Since its beginning in the early 2000s, podcasting has developed rapidly and steadily. So, by now, you are probably aware of podcasts. You may even listen to at least one of them on a regular basis. Check out these statistics from 2021 to get a better idea of the popularity of podcasting:
Nearly 12 million Canadian adults (38% of the 18+ population) have listened to podcasts in the past year.
Nearly 9 million Canadian adults (29% of the 18+ population) listen to podcasts at least once a month.
Have you been thinking about starting your own podcast? Although it may seem complicated, podcasting is simpler than it appears!
What is a podcast, exactly?
A podcast is essentially a collection of spoken articles or audio episodes that are all centered on a single topic or theme. People can subscribe to the podcast using a podcast listening app on their phone and listen to episodes on their headphones, in their car, or on smart speakers anytime they choose. Podcasting allows you to take your favourite show with you and listen to it whenever you want. It personalizes shows and makes them available on demand.
This is what distinguishes podcasting from broadcasting and is one of its benefits. Unlike broadcast media, a podcast listener will not hear messages from your competitors. When they tune in to your podcast, they are solely listening to you. And, unlike other kinds of media, listeners typically devote their full attention and time to podcasts since they deliver your content in a way that is easy to consume. This can certainly help strengthen brand loyalty for businesses in highly competitive industries.
Podcasting provides a unique way to expand and engage an audience along with numerous other benefits. Podcasts are helping businesses from around the globe with boosting revenue, increasing brand awareness, and providing an updated content marketing channel. Now is an ideal time to start a podcast, whether you’re a brand, a hobbyist, a non-profit, or someone with a message to share.
How does one get started with podcasting?
Before you begin your podcast, take a step back and consider “why”. Ask yourself questions such as what do you want the world to know about you? What are you hoping to motivate your audience to do?
Here are a few reasons why people start podcasts:
Thought leadership
Create fresh content
Brand awareness
Grow a new or existing audience
Once you have determined your “why”, it’s time to find out if there is an audience that is interested in your podcast idea. What type of podcast listener are you looking for? What demographics, hobbies, social media platforms and behaviors do they have? This will help you decide what type of content you wish to share and whether you are sharing it with the right audience.
When it comes to the length of a podcast episode, there is only one correct answer: it depends! There is no “one-size-fits-all” duration, and the length will be determined by a variety of factors. Podcasts can range in length from a few minutes to a few hours. Most podcasts, though, are between 20 and 40 minutes long. But remember, you can do whatever seems appropriate for you and your listeners.
Other steps to launching your podcast include choosing a cool name for it, deciding on the format (episodic or serial), and obtaining your recording equipment. Although podcasting equipment can seem intimidating, a professional-sounding recording does not require a sophisticated setup. You may be surprised to learn that all you’ll probably need is a laptop, an internet connection, a USB microphone, headphones, and free recording software.
How do I determine and target my demographic of listeners?
Your first step is to consider your podcast’s niche when identifying your target audience. For example, podcasters within a specific industry will find that their target audience is easy to determine. What types of people work in your field? Is there a certain set of people who would listen to your podcast in that industry? That’s your target market.
If you already have a few listeners, try to learn more about them. If you can figure out what they have in common, you will have a better idea of how to define and expand your audience. If you have social media followers, you can quickly define your target demographic.
Podcast surveys are another excellent method to gather detailed information about your listeners. Nearly every well-known podcast conducts annual listener surveys, and you should as well. Using Google Forms, Survey Monkey, or other similar tools to collect surveys is a quick and easy method to see who is listening to your podcast. Knowing the key demographics of your podcast listener is usually one of the easiest and most accurate methods to define your audience.
Where do I post my podcast?
When it comes to podcasting, it’s not as simple as recording your audio and uploading it to iTunes or Spotify. You will first need to choose a podcast hosting service, which is similar to the process of choosing the best hosting platform for your website. Platforms that host podcasts, however, store and broadcast your audio content while helping you grow your audience.
TechRadar shares a useful list of the top podcasting hosting providers of 2022. Among these are BuzzSprout, which is a top platform for new podcasters and is one of the easiest to use. Podbean is an excellent choice for price conscious users. Libsyn offers unlimited bandwidth and is one of the oldest podcast hosting services. Learn more about these and other top podcast hosting services on TechRadar’s website: https://www.techradar.com/best/podcast-hosting.
What topics are most popular?
As of 2021, over 850,000 podcasts, totaling over forty-eight million episodes, were available online. With that in mind, it is reasonable to assume that there is a podcast for almost any topic you can think of.
As a small business owner, you may be interested in subjects such as brand building and company management. Of course, there are dozens (if not hundreds!) of business-related podcasts as well! Feedspot provides an up-to-date list of the top business-related podcasts from thousands of podcasts rated by traffic, social media followers, domain authority, and freshness. Here are their top five recommendations:
Anyone, regardless of experience level, can start a podcast. All you need is real enthusiasm for your subject and something useful to offer your audience!
It is no secret that having an online presence – including a website and social media accounts – is an important aspect of any company’s online strategy. But what happens once you have set up your website and social media accounts? How can they work together?
All your marketing channels, whether online or off, should already be working together to increase brand awareness, generate engagement, and drive conversions. Here are some ways that your website and social media should be interacting together.
#1. Connect your social media accounts to your website.
To get the most out of your online presence, ensure your website visitors can view your social network accounts and vice versa. By encouraging website users to join your social following, you can improve traffic to your website while also increasing customer loyalty and expanding your reach. On your website, remember to add social media icons and links to your social media accounts. Then, in your social profiles and ‘about us’ sections, be sure to include a link to your website.
If you want to highlight your social media even more, consider embedding a Twitter/Facebook live feed on your website. However, if you do this, make sure you are consistently adding updated content to your social media platforms to keep the stream fresh. Keep in mind that the branding should be consistent throughout all your business’ social media channels and your website.
#2. Encourage people to visit your website by sharing on social media.
Share information from your website on social media on a regular basis. Both your website and social media are designed to engage your audience with quality content. By directing your social media followers to your website, you can encourage them to read your blog posts and/or other web pages, which increases the possibility of converting them into customers. As well, when you are driving more visitors to your website via social media, you’re also increasing the chances that your content will be shared elsewhere on the web, potentially improving your SEO. At MYOB, some of our website clients have requested e-newsletters from their website, or monthly blogs. These are both wonderful sources of content that successfully attract traffic from social media to your website and vice versa.
As we have mentioned in previous blog posts, social media provides a ton of opportunity for engagement, allowing you to rapidly react to and reply to customer comments and queries, as well as urge followers to visit your website for more information. Using social media to enhance the human aspect of your business generates an emotional connection, which builds relationships and nurtures trust and loyalty.
#3. Track your progress by using analytics.
Using analytics and data provides important insights on how well your content is driving traffic from your social media platforms to your website. Setting up Google Analytics for your website is an essential part of capturing that data (https://marketingplatform.google.com/about/).
Monitoring your social media and website can help you recognize both the successes and the areas that need improvement. For example:
• Determine the type of content and posts that perform best across social media and your website, so you create and share the types that do well.
• Use your social media data to better understand your target audience and develop content for them, and vice versa – use your website visitor data to customize your social media posts.
Over to you
Your website is one of your strongest branding and marketing tools. There are many different types of websites that may work for your business:
• Sites that act like brochures
• Interactive sites with chats
• Sites that require logins for membership
The same techniques for creating the interaction between your website and your social media platforms will apply regardless of the type of website you have. At Mind Your Own Business Inc., we will collaborate with you from the ground floor and build a customized website that meets all your business needs. Contact us to get started today!
Is it possible that a typo – or a series of them – can turn off a potential customer? You’d better believe it! These days, many people begin their purchasing journeys online, so a flawless website that grabs and keeps their attention is critical. Remember, first impressions matter.
Whether intentionally or unintentionally, poor grammar, spelling, and punctuation on your site can negatively influence how people see you or your brand and may even damage your or your brand’s reputation. And, with so much of a business’s communication tied into branding, marketing, and emails, improper grammar can completely affect the interpretation of what you are trying to communicate.
Here are a few reasons why proper grammar in your brand messaging is so important to your company’s success.
#1. Without proper grammar, spelling, and punctuation, your brand’s message is at risk of being confusing and even completely misunderstood. You have most likely spent a lot of time and effort to decide on the best message for your target audience. Producing content that contains mistakes in grammar, spelling, punctuation, and even style may significantly dilute the message you worked so hard to establish. Your brand does not benefit from confusing messaging.
#2. Poor grammar, spelling, and punctuation alters the consistency and impacts the trustworthiness of your brand message. People look for brands on which they can rely. Trust is earned. By delivering a consistent message, your business becomes one they can trust. Consistency can refer to several things, but it is especially important when it comes to your wording.
#3. Your brand’s credibility is at stake if your content contains grammar, spelling, and punctuation mistakes. As we mentioned earlier in this post, typos are one of the key reasons why people may become turned off by a brand. Attention to detail is critical. People simply do not trust brands that seemingly fail to put in the time and effort to create error-free content.
#4. Poor grammar, spelling, and punctuation can negatively affect user accessibility. It is important to keep in mind that not everyone who reads what you have written will easily ‘get’ what you are saying. Some people are attempting to figure out the meaning of every word, regardless of whether it is correct or not. In addition, English may not be the native language of your potential customer. Grammatical errors and other typos may result in potential customers being unable to understand your message. Or, even worse, they may misinterpret you completely.
How can I avoid grammatical errors in my brand’s content?
When creating content for your brand, it is inevitable that you will commit a grammatical error at some point. Fortunately, there are a few ways to help you avoid, or at the very least catch and modify, these errors before they are published.
To avoid grammar errors in your business content and correspondence, consider these tips:
Make edits as you go. If you start editing straight away, you will save time later because you will have fewer edits to make at the end.
Use digital tools to help streamline the editing process. With a quick Google search, you can easily find a variety of free online spelling and grammar checkers. Some of these tools also provide synonyms, allowing you to use a broader range of words in your content.
Double-check your own work for typos. Even though your work may be reviewed by an editor before final approval, it is still a good idea to do your own proofreading before submitting it.
Outsource it to a team with writers and proofreaders. By hiring a specialized group to create and review your material, you can drastically reduce the grammar errors on your website and on your social media pages.
Over to you
All businesses, regardless of their size or industry, should understand the value of using good grammar, correct spelling, and proper punctuation in their online content. Whether it’s a quick tweet or status update, an email, or the more involved writing of a blog or a company page, you want to make a good first impression to people who are interested in your brand.
At MYOB Inc. we have several content writers and proofreaders on our staff to help you present your best messaging to represent your brand.
When it comes to creating and sharing social media content for your business, incorporating hashtags is an excellent way to increase views, likes, and shares. When used properly, hashtags make it easier for others who are interested in your content to find you, hence increasing your influence, and following.
You have probably seen many hashtags by now. They first became popular on Twitter but have since spread to other social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. In June 2014, the word “hashtag” was added to the Oxford English Dictionary and defined as “a word or phrase with the symbol # in front of it, used on social media websites and apps so that you can search for all messages with the same subject” (Source: Wikipedia).
Are you ready to incorporate hashtags into your social media plan? Here are four pointers to keep in mind.
#1. How to make a hashtag
Creating a hashtag for your content is as simple as adding the octothorp symbol (#) in front of the word or words you wish you stand out, such as #Hashtag. To hashtag a phrase, you’ll spell it out completely, without spaces, symbols, or punctuation. You can also use numbers. #MakingaHashtag is an example of a phrase hashtag. The hashtag(s) can be added to the beginning, middle, or end of your social media post or comment.
#2. Designing a hashtag strategy
It may seem easy enough to turn any word or phrase into a hashtag. However, you’ll want to utilize relevant hashtags as much as possible. This is important since the more specific you can be, the more likely you are to reach your preferred audience. Since adding the # symbol automatically makes a word or phrase clickable, you’ll want to carefully choose the ones you use.
Consider the following for your hashtag strategy:
Avoid going overboard with your hashtags. The number of hashtags that can be used is determined by the platform (we’ll get into more details about that below). However, in most cases, one to three hashtags can have a greater impact than having too many of them.
Instead of trying to fit a lot of words into one tag, keep your hashtags short and memorable.
Rather than making up hashtags that are obscure or cryptic, stick with more popular choices. If you choose a tag that no one will search for, it will not benefit your marketing because it will not be found!
Focus on using hashtags within your posts when they bring value to your audience and are more likely to spark dialogue and interaction. In other words, you don’t have to pack them into every post.
#3. Finding the right hashtags to get the results you want
Now that you’re ready to start using hashtags, the next step is determining the ones that are best for you and your brand. The key is to find hashtags that complement your content and appealing to your followers. You’ll always want to research a hashtag to get the best, most effective outcomes.
There are various websites that can help you in selecting hashtags for your brand. Here are four sites we like to use:
Once you’ve identified the hashtags you want to use, it’s a good idea to scan the social media platforms where you intend to use them to see what comes up when you search for them. Doing this will help you easily identify whether they are popular, as well as if they are appropriate for your brand.
#4. Learn how hashtags work across social media platforms
As we mentioned earlier, the main purpose of using hashtags on social media is to let your followers know that your content falls into a specific topic or category. As such, you will also want to learn how to use hashtags on different platforms.
Twitter
Twitter is fast and furious. Without hashtags, your content will easily become lost in a flood of tweets. According to HubSpot, Tweets from businesses that include hashtags are 33% more likely to get retweeted than tweets without hashtags. (https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/twitter-statistics). However, if you use too many hashtags in a post your message will lose its value. Although you can use as many hashtags in a tweet as you like, Twitter recommends using no more than two per Tweet. (https://help.twitter.com/en/using-twitter/how-to-use-hashtags)
Facebook
When it comes to gaining greater visibility for your Facebook posts, hashtags can help increase organic reach. Simply type a keyword into the search bar to get hashtags that are relevant to you. It’s usually best to limit yourself to one or two hashtags per post, though. More beyond that can make you appear unprofessional and may even annoy the people who read your posts.
LinkedIn
Hashtag use on LinkedIn is still fairly new, but they work on this platform in the same way as on any other network. Using hashtags on LinkedIn can help you reach people who are outside of your network, increasing engagement and trustworthiness. One to three hashtags are suggested for posts on LinkedIn.
Instagram
On Instagram, hashtags can help you reach a wider audience and enhance engagement. So, to reach the largest audience possible, feel free to use up to ten or eleven relevant and popular hashtags per post. You can actually use up to 30 hashtags per post, giving you plenty of options. Use the search box to find out which hashtags influencers and your competitors are using to engage with their followers on Instagram. Because this is the ideal platform for multiple hashtags, try experimenting with a variety of them to use in your own posts and comments.
Over to you
Hashtags are an excellent way to communicate with your followers, increase engagement, and potentially attract new customers through social media. When it comes to which hashtags to use or how to use them, there are no hard and fast rules, but the guide provided above will help point you in the right direction.
When it comes to running a successful business, a little knowledge goes a long way. The effective use of available resources is one way to gain that knowledge. Additionally, businesses can achieve new heights of success by utilizing their resources efficiently.
For many small business owners, however, managing their resources can be challenging. For one thing, there is no “one-size-fits-all” solution for managing all your company’s resources. Here are some recommendations to get you started.
Resources for social media
When it comes to using social media for business, you will want to keep in mind that there are significant differences between professional and personal use. Fortunately, there are many resources available both online and off to help you plan and create the best social media content for your business.
You’ll learn quickly that fact checking should be a top priority when sharing social media content on your company’s social media sites. We all want people to read, enjoy, and share our pages’ posts. However, before you share an enticing, hot-off-the-press piece in the hopes of gaining engagement, make sure it is accurate. As we have mentioned in previous posts, false information abounds on the internet, so verifying your sources when creating and/or sharing content is critically important for building trust and social proof with your audience. For example, if you are checking the validity of a story online (such as a political story, news story or celebrity based story), www.snopes.com can help you verify. When looking to verify statistics, try www.statista.com for accurate information.
The appropriate use of hashtags is another resource that helps businesses manage their social media. In fact, hashtag usage has skyrocketed on social media over the past few years. And, with the right hashtags, potential customers can find your company on social media platforms more easily, and your posts will reach a larger audience. Hashtag tracking tools, such as the one provided by BrandMentions (https://brandmentions.com/hashtag-tracker/#) aid in the discovery of popular and relevant hashtags on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and other social platforms.
And lastly, there are the resources that provide you with analytics for your business’ social media platforms. In a nutshell, analytics are important since they uncover insights in social media that can be used to benefit your business. They will assist you in determining where to focus your social efforts, which networks are active, and what type of content has the greatest impact on your audience. Each of the main social platforms provides ways to access and view your pages’ analytics such as the number of followers, reach, impressions, and engagement.
Resources for bookkeeping
Proper bookkeeping for your business is essential for its overall financial health. Having your books neat and in order aids in tax preparation, among other things. Many business owners choose to keep up with their own books, but it’s time-consuming and labor intensive. One resource that is readily accessible to help you learn the ins and outs of small-business bookkeeping along with managing your books is online accounting software. A quick online search will produce several results from which to choose.
Creating and regularly reviewing a Profit and Loss Report (P&L) for your company is another valuable resource. The P&L is a financial report that summarizes a company’s revenues, expenses, and profits/losses over a specified period of time.
The main categories that can be found on the P&L include:
As your company grows, however, you may discover that you have less time to devote to precise bookkeeping. Hiring an accountant and experienced bookkeeper can assist you in staying organized and current with government filings while saving you from headaches in the long run.
An invaluable resource for any business website is Google Analytics (https://marketingplatform.google.com/about/analytics/). Installing Google Analytics is a smart option because it is a free website analysis tool that collects data and then produces reports with thorough statistics on who visits your site. As well, Google Analytics assists you in better understanding your site and app users to better evaluate the performance of your marketing, content, products, and other initiatives.
Some of the statistics you may find helpful include users, sessions, pageviews, and bounce rate. The bounce rate is the percentage of visitors who left your site from the home (landing) page (they left the site from the same page they entered it on). A high bounce rate typically indicates that your site’s landing pages are not relevant to your visitors and/or the content isn’t what the user was looking for.
There are numerous advantages to implementing Google Analytics. It is a useful tool for all types of businesses because it provides information on who your website visitors are, if they’re engaging with your content, and how long they stay on your site.
Over to you
Small business owners are fortunate to have access to a wealth of resources to assist them in starting, running, and growing their companies. A good business owner is always learning; acquiring knowledge through various resources enables you to recognize and capitalize on opportunities around you, allowing your business to thrive in the face of competition and ensuring its relevance in your industry.
Everyone who creates and manages a social media account dreams of having a post (or posts!) go viral. But what does that even mean?
Here’s how Urban Dictionary defines “Go Viral”: As used in reference to Internet content which can be passed through electronic mail and social networking sites (Facebook, etc.): an image, video, or link that spreads rapidly through a population by being frequently shared with a number of individuals has ‘gone viral’. They note that strong political content, celebrity news, news of disasters, among others, are popular topics that have the potential to go viral.
While the concept of “going viral” is straightforward, determining when a post has truly gone viral is more complex. The amounts of views/shares/links, the number of unique people the material has reached, the rate at which the content is consumed, and the content’s longevity are all elements to consider.
What makes a post go viral?
We live in a time where anything may become extremely popular thanks to social media. Even if it’s only for a brief period. Think of a viral post as being like a music hit. You’ll never know what will work unless you try it! However, you will need to spend some time thinking about what type of content will grab people’s attention and appeal to the masses.
Here are a few suggestions to get the ball rolling:
Browse other people’s content to discover what is working for them.
Stay up to date. Keep your eyes open for the latest breaking news online. Every day, you’ll hear folks discussing something in common.
Twitter’s Trending Topics is a wonderful place to discover current hot topics and to find out what people are talking about. Whether you want to focus on local or worldwide trends, Twitter makes it easy for you to personalize your search. (https://help.twitter.com/en/using-twitter/twitter-trending-faqs)
Focus on creating compelling content that solves problems or otherwise provides educational value to others. Think quality over quantity.
Source or create your own attractive, high-quality images and graphics. Stock photos are great in a pinch, but there is a good chance they have already been seen by others. Keep your camera ready for one-of-a-kind photo opportunities!
Ideas for creating a viral post:
Target your audience by location. If your product or service is location-based, being able to target by location can have a significant impact on how your post is shared.
Give your post a boost. If you have a post that is gaining traction on Facebook, consider boosting it or setting up an ads campaign to further increase its reach and engagement.
Leave them laughing! Humour, especially in today’s world, is a valuable commodity. A creative meme is a fantastic way to make people laugh. Memes also have a strong potential to go viral, especially when they are relatable to large groups of people. When the content includes a joke or a topic that everyone can relate to, more people find it amusing and choose to share it with their friends, who then share it with their friends, and so on. You can easily create your own memes for free through sites such as Meme-Generator.com and imgflip.
Tap into the power of hashtags. Adding relevant and popular hashtags to your social media posts is an effective way to categorize your content so it’s easy to find. It also provides people or other brands, regardless of whether they’re following you, with a direct way to talk about it. Two good sites to help you find popular hashtags are best-hashtags.com and Hashtag Picker.
It’s okay to ask! Regardless of the platform or content, feel free to ask your followers to help share, react, or respond to your post. You can also ask them to tag their friends, increasing the number of people who will see and share your post.
Your post went viral! Now what?
That feeling of having a post go viral, or even semi-viral, is truly addictive! Your hard work has paid off! So go ahead and pat yourself on the back – you deserve it!
Although you may be tempted to ride the wave of that one viral post, it is inevitable the high levels of engagement will eventually drop off. Viral posts also provide the perfect opportunity to grow your audience.
Here are two ways to convert views into new followers:
Respond, respond, respond. Increase your level of engagement and respond to every new person who comments and/or shares your post. People love to be acknowledged and made to feel welcome.
If your viral post is on Facebook, you will be able to directly invite post likes to follow your page:
On the post, click where it shows you the number of post likes
This should automatically bring up a list of people who reacted to your post
You will see a button that allows you to Invite them to like your page, if they haven’t already been invited or like your page
Click on ‘invite’ to send them a notification
At the end of the day, you can rest easier by remembering that it is impossible to predict which posts will go viral. Engagement and interaction levels influence whether a post will go viral or not, so focusing on gaining interaction is essential. Remember that your loyal audience is out there, patiently waiting for your next post, and another after that one, and so on. Continue to keep them in mind rather than worrying about whether you’ll impress everyone each and every time.