Will We Ever Get Better Podcast Engagement?

Few things make podcasters happier than a slew of emails from deeply engaged listeners filled with praise for their latest episode. Good work if you can get it. But should you expect and encourage it?

Hello, and welcome to another Podcast Pontifications with me, Evo Terra.

If there's a universal want amongst podcasters, it's that we want more engagement from our listeners. Trouble is, the feeling isn't mutual from the standpoint of our listeners.

When you think about it, most listeners aren't able to engage with most of the content they consume. You got a beef with how Apple re-imagined Asimov's Foundation, who are you going to call? You want to tell the showrunner of Glow Up: Britain's Next Make-Up Star how much you enjoy and appreciate that last episode and have some suggestions for the next? You can't.

There's literally no way for you to do that. Those shows wrapped production months, if not years, ago. You cannot engage with those creators. At least, you cannot engage with those creators while they are - while you are actively engaging with their content.

That's a reality for every other piece of content you consume that is produced ahead of time. Every book, every movie, every album, every class or course you take, every blog post you read, every meal at every restaurant. Yeah, you could comment on all of those and your comments might actually make it back to the creator of those items, but at no time are you able to engage with those creators during the creative process.

So why are so many companies trying to make it easier, and, perhaps, better for people to engage with podcasts? Is that something podcasters want? Or is this something we've been told that we want? And, arguably more importantly than any of that, is it something that our listeners want?

I think that at least some of the perceived benefit, or the perceived need, I should say, on both sides of the equation stems from the podcasting versus radio fight that we made up two decades ago. And by we, I mean, yes, I had some culpability in that as well.

We pitted ourselves against radio hosts from disc jockeys to sports commentators to politics and even interview shows. They, the radio side, were all limited by the power of their radio transmitter or the size of their syndication network. But we, podcasters, could reach anyone in the world, anyone around the planet, as long as they had an internet connection. But the one thing they could do that we could not? Take live callers.

Now, back then, I, and quite a few others, had a foot in both of those worlds. I was hosting a weekly live radio show, as well as producing a few weekly podcasts. I know firsthand the joy of seeing a fully lit phone bank in the radio station. I also know the despair of seeing an empty email box when I've specifically asked for comments. So yeah, the struggle's real.

So, should we podcasters give up on the idea of getting more engagement? Well, no, not necessarily. But it does lead me to two thoughts. Number one is engagement doesn't only mean instant live feedback during the creation process. Yesterday, you heard from Pat about how PodInbox aims to increase listener engagement using publicly available messages, much in the same way that reviews of your podcast are publicly available.

Now, I think that's a really smart move because it's still inconceivably hard - two decades later in a world where almost all podcast listening takes place on mobile phones - it's still too hard to leave feedback or give kudos or anything other than just lean back and listen to your favorite podcaster.

Thought number two is a bit more controversial, and it's listening - or reading or watching, sure - that is engagement. Searching through the podcast apps, finding a podcast or a podcast episode to listen to, subscribing to that show or following that show, all of these are forms of engagement that our listeners are doing right now. It's the kind of engagement, honestly, that podcasts are best set up for.

Look, podcasters, we don't want notes in the middle of our recording or our editing process. That's not helpful right then. And that's also not the kind of engagement most listeners prefer either. No, I'm sorry, but the majority of your audience will not get any benefit from engaging more deeply than they already are.

Podcasting is not live streaming, just like it's not live radio or live theater or other places where live engagement happens. It's not live, except for the handful of times it is live, obviously, but most of the time it's not live. So we shouldn't want that live feedback.

Yes, it is very natural for us to want more engagement from our audience, but we serious podcasters need first to make sure we're giving our audience good reasons to engage with our content in the first place.

With that, I shall be back tomorrow with yet another Podcast Pontifications.

Cheers!

Podcast Pontifications is written and narrated by Evo Terra. He's on a mission to make podcasting better. Links to everything mentioned in today's episode are in the notes section of your podcast listening app. A written-to-be-read article based on today's episode is available at podcastpontifications.com where you'll also find a video version and a corrected transcript, both created by Allie Press. Podcast Pontifications is a production of Simpler Media. Find out more at Simpler.Media.

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