Podcasting vs social media has been a hot topic for a long time. How can we incorporate both into our business to make it work? That’s what I plan to discuss today.
I’m not gonna lie. This is the third time I decided on what this topic was going to be about for this episode. I actually recorded a few other topics and decided it was not what I wanted to release for my podcast launch.
So we’re trying again. The topic I wanted to talk about today is one not everyone will agree with, or feel the way I feel. But I still wanted to reach those of you who might be overwhelmed with social media.
I just want to explain why I am focusing on podcasting, and then using podcasting to roll over into my social media. I mean, I still post some things here and there on social media, but it is just not my primary focus. It actually drains me if I’m being completely honest with you.
So what I want this podcast episode to be about is just the differences between podcasting and social media, and how you can use both. But if you drive your focus towards a podcast, it can make social media just a little bit easier on you. Okay, a lot easier.
So first of all, like I said, social media just drains me. It’s tiring, even getting into Facebook groups are overwhelming at times. I don’t even really look on Facebook anymore unless I’m going into a group, but even then, I don’t know why…maybe it’s because I’m an Enneagram 9. I have no clue if that has anything to do with it. It sounds good. I’m gonna go with that.
But just the idea of thinking about what to post, coming up with things, making reels, carousels, all that stuff is just overwhelming. I’m getting better. And I have a friend who’s helping me.
Once I realized that I could record an episode, and then use that to be my social media content…I was all for it.
I talk about this a lot. If you’ve heard me on a guest episode, or guesting on another podcast, I talk about how you can repurpose a podcast. So, I figured I would do that for myself.
PODCASTING IS LONG-FORM CONTENT
So that brings me to my first point. Podcasts are your long form content. Social media is going to be your short form.
I heard this recently that social media is going to give you that instant satisfaction, whereas your podcast, it’s going to take more time, but it will be there for a long time.
For social media, let’s take Instagram or Tik Tok for an example. They kind of go hand in hand, especially relating to IG stories. They are gone or out of mine within hours. We all know stories only last 24 hours. Sometimes people are scrolling, they might see your content, and then they keep scrolling.
With a podcast, they’re invested in what they’re listening to. Your audience can always go and find what they want to hear from you just by looking at the title of your episode. So that’s why it’s very important to title it where it would be very enticing for someone to want to click and hear what you have to say.
But my view on it is, podcast episodes give you more bang for your buck. Social media is a great way to interact with people, more fun. I love Instagram for connecting with people. So I’m not knocking Instagram at all. I just have decided it’s not going to be my main focus of content.
I’m going to take what I put on an episode and repurpose that.
YOU DO NOT OWN SOCIAL MEDIA
The second point I want to make is about ownership. We all know you do not own your social media platforms. They can, and have been, taken down in the past. Once they take that down, you can’t get your content back unless of course you have it saved on your phone or you’ve put it in a file on your computer. I always recommend anything you put on Instagram, Facebook, Tik Tok and have it backed up just in case. If those platforms disappear, they take your stuff with them. Instagram can take a post down if it doesn’t follow guidelines.
With a podcast, that is yours. Your episodes will remain there for eternity unless you delete them or take them down. You will always be able to be found on a podcast, whereas with social media, you have to do some digging. People will have to search for you, well, they’ll have to search for your podcast too, but if they want to find that certain content on social media,, they’re going to have to be doing some digging. Looking into highlights for stories.
So again, you own the podcast, whereas with social media, you’re just providing that content through that app.
TIME DIFFERENCE BETWEEN PODCASTING AND SOCIAL MEDIA
The third thing I want to talk about is the time it takes. So yes, podcasting does take time.
I have sat down many times to record this, and I had to stop. But let’s think about it this way…how long does it take you to make a reel? Okay, if we’re being honest, I’m still new to making reels, but oh.my.goodness, is it taking me time.
Just recording what you need to record on video, adding captions, lining it up where you want it to go with the audio, all of that takes time.
With a podcast episode, I literally just turned on my mic and started talking. You will need a plan. You have to have content, or an outline, but the delivery is just so much easier.
I can just talk, say what I need to say, and make sure I’m providing valuable information.
Reels are catchy, they get noticed, but you have to make sure that you are providing value in the caption. Sometimes with a lot of the videos, we just want people to notice us. And that’s also great, too. I will continue doing that.
What I’m mostly focusing on is just the main content. And you have to be wondering, how much do those reels really convert to sales? I have not had any, but I still provide them just to have them. I still use Instagram as a way to connect with people, and I want people to get to know me and who I am. That’s what I use reels for.
PODCASTS ARE EVERGREEN
The fourth part of this is that podcasts are evergreen. This kind of goes along with your ownership in a way, but a podcast is always going to be there.
You can have an episode from three years ago that is still able to be found. Instagram, social media posts are not quite as easy to be found. And we all know stories disappear in 24 hours.
The thing with Instagram, specifically, is that only 3-6% of people are seeing your content.
I don’t have a big following, so if only 3-6% are seeing my post, that’s not very much. I would like to be able to reach more people.
FIGHTING AN ALGORITHM
So that kind of brings me to the next point, is that you’re dealing with an algorithm on social media. We can’t fix it. We don’t know how it’s going to change every time.
How many times have you posted something and then realized that a fraction of who you posted it to, hoping they would see it, actually saw it?
Someone who has a much larger following will of course have better engagement. But those of us with a small following, we’re just reaching a handful of people. There are times I realize that I haven’t even seen content from a certain person, and I’ll actually have to go on their page and look. It’s so annoying.
That’s something you don’t have to really think about with a podcast. It’s always going to be there.
HOW YOU SHOW UP
This is my favorite. Not having to be camera ready. If you know me, my hair is always up in a mom bun and at all times. I rarely wear it down, usually only for pictures. This is huge for me.
After I left teaching, I decided that if I wasn’t going to see anybody, if I wasn’t going to go anywhere that day, I wasn’t going to get on a zoom…I wanted to be comfortable. Who am I kidding? I dress comfortably even if I go somewhere.
Now, I get up, get dressed, but not the teacher-professional dress. For so many years I spent days being uncomfortable and I wanted to live my life comfortably. And you know what, if you see me on Instagram, I’m probably dressed comfortably.
Not that everybody cares about this, but getting on camera I always want to make sure I’m at least presentable. I don’t want to be embarrassing myself. So to do a film, or to film, a reel, or even a presentable story, you kind of have to make sure that you’re at least camera ready. On a podcast…you have no idea whether I’m wearing my PJs, sweats, athletic wear…I could be wearing a prom dress. You have no idea! I could sit here looking however I want and you just listen to my voice. That’s my favorite part of all of this.
99.9% of the time I am in athletic wear by the way.
HOW YOU CAN REPURPOSE YOUR CONTENT WITH A PODCAST
The last point I want to make is the ability to repurpose your content. I will go into this more in the future. I’ll probably make a whole episode about it.
As stated earlier, social media is more of that instant gratification. You see the likes you’re getting, you see the comments…or if you’re like me, you get annoyed that no one is seeing it.
With a podcast, it’s more of that long term growth. You may not see anything from one podcast episode. It could be years from now and somebody comes back to it.
I have found podcasts from years ago and reached out to the host. So it does take time to see that ROI, but it will happen.
Very much like a blog, which your episodes can be turned into a blog, a podcast will take a while. Many people see conversions years after they have published a podcast or a blog.
Which brings me to the ways that you can repurpose a podcast episode.
You can take one episode and turn it into what we call show notes (which is essentially a blog post about your episode).
There are different ways of doing show notes. You can take a shorter firm recap version, where you basically break it down into a couple of paragraphs, have a summary, and then list bullet points of the things that were talked about in the episode.
Recap show notes are for those who want people who come to your blog and have them listen to the episode to get the entire content. Or…you can take the audio and upload it into a transcription software. There’s different ones, but I use otter.ai for my clients and myself.
It allows you to transcribe your episode and then go in and edit. You will have to go in and fix some things because it doesn’t always understand every word you say. Sometimes the punctuation is off.
To make it look more like a blog post, adding headings and spacing will allow you to do that.
You don’t have to come up with new content. Take what you said on the podcast episode, condense it or transcribe it, and you have a blog.
Video is another way you can repurpose your episode. You film yourself while you’re recording the podcast, and put it up on YouTube, or make a real out of it.
You can repurpose episodes to create captions for your social media. This is exactly what I want to do with my podcast, so I don’t have to come up with captions. Why is that the hardest part of Instagram? I can make a reel, post a picture, post a carousel, but by golly, coming up with that little bitty caption…why is it so hard? It’s probably just me, but it’s hard.
However, you can take what you said in your podcast episode and make that your caption. Create an audiogram where you take a snippet of your episode. You’ve probably seen the little wave going over it and it plays your audio.
The other thing, which actually helps gain traction to your website, is posting your episodes on Pinterest. Take a pin of your episode and link it to your website, to your blog. I still need to set up Pinterest. That’s on my list of things to do, but one step at a time.
So as I wrap up this episode, I just want to reiterate that we’re all different. Not everybody is comfortable with reels. Dancing. The trends. Some of us love it, and some of us are amazing at it.
Me…I love watching it, I truly do. It would be boring if we had people that did not want to do reels. But some of us just want to create that valuable content, share our lives and get it out there.
The way I’m structuring my business is…I want to focus on my podcast, which I will then repurpose into my blog posts. I’ll then create my social media about it. I just don’t have the time and energy to come up with the things that may or may not work.
I’m a busy mom, I have three kids, and I don’t want to spend my time that way. I felt like I spent so many years in education having to do so many extra things, that I’m trying to make my business as simple as possible. Will that work for me? I’m still trying to find that out.
When I first started, I was definitely the post and pray that people would come to me, type of person. It does not work. If that does work for you, please tell me what you do! I would love to throw something up there and just have people flocking to me, but I know it doesn’t.
I would love to know your thoughts. I’d love to have conversations and then DMS on Instagram. You know I’m on there for that part of it to talk to people. So let me know what you think about this. And I will see you next week, my friend.
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MORE ABOUT PODCAST WITH PURPOSE:
How would you feel if you could put social media aside, and speak to your audience in a way that resonates with them? Podcasting can give you that and so much more!
Do you envision having a podcast as part of your business? Would you love to know the ins and outs of what it takes to have a podcast? How can it affect your business and YOU? Maybe you’ve considered a podcast, but you don’t know where to start, or how to keep up with all of the tasks.
Welcome to Podcasting With Purpose/Hello Podcaster! Your host, Allison Nitsch, is a former teacher turned podcast manager, on a mission to support entrepreneurs with launching and managing their own show/podcast.
With this podcast you will learn how having your own show can help bring more eyes on your business, find out if podcasting is for you, and give you some strategic steps to getting a show out and into the ears of those who need it.
