Podcasters – You don’t need ‘Big Name’ Influencers in Interviews to build your audience.

The current trend and copious amounts of copycat advice is that you should get the influencer ‘big name’ on your podcast because it will help you grow your podcast.

The other way around maybe – You may get in front of some new potential listeners if you appear as a guest on another podcast.

However you won’t grow your audience with the latest ‘Big Name’ in your podcast.

Your podcast will grow from having a great story to tell. By being authentic, different, real, new and targeted at your listeners needs.  Hey and guess what it will take time and effort to build.

Only yesterday someone who I have the biggest respect for asked me this question “Do you think these so called influencers are just podcasting to the same people in a circle?”  I tend to agree, they do.

I think podcasts with the same voices become vanilla and really aren’t serving their audience.  How many times can a influencer tell their same story to the same potential listener anyway?

What’s more why all the interview podcasts anyway?

Perhaps it is fairly easy to do. Using even the most basic equipment you can create a good interview. Wait though – what makes it stand out for the crowd?  What makes it worth listening to?

Podcast is a personal one 2 one experience, hey just like radio. You have the opportunity to make a connection.  When I tune into a podcast that is self help, educative or informative I want to hear from the expert or experts.

I realised that those in that when listening to that genre that I listen for the experts advice, sometimes that is the guest who has a story to tell.

One of my mentors, Clive Lawrence, said to me “Every time you open up that microphone, you have the opportunity to change someone, their direction and perhaps their life”.  Clive was Managing Editor of BBC Radio Kent, and director of RocketPR.  He knew what made the listener tick.

It’s why I do what I do; it’s why I’m not interested in music liner card radio. It is the opportunity that speech audio – radio or podcast offers to you the podcaster and your listener.

For the next series of Radio Skills for Podcasters we will have interviews, but it won’t be like the rest. It will be different.

Think different.  Be different. Interview in a different way. Create the edit and cuts, use them in a spread of episodes distributed with a narrative.  Keep the listener coming back for more.  Build a series that is linked together by a narrative.

That is how you build audience.  Get out there and market it – that’s how you get listeners.  You keep them by providing quality content.  They come back again and again through the linked in content you provide in each episode.

The guest with great stories to tell will win over the big name influencer guest every time.

I do believe you’ll get more listeners if it is authentically you and you’re telling a story that your listener wants and needs. With that approach you’ll build and keep audience.

I’m covering how you can build audience and keep them coming back for more at New Media Europe in London on the 18th and 19th June.

I’d be happy for a one to one about your podcast with you if you’re coming to the conference.

I’m offering, until Mod-night Easter Monday, £50 off your ticket via a cash back arrangement.  It’s via my affiliate link below.  I get £100 and you get £50 cash back from me.  All you need do is buy your ticket via the links below (by midnight Easter Monday).  Terms and conditions apply here.

You can buy your tickets for New Media Europe via my direct link here or via the banner below… Or can you read more about it via my blog post about the event here.