Should Podcasters Use Twitter?

The short answer to the question posed in the title is, “It might not be a bad idea.” For an example of the power of repeated 140 character blasts at work in the real world, we turn to the story of Scott Stratten, music industry marketer and sales training manager. Scott decided to test his theory that a guy could make a name for himself using nothing but Twitter. He literally covered his office windows with aluminum foil, to eliminate any sort of distraction while working, and focused entirely on building his brand through the world’s most famous attention-deficit social media outlet.

Did it work? Well, actually it did. The guy now has more than 130,000 Twitter followers, and his first book, Unmarketing – Stop Marketing. Start Engaging, became a bestseller before it was released in 2010.

What does this have to do with your podcast? To understand that, we need to take a quick look at Scott’s second book, The Book of Awesome – How Engaging Your Customers and Employees Can Make Your Business Thrive and the Book of Business Unawesome – The Cost of Not Listening or Being Great at What You Do. Don’t be confused at the incredibly long title. It’s actually two books in one, but the point we’d like to make is that engaging your customer is a process that should go far beyond your weekly podcast release.

In the Social Media Age, a week is a long time to allow to pass without reminding people of who you are. Most podcast listeners and Internet users (us included) have the attention span of a gnat. Let a week go by and you might as well have moved above the Arctic Circle and lived off-grid for a decade. That’s how fast you’ll be forgotten.

The good thing about Twitter is that the 140 character limit is actually a good thing. It’s not that hard to bang out a three or four tweets (don’t bomb your followers with more) a day just to remind them that you’re still breathing and have a new awesome podcast episode on the way. Twitter is also the perfect tool to announce new releases and any other podcast related news.

Here’s a final bit of advice. Don’t fall into the trap of trying to stay active on every social media outlet around. That’s a productivity killer. Pick one and stick with it. Stay tuned for more actionable advice about how to market your podcast in Jason Hartman’s upcoming program, $10 Million Dollar Podcast System.

The Speaking of Wealth Team