Updated May 23, 2022
Here is a question from a LinkedIn group about how to promote a podcast:
The answer is staring the questioner in the face: if you have a business-to-business podcast, then LinkedIn is the perfect place to get listeners. LinkedIn is free, can be highly targeted, and also has a large audience.
After all, recent statistics show 722 million users on LinkedIn. Here are some topics this article will cover:
- Add keywords to headline
- Improve hero image
- Put keywords in summary
- Once a day on LinkedIn
- Are you experienced?
- Education
- Business skills
- Be careful with recommendations
- Accomplishments: the differentiator
- Groups: key to understanding topics
Seek
In this sense of the word, “seek,” you should look for podcasts on LinkedIn where you an provide value to their audience.
Studies show that people who listen to podcasts, on average, listen to six podcasts. This means that if you are a guest on another podcast then you have a shot of attracting listeners to your podcast.
When you search for “podcast” on LinkedIn, you get 240,000 results. Not everybody on the list should be your target. You do not want to approach a podcast that discusses ready mixed concrete when you specialize in air conditioning. Develop a list of twenty potential podcasts related to your field.
Next, go to Apple Podcasts and select the category for your expertise. There are 19 categories. You may get the names of hundreds of podcasts. For this discussion, let us say you have a podcast about cybersecurity, so you can select the category “information technology.”
Compare the list from LinkedIn and Apple – you should see a lot of crossovers.
When you find one that fits, go to the “website” button on the Apple Podcast page. This should link to the show notes page. You can normally get the name of the moderator or the people on the marketing team at the podcast.
Ok, you have a list of candidates derived from LinkedIn and Apple list. Drilling down, you should have the website for the company. Combine the website with the name to get the email. You can go to sites like ViolaNorbert or Hunter.io to get an email address for the contact.
. . . and now, the pitch
Always send a customized email, the way you get your topics for the email is from their LinkedIn page. For example, one cybersecurity podcast may be involved in compliance or virtual private networks or even mobile device management. Customize your email to include benefits in those categories.
The key is to explicitly state that the audience for the podcast on your list would benefit from the information you provide.
For example, you can start with a fact like,
“Hey Rahul, Internet traffic management experts at Akamai estimate an increase in 25% of traffic in the first half of 2022. Your listeners are keenly interested in the cybersecurity implications of managing dynamic workloads. I would love to be a guest on your podcast to provide details for your listeners”
“Hey Miranda, loved your last podcast titled, ‘Hybrid Cloud Integration.’ My company has been involved in the cybersecurity aspects of using a hybrid cloud since its inception. Your audience needs to be kept up to date on issues like identity governance administration in today’s complex cloud world. Would love to appear on your podcast to address those concerns your listeners have.”
You may want to reassure the podcast producer of your ability with a sample of your voice. Old school radio folks would call this an “aircheck.”
For a sample of your voice, include a link to your podcast. Perhaps wording like, “Click here to get a sample of my voice on a podcast.”
Once you get the invitation, make sure you have a way to refer to your podcast during the interview.
Make it as easy as possible to reach you during the interview. For example, “Come to my website security.com/list and get a list of system vulnerabilities.”
Engage
You can’t engage on LinkedIn without knowing what the topics are. It is always best if you know characteristics of your particular audience.
You can hire survey specialists or even contract people like Adelle Revella to develop customer profiles for you. Great if you are a multi-billion dollar company, but not applicable for small business. The shortcut is LinkedIn groups.
There are an estimated two million groups on LinkedIn. The goal is to engage in specific targeted groups so you can understand the sentiment, get podcast topic ideas, and present yourself as a subject matter expert.
You may be the world’s foremost expert in a specific field, but you can be tone-deaf to what the market thinks is important. That is why you listen to discussion in your particular group.
The idea is to present yourself as a subject matter expert in one narrow field. You provide answers to the members of that group. One key to understanding sentiment for listeners to your podcast in a business-to-business world is a LinkedIn group on your specific topic.
You may want to confirm these topics with forums like Quora, or even Reddit.
Optimize
1. Add keywords to headline
2. Don't go "grey" with the hero image
Using a grey background is a wasted opportunity to tell your podcast story.
Let’s go back to those one hundred LinkedIn profiles. You will see about 25% with a grey image in the hero image section Grey makes me blue.
The hero image is the opportunity to show people who have been successful because of your podcast. The hero is not you – the hero is the transformation you can make in the lives of the listeners. The hero image is a great, free, way to tell the story of your podcast.
Listeners love watching a podcast get recorded at tradeshows because they get to absorb the excitement of the crowd during the interview. The second benefit is a photographer can take shots of the person being interviewed with a crowd listening, great for promotion on social media.
3. LinkedIn summary section = keyword heaven
Joe Pulizzi is a world-renown expert on content marketing. If he uses keywords, then it would make sense for you to use your podcast keywords in your summary as well.
When Joe was running Content Marketing World, I looked at his LinkedIn profile. It had five paragraphs and repeated the word “content” sixteen times.
Learn from Joe and sprinkle your podcast keywords throughout your summary.
4. Activity on LinkedIn: like the vitamin, once a day
Best practice here is to post once a day. The post does not have to be original content, it can be an article or video that is important for your community. Successful posts include written hooks to grab attention, handles of people on the podcast, and an image of a human.
5. Experience: load it up
6: Education: perceived value of a piece of paper
There is a reason your physician has his degree posted above her desk – it adds to credibility. Please add a complete education history. If your formal education does not reflect your current situation, then it is time to take some courses where you can get credentials in your area of focus.
He was in a unique position to be able to articulate the benefits of open source software better than many engineers on the leadership team.
7. Skills . . . business skills, not bowling skills
This is another way to reinforce your expertise. Perhaps you had a course in identity management, that may apply to a technology podcast.
Some will argue that a LinkedIn profile has 13 times more chances to get viewed if you add your skills.
8. Recommendations: be careful
A recommendation here does not carry as much punch as the other areas, but has value. The reason is that one must approve of a recommendation. This causes people, naturally, to only list outstanding recommendations.
9. Accomplishments: the differentiator
Honors, languages, public speaking invitations, publications, podcasts, videos, place anything that will separate you from your competition. Why not write a 3000-word blog post and place on LinkedIn as an article as well?
LinkedIn loves articles that they can publish. Every podcast is a treasure trove of topics to write about. Your interviews will have transcripts, and these are a terrific source for an outline for an article. Include keywords in all your articles, especially the titles.
10. Groups: key to understanding your audience
Groups were mentioned above. You may think your field is too restricted or narrow for a LinkedIn group. Not true.
Let us take an esoteric topic like aerospace wire maintenance. You may think this topic is too specialized.
Believe it or not, you can find dozens of groups that are interested in this topic: The Cabletek Interconnect Design Challenge, High-Intensity RF (HIRF) Professionals, Aerospace Systems Engineering Group, Aircraft and Engineering Workgroup, etc.
So, even if you think you have a small audience, there will be a group for it on LinkedIn.
Conclusion
LinkedIn is free and provides a magnificent platform to promote your podcast. Contact podcasters in your field and list benefits for their listeners.
Participate in a wide range of groups in your field. Do not use your presence as a megaphone, use it as a stethoscope. Listening is a great way to get topics for future podcasts. LinkedIn profile images will attract humans while the keywords will make your profile get found when someone searches on LinkedIn.
Make sure your whole education experience is listed. If it is weak, there are hundreds of online courses to take that can bolster your appearance. Being broke should not stop you from being creative with the way you use LinkedIn to promote your podcast.
After all, 722 million people can’t be wrong!
If you liked this article, you may want to read “How to become a guest on a podcast”
John Gilroy
Has been in front of a microphone since 1991. He can help you structure, launch, and promote your company podcast. johngilroy@theoakmontgroupllc.com
This is really well written. The file in the end is also a really good idea for reference and summary. The only recommendation I have is to expand upon the blue section 2 as I’m having some trouble grasping the point. Hope this helps!
This is really helpful!