How to Turn Your Business Podcast Into a Thought Leadership Platform
Executive Summary:
In this, the final part of our 5 step beginners guide to business podcasting, we’re going to take a look at how you can use your podcast to build and spread your and your brand’s thought leadership potential,
When done well, podcasting isn’t just about broadcasting—it’s about influence. This guide shows how to use your podcast to become a trusted voice in your industry.
This learning zone guide looks at:
Okay, let’s go!
Step 1: Define Your Thought Leadership Goals
Don’t be vague, be clear about what you want thought leadership to accomplish
Determine who you want to attract
Here are some groups or things that you might want to target:
- Media
More than a few podcasts have gone on to become valuable media properties in their own right, and others have literally parlayed their way to media prominence. Stephen Bartlett and Daniel Priestley in the UK have gone on to become known names in the world of business commentary,
- Speaking gigs
If you have a podcast that delivers value expect to get offers to speak at events, This can be a great way to further amplify your podcast’s audience.
- Partnerships
If you have developed and nurtured an audience of loyal listeners, your audience could function very much like a quality lead database and be the perfect springboard into partnering with other brands that would like to speak to audience that personas you share in common.
Choose topics that showcase your expertise and challenge norms.
They call it thought leadership for a reason. You need to ensure that what you and your podcast covers is well researched material that is worthy of being considered a reference or an authoritative compilation or bit of research. You can’t really short cut this if you want your content to stand out.
The next step can help you build authority.
Step 2: Featuring High-Impact Guests and Ideas
AI robots and google, as well as your audience want to hear the thoughts of people that count, be challenged and see credible statistics.
Do this by;
Interviewing industry pioneers, disruptors, or rising stars.
You’ll be amazed at how pleased experts are to share what they have learnt, especially if you can demonstrate that you know what you’re doing.
Study social media, other podcasts and trade press to see who the movers and shakers are in your area of interest.
- Approach them by showing you know who they are, and why their opinion matters.
- If you have any other high profile people onboard it never helps to drop a name or two.
- Lastly, make it clear what you want to discuss with them or what insight you need from them
Ask bold questions and explore future trends.
If you’re in the widget game and you’ve got some big hitters or decent research to refer to, why not create some standout content by asking people what they think about a topical, thorny or contentious issue, or ask them what they think the future might hold.
This can make for some juicy material to publicise and get more people listening you your podcast.
Share your own frameworks, predictions, and philosophies.
If you’ve done your own research or built a proprietary framework, scoped out future predictions or have an interesting viewpoint of philosophy on a topical issue, this could be ripe for a podcast.
Just make sure it’s credible and backed up with solid stats, even if it’s a silly-season piece about something light hearted.
Also, see step 4, for ways to get PR mileage out of your podcast.
Step 3: Create a Signature Style
There are loads of people podcasting so it’s worth thinking about how you come across, and how you will stand out in a noisy environment.
Here are three angles to look at:
Develop a recognizable tone and format.
This helps you be consistent with how you speak and the shape your podcast takes. Maybe it’s something serious like getting key opinion leaders in medicine discussing patient outcomes and treatments in a round table format, or perhaps you’re taking a sideways look at industry trends as a one to one interview with someone.
Whatever it is, it’s good for a returning listener to know what they’re in for in the same way a factual TV show will take the same general shape.
Use storytelling and analogies to make complex ideas accessible.
This is a powerful tool for any communication. It might be a light hearted story with a tangential link to the point you want to make. Or use a story as a parable (such as a story about a military or naval hero to cover a business management theme).
People love a story to hook them in.
Be authentic—thought leadership thrives on trust.
Related to the first point here, you need to be consistent in tone, format but also to be true to who you are as a brand or person. People can smell a fake from a mile off and a dissonance between your expressed opinions and the reality of who you are will get you nowhere.
Sure, there is a degree of fake it till you make it implicit in most ventures but there has to be some substance and integrity. Unless your brand image is based upon shamelessness, in which case I guess it’s fine.
Step 4: Amplify Your Voice Beyond the Podcast
Thanks for sticking with this article and possibly series of articles to the end. I’m going to finish by looking at how your podcast can evolve and be reused in myriad ways and maybe do you or your brand a lot of good in the process.
Repurpose episodes
There are so many platforms to post stuff on and amplify reach.
With cool AI tools it’s child’s play to transcribe material and then you can weave text into LinkedIn posts that can themselves reference the source podcast and are also loved by AI robots and SEO, articles on your website or in the trade press or be rehashed into speaking pitches.
You’re creating a bit of potentially valuable intellectual property (IP), so get the most mileage out of it possible.
Submit your podcast to awards or industry roundups
Everyone likes an award winner! Same goes for being featured as a top podcast in a best-of list. Incidentally, getting on a top 5 type list is great for link juice with AI robots and SEO so spread the word, baby. Especially if you are a top 5 gold medal award winner.
This stuff can really open doors and boost awareness.
Collaborate with other thought leaders for cross-promotion.
As in all spheres of media, podcasts feed off themselves and contributors and people you name check as experts will only too happily tell the world about your podcasts winning you precious ears and eyes in the process.
Conclusion
Your podcast can be more than content—it can be a catalyst for influence. With intention and consistency, you’ll shape the conversation in your field.
I hope that you found this mini guide and the others in the series relevant and useful.
Should you need a hand producing a podcast, ACrew4U would be delighted to assist with our worldwide bank of audio and video podcast production people and studios.
Be it on site, in a studio, or recorded remotely our team can record and edit quality audio and video podcasts. We’re here to help deal with the boring logistical details so that you can concentrate on the best creative content.
Please do get in touch if you have a project you might need assistance with!
Want to know more about podcasting or ACrew4U?
Want to learn more about Podcasting?
- How to Launch a Business Podcast That Builds Your Brand
- How to Script, Record, and Edit a Professional Business Podcast
- How to Grow Your Business Podcast Audience
- How to Monetize Your Business Podcast
- How to use your Business Podcast for Thought Leadership
Find even more resources at our Podcast Learning Zone
