. Let's talk a little bit about paid ads. Admittedly, this is something that we haven't really tapped into, but it's definitely something that I'm interested in and exploring more as I learn about it. And here's a couple of reasons why. Ads on LinkedIn are 6 times more likely to convert.

Kyle Cummings: 14:59

Love that.

Mickenzie Vought: 14:59

In other places. Yep.

Kyle Cummings: 15:01

Yep. And then marketers see up to 2 times higher conversion rates on LinkedIn. And especially if you're b to b, it's the place to be. Pardon the pun or the alliteration or rhyming or whatever. It's the

Mickenzie Vought: 15:13

place to be. Yeah.

Kyle Cummings: 15:14

Yeah. But we definitely are. I mean, we're podcast services for busy professionals and, you know, nonprofits and things like that. And that's just that's where our people live. So definitely gonna be exploring paid ads on there as we, as we get into the into the year.

Kyle Cummings: 15:29

And then how to use your podcast to create ads. Create ads that use your winning podcast clips to promote your podcasts and your business. Create ads using themes and messaging from your best performing podcasts and create ads that tap into the felt needs of your audience and position you and your podcast as a solution. And remember, hearkening back to our last episode, remember trust Jen, not just lead Jen. I think those are really great point that you made on the last episode.

Kyle Cummings: 15:57

If you haven't heard it, go back and listen to it because it's a a great precursor to this one.

Mickenzie Vought: 16:02

Yeah. And so I feel like we've barely scratched the surface on this. There's so much more, but LinkedIn has yet to tap its potential for business owners. So I would say, if you are looking at all the things ahead of you, where should I be investing my time? Social media is wild, All of that.

Mickenzie Vought: 16:19

I encourage you to invest your time on LinkedIn. No matter your business, you can use it to connect with people in your industry, build trust with your target audience, and promote and grow your show.

Kyle Cummings: 16:28

Totally. And, I mean, I'm just looking at the plethora of different clients that we have at Pawtugl. Some in the, you you know, the pet space selling like CBD, like pet good. 1 in the ecommerce space, in the mental health space, in the coaching space, in the, you know, the faith space. Like, all these people are are engaging with LinkedIn, and they're doing it with intention and purpose, and they're getting good results out of it.

Kyle Cummings: 16:53

So it's, you know, it's not again, it's not just, you know, like, I need a new job. I'm gonna go on here and build out my profile and and do some sure. It's can be great for that. A great place to start, but LinkedIn is really, about connection. Like you said, it's they're fostering communities.

Kyle Cummings: 17:09

I've met people on LinkedIn that have become customers or just become acquaintances and, so I think it's a really valuable platform. So if you are ready to take the next step in your podcast journey, we can help you every step of the way at Podcircle. You can schedule time to chat with me and learn more about how we can support you. And the launch in the day to day of your podcast, all you have to do is drop me an email. It's kyle@podcircle.com.

Mickenzie Vought: 17:34

Or connect with you on LinkedIn.

Kyle Cummings: 17:36

Send me a connection. Follow me. Let me know you're listening you listen to the podcast. Would love to chat with you on there. So let's keep the conversation going.