If you create content for any online platform—Youtube, Instagram, TikTok, Twitch—over the last few years, you might have noticed a trend: big-name streamers and influencers jumping onto the airwaves with their very own podcasts. For the sake of your own art, access, and audience, perhaps you find yourself asking, ”Should I make a podcast?” The answer is a resounding yes!
Audio is an accessible, easy-to-share medium that’s been growing in popularity consistently for the past five years. According to FirstSiteGuide, 104 million people are listening to podcasts monthly in 2022, and that’s in the U.S. alone.
But the question remains—how can you transition your current audience to your new audio content? In this article, we’ll explore how and why to convert your fervent followers into loyal listeners through cross-platform content.
Host Strategy & Cross-Platform Content
Research from Vox Media has shown that 69%-71% of podcast listeners follow the hosts/creators across multiple platforms. When podcast hosts are influencers, personalities, or have otherwise assembled a prior following, they have a great opportunity to draw in an audience by their name alone.
One strategy to bridge the cross-platform gap is to create content that can work well in multiple mediums—for example, filming podcast recording sessions and releasing both video and audio. The Try Guys began by creating only video content when they started the series in 2014. When they launched their podcast The TryPod in 2019, they released every episode both as audio and as video, ensuring they reached their normal audience, and opening the door to that same audience to cross the bridge into podcasting.
Sharing podcast content across other platforms—including bite-sized clips, audiograms, and quote graphics on TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, etc.—is another great way to bring in new listeners from a platform with an established audience. FRQNCY Media does this on our own Instagram, sharing audiograms as Reels to tease new episodes and work we’re especially proud of.
A Positive Feedback Loop
Linking a podcast with another medium by way of a brand or personality is a fantastic way to create a feedback loop aiding in the growth of both. Podcast episodes can be announced, shared, and spread on social media; social media can be promoted and advertised on a podcast. Just as having a prior audience can be harnessed to grow a podcast, a growing podcast audience can be funneled back to your Twitch, TikTok, and YouTube channels to connect with you in more than one way.
Cross-Platform Content Keeps it Fresh
Once audiences are engaged with multiple mediums, the issue becomes one of differentiation and avoiding becoming repetitive. In the example above, the same people who listen to an episode of The TryPod are not likely to watch the full YouTube video of the exact same episode. In our Strategy Team’s own audience research, we have found that listeners greatly dislike repetitive content across platforms. While cross-sharing is crucial to garnering an audience and creating a positive feedback loop between your platforms, ensuring your podcast contains some unique content that’s designed specifically for audio is just as important. For audiences to remain actively engaged with multiple forms of content, they need to be receiving a new experience from each.
Podcasts offer a window into a host’s lived experience and conversational style—the feeling of authenticity that comes from a person speaking directly into your ear. Though the relationship is one-sided, listeners begin to feel as if they know the podcast host, as someone who accompanies them throughout their day as they commute to work, walk to the pharmacy, or shop for groceries. This uniquely intimate relationship with your listener is what differentiates this medium from platforms that center on video, text, or images.
Resources for the Road
Now that we’ve successfully convinced you of the benefits of transitioning your audience to an audio medium, FRQNCY offers plenty of resources to aid you on the path toward podcast production.
Check out our equipment guide, the art of the interview, or explore how FRQNCY could consult you here.
FRQNCY Media is the audio production company for Jane Goodall, Diane von Furstenburg, Coca-Cola, and small businesses alike. FRQNCY is a one-in-a-million blend of innovation, passion, and joy. We offer tailored audio production support including integrated services that take (super-skilled) care of content strategy, market research, production, editing, and marketing.