Podcircle Podcast

Kyle Cummings: 00:00

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

Mickenzie Vought: 00:04

From aspiring podcasters to experts with 100s of episodes under your belt and everywhere in between, these conversations dive into the topics that matter most to you. Alright, Kyle. What are we talking about today?

Kyle Cummings: 00:15

We are talking about how to convert your social media followers into podcast subscribers is a really important topic.

Mickenzie Vought: 00:24

Yeah. I think it's one that can kinda work in both ways. Like, first, you start a podcast after having a pretty large social following. Maybe that's why you went into the podcasting space because you wanted to give your audience more of you, or maybe it's the other way around. Maybe you have a podcast and are now trying to push your podcast to build your social audience.

Mickenzie Vought: 00:45

But either way, I think there is an importance at looking at how do we have more if we think about our Venn diagrams. Right? Our Venn diagram of podcast listeners and our Venn diagram of social followers, how do we make that overlap a little bit bigger?

Kyle Cummings: 00:59

So we're actually gonna dive right in. We've got about 6 or 7 things here. And if you've been a a long time listener of the podcast, you have heard us say before that even if you are a an audio only podcast, you still always record a video element if you can. Even if you don't have a video podcast, record those videos because either now or later, you might decide to turn those into social media assets like reels Yeah. Which we're a huge fan of.

Kyle Cummings: 01:29

We do that for the Pod Circle podcast. If you follow us on, really any of the socials, but especially Instagram, you'll see reels show up all the time from us, which are just little clips from the podcast. We do the very same thing to try to promote this podcast and take, you know, a 15 or 20 minute episode, and we can find sometimes 10 or 15 different, like, bite sized 45 second nuggets from that podcast and edit them down into those clips that look really good. So we always encourage people to do that. You can also pull a really key quote or a takeaway and form that into just a, a static quote image or a carousel for it's it's carousel Instagram or LinkedIn or

Mickenzie Vought: 02:10

Both, I think.

Kyle Cummings: 02:11

For both. Okay. I didn't know if the terminology translated, but those are really cool and really popular as well. So there's just so much content that you can create, out of a single podcast episode. So we really encourage people to do that and leverage their social media following that way.

Mickenzie Vought: 02:25

I feel like I'm seeing this all over, recently, especially. I think I'm seeing so many creators that I have started following for a long time and now seeing their podcast and how they're utilizing this. A couple of podcasts, I think, do this really well. The guys from It's Always Sunny, they have a podcast, where they often bring on Danny DeVito and that kind of stuff. And I watch their clips, but don't actually listen to their podcast.

Mickenzie Vought: 02:49

But they have intrigued me and started you know? Yet. Exactly. Yet. And I have started listening to them.

Mickenzie Vought: 02:56

Also, all the hype of the town, should we jump on it? The Kelsey brothers. I am now in the Venn diagram of people that care about the Kelsey brothers because of my interest in Taylor Swift.

Kyle Cummings: 03:06

Yeah. I was gonna say that probably didn't hurt.

Mickenzie Vought: 03:09

No. That didn't hurt at all. But they utilize video really well on their channel. And I follow one of them and have now subscribed to their podcast. Keep it on the DL.

Mickenzie Vought: 03:20

Right? Yeah.

Kyle Cummings: 03:21

Oh, no. I love New Heights. I was an early adopter of that podcast. Just one because I'm a big NFL fan.

Mickenzie Vought: 03:28

Mhmm.

Kyle Cummings: 03:29

You know, those the 2 brothers who played each other in the Super Bowl last year. And then I kind of I saw their podcast out of that. And I was at, man, that the production company that puts it on, I'm just so impressed with their work and wrangling 2 very busy, very rich football players, getting them to sit down in front of a computer. I'm sure there's some setup involved, like, all the behind the scenes stuff. I'm like that.

Kyle Cummings: 03:50

The fact that they pull that off on a weekly basis is is nothing short of a miracle, honestly. And the fact they're in 2 different places, so I'm sure they're using Riverside like we are. I already know they're using the same mics that that you and I do this. Yeah. Exactly.

Kyle Cummings: 04:02

Because I've checked them out. So one more for me before I kick it over to you. Mhmm. If if you have a Linktree in, especially for your Instagram, hopefully you do, but always update that Linktree with your most recent episodes and let people know that, you know, that that's where they can find them. So for a lot of you, that's gonna be an obvious thing.

Kyle Cummings: 04:23

But sometimes that Linktree can go kind of dormant. You know, we can kind of forget to get in there and and, to up update that with the latest podcast episode or blog. So just a friendly reminder to hit that Linktree and update that on a weekly basis if you can.

Mickenzie Vought: 04:38

Absolutely. And it's important to tell people you have a podcast. So I think if you already have a preexisting social audience, they may not know you have a podcast. Just ask them. I I feel like let's just start there.

Mickenzie Vought: 04:51

If you want to convert your social media followers to podcast listeners, tell them.

Kyle Cummings: 04:56

Yeah.

Mickenzie Vought: 04:57

When you are super serving them and they're loving what you're putting out in the world, they're gonna want more from you. I firmly believe that. I firmly believe in creating content that serves people, super serves them enough that they wanna engage with you farther. And we talk about this all the time, Kyle. Right?

Mickenzie Vought: 05:13

Like, give them little breadcrumbs. Give them little snippets where they start with a 62nd reel, and then maybe it's a longer reel. And then they wanna listen more to you. So they listen to 1 episode, then they subscribe, and then they eventually convert to a loyal raving fan and customer to whatever your end goal of your podcast is.

Kyle Cummings: 05:31

It's a big ask to ask, a social media follower whether they're really engaged or they just kind of follow you and, you know, like your post every once in a while To jump over to Apple, find your podcast, listen to a 30, 45 minute, hour long episode, That's a big commitment. So you've gotta you've gotta kinda tease it out. And and to your point, like you said earlier, you would like, is it the Always Sunny podcast where you you love the clips, you love the clips, and then, like, eventually they're gonna get you. They're like, okay, I wanna listen to a whole episode. And that's just how it works.

Kyle Cummings: 06:06

And it might take a while to get there. Mhmm. But, you know, long game. We're always talking about that. So

Mickenzie Vought: 06:13

It's a long game. There are couple of things that I think you need to be thinking about is how do we organically think about our podcast content, our emails, our social media as an entire ecosystem? And so I always say, like, what are ways that you can plug whatever your social media followers are giving you from an engagement standpoint into further things? So maybe they're DMing you with a specific question. You can briefly answer it and then say, Hey, go in to this deeper in this podcast episode, send them a specific episode.

Mickenzie Vought: 06:42

1 you're engaging personally, and they're going to love that. 2, you're getting them to your podcast. How do you take the theme of the podcast for the week and start off with a story at the front of the week and say, hey, I'm diving into this this week. And just really throughout the week, talk more and more about what you're talking about. Example, let's say we have a podcast on the best podcast mic.

Mickenzie Vought: 07:04

We could hop on and say, hey. Here's our podcast mic. We wanna talk to you about it this week. And then we'll have a blog, and then we'll do this, and we'll just continue to push you there. Someone I think really does this well.

Mickenzie Vought: 07:14

Jess Connelly had a podcast for a really long time. She's been in the podcast space a really long time. I've been a loyal follower, and have never taken the leap over into her podcast. It has changed, kinda how she approaches it has changed over the years. But recently, she relaunched as a Jess Connolly show, and she is really highlighting how she's diversifying her content.

Mickenzie Vought: 07:35

She started the week and one episode was all about, like, taking the fuss out of fashion. And she's not a fashion blogger, but it relates to her overall content and her themes. So she talked about it all throughout the week. And she just kept coming back to, like, different ways that fashion shows up in our lives. And and at the end of the week, she even called it out and said, okay.

Mickenzie Vought: 07:55

I'm done with this. I'm y'all you'll never have to hear about fashion from you again for a little bit. But she talks about all week, and I wouldn't listen to that episode because it had just we we say it takes what? Twelve touches in a marketing standpoint to get people to convert. So there's that.

Mickenzie Vought: 08:09

The last is a social media contest. And not just, hey, go subscribe. Here's a social media contest. But if you're running one anyway, one of the ways that someone could get an extra entry, and there are apps that will allow you to do this. One of the ways they can get an extra entry is by subscribing to your podcast.

Mickenzie Vought: 08:26

So I think that's, something to look into. I think the podcast that I've used the most is glimmer around that. But don't quote me on that. Just Google what are ways that I can host a social media contest, and then that can be one of the ways that people get extra entries.

Kyle Cummings: 08:38

So That's really smart. I like that. 2 more kind of bonus tips here. Landing notable guests. Yeah.

Kyle Cummings: 08:45

If you're thinking about starting a podcast or if you already have a podcast, you know how important it is to to really land that guest that's in your space that's that's gonna captivate your audience. And more times than not, that person's gonna have a pretty pretty good social media following. So maybe, you you know, most podcasters that get into it aren't, you know, they aren't social media influencers turned podcasters. So it really helps to leverage someone like that's network.

Mickenzie Vought: 09:11

Yeah.

Kyle Cummings: 09:12

And and also just, you know, be a great first first or or first handful of guests for your podcast. So the the key thing to do there is to produce really good social media clips and share that with them. Edit the clips down, make them really tight, make them look good, and, also let them know, like, send them send them to your guests and let them know, like, hey, this episode is gonna air on this day. I would love if you would consider, like, posting up a story on Instagram.

Mickenzie Vought: 09:41

Mhmm.

Kyle Cummings: 09:41

And a lot of people know this, some people don't, but you can actually post outbound links in Instagram stories now, which is really, really useful for, you know, from getting people from social media, which is what this podcast is all about, and then converting them into podcast listeners, and hopefully, fingers crossed into podcast subscribers.

Mickenzie Vought: 10:01

Yes. When I was a baby social media marketer lots of years ago, the only people that were allowed swipe up links were those with, like, 10,000 followers. And now we all can have it. On that same idea, what I have seen successful in my own space is that I literally have a template in email that I send every time an episode releases. I say to the guest, here's your episode.

Mickenzie Vought: 10:22

Here's the show description. Here's some, like, key, quotes from the episode. Here's your links, and we created you assets, and then I share them. And that's been super beneficial to make it easy for them. And 2, if it's a really big guess that I want to share, sometimes I will create assets that I know are in their branding.

Mickenzie Vought: 10:40

And I can kinda steal their colors or, you know, nothing too explicit, but knowing that it that they'll be willing to post it when it looks more like what they're already doing, and it'll kinda fit into their flow of what they're putting out in their content. So

Kyle Cummings: 10:52

That is so smart. And I think that extra just that extra effort goes a long way. I'm curious, like, how you actually package that up. Do you Mhmm. Do you drop those clips in, like, a drop box?

Kyle Cummings: 11:03

And then, like, I'm curious the packaging of it, how you do that for for big guests.

Mickenzie Vought: 11:08

Yeah. We have a Dropbox link that we usually throw things into, and I'll have a couple options. I'll have my designer design, like, 3 or 4 different ones because there are people that say, hey. I'd love to share, but I don't wanna share anything that anyone else is sharing. I don't wanna share the same thing you're sharing.

Mickenzie Vought: 11:23

I want it to really be, like, individualized content. Totally fine. I'll create you a couple different options. I might do one with your photo without your photo. I might do one with a quote and then your photo in the corner.

Mickenzie Vought: 11:34

I might just do your quote. I will make sure that I that I give both square and story formats

Kyle Cummings: 11:41

Mhmm.

Mickenzie Vought: 11:42

Of all the assets I'm giving. If we have video, I'll utilize that and make sure it puts them in a good light and really highlights them and their story. And then the coloring, we'll make sure that we've got our branding on it, but that it it kinda fits in with their aesthetic too. So yeah. And then I just send a Dropbox link with all the all the things and say, hey.

Mickenzie Vought: 11:59

Let me know if there's anything you need. And then I do tag them. Then we post on our end and tag them so that they can easily reshare it if they don't wanna create their own post too.

Kyle Cummings: 12:07

You know, it's eliminating all the barriers. You know?

Mickenzie Vought: 12:09

Yeah.

Kyle Cummings: 12:10

Which I think is is really important.

Mickenzie Vought: 12:12

And give them a heads up. Hey. In 2 weeks, it's gonna release on this day because some people plan out their content, and, that's a mistake that I have made and sometimes continue to make when I don't give them a heads up or have fun thought around it because they've already got their content planned and they don't wanna mess with that. So I can get a more organic and more thought out, not just a share. If I can say, hey.

Mickenzie Vought: 12:32

In 2 weeks, you'll release.

Kyle Cummings: 12:34

Yes. And that that'll bring up a final point and then Mhmm. And then we'll wrap up Yeah. Is the importance of getting ahead with your episodes. You can do all of the things that Mackenzie just said by trying to stay ahead.

Kyle Cummings: 12:48

And that's easier to do if you create more kind of evergreen content, if you're not, like, a newsy podcast where you're just reacting to what happened yesterday. But in this case, it's really, really helpful for your for yourself and for the success of your podcast, but also for your guests to get ahead. Let them know, like, hey, this episode, all these assets are here for you. It's launching this day. Would would love your support.

Kyle Cummings: 13:10

So anything else on on your end, Mickenzie?

Mickenzie Vought: 13:13

I think just my encouragement would be to super serve people. And we talked about this in one of our previous episodes, but we wanna focus on quality over quantity. So whatever social media following you have today, if it's a 100 people, if it's 50 people, if it's 15,000 people, if you're taking care of them, really be intentional with how you're serving them, and it'll pay dividends.

Kyle Cummings: 13:33

Yeah. Absolutely. It's really well said. Before we go, we would love if you would consider giving us a rating and review. Subscribe to the podcast.

Kyle Cummings: 13:42

We're gonna be at you every week with new content around podcasting, tips, tricks, things that are happening in the podcast space. I don't know if you guys heard this past week. It was a big news that Google Podcasts is actually shutting down.

Mickenzie Vought: 13:55

We talked about that in the newsletter.

Kyle Cummings: 13:57

Yeah. We just had a newsletter that went out, and we kind of addressed that and shined a light on what's going on there. So grateful to be in front of you guys and have a platform to share these kinds of things. We're obviously big fans of what podcasting can do really for whatever you're doing, whether you're Yep. A business owner or you're an influencer, you you're a course creator, you're an author, you're a speaker.

Kyle Cummings: 14:19

Podcasts are very powerful in terms of creating that connection and that intimacy with your listeners and your followers. And so just a few tips today on how to take those social media followers, turn them into podcast listeners. Hope you found it was helpful. And if you did, subscribe

Mickenzie Vought: 14:33

And follow us on social media.

Kyle Cummings: 14:34

And follow us on social @podcircle. Have a great week. We'll, we'll talk to you guys next week.