Refresh your podcasts between seasons
Spring is here. Birds are chirping. And maybe your audio production hustle is on the slower side as projects wrap up.
That’s okay!
If you’re an audio producer or sound designer or freelance journalist, we have a list of spring cleaning that will keep you busy until you get your next gig. There’s always something to do — you know the old saying, if you have time to lean, you have time to clean.
Here are some things to do to spring clean your podcast.
Rename episodes
Check out low performing episodes in your feed and see whether you can rejig the title and make it more relevant, timely, descriptive, or accurate. Refreshing the title can do wonders for SEO as well. Take for example this 2016 YouTube video from Vogue featuring Hoyeon Jung, who later went on to star in Netflix’s Squid Game. When the show broke the internet in fall 2021, some genius at Vogue retitled the video with two simple (and trending) words. The five year old video landed on YouTube’s discover page. Big brains!
Research new practices
Speaking of SEO… This is your cue to research simple SEO keywords and figure out what people are searching for and how that can boost listenership. Erin Hynes, host of Alpaca My Bags, wrote about how she researched podcast SEO during the first COVID lockdown in spring 2020. She took this knowledge and ran with it. She began optimizing episode titles, and even created a more detailed podcast website with a page for each episode to help build authority and increase their presence in organic search. It worked. Now 37 of their episodes are being discovered through Google search.
Refresh copy and show notes
Time to go into your show notes and really flesh them out if they were bare bones before. It’s possible show notes are currently an afterthought for your show, but they shouldn’t be! Many podcasters don’t make the most of them, according to Dan Misener of Pacific Content. Don’t be that guy. It’s a huge SEO opportunity. Here are some ideas that you can (and should!) include in show notes:
summary or outline of topics discussed
names, titles, bios and links to guests’ websites
transcribed quotes or excerpts
related links to further reading, studies, campaigns, etc.
links to social accounts and websites
production credits and links
disclosures and disclaimers
You have 4,000 characters to work with, so go back in there and make sure all your backlinks still work, add some banger quotes, and feature your hard-won guests prominently in the episode notes. You never know who is searching for them!
Create transcripts
If your podcast episodes don’t have transcripts yet, they really should. Not only does it help SEO, but it also makes podcasting more accessible for wider audiences, including Deaf users. Just 1.1% of active podcasts in 2021 had transcripts, according to new data, and SiriusXM is being sued for failing to provide podcast transcripts for deaf users by the National Association for the Deaf and the Disability Rights Advocates. Why does it take a large company being sued to bring attention to the need for transcripts? It shouldn’t be the case, so start small and be the change. Use tools like Trint, Descript, Otter.ai, or hire a transcriber to make your show more accessible.
More benefits to transcripts? Search engines will have an easier time directing traffic to your podcast website if there’s a text version of your episode. Listeners who want to go back to your episode to find a particular passage or quote to share on social media have an easier time skimming through a transcript than re-listening to the entire show.
Re-promote old episodes
Got a kick ass episode about tornados? Or maybe a series on college basketball? Next time a tornado makes the news or March Madness starts back up, you should promote and re-share those episodes on your social feeds. Chances are people will be searching for those topics, and you have the perfect piece of content to deliver to them. So dig out a calendar and check out the news cycle to see what’s going on that week. Google News is a good way to see what’s making the news by category. For example, when hockey player Sarah Nurse was facing off in the Olympics, we made sure to re-share our episode of Barrier Breakers that featured her.
Update your website and social feeds
After a long project we like to look to the next thing and get going. But don’t forget to update your website or portfolio with new episodes, audio clips, write ups, or testimonials from clients. Same goes for social bios and linktrees, too.
If you’re a podcast producer or journalist, social media may be the last on your to-do list. But it’s important to make time to update your feeds and freshen up some content. Why not update your Twitter banner or your pinned Tweet? While you’re at it, make sure to follow people back on social media and engage with fans of your podcast. It’s an easy thing to do that is often neglected. You could spend a good hour adding stuff to your LinkedIn “experience” section. And you should! Why not?
We wanted to promote our weekly newsletter, Vocal Fridays, so we added this snazzy new banner to our Twitter feed.
Upskill your skills!
Are there any courses you can take to learn something new? Maybe video editing, mic techniques, or scriptwriting? Some places that offer programs and workshops: Poynter, Transom, Pandemic University, ilovecreatives, the list goes on. Now that you have some downtime, use it to learn something you’ve always wanted to. And heck, it doesn’t even have to be podcast related. Take bass lessons or go to a pottery class, have fun and play! Activities like these can help stoke our creativity and actually help our processes when it comes to creative work like writing or podcasting.
Literally clean
Clean space, clean mind! It’s time to actually tackle your workspace. That means breaking out the wipes and giving your equipment a once over: surfaces, microphones, windsocks, interfaces, screens, and keyboards. Reorganize your drawers, cords, and even your desktop folders. Delete any extra files and move things over to a hard drive. Then clear everything off your desk and give it a good going over. Add a cute plant and revamp your desk space while you’re at it. You’ve earned it.
