The best way to build a strong community with podcasting is to lead the way and start to be the community that you want to create. This is true not only for podcasting but for every other task we perform. People don’t like to join communities where the leader is uncertain of the task (concept).
A couple of days ago I listened to an interview with Tim Ferriss where he talked about the importance of nailing your audience. When asked for whom he writes, he made a very powerful statement. He said, he likes to write for people like himself. When he writes a book, he thinks about what he would have loved to read, the insights that would have helped him achieve certain goals in life and business.
Why should you focus on people like you? Why should you write a book for people similar to you? Why should you do podcasting for a community that is made of people just like you?
#1. If you know and understand yourself, you will know and understand your audience. If you’re an entrepreneur and you love to do extreme sports, you will most likely attract business owners with similar hobbies.
#2. If you had a problem and you finally found a solution to that problem, your community facing similar challenges will love to hear how you solved the issue you had. Say you had difficulties raising money for your company and you managed to launch a successful campaign that led to an angel investor buying into you and your idea. Now, guess what? Your audience will definitely want to hear exactly how you managed to do that in order for them to find similar solutions and ways to raise funds for their businesses too.
Why choose Podcasting?
Let’s do some stats first. Last summer, iTunes celebrated 1 Billion podcast subscriptions! It’s a respectable number if you consider the fact that podcasting was first launched in 2005. And remember, iTunes is just one of the podcast directories. It’s the biggest one, that is totally true — but we have hundreds of other podcast directories that make up around 25% of the market.
There are loads of ways to build a community. For example, you can build a community through blogging regularly or by engaging on different social media platforms. And than there’s podcasting. The cool part about podcasting is the fact that your audience can hear and feel you, and decide a lot faster whether they like you or not. I’ve met a lot of marketers who are afraid of ‘losing’ some people in their audience if they speak. Personally, I consider it a blessing. If people can resonate with your voice and your message, you create a much stronger bondage. Auditory plays an important part in our day-to-day communication. If people don’t like your voice and leave, you should be thankful. Focus on the ones that love your voice and message, and more importantly love to be part of your community. Remember, if you’re trying to be appealing to everyone, you will reach no-one.
If you decide to do video podcasting, than you add another important component to the equation: visual. Now people can decide even faster whether they want to watch you and listen to the insights you’re sharing, or whether they prefer to join somebody else.
Stop building broad communities. Go narrow, go deep. If you’re a tech nerd and you go narrow, you can dissect certain topics and your ‘tech nerd’ audience will still love your show and eventually become your evangelists. On the other hand if you talk about random tech topics, you might attract a broader audience but as soon as you go deeper into certain areas you will lose a part of your audience anyhow. These people won’t be able to follow you. You’ll be too much ‘nerd’ to them 🙂
Building a strong community takes time…
I’m in business for 15+ years and I haven’t met an ‘overnight’ success yet. Building a strong community and trust is like building a sustainable business. It takes time and effort! Podcasting is not an advertising campaign where you can buy attention. You have to earn it one person at a time. Therefore it’s crucial to stay the course, be consistent and provide loads of value.
Podcasting Invitation
If you’d like to join our strong podcasting community, and learn proven marketing strategies from business leaders worldwide subscribe to our weekly Strength In Business podcast show on iTunes and visit our favorite podcast directories where our show is listed. Check us out on Player.FM, YouTube, BlackBerry, Podfeed and Stitcher.
Check us out on Stitcher.com
Hit me up on Twitter @KriszRokk and send me your marketing questions. Every week I answer two questions from someone like you.
Will you consider podcasting as a vehicle to get your message out and build a strong community of loyal customers? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.
