Cross-post Strategies for Podcaster Collaboration – PCI 395

Speaker 0 00:00:00 I'm Mackenzie Bennett, marketing specialist here at Blueberry.

Speaker 1 00:00:02 And this is Todd Cochrane, CEO and Co-founder of Blueberry Podcasting.

Speaker 0 00:00:06 In today's episode of Podcast Insider, we're diving into the ways podcasters can work together to mutually expand their audiences. You're listening to Podcast Insider, a weekly podcast, bringing insights, advice, and insider tips and tricks to help you start, grow and thrive through podcasting With the support of your team here at Blueberry Podcasting. Welcome. Let's dive in.

Speaker 1 00:00:28 You know, this is a, this is an interesting one, Mackenzie, because if podcasters would collaborate, collaborate more, is that the right way to say that? Mm-Hmm. , they may find that it would work out well for them. You know, we used to collaborate a lot, but I don't think podcasters do a lot of collab collaboration these days. But we got some ideas for them, uh, that absolutely we can go through.

Speaker 0 00:00:55 So I definitely think that with the intersection of social media and how it just really exploded somewhat around the same time as when people say podcasting exploded, like, you know, sometime between 2011 and and a and after. But I think it kinda just took away some of these ideas that people might have had before. It was just so easy to say, jump on social media. So we're gonna go through some of them starting out with guest appearances. This is a very easy one to do. Todd, you've done this before. I've done it before. It's just going on one. Or like, you have someone come on your show or they go on your show. It just exposes the creators to a new audience, really.

Speaker 1 00:01:39 Yeah, it does. And it can work out really, really well from, from that perspective. And, you know, I've been asked to jump on when someone was a short a, maybe a co-host was out, they needed a, a guest co-host. So there's all kinds of opportunities, but oftentimes those opportunities won't come around unless you really are being friendly with other folks. So the co-hosting an episode can really mix things up for listeners and offer fresh perspectives. And this can be particularly engaging and track followers from each host base. So it really can be a dual thing. It can be I could host someone else's show, or I could be on their show Mm-Hmm. and be a co-host with a host. So really there's kind of this combination there that will, uh, that will work. And I've done this a number of times, stood in for somebody when they were on vacation. Someone stood in for me when I was on vacation, Rob on my other show has had people come in and, and be with him when I am out. So it really does, it is real collaborative and works and gives people exposure to, you know, someone that you, that you trust.

Speaker 0 00:02:42 I think it's a really fun thing for listeners as well sometimes that they're never gonna know this person necessarily. And it kind of makes me wonder how did you and Rob start your show, the new media? Like you guys are hosting that together? Did that kind of start out as one person and then evolve, or was it

Speaker 1 00:03:02 Well, it, it really started because Rob and I were both in at the tech podcast network and I wanted to do this. We used to have this show, part of that network that was every Saturday Mm-Hmm. . And it really become, uh, just almost labor to, to get people to come in. And then Rob started showing up every Saturday to do that show with me. And then that show morphed, actually, we spent more time talking about podcasting than we were talking about Saturday morning and technology. So we changed the name of the show, new media show, and it kind of grew out of that. So it really was this collaboration originally to help a network Mm-Hmm. . And so it was kind of bizarre how that show kind of grew over time and changed, but it really was a collaborative effort to try to promote the entire network. And sometimes when you're part of a network and there's not a lot of steadfast rules, there's always one, two or three people that really work hard to promote, and the rest of people are kinda along for the ride. But that's a whole nother, that's a whole nother episode . So, but again, I think this co-hosting episodes was really kind of our way to kinda shake things up and, you know, it's grow into pretty popular show. Yeah,

Speaker 0 00:04:08 Yeah, for sure. That you kind of brought up the, the network aspect of this, and I think the cross promotion with different shows within the same network is incredibly popular. It's just that they are sharing, you know, they're, they're shouting out, this person does this show, or this person listens to this. They're like, here's this really cool clip from this episode that's also in our network. They follow each other on social media. They're just constantly, you know, sh promoting each other's stuff in their own way that's very popular with networks. In fact, it can actually be like a requirement sometimes . Yeah. Because some people won't do it, like you said. Yeah.

Speaker 1 00:04:46 A lot of networks make it mandatory that you run promos and other stuff of other, of other shows. And what we did was, it wasn't really necessarily a snippet from a show, but it was maybe a, a pure promo. It was like a 32nd, you know, here I know how my name's Todd and I do the podcast Insider. Mm-Hmm. for podcast, you know, and he would just basically be a, a true shout out that would be a promotion of a podcast within the podcast. So that's kind of another type of cross promotion. So you can kind of really intermix this a lot of different ways if you think about it. And if you're all trying to grow together, believe it or not, the cross promotion piece is the most underutilized, underutilized tactic that any podcaster 'cause you. So if, you know, we've all got shows we love, and one of the things I always used to do or still do, even actually, is I'd say, Hey, I really love this show.

Speaker 1 00:05:34 And right now I've been listening to the, the mark, the marketing artificial intelligence. So I'd say, Hey, I really love this show. You need to go out and listen to it. And then I, you know, I would let them know, Hey, I'm talking about your podcast. Mm-Hmm, . And maybe they would pro promote backwards, and it wasn't always guaranteed, but that was kind of a way that was kind of a, uh, it's just kind of a way to, Hey, hey, check me out. I've, I've been promoting your show because I love your show. And, and sometimes they, they say, Hey, thanks Todd, from from Geek Cent, from New Media Show for promoting us. Go check your show up. So it's kind of an easy way to get a, a shout back. Mm-Hmm. and all of that really does this whole, you know, all boats raised together because what, and some people are worried that doing this will hurt their audience. Well, if people are tired of you, they're gonna leave anyway. But if you suggest a show to go to, people will add that to their, their inventory and if you get enough these, so it's kind of a vice versa thing, and it really does work really, really well. Mm-Hmm,

Speaker 0 00:06:32 , I would agree. So something else that we recommend is content collaboration as well. Instead of just promoting what someone else has done, this is working together to actually produce new content. It could be a special episode, maybe it's like a three part series that you do, or just even a segment of an episode, something along those lines. But it's so easy to actually just do this in small amounts as well. And sometimes that's even better than doing like a full, you know, we're gonna do this from X, Y, z, just sometimes quality and quantity factors in here.

Speaker 1 00:07:09 And it also can be used in different ways. It, if you think about your, and where I use content collaboration as a, just an absolutely powerful tool is every year I go to the CES show and four or five podcasters that we're friends with that are, again, part of that network, go to the show together. And we all kind of cover little segments here and there, but we each then cover, we basically each bring each other's content into each other's sites. Mm-Hmm. . So if we did 60, 70, 80, 90 interviews to whatever it may be amongst the group, then each person produces their own segments that they interviews they did, and put that, and we basically put all this data in a, a spreadsheet, and then each of the person, each of the participants then puts that content as well on their site. So you basically get almost like a, in our instance, like a five for one. So you, you've got,

Speaker 0 00:08:04 You just try to get content to eyes and ears in any way

Speaker 1 00:08:08 Possible, any way possible. And if you have the same set of content on five different sites, not necessarily the same titles and same descriptions, but all of that ma data is like, woo, baby. It's, it's very, very powerful from driving a Google traffic and, and building volume. It really is huge on a, in a bigger scale.

Speaker 0 00:08:28 It that goes right in your example, goes right into the next one, which is community events. And that could be possibly coming together to host a, a live event. Sure. Whether you were doing that virtual or in person, it just, you know, the names together can really create some buzz online and help engage with your audiences. So you could do a live recording, you could do, like, it's very popular to see you and Rob be on a panel together at events. You could do a meetup. There's so many different ways that you can go about this. And

Speaker 1 00:08:58 If you're doing a big event where there's long hours of live, one person can only do about two hours effectively. So you, you want someone else to come in and it's nothing better to have a podcast that you're collaborating with, come in and be the next voice for that particular event for the next two hours. That way it mixes it up. So it's a

Speaker 0 00:09:19 Great idea.

Speaker 1 00:09:20 Yeah. It's, it's, it's super fantastic and it's some of the stuff that we learned over the years, because I don't know about you, you know, we've been in this business a long time, but I can't talk for eight hours. It's impossible.

Speaker 0 00:09:31 It's not good for anyone. .

Speaker 1 00:09:33 Well, and I did a 24 hour podcast only two years, and I just about killed myself, but I had people coming in every half hour and we were able to talk the majority of the time, so I just didn't have to sit there and jibber jabber. Those are hard. Really.

Speaker 0 00:09:47 It Well, yeah, it reminds me hard of International Podcast day where they would do like 30 hours of content

Speaker 1 00:09:54 Hours. Yeah. Straight. You know, and it's, it's brutal. It takes you a week to recover, but Mm-Hmm. these types of events though, these collaborative type events, it's just the, the mileage you get out, I, I call the, the trade show that we go to. It, it gives me traffic for a whole year. Mm-Hmm. . And, but yeah, we put in massive amount of hours. We put in 40, 60, 70, 80, a hundred hours of work. But, you know, and the volume and the audience growth and everything else. So again, this is deep. You can do this at a small level. You don't have to go like to an big event like mm-Hmm. . You can do it in a smaller couple people doing a couple, a couple events together and coordinate this. Think about if you wanna do it events, love to have people creating content about their events. So if you're in a category where there's an event that you know, two different podcasters go to team up, you know, why not? Mm-Hmm. . And you might just find you get a lot of value out of that.

Speaker 0 00:10:47 I think it's really great in preparation for all of those events, any of those episodes that you're gonna do together. You can do just promotion on social media as well. You can do like a takeover day and say like, this person is gonna take over our social media for the day. You know, like, this person's gonna be on my show. They have control of the social for today. If you like it, then check out this episode that's gonna be airing or being live or whatever this following week. Right. It's like a little preview.

Speaker 1 00:11:17 Also, there's the ability to share resources. And this goes beyond just two hosts or three hosts. Pooling resources could include folks that are helping out a show. So editing, studio space, marketing, anything that's going on. If you have a a fan that's a, a, a super fan of one or two shows and you're all working together, it's just so much value to be able to get that assistance, have that super fan help, or even the ability to save money. Mm-Hmm. , uh, when I would go to a vent, I would have to ship, oh my goodness, the amount of money I spent to ship stuff was incredible. But when two or three people, okay, I'll bring the microphones other person, I'll bring this, and then you all come together, it really, it really evens the cost out. And at the same time, you just get this, this super value in working together.

Speaker 0 00:12:04 Yeah. I think it also kind of just is a reminder of look into your local resources as well. Not necessarily a, a person, but you know, true libraries and schools and, you know, local community centers sometimes have podcasting software and equipment because there has been this, you know, increase in creators. It's not unheard of to think that these places will be available wherever you are. So definitely look into that as well.

Speaker 1 00:12:35 You know, there's the, the also of doing joint ventures. You know, launching a new podcast together that combines unique elements of each host's existing podcast can attract listeners from both audiences and really capture new ones as well. And even this can be expanded to the point where maybe a podcaster works with another podcaster, and then they have like guest podcasters that come in. So I know a few folks that have like three primaries and then they have one floating. Mm-Hmm. . So if there's no one to come in to float, they go three the three together and then, and, and then they'll invite someone in and as often as they can, that person fills the fourth seat on a show. And these type of joint ventures like this really keeps the dynamics up of the show and keeps it fresh. And if you think about bringing, you know, a, a third, a fourth party into a show that already has three folks that know each other, this really can, it, it can keep everyone on their toes. Mm-Hmm.

Speaker 0 00:13:30 , speaking of keeping people on their toes, we, we recommend that you can do some type of affiliate marketing together as well. So obviously, you know, you can sign up to be an affiliate for a certain brand company, what have you, but if you have double the people recommending that for you, whether you want to just say like, I'm just gonna help you promote this just out of the goodness of my heart. Or if you wanna say like, Nope, I wanna earn a third of whatever you get from this in your affiliate earnings, that's totally up to you. But it is a good way to, you know, collaborate together to kind of boost that initial, like, this is something that I recommend so and so also recommends it, that type of thing.

Speaker 1 00:14:15 The next topic is on network partnerships and networks, I will say are probably the hardest thing to get completely right and joining or forming a network, a podcast that share a similar theme or audience can really, really be a powerful mechanism. But at the same time, and I think we've actually done episodes on being part of a network in the past that you'll wanna search on blueberry. Really, when you go into and thinking about, let's say you're thinking about joining a network, number one, what are the requirements? What are the cross-promotion requirements? How long do I have to be there? What, what is the, you know, what is the, what is the legalities? What's the terms of service? I think you have to look at that really, really close. And at the same,

Speaker 0 00:14:55 What can I be sued for? That's essentially what you're, what you're paying attention to

Speaker 1 00:14:59 , or if we don't, if we're not friends anymore, and what happens to finally leave what you know. Yeah. When, what's the timeline? All these things. And at the same time, if you're gonna form your own network, you have to really think about all of these little, you know, dotting the i's and crossing the T's to make sure that you cover yourself, you cover the folks, and it's really the rules of the network. And, but if they get that right, if the, if the terms are right and the the arrangement is to your liking and something that you can swallow and say, if this is gonna be good for me, it and network partnership is probably the most powerful. Especially if you go into a network that has three or four key shows that are really the heavy hitters and you, and maybe you're a little smaller and you come in behind and you're, you're one of the, the up and coming shows, the, the bigger shows.

Speaker 1 00:15:50 First of all, you're not getting in there unless those folks have said, well, yeah, we want this show to be part of the network. And if you're in, you're in, and then you're a part of this, uh, collaborative that, you know, you're getting cross promotion from the, from the, from the, you know, the, the key shows and you're promoting the, so it's, it's really all this stuff that we've talked about almost is an all-in-one. Even if the network has resources where they've got people that are doing social media, that they're doing graphics, you know, joining a network could have some significant benefits, but again, the Redefine print, and if it's more than a page long, definitely get a lawyer to read it because, you know, you wanna make sure that whatever you're joining, you're covered and you know what, what your ins and outs are. Yeah.

Speaker 0 00:16:32 Overall, there are so many different ways that you can collaborate with other podcasters, whether you know them or not. Don't be afraid to reach out to someone that you are, that you currently don't know. I think that's, you know, a, a definite podcaster thing to do. A lot of the time your interviews are someone that you don't know. So we hope that these tips are helpful and happy podcasting.

Speaker 1 00:16:53 Thanks for joining us today on Podcast Insider, where we bring you insider access to the tools you need to succeed. Until next time, keep on podcasting.

Speaker 0 00:17:04 Thanks for joining us. Come back next week and in the meantime, head to podcast insider.com for more information to subscribe, share, and read our show notes. To check out the latest suite of services and learn how Blueberry can help you leverage your podcast. Visit blueberry.com. That's blueberry without the ease because we can't afford them.