The Headliner Podcast: Discovery and Marketing

This episode features facts, tips, and tricks for utilizing Twitter to gain podcast listeners.

This week, we wanted to pry into your genius podcasting minds and find out what some of your favorite gear is. Your answers were all over the map, and super creative as always!

Nicholas and Rob G from Libsyn are teaming up for a webinar next Week. It’s on Wednesday April 22nd at 5pm eastern. You can sign up for that here

Now, here are some essential pieces of podcasting gear our audience can’t live without:

Carolina Groppa from Life with Caca, a podcast where Carolina speaks with producers from every corner of the entertainment industry, can’t live without her Sony noise-canceling headphones. A good pair of noise-canceling headphones have made a world of difference for the sound quality of the podcast, and really help Carolina hear the nuances in each episode.

Sarah Barnes Humphrey from Let's Talk Supply Chain first and foremost can’t live without her editor, who trumps all pieces of gear. Aside from her amazing editor, Sarah can’t imagine podcasting without her mic flag. Mic flags offer a place for podcasters to display their logo and branding, and it can make your whole operation look extra professional.

Mark Tarnow of Afternoon Coffee with Mike and Tim can’t live without his sound-absorbing panels. Mark’s son had them custom made from ROCKWOOL over wood frames, and help to make his audio crisp and clean.

Christian Hunt from the Human Risk podcast, a podcast all about human behavior, can’t live without his microphone...accessories. Christian uses the RØDE NT-USB, which he has mounted on a boom arm swivel mount, so he can perfectly position his mic whether he is sitting or standing. For Christian, the boom arm is his most needed piece of gear, since it makes podcasting comfortable and convenient.

Rachel from Dating App Disasters, a hilarious podcast about the wild ride of dating apps, can’t live without her RØDECaster Pro. The RØDECaster Pro is a tiny, portable podcast studio that can easily go with you wherever you want to podcast. Best of all, it includes tons of awesome features so you can have guests call in, add sound effects, and much more.

Andrew Gelina from the Underserved podcast, which focuses on the Boston technology scene, can’t live without his Cloudlifter CL-1 Mic Activator. When Andrew works from home, the Cloudlifter helps to make even make-shift audio set-ups sound professional.

It’s pretty amazing how many different pieces of gear and equipment exist for podcasting, and even more incredible how creative people can be when creating their own solution! While we got some amazing answers, we know we still have some listeners who are still working to find a setup that works for them. To add to the inspiration, here are three podcast set-ups at three different price points:

We have been loving hearing your answers to our questions, and are thrilled to see how many of you want to participate in the Headliner podcast! Last week, we asked you to tell us what you wish you had known before you started podcasting. You can check out last week’s episode here. This week, we sent out the following question in our newsletter: What are the top three ways you promote your podcast?

We’re curious to know what tools, tricks, and techniques you use to get the word out about your podcast. Here’s what y’all had to say:

Ira Wolf from Geeks, Geezers & Googlization uses Libsyn to host his podcast, then reposts each episode to the Geeks, Geezers & Googlization website. Ira creates a blog post for each episode to be posted on his corporate site, Success Performance Solutions. Ira also posts podcast episodes and blogs to his preferred social media sites like LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook, and has been inspired by Headliner to start posting to Instagram! To help with SEO, Ira always makes sure to link his guests’ blogs, websites, and podcasts. Ira also does a fair amount of public speaking, and hands out promotional postcards at every event.

Jürgen Strauss from The InnovaBuzz Podcast, which is approaching its 300th episode, utilizes the Internet to its fullest to promote his work. Jürgen always includes new episodes of his podcast in the Tales of Marketing Transformation newsletter, posts them to social media, and uses Headliner to create audiograms to share widely on social media. The team at The InnovaBuzz Podcast also pulls some key clips and quotes from each interview that are shared in the newsletter or posted as an audiogram using Headliner. Beyond his own podcast, Jürgen works hard to help others build their podcast presence, and is currently working on a program to teach others to start, promote, and run their own podcasts.

After he publishes each podcast to Libsyn, Austin Gates from the More Than Just A Movie podcast double-checks to make sure they are placed in the correct order on the timeline on Facebook and Twitter. Next, Austin shares his podcast to social media sites that support Soundcloud and Spotify sharing; these are popular podcast streaming services, and help to make people comfortable clicking the links. Third, Austin posts his podcasts to YouTube, then shares them directly from YouTube to his social media.

First and foremost, Mark Leslie Lefebvre from the Stark Reflections on Writing and Publishing podcast uses Headliner to capture a short provocative soundbite of his latest guest, then shares it to various social media sites while making sure to tag the guest in each post. To make his podcast extra visible, Mark has embedded the show notes and podcast feed directly within his main author website. Since Mark records his podcasts via Zoom, he has a readily available video of each episode; with his guests’ permission, Mark will upload the podcast in video form to YouTube to draw in more viewers. Mark has also started uploading an audio-only version to YouTube to increase its chances of being found.

For Myles Biggs, host of the Relish the Journey podcast, the biggest secret to podcast promotion is to cross-promote; having guests on, promoting and linking their work, and getting shoutouts and links in return is a great way to expand your audience and find likeminded individuals. Myles has also found public speaking useful for getting the word out about his podcast and has been lucky enough to speak at the International Builder’s Show in Los Vegas and has a TED Talk event coming up where he will also promote his podcast. Finally, Myles wrote a book based on themes from his podcast, and he predicts that it will quickly be becoming his favorite way of promoting his podcast as soon as it is released.

Sarah Tisdale loves to promote her podcast, Secret Gardening with Sarah, by sharing stories on Instagram, sharing links to new episodes in her monthly ...

We started this new thing where we get you, our awesome audience, to participate in our weekly podcasts by asking you to send your answers to our questions. Last week, we asked how COVID-19 has been impacting your podcast, and everyone really showed up with your answers!

This week, we asked you to answer this: What is the one thing you wish you had known before you started your podcast?

Here’s how our listeners answered this week’s question:

James Sabata of The Necronomi.com podcast wishes he had known that practice makes perfect. Your first episode isn’t going to be your magnum opus, and that’s okay! Every episode will teach you something new and help you to build a better show. In the beginning, James was really neurotic about making it perfect, and that took a lot of the fun out of it. James wishes he had known it would get better so he could just have enjoyed the process. When you enjoy creating your show, everyone else will enjoy listening to it.

For Kitty Felde of The Fina Mendoza Mysteries podcast, its knowledge of the LAX takeoff schedule that she wishes she had had. Kitty never thought much about the airport takeoff schedule before starting The Fina Mendoza Mysteries, but once she was outside with a microphone, every single plane made itself known. Next time, Kitty says she would call LAX to make sure she doesn’t waste precious recording time waiting for planes to land.

Emily Harman from Onward Podcast wishes she had known that every podcaster feels a little scared and insecure. The key to success is just doing it despite the fear.

Hannah from The Psykhe Podcast wishes she had known how much fun connecting with people all around the world would be when she first got started podcasting. If she had known, she might have been less reluctant to start her podcast in the first place, and more excited to begin making the connections to her future audience and fellow podcasters.

For Phillip Wilkerson of the Positive Philter podcast, planning ahead would have made his podcast journey a whole lot easier. In the beginning, Phillip planned episodes one at a time but wishes he had known to plan at least 10 episodes in advance to avoid getting caught up in the stress of life. Scheduling helps Phillip stay on top of editing and avoid feeling rushed to get an episode out.

Scott Wyden Kivowitz from The WordPress Photography Podcast wishes he had known about Headliner from the very beginning! Headliner has saved Scott a ton of time, and he no longer has to fiddle around with Final Cut Pro.

Kolby Castilloof Sports as a Job wishes he had known just how rewarding podcasting would be. If Colby had known what kind of influence he could have, he would never have hesitated and jumped into podcasting right away.

If you ask Matt Pollard of Holding The High Line with Rabbi and Red what he wishes he had known before he got started podcasting, he’ll say: Sound quality and post-recording editing are super important. Matt spent several years self-teaching himself the necessary editing skills to make his audio sound good. Matt wishes he had learned some more of the ins and outs of audio before he got started and recommends you learn from this and take some time to get editing skills early on.

Juan Kingsbury from Career Blindspot reminds us that sometimes even the basics are complex by wishing that he had known exactly what kind of podcast he actually wanted to created. As a big fan of podcasts, Juan had tons of inspiration but had a hard time picking one lane. His advice: pick a setup you are likely to use again and again.

Janyl Jusupjan of Chaï Latte & Salt, Untold Stories of Central Asia wishes she had known how difficult it would be to create a podcast in English as a non-native English speaker.

By the way, if you want to participate in next week’s podcast, be sure to sign up for the Headliner newsletter here! Our weekly newsletter always features that week’s question and instructions for submitting your answers.

Contestants Max, Kristy, Jesse and Oliver join host Nicholas on a podcast game show where audio clip analysis skills are put to the test. Selecting the correct title seems easy at first, but some find out the hard way that it's trickier than it appears. The contestants must rely on their wits, intuition, and in Jesse's case, opera expertise to succeed. Just when they think they have it figured out, producer Elissa tries to throw them off their game. Find out if the contestants can keep their winning streak alive when the competition heats up!

Everything you see here is created by Headliner! Try Make for easy podcast videos and Eddy for quick optimizations.

Featured Podcasts:

• Water Talks
• Detroit Opera
• Foreign Founders
• Southern Gospel Point of View
• WetWired
• Writing Remix Podcast

(00:00) Headliners play a game that involves listening to randomly selected podcast clips (00:44) Headliners for today's show are Max, Kristy, Oliver, and Jesse (01:31) Headliner needs your help with improving podcasting (02:38) Anyway, let's get started with our clips for (03:04) Clip 1 (04:28) The first one is Fixing the Future Podcast. The second is Water Has Memory (08:01) Christy: I would love to do a new production of Butterfly (09:25) So, Christy, here are your options (11:29) Jesse: I think that default story of celebrity falling into pitfalls is crazy (12:43) Jesse's math (15:38) Next up, we have Oliver (19:13) Clip 2 (22:12) Let's break everyone up into teams and see what happens (24:09) Pick one Southern gospel point of view podcast and one Southern Soul podcast (27:53) Clips continue (31:06) Okay, here are your three options for today (36:18) The title for the podcast itself is going to be more overarching than previous titles (36:50) Max rounds it out