A question I frequently get from my students and clients is how to use Instagram to grow
their audience. They're frustrated because they're not getting a lot of engagement, and
their posts announcing new episodes seem to go unnoticed.
One of the things I've found when I look at their IG accounts is that their profile is
not optimized, making it hard for people who are discovering them on Instagram to even
know they have a podcast.
If you want people on Instagram to check out your podcast and become regular listeners,
you need to start by optimizing your IG account.
Hello, and welcome to our channel. I'm Veronica, and I'm the social media and marketing strategist
for the Pod Sound School.
We teach entrepreneurs, business owners, and content creators to plan, produce, and launch
a professional podcast with a strong brand and social media presence.
In this video, I'll walk you through the exact
steps I teach my students in our podcasting program Smart & Sexy Podcast Launch to help
them optimize their Instagram accounts so they can start promoting their podcast on
this popular platform.
Our program teaches you how to professionally record and edit your podcast, content strategy,
marketing, and social media promotion.
I added the link in the description of this video, If you're interested in learning more
about the program.
Also don’t forget to subscribe to our channel and hit the bell so you don’t miss out on
our weekly videos.
Okay, let's get to it.
Number One: How to set up your podcast account
If you're new to Instagram and you haven't
started promoting your podcast in this platform, you may be wondering if you need to create
an account just for your podcast.
If you're entirely new on Instagram and don't have an account yet, you have two options,
and they depend on whether you will be part of your podcast brand or not.
If you are the face and brand of your podcast,
then you may want to create an Instagram account with your name and photo.
Also, in the bio statement, you want to include phrase indicating you’re the host of the
podcast.
Like in this example...
Creating an account with your name instead of using the podcast name will allow you to
add more projects besides your podcast to your IG account.
For example, you may want to promote your new blog or YouTube channel or share your
book release or speaking engagements.
Using your image as the umbrella brand for your podcast and other projects, even if you're
only starting with your podcast, gives you more flexibility to add those to your account
as they come.
Also, in terms of time and efficiency is better to manage and grow one Instagram account.
But if you decide to be separate from your
podcast brand, you may want to create an Instagram account just for your podcast.
You can still link your podcast account with your personal Instagram account by adding
“hosted by” followed by the handle of your personal account like I show in this
example.
If you already have an Instagram account for you or for your business, you also have two
options: the first is to use your existing account to promote your podcast or create
a separate account for your podcast.
If you want to use your existing account, you can create a highlight for your podcast
and regularly post on Instagram stories about your episodes saving the posts inside your
podcast highlight.
You can also create a branded hashtag for your podcast.
For example, using my personal IG profile, I can add "host of #podsoundschool podcast"
to my bio statement.
The good thing about using a branded hashtag for your podcast is that you and your listeners
can use the hashtag when they post something related to the podcast.
So it becomes a community hashtag you can share on your episodes so your Instagram listeners
can use it.
Creating a branded hashtag for your podcast and complementing it with a highlight is a
great way to incorporate your podcast promotion into your existing Instagram account without
creating and managing two separate accounts.
This also allows you to leverage your current followers instead of starting with zero followers
with a new account.
The second option is to have a separate account for your podcast. If you decide to go this
route, you can link both accounts by adding them to the two bio statements.
An excellent example of this is Andy Wang
and his podcast Inspired Money.
In his personal IG account, he includes his professional credentials. He then identifies
himself as the host of Inspired Money linking the podcast account.
If we look at the podcast IG account, we see
how in the bio he tells us why his podcast is worth listening to “It's a Forbes Top
10 Personal Finance podcast."
He links his personal account in case people want to learn more about what he does, including
the hosted by @advisorandy. He then tells people what the podcast is about and includes
a call to action "Listen Here, "directing people to the link in his bio.
Number two: You Profile Photo.
Your Instagram profile picture is very important.
This is the picture people will see when you comment on their posts or share something
on IG stories.
For your profile picture you have a couple options:
you can use your podcast cover art so your
listeners can easily find you.
Or you can use a picture of you if you're making yourself part of your podcast brand.
In either scenario, you want to use a bright color background to make your picture pop.
Also, choose a picture from the shoulders up and facing the camera.
Remember that people will be looking at your profile photo from their phones.
So make your picture bright and clean.
Number Three: Ig handle and Name
For your IG handle you want to use the name of your podcast.
If the name is already taken, you can add the word podcast or pod to the name.
I recommend my clients to be consistent with their podcast name and brand throughout their
social media and use the same name and handles everywhere, if possible.
If, for example, my podcast's name is “More Like Me,” my website and social media handles
will be morelikeme.com and @morelikeme for Instagram and Twitter.
If the name is already taken I can use morelikeme podcast or morelikemepod.
The name of your account can be the same as
your IG handle. Something important about the name field is that it is searchable within
the Instagram app.
This means that people typing keywords inside the search bar will get accounts suggested
based on these keywords.
For example, if I type the word podcast on the search bar, Instagram will show me a list
of accounts with the keyword podcast in their name field.
The Instagram algorithm suggests these accounts based on relevancy and recency.
This means that the top results on this list
are accounts I've been interacting with the most that also have the word podcast in the
name field.
This is why it's very important to add the keyword podcast by your name if your account
is only for your podcast.
If you're a vegan baker or a tango dancer, you may want to add these keywords instead.
Using our account as an example, we added the keywords"podcast coach" by our name.
Number Four: Bio statement
The bio section is an essential part of your bio.
You want to tell people what your podcast is about, who is the host of the podcast,
and a call to action directing Instagram users to listen to your latest episode.
In this section, you're only allowed to include 150 characters, so we have to get creative
using emojis and abbreviations to add all the information you want.
For example, if your podcast is about women reentering the workforce after raising children.
I may say something like this:
Inspiring stories, resources, & strategies for mamas reclaiming their professional life.
New episodes every Thur. Hosted by @veronica
(call to action) Listen here- Coming soon-Listen & Subscribe
Number Five: Link in bio
The link in bio or website field is the only place where you can add a link to your podcast
player or website in your Instagram profile.
I've seen podcasters cluttering their captions with links that don't work because they become
disabled.
Instagram wants to keep people in their platform, so they don't allow links to be added to posts.
This is why the link in bio is so important.
This is the place you will be sending people to from your posts or Instagram stories.
To maximize your link-in-bio, you can create a landing page using your website or a landing
page service like Linktr.ee.
We use linktree. This is what our Linktree looks like.
We have a lot going on, so with Linktree, we can add all our links to our YouTube channel,
podcast, Facebook community, free guide, and our podcasting course.
Lastly: Instagram Highlights
Instagram highlights are one of my favorite
features on Instagram.
It allows you to store Instagram stories permanently so you can have little pieces of evergreen
content ready for people to watch in your account.
They're displayed above your Instagram grid and can add a nice touch to your account.
You can create highlight covers with your brand colors giving more personality to your
account.
Highlights are a great way to entertain your audience on Instagram and show them your world,
podcast, and other projects.
A few highlights I think you should create are the about me highlight, podcast, and listener's
love.
So, you can start saving your IG stories about you, your podcast behind the scenes or guests,
and your listener's reviews or shout outs.
For example, in our IG account, we have highlights for our YouTube channel, podcast, listeners'
comments and reviews, and different projects we're involved in.
Okay podskis, you have some homework to do.
Dedicating time to nurture and grow your community on social media is just as important as creating
episodes for your podcast.
Instagram is a great platform to promote your podcast, you just need to learn how and be
consistent.
Stay tune and before we go. Yes, two things.
No olviden hacer la tarea and don’t forget o subscribe and like this video.
Happy Instagraming amigos.