Ready to release your podcast episode? All those investments in equipment and hours of planning, recording, and editing to get the right feel and sound have hopefully boiled down to a great podcast. Now you need to spread the word.

With 6 in 10 podcasters quoting “building an audience” as a major hurdle in their podcasting journey, podcast promotion is crucial for the success of your show. And social media is a great way to distribute your content to reach your target audience.

As a B2B podcaster looking to attract more listeners and generate leads, podcast social media marketing could be a goldmine. It can be an ace up your sleeve—as long as you do it right!

But there’s more to podcast social media than randomly posting a link and hoping for the best. You need a well-defined podcast social media strategy. And that brings us to the goal of this “Podcasting Mastered” course lesson—to teach you how to promote a podcast on social media.

Key Takeaways:

How Do I Promote a Podcast on Social Media?

Create Dedicated Podcast Social Media Accounts.
Promote Podcasts on The Right Social Media Platforms.
Create A Social Media Publishing Schedule for Consistency.
Be Authentic and Human.
Don’t Be Too Sales-Y.
Run Giveaways.
Share Trailers to Tease Upcoming Episodes.
Build A Network Through Cross-Promotion.
Create And Share Audiograms.
Share Quote Cards.
Make The Most of Hashtags.

This post is the 20th in a series of “Podcasting Mastered” chapters designed to help you launch and grow an enterprise lead-generating podcast.

There has never been a better time to make your voice heard – and we’re here to help master the art of podcasting with step-by-step guides.

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Why is Social Media Important for Podcasts?

A podcast social media strategy is key to a successful podcast brand. Social media is a great way to boost podcast discoverability by attracting new listeners and keeping existing listeners engaged on a platform they spend a significant amount of their time.

It is a cost-effective tool to promote new episodes, repurpose content, share important information with listeners, drive traffic to your website, build brand awareness, and boost listener loyalty.

Most brands (approximately 92%) today use social media as an essential item in their digital marketing arsenal. And you only need to look at the statistics and potential benefits to understand why you need to make podcast social media marketing a key part of your podcast promotion efforts.

Here’s a more detailed breakdown of why social media is vital for podcasts:

1. Your Ideal Podcast Listener is Likely on Social Media.

Did you know that approximately 60% of the global population is on social media —with the penetration expected to soar to 74% by 2027? And if that did not pique your attention, this population of social media users spends an average of 144 minutes daily scrolling through their social media feed.

If you want to get in front of as many people as possible, you need a podcast social media strategy! It is an excellent way to build brand awareness and recognition.

2. Establish Yourself as a Thought Leader.

In Lesson #2 of the “Podcasting Mastered” course, we mentioned that B2B podcasting allows you to position yourself as an authority in your industry. With more than 7 in 10 podcast listeners tuning in to a show to learn something new, it’s an opportunity to boost your credibility by inspiring, advising, and solving their problems.

Podcast social media marketing takes this opportunity up a notch by allowing you to interact directly with your audience and showcase your know-how or expertise in a subject.

3. Podcast Social Media Marketing is Cost-Effective.

It’s free to open accounts for your podcast, and sending a podcast social media post will barely cost you—unless you’re using paid tools.

The primary investment with podcast social media marketing is your time and effort. You have nothing to lose (money-wise). So why not?

4. Social Media can be a Potent Lead Magnet.

Statistics suggest that social media is an industry on the rise—with no signs of slowing down. So it only makes sense to meet leads where they’re already hanging out – i.e., on the different social media platforms.

Social media is a great way to generate leads organically or with paid ads. You can effectively increase inbound traffic to your website, podcast, and business with proper planning and tactics.

One particular perk of social media for podcasts is the opportunity to repurpose content—whether a previous episode, a quote by a podcast guest, or written content (e.g., show noes) from your website.

5. It’s an Avenue to Share Updates and News.

Got a new episode coming up? Excited to interview a highly recommended podcast guest? Or maybe you’re going on holiday and taking a short break from your usual podcasting schedule?

Keeping your audience updated with such information is one podcast social media post away. And your listeners will feel appreciated when they’re not left in the dark.

For example:

The How Did This Get Made?! podcast expertly uses social media as a tool to keep listeners in the loop about their touring schedules. And if the comments and likes are anything to go by, the audience appreciates that.

6. Build Audience Loyalty.

If you want to build a successful podcast, you’ll need a loyal fanbase in your corner. Why? Around 96% of the most dedicated podcast listeners openly recommend your show to friends and family.

But where does social media come in?

According to data by Sprout Social, 90% of consumers say they’re more inclined to buy from a brand they follow on social media. And when people follow you, 75% of them will increase their spending with your brand. Now think about how this information on consumer habits translates to your podcast.

One way you can use social media to build a loyal audience is through social listening. This is basically the practice of monitoring your target audience’s conversations around certain topics to understand what matters to them. Then engage with them intelligibly and create podcasting content that addresses their pain points.

7. Competitor Analysis.

Other podcasters are likely already on social media—and they’re probably reaping all the podcast social media marketing benefits we’ve highlighted above.

Implementing your own podcast social media strategy is an excellent way to get ahead of the competition and scope their strategies. What are they doing great? What do their listeners/audience like? You need to play the game to beat it.

How to Promote a Podcast on Social Media?

Before we get into the details of how to promote a podcast on social media, you need to understand that social media is a crowded market. This fact can either be a setback or an immense opportunity. You can stand out or get lost in the noise. It all depends on how you leverage it.

And since you obviously want to leverage social media as an opportunity to grow your audience, you need to be smart and strategic with your podcast social media marketing approach.

So, how do I promote my podcast on social media? Or how do podcasts use social media?

Much like podcasting, you need to be thoughtful and deliberate with how you use social media as a podcast promotion tool. Effectively promoting a podcast on social media is about choosing your platforms strategically, creating valuable content, following a social media content calendar, engaging with your audience, and measuring your results to keep improving.

Creating and implementing a podcast social media strategy sounds like a great and exciting idea. But there are near-endless tools, multiple platforms, and more ‘hacks’ than you can keep up with—which can feel overwhelming. Plus, you probably have a lot on your plate trying to create compelling podcast content and running a business.

Adding the complex and ever-evolving world of podcast social media marketing to your to-do list can be exhausting. But don’t worry. We understand this, which is why we’ve compiled a list of the best practices on how to promote a podcast on social media.

You should have a good idea of how to get the most out of social media by the time you’re done with this course lesson. We will give you tips and tricks to create a winning podcast social media strategy.

But you must play your part and leverage your unique qualities to stand out and build a loyal audience. Now let’s get into the juicy part.

Here are the best practices to promote a podcast on social media:

1. Focus Your Podcasts Promotion Efforts on The Right Platforms.

Choose your social media platforms strategically. This is a decision that could make or break your podcast’s social media marketing strategy. You don’t want to pour your hard work and time into a platform where your listener avatar rarely hangs out.

What is the Best Social Media Platform for Podcasts?

The best social media platforms to promote your podcast are:

Facebook – To attract new listeners and build a community through features like Facebook groups, podcast social media posts, or Facebook ads.
Twitter – To build credibility, connect with your audience, and share timely, news-worthy content related to your podcast.
Instagram – For a versatile platform with a diverse audience. Promoting your podcast on Instagram is an excellent way to build brand awareness with the help of engaging visual content.
LinkedIn – for B2B podcasts whose target audience mainly includes company decision-makers in their professional capacity.
TikTok – If your target audience is younger and you’re looking to attract new listeners through viral trends.
YouTube – The video-sharing platform is developing into the go-to podcast listening destination for most people—even outperforming dedicated podcast directories like Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Share your podcast here to attract new listeners and grow your audience.

When promoting a podcast on a particular social media channel, think about what performs best on these platforms.

What type of content do audiences expect?

For example, TikTok users expect creative and trendy shorts. And for Instagram, that would be eye-catching visuals complemented by catchy and engaging captions.

2. Create Dedicated Podcast Social Media Accounts.

You’ve identified the best social media channels to launch your podcast promotion strategies. What next? Start by giving your podcast its own social media identity that aligns with your brand.

Sure, your show may feel personal—like it’s an extension of yourself or your business. But refrain from jumbling it with your personal or business social media accounts.

Wondering why you need dedicated podcast social media accounts? Well, we have three good reasons:

Your audience knows exactly where to go for podcast information without sorting through endless pictures of your dog or what you had for breakfast.
A dedicated account allows you to better implement podcast social media marketing strategies and accurately collect performance analytics.
It shows your professionalism. A dedicated podcast social media account implies you’re serious about your venture. This is especially important if you’re into B2B podcasting.

Don’t get us wrong. We have nothing against using your personal accounts as part of your podcast social media strategy. Our argument is that it should not be your show’s primary home. In fact, sending podcast social media posts on your personal accounts can be beneficial (more on this later in the lesson).

3. Create A Schedule (Consistency Is Key).

A key part of mastering how to promote a podcast on social media is creating a social media publishing schedule. This is a system that helps you maintain consistency, which is excellent for you and your audience.

Creating a framework and calendar makes creating podcast social media posts much easier and faster. You can even leverage automation tools like Loomly and Buffer to schedule and publish batches of podcast promotion content.

This comes in handy when you have your hands full trying to juggle episode scripting, booking guests, and recording content.

And when your audience knows what to expect, like clockwork, you have better odds of winning them over and converting them into loyal listeners.

Take the example of Dax Shepard through his Armchair Expert Podcast.

A quick look at his Instagram posts reveals a recurring trend in the type of content shared. He follows a well-thought-out social media publishing schedule. This creates a sense of familiarity among his listeners.

4. Be Authentic and Human.

We are inherently social beings and tend to gravitate toward other people we can relate to. As such, your social media audience typically wants to interact and connect with a real person. Podcast social media posts that feel “robotic” may put off existing and potential listeners.

So explore interesting ways to engage with your audience in an authentic way. Some simple but effective podcast social media marketing strategies include asking questions, retweeting their content, hosting Facebook live sessions, leaving feedback, and asking your audience to @ you.

These tactics encourage higher rates of dialogue, which is excellent for visibility on social media platforms and beyond.

The You’re Wrong About is a good example of how to promote a podcast on social media by engaging with the audience authentically as a ‘real’ person.

You can also borrow the podcast social media strategy employed by the Crime Junkie Podcast. They occasionally supplement their true crime podcast content with trending memes related to their niche. This brings a light-hearted mood to otherwise serious and emotional conversations. They also share behind-the-scenes content that makes them feel human and relatable.

But you need to keep tabs on the language you use. Research by Spotify shows that the spoken language in your podcast episodes can directly impact your audience growth, which carries over to social media.

Develop a personality that resonates with your audience, niche, and subject matter. And feel free to experiment with different languages to find your unique voice.

5. Don’t Be Too Sales-Y.

This may be a guide on how to promote a podcast on social media. Still, sales pitches should always play second fiddle to valuable content.

We suggest you follow the 80/20 rule:

80% of your podcast social media posts should focus on helping your audience in some way. Aspire to inspire, entertain, educate, or address their pain points. You can use the remaining 20% to subtly push your podcast promotion CTAs (call to action) or sales pitches.

For example, let’s say you want to promote a new episode on your audience’s favorite social media channel. The best practice is to lead with valuable insight from the episode. This can be a quote, useful information, or a piece of inspiring advice. From there, you can squeeze a sentence asking the user to tune in to your episode or buy some merch.

6. Run Giveaways, Offers, or Competitions.

Who loves giveaways?

Your target audience likely does. Consider holding a drawing or contest to drive some additional traffic while giving back to your audience. This podcast social media marketing tactic is a win-win—and you don’t need to break the bank to implement it.

Look at how the Masters of Scale podcast executed the idea of running a draw/contest to appeal to the target audience while maintaining their authenticity.

Other inexpensive prizes you can offer include branded merchandise, a shoutout in your podcast, a guest spot in an upcoming episode, or product discounts.

7. Trailers To Tease Upcoming Episodes.

Got an interesting episode in the works?

Get your audience pumped! Create anticipation by hyping the episode with a short but sweet snippet of the show, much like how those movie trailers get you hooked months before the actual movie.

Capture some of the most attention-grabbing points of the recorded conversation and share it on a podcast social media post for the audience to grab a taste of what is coming. Think of it like an appetizer. It gives followers just the right amount of useful information that they’ll be eager for the whole experience (the main meal, if you will).

A teaser builds awareness around your upcoming episode (which could increase the number of streams/downloads). It encourages social shares (especially if you have a popular guest over). And it keeps your audience up to date with your schedule (which is great for engagement).

8. Build Your Network in the Industry.

Sometimes learning how to promote a podcast on social media is as simple as getting involved in your industry and building a network. Now, what do we mean by “build your network”?

Building a network is about looking beyond your snug podcast space. Extend your podcast social media marketing efforts to other brands in your industry. Find ways to support and interact with other podcasters.

Here are some podcast social media strategies you can implement:

Hang out with other podcasters and engage with the community of audio creators. Think along the lines of groups like Reddit’s /r/podcasts or Facebook’s Podcast Support Group. These are the places you want to hang out to stay on top of the latest trends and practices in the industry.
Request a recent podcast guest to promote your show on their social media accounts.
Cross-promote with other podcasters in your niche. Think of yourself as just another podcast fan to their show and share their audio creations. And when they reciprocate, it becomes mutually beneficial.
Remember the earlier part where we discouraged personal social media accounts? Well, here’s the exception. You can use your personal social profiles as the secondary home of your podcast. This applies if you’re the host or the podcast is intertwined with your life in some way.

9. Create Audiograms.

Here’s the hard truth podcasters don’t like to hear: Most social media platforms are not built to house audio content. They are all about visual content—from written captions to videos and images. So what does this mean for your audio-heavy content? Simple, adapt!

Turn your audio content into visual assets with podcast audiograms. This may demand more editing than you’re already doing with your show, but it’s a necessary compromise.

An audiogram is basically a way to convert your podcast sound into an engaging social video. It mainly involves taking an image and adapting it into a video by adding an animated audio waveform, transcriptions, and dynamic graphics.

Audiogram creation is one of the podcast editing services we offer at PodcastBuffs. We help you select the most memorable and curious moments in an episode.

Then we assign an in-house graphic designer to create audiograms that perfectly capture your brand aesthetic. And finally, we optimize the visuals for all applicable social media channels. Book a call today to discuss about this.

10. Share Quote Cards.

If you’re looking for interesting ways to promote a podcast on social media, we highly recommend quote cards. They are a simple but potentially potent podcast promotion tool that allows you to highlight stand-out quotes by the host or guest.

Quote cards can be a golden podcast social media marketing asset when well-implemented. Here’s why:

They are informative. People love learning new things, and they may reward you with a listen for the value you’re providing.
Quote cards can ramp up your engagement.
Think about it: Let’s say you are scrolling through your social media feed, and you come across an inspiring visually-appealing quote that cuts deep.

What do you do?
Some may screenshot it and share it within their circle. Others will save it for later when they need another jolt of motivation. And most will like or comment on the podcast social media post. What all this does is incentivize the social media algorithm to boost the visibility of your podcast on social media.

The trick to this podcast social media strategy is to keep the quotes short, memorable, and easy to digest. Also, ensure you use a visual that is pleasing to the eye and encourages the audience to take action.

Interested but not sure where to start? We can help create eye-catching and informative quote cards to increase your social media engagement and promote audience growth. Here are some examples of our work.

11. The #Hashtag is Your Best Friend.

A list of how to promote a podcast on social media would not be complete without featuring the good ol’ hashtag.

You are missing out if you’re not using hashtags as part of your podcast social media strategy! A hashtag is a quick and easy way to generate leads and expand your reach to an audience that probably didn’t know of your existence.

And even better, the audience you attract is typically hungry for the content you’re producing. In other words, hashtagging is a powerful way to find and ‘reel in’ your podcast listener avatar. It’s pretty much a doorway and a window into the wonderful world of social media.

A good rule of thumb when using general hashtags as part of your podcast social media marketing strategy is to find a couple with an average number of publications. Depending on your industry, the sweet spot is typically in the low thousands or even hundreds.

The goal is to be visible. And highly popular hashtags will only drown you in a sea of other publications.

Some industry-specific hashtags you might want to add to your podcast social media strategy include:

#newpodcastalert #[insert type]podcast #podcasthost #podcastrecommendation #podcastaddict #podcastfor[insert audience] #podcaststudio #podcastcommunity #podcasterthoughts #podcastsuggestions #podcastlaunch #podcasttips

In addition to the industry-specific hashtags, create a few original hashtags to help you stand out from the crowd. These will give the audience a quick way to find content that is specific to you. Feel free to play around with any relatable wording. But something simple like #[your podcast name] or #[your podcast name] podcast should do the trick.

Go Implement Your Podcast Social Media Marketing Strategy!

There you have it! With these podcast social media marketing tips and tricks, you should know how to promote a podcast on social media. But don’t expect to go viral the next day.

Sometimes lead generation through social media is about patience. It’s about continually improving. So never stop A/B testing. Gather analytics, ask for feedback from your audience, adjust your podcast social media strategy, and keep trying new tactics.

And if you have any questions or need some help implementing some podcast social media marketing strategies such as the use of audiograms and quote cards, schedule a call. We’d love to hear from you.

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How to Promote your Podcast on Social Media?