#35 Our key takeaways from The Podcast Show, London

Hi this week we have something a bit different for you, both Jules and I were at The Podcast Show last week so here’s our chat where we digest and debate our three takeaways (each) so you’ll get 6 things to takeaway this week ;)

Here are the picks from Jules:

1. What can we learn from the YouTubers. The onward march of video into the podcasting space and the increasing presence of YouTube was evident at the event with some big YouTubers (and their managers) there. They spoke about how they create content, how they focus on some of the tiny details and the cross over between creating a podcast and creating a show. One described YouTube as the cornerstone of the creator economy, as it's the place where you can actually make money from your content.

2. The AI tools for podcast content reformatting will make your life easier. They allow you to upload your audio podcast. From that a transcript, a blog post and social media shareables will be created. Two apps that we're keeping an eye on are Capsho and CastMagic. We'll try these out and report back in due course.

3. The importance of packaging and branding your content. Whilst content creators with a team of designers, videographers and producers behind them obviously have the upper hand here, small independent podcasters can benefit from having a consistent brand and content that's packaged across different channels (website, podcast, social media). This links to my two earlier points above.

And mine:

1. Make a podcast not a ‘have to do’… it needs more thought. This was what Holly Tucker MBE - founder of Not on the High Street and presenter of Conversations of Inspiration She says don’t think of creating a podcast as a tick box exercise for your business - you can’t build a podcast because you need to, instead ask yourself what are you trying to change, who can you help, what is the mission?

2. Growing your podcast and reaching an audience. This was a talk with Carver PR and journalist Miranda Sawyer. Don’t underestimate niche communities- specialist magazines and podcasts - where are your adjacent audiences? If you know your audience demographic you can target them- but break out of the echo chamber- where else is your audience? and look local, share your story (and your mission) with local press and radio.

3. Keep it fun- that was the message from The News Agents team. If you're creating a podcast you have to make it fun. You can’t argue that Emily Maitlis, Jon Sopel and Lewis Goodall have fun on that show- which is now one of the biggest podcasts in the UK (and they revealed will shortly have a News Agents USA spin off to tie in with the US elections run up) Presenter Emily Maitlis also said regarding the stories you decide to cover (whatever your podcast may be about) ask yourself would I click on that? This should be your only deciding factor on what you run.

Hope you’ve found this helpful. If you went to the show let us know what you are taking away from it.

You’ll find us @decibel_podcasts and @story_publishing