Will We Ever Get Better Podcast Engagement?

Few things make podcasters happier than a slew of emails from deeply engaged listeners filled with praise for the latest episode. Good work if you can get it. But should you expect and encourage it?

Do you want more engagement from your listeners? Sure. But do your listeners want to engage with you? Well...

Keep in mind that for almost every type of creator—books, tv shows, movies, Michelin-rated chefs—engagement with their audience is rare. And engagement during the time of creation is unheard of.

Some of the perceived need for podcasters to get immediate feedback stems from the podcasting versus radio fight that's going on two decades now. Our RSS feeds could out-distance their radio towers. But they could have live callers. And we couldn't. Boo.

Should we podcasters give up on the idea of getting more engagement from our listeners? No. But we probably should better understand what engagement opportunities we do have.

Not all engagements need to be live. And I'm encouraged by the efforts of companies like PodInbox who are improving podcast-specific forms of engagement.

But at the same time, maybe podcasting already have enough engagement from listeners?

Searching, finding, subscribing to or following, listening... These are forms of engagement that our listeners are doing right now. And honestly, it's the kind of engagement that podcasts are best set up to receive.

I almost hate to say it, but the majority of your audience will not get any benefit from engaging more deeply with you or your podcast than they already are.

It is very natural for us to want more engagement from our audience. But we serious podcasters need to first make sure we're giving our audience good reasons to engage with our content in the first place.

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Links

• Getting more than 10K downloads per episode? Talk to Gumball.fm!
• Giving Your Podcast's Listeners A Public Voice With PodInbox
• PodInbox - A place for your audience to ask questions and share their stories.
• Over 100K active podcasters trust Buzzsprout.

Mentioned in this episode:

Support For Abortion Rights

While Americans overwhelmingly support the right of an individual to make their own decisions about abortion, unfortunately, that right is no longer protected everywhere in the U.S. The Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade on June 24th. Abortion is a basic healthcare need for the millions of people who can become pregnant. Everyone should have the freedom to decide what’s best for themselves and their families, including when it comes to ending a pregnancy. This decision has dire consequences for individual health and safety, and could have harsh repercussions for other landmark decisions. Restricting access to comprehensive reproductive care, including abortion, threatens the health and independence of all Americans. Even if you live in a state where abortion rights are upheld, access to safe medical procedures shouldn’t be determined by location, and it shouldn't be the privilege of a small few. You can help by donating to local abortion funds. To find out where to donate for each state, visit donations4abortion.com. If you or someone you know needs help, or if you want to get more involved, here are 5 resources: 1. ShoutYourAbortion.com is a campaign to normalize abortion. 2. DontBanEquality.com is a campaign for companies to take a stand against abortion restrictions. 3. Abortion.cafe has information about where to find clinics. 4. PlanCPills.org provides early at-home abortion pills that you can keep in your medicine cabinet. 5. Choice.CRD.co has a collection of these resources and more. We encourage you to speak up! And spread the word.

This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
OP3 - https://op3.dev/privacy