The Primary Politics of Podcasting

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This is not about politics. This is about learning lessons from the current frenzy that dominates the news here in America and abroad. Yes, I’m talking about American politics, but only so we can apply some lessons to the world of podcasting.

Think for a moment about what the current crop of Presidential wanna-bes had to do to get where they are now (or where they were, as the field continues to winnow). They had to (and continually have to) make themselves appealing to voters much in the same way we podcasters must make ourselves and our shows appealing to listeners.

Early in the process, they (and we) have to build (and maintain) a motivated base. These are the people who help build momentum by lending their support. Sometimes volunteering. Sometimes contributing funds. Members of the base have to ask themselves a singular question:

Should they help support your (or your show’s) viability?

In other words, do they dig what you have to say so much that they are willing to put out the time, energy, and effort to get your show off the ground? Do they find you and your content so compelling -- either in practice or in promise -- that it’s worth a few bucks to them each month to help shoulder some of your production costs? Are they willing to evangelize on you or your show’s behalf by rating and reviewing your show?

As is the case for a politician, the people who make up your small and close base are the ones who give immediate feedback to you most often. But only so long as they feel it worthy of them to continue to help support your viability.

Once your base is engaged and is supporting your viability, it’s time to take your message to the masses. In American politics, that means gaining the support of one of two (there are others, but let’s be real) political parties. In podcasting, the group you want to attract is the hard-core podcast listener. Just like the people who make up the political parties, this core group of podcasters has their own agenda that they care about more than they care about you or your show.

When evaluating your show, core podcast listeners will ask themselves one question, does your show increase the viability of podcasting overall?

In other words, is podcasting made better with your show in it? Is the content you are putting forth the type of show they can get behind? Unlike the dominant political parties in America, this core group of podcast listeners probably won’t kick you out if you don’t make a show that meets that goal. Instead, they’ll just ignore it.

But if you are producing the type of show that they feel exemplifies what podcasting can be, then you’ll get the benefit of their word of mouth. These are the people who engage with other people who also evangelize podcasting, and they like to swap show recommendations with one another. These are the tastemakers who have the ability to go beyond their immediate set friends when they make recommendations of what they feel is amazing podcast content.

The same concept holds true for the journalists inside the podcasting industry or those that cover podcasts for larger media outlets. If a journalist is energized by and engaged about your show, they will write about your show in their publication, giving you much more exposure.

So think about those people as our equivalent to political party members. Do they feel that podcasting overall gets better with your show in the mix?

The politician who makes it through those two groups - their base and the party core - to gain the nomination still has to then win votes from the general public if they are to obtain the highest office in this land. Only that’s not really true in either politics or in podcasting.

People running for office are trying to appeal to the people who vote. Likewise, podcasters should appeal to the people who listen to podcasts. And when doing so, they have to understand why a listener would choose to listen to them. As before, it comes down to an evaluation on their part:

Does your show validate their worldview?

Yes, it really does boil down to this: what's in it for them? Yes, the 30% to 40% of the people who listen to podcasts have an appetite for new content. If it’s good enough, they may be interested in listening to the content you put out. But it has to be more than good. It has to validate their worldview.

If a candidate’s platform validates someone's worldview, they’ll cast their vote for that candidate. If the content you make validates someone’s worldview, they’ll listen and likely keep listening to your show.

It’s helpful to focus on the true believers in podcast listening land. Think of them much like single-issue voters who cast their vote for a candidate based on one policy alone. Only for us, it’s not a zero-sum game. Your podcast is the only one they're going to listen to. They have room in their day to listen to lots of things, and they don’t expect a single podcast to validate all of their worldviews. Yes, they probably have many worldviews. Make sure your show hits at least one of them.

I’ll leave you with two key takeaways from this:

1. You don't have to make podcasts that appeal to everyone.

Politicians don't try and appeal to everyone. They only appeal to people who are likely to vote. Podcasters should make their efforts appealing only to people who are likely to listen to podcasts. And before you go to the larger world of podcast consumers, make sure you’re appealing to those inside of the podcasting community and to your own small group of base listeners.

2. Big shows don’t have to worry about a small base or the podcasting community.

At least not as much. So if you're taking inspiration from the uber-successful shows, keep in mind that shows with hundreds of thousands or millions of listeners play by a different set of rules. Sort of like when politicians change their focus after they get elected. If you're not at that level, you still need to tend to the care and feeding of all three groups of people.

Share this piece with your friends who also podcast. Ask them what they’re doing to make sure they stay engaged all the way up the chain. And if you think you’re doing an exceptional job in the second group, let me know, because I have a keen interest in making podcasting better.

I’m off to Podfest Expo in Orlando tomorrow, so no piece will come out tomorrow. But I will be back Monday of next week for another Podcast Pontifications.

Cheers!

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Even if you're turned off by the whole affair, podcasting can learn valuable lessons from America's political primary process. When you swap out voters with listeners, the similarities snap into focus.

Hello and welcome to another podcast. Pontifications with me, Evo. Tara, this is not an episode about politics. This is an episode about learning lessons from the current frenzy that dominates the news here in America and abroad, talking about American politics, but let's apply those lessons to our world in HOD casting.

Now, the current field of American people who would like to become president of this large nation. Uh, is is winnowing down as we get closer to the process. But if you think about what those people had to do, what their jobs have been in relationship to other people, I think you'll see some parallels to podcasting.

W w what did the current field, how did they make themselves appealing. To voters much in the same way we podcasters want to be appealing to listeners. That's the topic of conversation we're going to have today. Now, there are different groups of voters that they have been appealing to, just as there are different groups of listeners we likely need to appeal to, and I can break those down into three groups.

I'm going to use politics. And the process of getting someone elected to president as the vehicle to get there. But again, I promise you this is not about politics. So at the beginning, a would be politician or a someone who seeks the highest office in the land, at least this is the way it works in America.

It may work differently in your country. The first thing they have to do is they have to build their base. You might have heard that talked about quite a lot from the current. People that occupy the white house, but I'm talking about the base of supporters necessary before somebody says, I'm ready to be president.

When they're thinking about that process, that's the base and the base. Has to answer their own question. When they look at you, either the politician or better yet you the podcaster, that core base before you even get started, or maybe you've released a handful of episodes, the first thing they're trying to find out is whether or not they should help you, the podcast or with your viability.

Just like. The base politician supported the base of the politician. Supporters have to find out if they want to support that particular person. That's financially. That's donors. That's also, um, with blood, sweat and tears. That's volunteering. Same thing happens in podcasting. That first group of people, you have to attract your base.

They're the ones who are going to do things like, yes, support you. They might be your initial patrons, if you will, or whatever your chosen method of getting some funding direct from your listeners would be, but they're also the ones who go out and evangelize on your behalf. We don't have phones to man phone banks.

We don't have going knocking door to door handing out things, but we are trying to spread, get people to spread ratings and reviews. They go to things like pod chaser and do that. These are the ones who give immediate feedback to you, the podcast, or to make sure your show is working really well for them, but their first answer is should they help with your viability?

Now, once you've mastered that. And you've got a viable candidate, or you've got a viable podcast that moves forward, at least with a small group of people. Now it's time to make your, take your message to the masses. Now in American politics, and that means getting the primary, excuse me, that means getting the party to support you.

You've got to convince others to support you. Here's where the system breaks down a little bit as far as comparison, right? Because podcasting isn't a zero sum game. People can listen to more than one podcast. But the next group I want you to think about, unlike appealing to the party, the party, by the way, has their own ideals, their own agenda.

So does the next group I want you to appeal to or you should be appealing to, and that's the core podcast listeners, just like the core party members care most about the party core podcast listeners. Core podcast listeners care about podcasting overall. Just like the party members care about the party and they're trying to figure out if you as a candidate or if the candidate fits though party values.

Same thing. Core podcast listeners want to make sure they want to ask themselves one question, does your show, does your show increase? The viability of podcasting overall? Is podcasting made better. With your show in it and if the answer that question yes, you get a lot of benefit out of that. The first thing you get is a lot of word of mouth.

These are the people who other people know of as podcast listeners. They're tastemakers. They are able to go to their friends and say, this is an amazing podcast you should listen to, but the only do that if they think that your podcast is worthy. It increases the viability of overall. Of podcasting. Same thing holds for the journalists.

Either those that are specific in the podcasting industry or those that cover podcasts from the outside. If they're energized and engaged about your show, they will write about it, which turns around and exposes more people to it. So think about those as the party members. Does podcasting overall get better with your show in it now?

The third group in politics. If you survive that and then party says yes, and then you become the nomination, then of course you have to go actually get the real live votes from the general public that's out there. But that's not really true. That's not really true in politics, nor is it true in podcasting, and let me explain what I made in politics.

The people running for office are trying to appeal to the people who vote. I think it's the same thing in podcasting. You're trying to appeal to the people who listen to podcasts, and the question that those people are asking themselves in podcasting is similar to what they're asking themselves in politics, and that is does your show validate their world view?

That's it. That's all you have to answer. But really it becomes about what's in it for them. If your show is something that they can get behind, if they're the listener, the 30 to 40% of the people who listen to podcasts. If your show, if the content you put out, if your efforts validate their worldview, they will listen and keep listening.

Just like voting public. If you validate someone's worldview because of your political platform and your policies, they will cast a vote for you. Validate the worldview, and people will keep listening to your show. Now, these are the true believers. There are some of these people out there that are true believers.

Now for them, their worldview is very small, much like single issue voters. Who will cast their vote for a candidate based on one policy alone. There are a lot of true believers in podcasting who listened to podcasts, I should say, who were going to make that similar decision, not a good thing or a bad thing.

The only good thing about this is, remember, this is not a zero sum game. It's not. Your podcast is the only one they're going to listen to. They have room in their day to listen to lots of things, so look at those single issues. Look at those true believers and make sure you're appealing to them. And that are validating their own worldview.

All right, so let's talk about some takeaways. The things are emerging. I think there are two. One is, remember, you don't have to appeal to everyone. Politicians don't try and appeal to everyone. They appeal to people who vote. Just like that. We want to appeal to people who listen either their larger view or those inside of the podcasting community or just those small group.

That's all we're looking for. We're not trying to get all 7 billion people or in America, all 350 million people. We're not trying to do that at all. Second takeaway, think about this for a second. When you're looking at shows that are success stories about this one, keep in mind that the big shows. Once they get big, and I'm talking hundreds of thousands or millions of listeners, they don't have to worry about the other two tiers anymore.

They don't have to worry about the base or the core podcasts. Listeners who care whether or not your show validates podcasting, but you're not getting hundreds of thousands or millions of listeners. If you're not. You need to make sure you do some care and feeding of all of those people because you've got to continue to grow the show.

Think about it. Think about your audience from those three perspectives and it might help. Go talk to your friends about this episode. Tell them you listened to this. Share this episode with them and bring it up. Find out who's doing a good job. Are you thinking about each of these groups together or all they all together, which they shouldn't be.

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