Podcasts + Facebook: 2 common mistakes resulting in missed opportunities

Podcast

This weekend while doing the laundry, putting away groceries, etc., I was listening to some podcasts. Do you do that?

I love that I can do something and listen in at the same time (my favorites are where the host interviews lots of experts in a wide variety of industries). Of the three interviews I listened to, none had a *true* call to action at the end. When the host asked “How can our listeners learn more”, the answer was the same in all three cases: “Here’s my website and email address.”

Talk about a missed opportunity! We’ve just spent 40-60 minutes listening in on a great interview and they put all the pressure on us to scroll through their website or email them. It could be as simple as “You can get a checklist of the X I just shared at YYY.com.”

YAY! Relationship moves from us being passive listeners to actively engaging with a checklist, workbook, etc.

Not only would that make it easy peasy for us as listeners to get additional value, it would help to grow their email list/audience.

In case you think these three interviews are an anomaly, they’re not. I’ve listened to over 600 podcasts this year and, so far, less than 20 had a call to action beyond their website and/or email address. (insert sad head shake)

The second mistake/commonly missed opportunity: Growing and keeping communities exclusively on social media platforms. Those who have taken that exclusive approach likely felt some trepidation last week when all the Facebook-owned platforms were down for six hours. If that’s not motivation to encourage your friends, followers and groups to also be on your email list, I don’t know what is.