35: Strategies for Promoting Your Podcast Episodes with Sophia Parra

Written By Britany Felix
 
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If you've listened to episode 32 where I talked with Sophia Parra about podcast launch promotion strategies, you're probably as enamored with her as I am.

If so, I've got great news!

Sophia's back on the show to talk about how to best promote your new podcast episodes and how to repurpose your old ones!

In case you haven't listened to episode 32 yet, Sophia Parra is a social media strategist specifically for coaches and the creator and CEO of Coach Social; a company that helps you grow your business by generating original, informative content that builds credibility and helps you to be found and trusted by your perfect clients.

Take a listen to this episode to find out the formula for sharing your podcast episodes in a way that will impact your followers, inspire them to action, and allow them to see you as an expert, the specific things you should and shouldn't be doing when promoting your podcast episodes on social media, the amazing resources Sophia has available to you (including a special offer that isn't available on her website but is available to you as a listener of this show), and so much more!

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Transcript

Welcome to podcasting for coaches. I'm Britany Felix and I'm a podcast launch consultant who specializes in helping coaches and consultants utilize the power of podcasting as a way to build brand awareness and generate new leads for their business. I realize not every new coach or consultant can afford to hire someone to help launch their show. So I created this podcast as a way to guide you through the process of launching and utilizing your very own podcast to help you grow your business and reach a new audience of adoring followers and potential clients. If you're ready to get your voice and podcast out into the world, head over to podcasting for coaches.com to learn more.

 

00:42

Welcome to Episode 35 of podcasting for coaches. In this episode, I am so thrilled to be welcoming back Sophia Parra. Sophia was originally a guest on episode 32, where she gave us some amazing insights and tips on how to handle your launch promotion strategy on social media. In case you haven't had a chance to listen to that episode, yet, Sophia is a social media strategist specifically for coaches. And she's the creator and CEO of coach social, a company that helps you grow your business by generating original informative content that builds credibility and helps you be found and trusted by your perfect clients. So Sofia, welcome back to the show. Thank you. I'm so glad to be back meet you. I am so excited. I had such a fantastic time in the previous episode. And I know that this time, we have a lot of content to cover. So why don't we go ahead and dive right in this time, we're talking about how to promote new podcast episodes. For most podcasters. They're releasing episodes generally once a week, that's obviously not going to carry them throughout the rest of the week with content they need to be generating more. Yeah, how do they handle that on an ongoing basis. And for those listening, we're also going to be diving into repurposing your previously released episodes because that is something that gets missed way too often. So now Sophia, for right now let's go ahead and focus on these new episodes. How often should they be posting every time they release an episode? What type of content? Should they be putting out? What are the best platforms to promote podcast episodes? Now I know all of these are very large questions. With so many answers in different directions, we can take it. But for right now let's just start with kind of a basic overview of how they should handle promoting new episodes. Okay, so you hit the nail on the head in terms of this is a huge question. And there's like 10 steps for everyone step. Right, right. Okay. So first of all, my hope for any person who has a podcast who is coming out with weekly episodes is that they're pretty much now getting the hang of talking about their podcasts on a relatively consistent basis, to the extent where what consistent means is that they're following knows very well that they have a podcast knows very well what that podcast talks about, and knows that you come out with consistent content, and that it's super useful, right? Like, that's what we want, whether they are listeners or not, we want them to know that this podcast is something that needs to be listened to. So first of all, I think the biggest thing coaches miss the boat on is within their captions and how they frame their podcast episodes. And this is all explained why this is really important, like the big picture of it. But the bottom line is that there's a lot of podcasts out there now, right. And there's a lot of people listening to them. They're probably subscribed. I'm subscribed to so many podcasts. And I listen to like, if I listened to three a week, and I actually love podcasts, I can listen to a lot of podcasts. But like sometimes I'm just too busy that like three a week is like a stretch. So I'm not absorbing. Right. So right now the average podcast listener is subscribed to six shows. And that's kind of a crazy amount of content to consume every week. super crazy. And I'm way more than

 

03:51

what I'm doing. Right? So something you have to make super, super clear. And like, what is someone going to walk away with by listening to this? Why do they need this? I often see people writing captions, like, hey, just recorded a podcast with so and so. So awesome, happily listen to it. Or they might go a little bit deeper and say so awesome. If you're interested in social media marketing, this is for you. And it's like, Guys, everyone saying that. That's not gonna get anyone's attention. So how I like to frame this and that is to walk away with the benefit. And I actually like to break this up, right? So I actually like to say, let's just use this for an example. Right? Let's say and we haven't filmed this yet recorded this yet. So I don't exactly know what we're going to cover. But let's say for instance, you are going to put this out I would say like brand new podcast episode out today. I am so excited to speak to Sophia Parra at blah, blah, blah, right? Talk about who I am and also hit the pain point in doing that. So like you might start with saying like, do you feel like your podcast is received on deaf ears or something like that and like hit that pain point right at the beginning so that people like Yes, I do.

 

05:00

Do Oh my god, what am I doing wrong? Like that pain point is made clear go into that you interviewed me what I'm doing? This should be short, I wouldn't make this more than two sentences. Okay, hmm, then I would say something along the lines of when you listen to this podcast, this is what you're going to walk away with one, her favorite resource for growing an audience that actually wants to listen to her podcast, to the content formula that actually ups engagement and gets those link clicks or gets those downloads, three, whatever it might be, right? If you see how I'm formatting this, I'm breaking this up. I'm like actually giving three things that they can imagine like putting in their toolbox, right? It's very, very specific. So if one of those things, they might feel like, Oh, I know that I know that, Oh, my gosh, I have no social media audience that cares about my podcast, I need this resource. What is this resource? Suddenly, there's like a lot of pain points that you can be hitting, right? Right, each person is different, you actually know what they're gonna gravitate towards. So really outlining that and making it super clear what people are going to walk away with is so beneficial. A lot of complaints I get is Oh, but I don't like my options are long. And like the problem with that is like, then you're you're not able to make an impact with a short caption like not with when you're a coach who has a podcast. And this is what I was talking about earlier. This is the bigger picture, right? As we said earlier, people are subscribed to a bunch of hot podcasts, but they're not listening to all of them. Because they can't they don't have the time, right ever, if I'm scrolling through my feed, and I see a caption like that, and I have a podcast that has hardly any downloads and like no one seems to care about it. Let's say I'm catching that post, like right before I'm walking into a meeting, or I'm going to bed. And so I know I don't have time to listen to it. But suddenly, I see that and automatically, I'm impacted automatically the person who posted that is an authority figure in my brain, because she's just shared three things that I need. And while I don't have time for it at this moment, I'm either going to bookmark it for later, or I have this mental note, I can't help us how the brain works, right? When you're impacted, like in your memory is in my subconscious. Later, when you post something else, suddenly, I see you as value. And I actually look for your content. So like when I see you, I actually will stop Oh, what did you sharing today? Oh, my gosh, you need that too. And like, eventually, one day, she'll either listen, or I'll simply just know that you're someone that I need to like, keep tabs on and learn more. Right. So unpacking that formula, I think is so key. And I literally see this again and again and again, where people just like do a plug, like oh, my God, Lincoln bio, enjoy. And like, it's just not enough. And so how often should they share this? Should that long caption Be sure the day it comes out? And then follow it up with that same caption A few days later? Or should they post something different? You know, what should that look like? And I'm assuming I know the answer to this, but should they just post the day it comes out? And then that's it? No.

 

07:56

Oh my gosh, that's the other mistake people make? No. Okay. So again, we're storytelling, right? And this should come up quite a bit. However, what I would do so there's two parts to this. I would first of all, try to diversify your content a little bit. So let's say and I would think about this, right? So maybe your podcast comes out on Tuesday. And then maybe on Thursday, you know, you always like to share throwbacks, you'd like to hashtag that? TBT. Right. And sometimes it might be throwing it back to some previous content, which we'll talk about later. Or maybe you'll be like, Oh my gosh, throwback to me filming that episode with so and so. So make sure you're taking a ton of selfies throughout this process to be taking that that episode was so and so again, guys, I can't stress this enough. I'm getting so much feedback about this podcast, just a reminder that it's in my bio, this is what we're covering. And honestly, like, it's a game changer. So I would probably post about it in an organic, like one very hard sell wonder like this is happening. It's in my bio, and then just try to weave it into your storytelling like, okay, Friday, it means today, like I got an email from someone. So she was telling me how this really helped her this and that this and that. Now, I've talked about it twice, but only one feels like a promotion. You know what I'm saying? Right? Yeah, absolutely. I would say like, instead of focusing on how many times on where you're sharing it, so I would just make sure it's shared a different times. And all of the platforms, Instagram feed is one Instagram stories. Another Facebook is another. Twitter is another email blast is another that's already like, what four or five, six times that you're sharing it. And I would just make sure they're not going out all on the same day, like, okay, and I want to, I want to touch on that really quickly. Because this I think is a huge issue specifically for podcasters. Because there are certain podcasts hosting services, like Lipson, which is the one that I recommend. And they have these features where you can auto publish a different social media accounts, you can link your account to your hosting service. And so many people are like, yes, this is awesome. I'm gonna set this up to do it automatically. I can just schedule it all right here in one place, and it'll send this podcast episode out to every platform at one time and I won't have to worry about it.

 

10:00

but the thing with that is i actually recommend releasing your podcast episodes early enough in the morning that it is out by the time that the people on the east coast in the united states are getting up for work in the morning so that they can listen to it during the morning routines right which means that these blasts are going out to your social media accounts at like three or 4am and nobody is looking at it and so if you just use that to promote your show and i use promote in air quotes there because that doesn't really count as promoting it pretty much does you know good yeah i don't recommend those things there are exceptions to the rule like are they exceptions i don't really like these either however you could use something like meet edgar or like hootsuite whatever and like schedule it still yes however when you want it to go out right it's real like on the time do you need it etc however to be honest i consistently consistently find that when i am scheduling the things that matter to me obviously some things i schedule because i got things to do right however when things are really really matter to me i consistently see lower engagement and lower reach when i'm using a scheduler versus when i'm in it and posting it because i'm feeling it at that moment and it right i need to put it out there and it's part of my life right well i'm not even going into the fact that you know certain places like facebook for example are making it so that you can't even use those third party publishers yeah depending on what type of you know profile or page or whatever it is you're using which i think is something we're gonna see more in other places i mean i know with linkedin they don't even have an option as far as i'm aware of that lets you schedule something from within their own website because they're not a fan of that right and i think there is has always been a rumor that third party schedulers get lower lower rates or whatever and i honestly i don't know that it's really true in a broad way however when it comes to link clicks specifically link clicks i do see that to be the case and since podcasts are not located on those apps that's one of the reasons i always scheduled them myself for client anything it's important to me i schedule it myself per team if it's a link click because i just know i get better results so i think that that's important to think about it and you know what like read your analytics and really decide if this is the case for you because i think that's another thing coaches don't do like different content responds better for different things like and i'm going to give you an example i have another client who has a really big podcast actually we've never had any trouble she always gets a lot of downloads we've never really had any trouble promoting it however she really likes when we promote her podcast she has a podcast where she's filming it as well as recording it so she really likes to take the recorded video snippets and put it on her instagram account to promote it right she hates quote cards she hates title cards for her because she has really specific hashtags to share it she's like i only want to share your podcast like this i don't want to put quote cards out i just want to put the video that's how i want to share it this is like what's most aligned with me and i had this feeling that that's not what was most aligned to algorithm for her right so i telling her did a whole audit on her and what we found was that those quote title cards for her this is not for everyone but was getting four times the link clicks that that video was wow and i think it's because for her specifically that video was giving information that was like satisfying to the person wow that's a really great point i love that and they just didn't feel the need to write they were just done at that point

 

13:36

now don't get me wrong that can be super valuable for brand awareness like that was good information to know that when it's a throwback episode versus a current episode right use that because we've already had the numbers and now we just want to draw it like bring back the awareness around both her message and that older podcast we're going to go with video however when we've got a new one we always use a title card because the numbers say that works the best so that's how you can also decide alright i want to make sure i have at least one throwback a week at least one new podcast post that's how you can decide how you share that content by looking at the numbers and obviously when the numbers are most important when you need those link clicks most that's when you share what's getting the most clicks and when you're just need some awareness and some like just a reminder that this episode was awesome then you can use the other form of content that's why diversifying is super important because it gives you different things and also by checking your numbers can also give you so much information around how to share your podcast right and so when you say checking your numbers what is it that you mean what does that translate to for the person who is promoting the show because for me when you say that i'm like where do i go what am i looking for no idea how to do this yeah okay so very good question and i want to clarify

 

15:00

Like, there's a lot of different numbers, right? So we're talking about likes, we're talking about comments, and we're talking about link clicks most important one, I'm going to highlight that one, we're talking about reach, right. And all of these numbers are important for you. And I'll tell you where to find those. But before I do that, all these numbers are apart for different things the reach is what telling you that the algorithm allowed this piece of content to reach a certain number of unique eyes. And what that tells you is that if let's say, my posts got 4000 reach, that means 4000 individual people, despite how many likes doesn't matter, right? 4000 people saw this content. Now I might post something else, it has the same amount of likes, but only 2000 people reached it was 2000. People saw that content. This tells me that the one with 4000, the algorithm push that content more. And the reason it would push content more is because people showed more interest in it. Again, that doesn't necessarily mean likes, it could mean that someone paused on their screen and read the caption for longer than the other post. And that for the algorithm is counted as an engagement. Even if you're not physically seeing like, gotcha, that tells me Okay, this content resonated more with people. That's why reach is so important likes obvious, and comments obvious, it means it's engaging enough for people to want to be a part of that conversation, right? And then link clicks is the most important. It's whether or not that content drove people to press listen

 

16:34

to the audience and actually listened to the podcast, it will always be way less than reach and likes. And oh, I don't know about likes necessarily changes. But it'll always be way, way less than the other numbers, depending on what platform you're on, especially for Instagram, because you can't hyperlink within captions, you have to actually like, go somewhere an extra step they have to take. Yeah, right. So it's a little bit lower. However, on Facebook, if you share, this is an insider tip here, I consistently I don't know if I've ever seen it. Otherwise, I consistently find that the best way to share a podcast or a blog is if you let the link automatically generate instead of sharing the title card or something like that. For some reason, either the algorithm favors it or it's just easier for people to absorb. Like the link is really obvious. It's just the big box of a picture on it. It's easy to click versus like, Where's the hyperlink? Let's read the caption and find it. Okay, so don't actually upload an image to that post, like just use the link and then let it display whatever image automatically comes up. Yes, and you have control on the back end, at least on most websites for your website Anyway, you have control on what the image goes out. So if you wanted, like, for example, WordPress, I can pick what featured image gets displayed on my blog. I don't have a podcast, but like, when I share a blog, I can pick what picture, right, I can make sure it's not the same picture every single week. So people don't think I'm sharing the same thing over and over again. However, I'm letting the link automatically generate an image. I'm not creating something specifically as a standalone image and then hyperlinking it somewhere. Just Does that make sense? Yeah, yeah. And for whatever reason, that works better. Do you want me to walk you through where these? Actually you know what, in my social media Survival Guide, which I'll also offer to this button

 

18:20

in there, I forgot phase four. I walked through where to find your analytics. Okay, well, we'll definitely have that social media Survival Guide. For those who haven't listened. Sophia talked about it in Episode 32. But we'll make sure we have a link to it in the show notes for this episode as well. Perfect. So you briefly touched on something like Meet Edgar or Hootsuite. For those previously released episodes. I think what a lot of people do myself included because I'm terrible at social media. We just kind of post episodes in the order that they're released as far as repurposing goes. So we just start from like episode one. And then just every week share whatever the next episode is, yeah, we don't exactly pay attention to what's happening on social media or other forms of the media or even in the world. And as a result, picking the episodes of the content that might be relevant. So what do you recommend as far as being a little more intentional with regards to what is shared and when it's shared, as opposed to just kind of cycling through the old content without giving it any thought? Oh, my God, I'm so glad you asked this question. Okay. So first of all, it's super, super important to be familiar with what's relevant and trending. I buy specifically I mean, what people are looking for in your industry, a great resource for this for any woman. Have you use this as buzzsumo? I actually don't know. Oh, awesome. I think it's the use easy su Mo. It's a great resource. You can plug in your a keyword. So if like you have a podcast on Okay, let's just use as an example, if I were to have a podcast on social media, I might type in a keyword like social media or social media marketing, and I can actually see what was the most searched

 

20:00

topic and the last 24 hours the last month, the last three months last six months. Wow. So it was say it was like the 10 best ways to use social media to promote your podcast, I could either do one of two things, if I'm trying to come up with ideas, I could say, Alright, I'm gonna do a podcast on 20 ways to social media like I do to person, you know, or I could say, Oh, that's awesome. I posted an episode on this like six months ago, I'm going to reshare that this week, because it is relevant and the numbers on buzzsumo, tell me another thing you could do what's great about buzzsumo as you can actually take your competitors, and you can put their name in and see what their most trending article was. And you can actually see how many people shared it and who shared it. In fact, this is kind of genius, as well, from a social media building, like an engagement standpoint, because if you know who's actively involved with whoever your competitor is, you might be like, you know what, this is a great opportunity to reach out to this person to engage this person to follow them on Instagram to be like, Hey, I saw that you shared 10 ways to share your podcast on social media, I actually just wrote an article in 20 ways. I thought you might enjoy it, here you go. And then they can have their like, I mean, man, like, Wow.

 

21:17

You know, and then I'm sure they'll say things like, no problem. And if you did enjoy it, and you got value out of it, I would so appreciate it. If you shared it with other people like you who might enjoy it, it would make my here. Also feel free to let me know if there's something you want me to share to like. It's just kind of like a way of saying that we've talked about in the last time I spoke to you how we're time building that community, this is another way to not only build your community, but know what's trending, what's relevant what people are looking for, so that you're actually picking what you're sharing, either in a throwback way or in an upcoming way, what you're sharing in your podcast. So it's actually what people want to hear. Now, I know that a lot of coaches that I work with, say, Oh, I don't work that way, like I work off of my inspiration, right. And I get that and it's beautiful. And like, I'm really happy for you. However, you can't give people what they need, unless you first give them what they want. That's how they get in the door. That's how they learn about you. And you can only truly serve them and help them if they're there to serve. So this is just a strategic way to make decisions to make sure that the right people come your way so that you can give them what can really change their life. So that's how I like to look at it. So I actually think this ties in brilliantly with something that I wanted to touch base on this episode. And it's something that I actually utilize of yours. And that is what the heck to post. So you're talking about being aware of what's trending on social media, what are the, you know, special days that are coming up like national Secretary day or something like that? And what are the hashtags that are trending, which I think is something that is perfect for something like this, in making these types of decisions? So do you mind explaining what what the heck to post is and what value the listener can get out of it? And where they can get access to it? Oh, my gosh, I would love to Yes. And actually, I can't even believe I didn't even think about that. What?

 

23:12

Yeah, so what I can post is my subscription. Every Friday of the week, I deliver an email with the trending hashtags coming up for the following week, so that you can ride that engagement. If there's anything going viral, you can be a part of it, you can plan all that ahead of time, I give five social media prompts for the following week, so that you have consistent content that is not only in line and relevant with what people are looking for, but also just keeps you consistent around how to both demonstrate your value, and also build an engaging community. I also share a library of images, I usually give about 30 a week. So by the end of the month, you can have 120 new images or quotes or whatever it might be that month to help flesh out your presence. And then I also share example, copy. So if you're like man, I like this caption but I don't know how to really put this all together, I've got an examples for you that you can actually copy and paste and make your own. Or you can just use it as an idea, like a way to generate ideas for yourself. And finally, my last section is something extra, where I answer questions that I might be receiving. And I kind of try with that section to demystify social media bit and really explain how the algorithm works. So you're always using it to your advantage. So I offer all five of those sections every single Friday of every single week. That's four emails a month. And it's honestly like the results have been people are growing their following. You're increasing their engagement, they're demonstrating their value very, super clearly. So they're actually getting more clients. And it's keeping them consistent, which is exactly what the algorithm needs to actually push them forward. So I'm really proud of the of the podcast

 

25:00

I'm really proud of this subscription and the help that it's been able to provide for people. Yeah, I just want to say for anyone listening, I love this resource. And actually, at the time of the recording in this past one that went out, you had a great thing about how to attempt to get verified and get the little checkmark, you know, on Instagram. Yeah, I tried that. I did not get it.

 

25:21

I knew that because of your post I could dry in 30 days. Yeah, that is really great. And I never would have even known to do that. I never would have thought it could even be an option for somebody who, you know, isn't like a celebrity or like a huge, major influencer. I mean, for me, I have a you know, right around 1000 followers, I don't really do a whole lot with my Instagram. I pretty much just use it to post my travel pictures. But there are some coaches and consultants out there who have really decent followings, I mean, several 100,000 people, and they could probably get this. So I love that you provide these kinds of things in your What the heck to post program. I mean, you have, you know, the images that people can use, you have the copy, you have the hashtags, you have little tips, like how to get verified on Instagram. So seriously, for you guys listening. If you have resonated with Sophia at all, which if you're listening to this podcast, I don't know how you don't because of it is amazing.

 

26:18

I highly encourage you to at least do the trial that Sophia has for you for what the heck to post. So Sophia, do you mind explaining a little bit more about that trial? And how they can go about signing up for it? Yes, oh my gosh, yes, I'm going to give you a trial. So you can put in your show notes. It's actually not available, like anywhere.

 

26:38

For your eyes, you will find it on my website. This is specifically for you. So yeah, go down to the show notes opt in for a free trial. It's 14 days. And by the end of it, not only will you have it for 14 days free, but I'm actually going to give you like over a 50% discount, ongoing discount if you love it. So it's $54.99 on my website, but for you, if you like it, it's gonna be $20 a month forever and ever and ever until you cancel. So it's amazing. I really hope you try it and you enjoy it and get lots of discounts.

 

27:11

Yes, definitely go into the show notes, which you can find by going to podcasting for coaches. com, clicking on the podcast tab in the main menu and then going to this episode, which is number 35. And there you will find the link to that amazing offer from Sofia. And seriously, not only will you get two weeks free, not only are you getting all these amazing resources, but you're also getting this huge discount if you want to continue with it. So definitely be sure that you go and check that out. So Sofia, thank you so much for being back on the show. I have a feeling this won't be your last appearance, even though I haven't officially asked you yet. Because as we talk I mean more and more things are coming up and this is what you do every day. So there is so much more that we could talk about and I really really appreciate you taking the time to help demystify social media a little bit for us. You are so welcome and I'd be glad to come back.

 

28:04

And that wraps up another episode of podcasting for coaches. If you'd like to connect with me further, get additional free resources, receive updates on this podcast and connect with other coaches and consultants who are using a podcast for their business. I'd like to invite you to join the podcasting for coach's community on Facebook. You can either search for podcasting for coach's community on Facebook to find it, or you can use the link that's in the show notes for every single episode of this podcast on my website podcasting for coaches.com

 
Britany Felix
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