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The 7 Deadly Sins of Podcasting

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Editor's note: This podcast was recorded just before Apple emailed all podcast creators about the launch of subscriptions.  99% of podcasts should not charge a subscription, so in most cases this won't affect you. Just be sure to say "follow" my podcast as opposed to "subscribe" to avoid any confusion.

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Show Notes:

There are many "sins" of podcasting. Some you can get away with, but there are 7 that will sink your show and turn listeners away before you even get going.  We examine them today.

  1. Bad Audio (echo, inconsistent levels)
  2. Overly chatty and going on unrelated tangents, especially at the start of your show
  3. Being overly "sales"-y, trying to sell your listeners something.
  4. Copyright infringement - still a grey area, but best to play it safe.
  5. Not being on Apple Podcasts and/or Spotify
  6. Talking about upcoming events without context for when you're recording it
  7. Analysis Paralysis - not just actually doing your podcast.

Thanks to many of you connected with me on social or email to tell me your podcast pet peeves.  It's a long list, but these 7 are the most egregious.  Got any more? Send me a note - jag@jagindetroit.com.

Transcript:

Welcome in. I am Jon Gay. I put this out to social media for people to chime in on over the last few days and got some great responses. I wanted to do a special episode today, where I focus in on the seven deadly sins of podcasting. There are a lot of things you can do wrong in your podcasts, but I've narrowed this list down to seven things that will really sink your podcast before you even get going with it.

So let's jump right in. Number one, and this should be obvious, is bad audio. Now this is a wide encompassing topic. It can be anything from recording your podcast from way away from your mic down a long hallway or in a big conference room where there's a lot of echo or something as simple as having really inconsistent volume between you and your guests.

We've all heard of podcasts like that while we're in the car and we're turning the volume up or down. Depending on who's speaking, it's maddening. It will drive away a listener very, very quickly. So any kind of bad audio, even just a lot of, you know, mouth clicks and coughs and things like that. Bad audio as my uncle will say, audio will always eat your lunch, bad audio, number one, deadly sin of podcasting.

Number two. Being overly chatty and going on unrelated tangents. Now this is especially true in the beginning of your episode, if you haven't given somebody a reason to stick around in that first minute or two, they're not going to, so do not talk about the cool new breakfast place down the street or the weather or anything along those lines. Get to the point. Tell me what you're going to talk about and get to it. And once you get going in it. Maybe a quick aside, if it's a funny story might work occasionally, but if you can't stay focused on the blueprint for your episode and you're going here, there, and everywhere, unless you are the funniest person in the history of ever, you're probably going to turn your listeners off. Avoid those unnecessary tangents.

Number three, being overly salesy. Now maybe the goal of your podcast is to try and increase revenue or increase leads. Get the old sales funnel going. That's fine, but your podcast is like a business transaction. If you are asking me as a listener for something, whether that's a follow on social, to call or check out your website, you've got to give me something valuable first before you ask me for something in return.

Give me really good information, make me laugh or connect with me on some other emotional level. The podcasts that just start off by rattling off. Hey, follow me on social. Leave a rating and a review. Send me an email. Go to my website. That doesn't carry any weight unless you've given somebody something of a specific value in terms of content first, especially if somebody is a first time listener to your show.

If I'm checking out your show and you start off with a list of plugs, I don't know who you are. Why am I going to follow that stuff? I'm probably gone by that point. Don't be overly salesy, provide value before you ask for something in return.

Number four, copyright infringement. This is really, really tricky and not everybody agrees on this. There are some folks who think "fair use," you can use a piece of a movie clip or a piece of a song in a show. The truth of the matter is the law has not yet caught up to the technology. So if you are using a clip in your show, you could get a cease and desist you could at worst. Get sued. You never know.

Now Spotify is a little bit of the exception here because Spotify has music rights because of the music side of their platform. So theoretically, if you do a podcast on Spotify or Anchor, there are ways that you can tap in to the music within Spotify, through their music licensing, but here's the catch.

If you do that, that does not cover you if your podcast is in Apple podcast or Stitcher or Google podcast or anywhere else. So kind of a brilliant move on Spotify as part to maybe incentivize you to be only on Spotify. But if you're only on Spotify, you are losing out on a ton of potential audience.

Speaking of Spotify and Apple, number five, deadly sin on our podcast list, not being on Apple podcasts and Spotify. These two are still the biggest platforms out there. Google podcasts, making inroads. You're going to see one, 2% on places like Stitcher or iHeart radio or things like that. But apple and Spotify are still the big dogs.

You need to make sure your podcast is in apple and in Spotify. Very easy to submit to both. I've had people say, Hey, check out my podcast. If I can't find you on apple or Spotify, I'm not going to listen to you because chances are it's going to be on my phone when I'm walking the dog. And I'm not going to find a website to stream on my phone. It's just an extra hurdle you're asking your listening to jump through and most won't do it.

Number six on our deadly sins of podcasting. Talking about upcoming events without any context of when that event is, or when you're recording the show, it's easy to avoid this, but your podcast is going to live forever, theoretically. So if you start talking about a big event, you've got coming up in the next week, without any context, somebody might be listening to your show six months or a year or two years later. When was this, did that already happen? All it takes to avoid this is a simple disclaimer. I do this on shows that my clients all the time.

So yeah, we're recording this on June 9th, 2021. We're talking about this event. That's coming up here in a couple of weeks. It's a quick disclaimer. It's a quick aside and it will help give context and not confuse somebody. If you're listening to your show later on way after you published it.

And number seven, our final sin on the deadly sins of podcasting list actually goes a little bit in conflict with some of the other six.

And that is analysis paralysis and not starting your podcast. You might hear this list and think, oh, I don't have my act together. I'm really not ready to start my podcast. Or I've got to get my podcast absolutely perfect. I've got to research the equipment. I've got to get the best equipment. I've got to get the best sound.

I've got to get the best cohost. I've got to have everything scripted out. Know exactly what I'm going to do. No, just jump into the pool. Do it, your first podcast is not going to be great. Most likely you will improve over time, but the only way to improve is to actually do it. So jump in the pool and do it. Don't be afraid and try to perfect everything before you start, just do it.

Again, thank you to everybody connected with me on social media or via email with your ideas for this lesson. I'm probably going to do a follow-up list in terms of other mistakes that podcasters make that aren't quite as bad as these seven deadly sins. If you've got an idea, you can hit me up on social at JAG in Detroit, or you can of course, send me an email JAG at JAG, detroit.com.

That's also my website. If you need help with your podcast JAG in detroit.com. Until next week, stay healthy and stay safe. Lata!

Apple Podcasts Drama Continues

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Transcript/Show Notes:

Apple Podcasts. Welcome in, I'm Jon Gay. I try not to cover the same topic in consecutive weeks, but I had to start with an update on the biggest story in podcasting right now - the disastrous rollout of the changes to Apple Podcasts.  And just to check....yup.... you can STILL hear Steve Jobs rolling over in his grave.

Personally, I've had no issues with the Apple Podcasts Connect dashboard - under either of the two accounts I use it with.  But I think I'm one of the lucky ones. Every podcast newsletter I get is littered with horror stories of folks who can't get in, can't add new shows, or can't get new episodes to show up.  Also, according to PodNews, Apple Podcasts is no longer taking your info straight from your RSS feed.  Instead, they are crawling your show, the way Google does with a website.  But other podcast apps check every few minutes. It appears Apple only crawls every two hours or so, which has resulted in a delay of new episodes showing up, even for subscribers.  Just to be safe, I recorded this on Wednesday and set it for a Thursday midnight release, so hopefully you have it by the time you wake up on Thursday.

Here's the explainer from PodNews: https://podnews.net/article/apple-podcasts-new-episode

Speaking OF show notes, you may not see them this week - particularly if you're listening in the new Apple Podcasts.  Those aren't showing up correctly either.  You will see them, however, if you're listening in Spotify, Google Podcasts, or if you're watching or listening at  JAGinDetroit.com.  Frustrating.

As I mentioned last week, Apple was first in to the podcasting space, and they got fat and lazy as a result.  As the space blew up over the past year they though, "We'd better make some changes."  Looks like the bugs weren't worked out before the big launch, and now, sadly, it's messing with people's livelihoods.  Do better, Apple.  Do better.

With all the news last week about paid subscription models from Apple and Spotify, no news from Google.  They seem to be taking the opposite approach.  They are moving at a glacial pace, but seem to try to get it right before releasing anything new.

A new "um removal" service is online. Cleanvoice claims to use AI to remove "ums" and "uhs" from your audio.  The website is Cleanvoice dot AI, if you wanna give it a try.  It's been my experience that AI isn't as smooth an editor as a real human being, but I'd be curious how it works if you try it.  Again, CleanVoice (all one word) dot AI.

As far as the real human editors, some news around popular free audio editing software Audacity this week.  A company called Muse Group claims to have bought Audacity.  Now the program is free and open source. So it's not clear what the Muse Group actually owns besides the trademark, according to PodNews.  But it could mean better support for the app?  Stay tuned.  Again, that's the AUDACITY app, not to be confused with AUDACY, the new name of the second biggest radio station owner in the US. They thought Audacy would be a better app name and website than...oh i dunno....RADIO DOT COM.

While corporate radio continues to corporate radio...Podcasting is  continuing to grow in all areas:  Nielsen, the company that does ratings for TV, radio, and lots of web stuff, has launched a Podcast Ad Effectiveness tool to measure the success of ads: https://www.nielsen.com/us/en/press-releases/2021/nielsen-launches-podcast-ad-effectiveness-to-measure-digitally-inserted-podcast-ads-in-real-time/

And on the content side:  A podcast is coming from Chelsea Handler (an advice column). Pop duo The Chainsmokers are launching a singing competition via podcast on Audible in the near future.  And the Tribeca Film Festival in New York will include podcasts this year.

Finally, I'm planning on attending Podcast Movement in person this August in Nashville.  If you're on the fence about going, they've got a cool program where you can buy the Virtual Ticket, then upgrade and pay the difference if you decide you'd go in person this summer.  https://podcastmovement.com/featured/pm21-virtual-attendance-southeast-meetup-tour-and-more/

What I Learned at Digital Summit Detroit

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Success is often the sum of preparation, hard work and luck – specifically being in the right place at the right time. It’s because of this mantra that I ended up attending Digital Summit Detroit last month.

To be fair, I wasn’t familiar with Digital Summit, but I was interested in attending networking events around Metro Detroit.  I certainly wanted to find new clients for my growing podcasting business, but I also wanted to meet people and learn about what they do, and pick up any marketing tips I could.

I found out about a mixer at Hopcat Royal Oak for the Detroit chapter of the American Marketing Association. Admission was $8, or almost a dollar for every minute I spent reading Hopcat’s beer menu at the event.  Turns out, AMA Detroit was sponsoring Digital Summit Detroit, and they had a few admission tickets to raffle off – at a value of $500 each.  Again, hustle and luck intersected, and I won admission to the event. I rearranged my schedule for the week, and I was off to Cobo Hall.

Opening Keynote: Chelsea Handler

I’ve long been a fan of hers, but the attendees were not pleased when she told a marketing summit that she doesn’t really have a marketing plan; she just kinda wings it. Reactions were mixed:

 

 

 

Following Ms. Handler, I went to a few afternoon sessions.  Digital Summit did a good job of spacing them out well, as there were 30 minutes sessions alternating with 15 minute breaks to avoid burnout.

More Sales From Marketing Leads – SS Digital Founder Nick Skislak

  • Social Media is only the awareness piece, and it is the TOP of the funnel.
  • Video is key! By 2019, Consumer internet video traffic will account for 80% of all consumer internet traffic.
  • Every company needs to be a media company first, and a widget company second.
  • Focus not on getting more leads, but eliminating bad leads.
  • 5 Questions Buyers want to know:
    • What’s the price? (Don’t be shy about this, writes Nick in Forbes.)
    • Are there problems associated with it?
    • How does my product compare to others?
    • What are people saying about it?
    • What’s the best about it?

Digital to Physical: Connecting the Dots in an Omni-Channel World – Nicola Smith, Rebel and Reason

  • Omni-channel shoppers spend 50% more and are worth 30% more to your company.
  • Have a single view of your customer and give them a seamless, personalized consistent experience across all channels.
  • Customer Led Marketing: Interact with your customers on their terms, as they don’t care about your internal structure.
  • Do a touch point audit and focus on the customer journey.

How You Can Save Up To 50% on Your Digital Media Budgets – Datawrkz’s Senthil Govindan.

  • 11% of Marketers will add podcasting (I especially liked that stat – contact me if you want to stay ahead of the curve!)
  • Ask for transparency and real time reporting from your partners – 7.6% of total ad spend is lost to fraud.
  • Start with search ads, then social, then display.

I headed home for a brain break and some sleep, then it was up early and back to Cobo for Day 2 of Digital Summit, accompanied by this beautiful view across the river of Windsor:

Windsor Cobo Digital Summit Detroit

There were many difficult choices to make on Day 2, as was the case on Day 1. So here’s what I learned at Digital Summit Detroit Thursday:

Storytelling as a Selling Point: Amber Lewis, City of Detroit

I love what Detroit is doing with storytelling; they are reshaping the narrative of the city from the inside out. I’ve had the privilege of interviewing Aaron Foley, the city’s Chief Storyteller. It’s a title as unique as he is, and Aaron just published the second edition of his book, How To Live in Detroit Without Being a Jackass.

Amber Lewis is equally impressive; she runs the city’s social media and spent her session sharing success stories. Her big takeaways were creating content that connects, and this:

Know your audience and hire people that are a part of it.

The City of Detroit has gained 50,000 social media followers thanks to Amber and her team. Seems like that number was not lost on the Digital Summit audience.

Four Concrete Steps for a More Perfect SEO + PPC Marriage – OneUpWeb’s David Duran.

Above all, my big takeaway from David’s presentation was that too many companies silo their SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and PPC (Pay Per Click) teams.  In radio terms, it’s the old sales/programming divide. Everyone is more successful when they work together.  David’s 4 steps are to 1) get buy in 2) run a keyword gap analysis 3) download data and 4) map out a plan.

In more basic terms:

  • Connect your Google Ads to Google Search Console so you can look at the data together, and export your PPC and organic results to the same spreadsheet.
  • Ads and organic can work together. As a result, click-through-rates for ads can go up 78%, and organic CTR can skyrocket 182%.
  • You gain credibility by showing up as an ad and organic result simultaneously – just make sure those positions aren’t back to back.

10 Critical Factors For Success in Content Marketing – Vertical Measures’ Noelle Schuck

This session was fairly straightforward, and dealt primarily with corporate culture.

  1. Build your owned audience – certainly subscribers who have provided their info are fans of your brand.
  2. Amplify your content.
  3. Your executive team must buy in and lead the way.
  4. Foster a culture of content – above all, marketing is a 24 x 7 x 365 business!
  5. Set up a strategy, and share it!
  6. Optimize your content.
  7. Prioritize your audience over your brand, and think about 80% unbranded content.
  8. Nurture your leads.
  9. Trust, learn, and iterate.
  10. Implement.

How to Hack Facebook’s New Algorithm Changes – Carlos Gil, Gil Media Co.

Mr. Gil’s session was very well attended, for the reason that you might imagine. Brands are always struggling to adapt to Facebook’s frequent changes, and despite newer, “sexier” social media channels, Facebook is still the king of the hill. It’s the biggest sandbox, and you’d better be able to play in it. Here are my takeaways:

  • Less than 1% of your Facebook brand’s fans will see your (unpaid) content.
  • Your buyers are NOT on one social network. Each one is different, therefore you can’t use the same content for each one.
  • Go where your audience is, not everywhere. Certainly not all social channels make sense for everyone.
  • Social media marketing is like a rap battle, therefore you’re only as good as your last post.

  • Facebook’s algorithms:

    • Prioritize content from friends, family, and groups.
    • Want your ad budget.
    • Penalize so-called “engagement bait,” such as using words like “click” or ‘like.
    • Don’t like click bait and “fake news.”
    • Don’t like long form text content. Hence, use Facebook Notes.
    • Hate overly promotional material or excessively tagging others. Above all, avoid these practices.

  • Facebook strategies:

    • If you are sharing a link, drop it in the comments, not the original post.
    • Treat comments as leads, so always comment back!
    • Facebook likes NATIVE content, not YouTube or links. Therefore, 16 to 23 second videos are ideal, with 1-2 sentence captions.
    • Remember that Facebook content usually has a shelf life of about 12-16 hours; as a result, most content doesn’t have much staying power.

  • Facebook “Growth Hacks:”

    • Respond to all comments, likes, and shares.
    • Look at old posts with high engagement and repeat some of those processes.
    • Spend $10 per native video.
    • Use Facebook Pixels – markers on your website, so Facebook will send ads to people who visited you!
    • Share Facebook Ads on their partner channels.
    • Post short text because it shows up in larger font.
    • Consider a weekly Facebook Live Video.
    • Invite your “superfans” into a Facebook group because the algorithm likes these in news feeds.
    • Add captions to all Facebook videos because this will help your SEO.
    • Consider a Messenger reply “bot” for quick responses to customer inquiries

Finally, you can’t build a mansion on rented land, and Facebook certainly owns their own land.


I was really disappointed that, due to a prior commitment, I had to leave before Digital Summit’s Day 2’s lunch keynoter – Scott Dikkers, founder of The Onion.  The most noteworthy takeaway seemed to be “Don’t be afraid of outrageous marketing. Go for it.”

If anyone has access to the speech, I’d love to see it.

Digital Summit Detroit Takeaways:

  • The digital space is changing faster than anyone can keep up. Therefore, those who pay the most attention will rise above the pack.
  • Do not silo your digital strategies. Due to the confluence of paid and organic search, everyone must work collaboratively.
  • Finally, be a media company first and a widget company second. Due to the ever-increasing personalization of the online experience, you had better be able to reach your customers, wherever they are.

Review: Detroit's new Little Caesars Arena

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After quite a bit of hype, Detroit’s new hockey/basketball/concert/entertainment venue, Little Caesar’s Arena, opened this fall. The reviews were mostly positive, discussing wide concourses, great food and beverage selections, and incredible sight lines. There were only a few knocks on Little Caesars Arena, or “LCA.” The seats were very steep, it’s more of a hockey arena than a basketball arena, and the venue seemed empty during the action due to team struggles and the vastness of amenities.
I had been to the famous Joe Louis Arena a few times, and I enjoyed the character of an old hockey barn a year older than me. It actually reminded me, slightly, of the old Boston Garden I grew up with, with few amenities and great sight lines.  I had also been to several basketball games and concerts at The Palace of Auburn Hills out here in the suburbs. I loved that the arena was close to our house, but there was no public transport to get there, and basketball games were largely empty. And despite being revolutionary at the time of its construction, I was disappointed with the acoustics when I saw Adele.  Adele was outstanding, but even SHE had to fight some of the acoustics at The Palace.
As the schedules would work out, I made my first two trips to the new arena in a span of 4 days – as my Celtics visited Sunday afternoon, followed by my Bruins Wednesday night.  Let’s review, chronologically.
I was a bit concerned about parking on a cold Sunday afternoon, so I reserved parking ahead of time, in a lot a few blocks away, through an app called ParkWhiz.  For $20, it seemed quite reasonable.  We were disappointed, however, in the fact that there was no designated area to cross Woodward Avenue north of the arena.

Detroit Pistons Little Caesar’s Arena Detroit
Basketball panorama for pistons at LCA

The venue itself was gorgeous. We made a lap around the lower bowl’s concessions area.  The staff was extremely friendly, and I ended up settling on a Gentleman Jack and coke from the Jack Daniels cocktail stand. There was a plethora of Michigan Brews, although I was a bit disappointed to see that Goose Island had a stand.  I found it surprising that the Ilitch family would sell real estate to a beer so closely associated with Chicago, the Wings’ biggest rival.
The food selection was great – we bypassed Kid Rock’s grill, but I did grab a giant Little Caesars slice (at $6 it was the cheapest food item I could find).  My wife grabbed some chicken tacos that were solid.  And we split the mini donuts and dipping sauce, that were as tasty as they look.
img_4141
Mini donuts at Little Caesars Arena

We splurged for some solid seats to see the Celtics (my wife went to a ton of C’s games growing up). For about $100 each, we were just beyond the hockey boards, with a great view.

Pistons Celtics Detroit Little Caesar’s Arena Basketball
Detroit Pistons Basketball court at Little Caesar’s Arena

The first thing we noticed was the incredible sound system in the arena. I’m actually a bit embarrassed to say it wasn’t me, the 15 year radio veteran, that noticed it first. It was actually Ellen.  We quickly decided we need to see a concert at the new LCA.
img_4091
The giant scoreboard was equally impressive and informative. The inner “layer” was great for those in lower seats. During the game, there was a running display of every player on the court and the number of fouls he had. Very impressive. While Little Caesars Arena is more of a hockey venue, it’s just fine for a basketball game.
That leads us to the ice later in the week..
Wednesday night saw 7 inches of snow that started midday and came down hard and fast during the afternoon commute. Combine that with a struggling/rebuilding Red Wings team and we knew we wouldn’t have a large crowd. But we piled into the 4×4 and headed downtown. This time we parked in the Fox Garage for a reasonable $25, and didn’t have a bad walk to the arena, from a couple blocks south.
This time, I was planning on dinner, and an item I’d mentally bookmarked on Sunday.
img_4113
The menu board described this monstrosity as a “1/2 lb Bacon Wrapped Pub Dog, with crispy salami, white cheddar, pepper jack, mustard, and a pickled egg.” It took a good 10-15 minutes for the (friendly) staff to make this, and I had to eat it on a nearby table.  There was no way I was going to eat this in an arena seat even with a cup holder. I got through about 2/3 of it, before it completely fell apart. The egg was a nice addition. The entree was a novelty, but not something I’d get on the regular (unless I found a good cardiologist).
We then headed up to the second level, with more solid food offerings, and eventually to our seats.  We paid $40 each for tickets at the top, top, top of the arena – super steep but great views once we got settled.
img_4118
In fact, I suggested to my buddy that we move down into the empty seats, but he wanted to stay put because we had such a great view of the action!
I would also be remiss to not give credit to arena organist Lance Luce – who did a phenomenal job all night, including getting the crowd in the holiday spirit.

 
The Wings outplayed the Bruins but managed to give up a late game-tying goal, allowing Boston to force overtime. I made a quick bathroom run, forgetting how short the break is between the third period and OT. I came back into the section during play, and as luck would have it, the Bruins game-winner 30 seconds in. So, I saw it, but not from my actual seats.
We left the arena, and it took us awhile to get out of the Fox Garage (as we were on level 5). All in all, it was about a 30 minute wait. It felt longer due to the late game and weather, but it wasn’t bad.
This criticism of Little Caesars Arena is fair; LCA is better suited to hockey than basketball. It FEELS like a hockey rink. That’s not surprising, given that the Ilitch family (who owns the pizza chain, Tigers, and Wings) built it for hockey. The Pistons were convinced to move downtown after the arena was designed. The “Bad Boys” have a beautiful new home, but it is indeed more suited to be home to Hockeytown.
Finally, there was some discussion as to what the preferred nickname of Little Caesars Arena would be.  There was the “Dough Joe,” the “Pizza-rena,” the “Pizza Pizza Rena Rena.” I also enjoyed “The D Brief” podcast co-host Mike Geeter’s suggestion of “The HARA” – the Hot And Ready Arena. In the end, most sports journalists in town seem to be going with the simple, yet boring “LCA.” I guess that will stick.
Under any name, the arena is beautiful, with great sight lines, sound, video, amenities, food, and drink. It’s state of the art, and will only enhance the amazingly revitalized downtown of Detroit.

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