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In this episode of The Podcast Reporter show, we deliver some thoughts about the FUTURE OF PODCASTING. Now, we do this from both the perspective of myself as a podcaster, as well as include some thoughts from a post. We introduce that later we will reflect ideas from a podcast show with both co-hosts of Dave Jackson from The School of Podcasting show, along with Daniel J Lewis from The Audacity to Podcast show.

But here, in this episode, we look at the internet post from jupitrr.com dealing with the trend to the future of the podosphere and podcasting is called “What is the future of podcasting?”

This post presents and discusses both current trends and 5 tips for a podcaster to prepare for the second half of 2023 and beyond. And there is a bit of content to elaborate on each of these in the post. We recommend that you review each of these for their relevance in your world of podcast shows.

Here are the TRENDS:

Creators have more control over their audience;
Private podcasting with a subscription model;
Short-form audio;
Social media as a distribution or hosting channel;
Podcasting as a means of marketing.

By looking at the explanation given for each trend in the article, you may see if your show will be ready for the future and able to withstand any changes that may come forth to challenge you in podcasting. One of these is the FORMAT of the show, both in length and tone.

For myself as a podcaster, I firmly stand on the micro-cast model of having an episode be 10 minutes or less — and that is most of the time, for there are no absolutes in podcasting. The article states: “Future of Podcasting is about bite-sized content, and shareable video formats.”

The future growth of this medium will also skyrocket, especially as more people now understand podcasting and can easily begin their own shows to promote their content — whether as a hobby or in trying to monetize: “Studies show that the number of active podcasts and available episodes are continuing to climb, with over 2 million podcasts and over 48 million episodes available as of 2021 (Podcast Insights, 2021).”

Podcasting has already earned a spot in both communication and distribution of content for companies, and now is highlighted as a medium for marketing. And they usually begin with producing what are called “intra-casts” — that is, producing podcasts for their employees and stakeholders: “A recent survey found that 70% of companies are already using or plan to use podcasts for internal communication. With the rise of remote work, podcasts offer a convenient and engaging way for teams to stay connected and informed.”

In addition to the trends, these are the 5 tips that are given to you about podcasting’s future for you as a content creator:

Always have an email list of your audience: a key to building strong relationships and promoting your content across different formats effectively.
Interact more with your power users or audience: Engage with your listeners regularly, know what they want more from you. Being interactive also makes your audience feel they have your attention.
Try short-form video podcasts: Experiment with shorter, bite-sized audio content in both podcast and video formats. This format is well-suited for social media and can help you reach new audiences.
Distribute on 5 social media channels: Don’t just pick one or two at first. Experiment. Experiment. Experiment. Then, narrow down to the ones that perform best for you.
Build your audience as early as possible: Building an audience takes time, so start early and focus on consistently producing high-quality content. Growing your audience has a multiplier effect, remember also to take advantage of the organic reach of new platforms like Instagram Reels.

So, thus, we reflect on the trends and tips given by this article.

In a future podcast episode, we will explore the perspective of two of the pundits and podcasters from the podosphere since 2005 (Dave Jackson and Daniel J Lewis), since we will reflect on the content of their show as co-hosts when they discuss THE FUTURE O.F PODCASTING.

Thank you for your attention.

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In this episode, we hail and celebrate our 400th episode of this Podcast series by discussing the value of a good intro for your podcast episode and some suggestions by Matty Staudt on how to grab your audience with the art of the “tease.”.

First, however, we shall share with you a milestone that we have reached — 400 episodes. Now, this was not the first time that we have had 400 episodes in one of our shows (we did that before years ago in an earlier podcast show before we had to podfade it). And having been a podcaster for the past 15 years, longevity is one fine trait with experience in the podosphere.

Since October 15th of 2019, we have published an episode every day. And although it was never planned as a publishing marathon, it ended up being one because of the content ideas and the podosphere news that have created information for us to share with you.

However, we have used the format of the short-form podcast (i.e., less than 10 minutes in length) for much of the last 200 episodes, and for most of the publishing marathon since October of 2019.

And we intend to provide more value to our listeners with the information about the podosphere and other new media topics.

So, now, on our 400th episode of this podcast show, we can look back to our roots of 2014, to the first episode and see that we have delivered value to our listeners and loyal fans, and that we intend to keep delivering such value as we possibly can. In the beginning of our podcast show, we focused on bringing you interviews with the legends of the podcasters who were the giants of the podosphere from the beginning and who helped us to form the podcast as a medium and several genres. We interviewed those who had been podcasting since 2004. And then we opened up our attention to other topics related to the podosphere which we felt were of significance to the aspiring podcaster, the hobbyist podcaster and even the professional podcaster or serious new media professionals.

Hook your audience with a good INTRO

In the recent post in the Podcast Business Journal, Matty Staudt emphasizes with an example of a boring introduction what it means to be exciting, relevant and catching, so that you can “hook” your listener in the first few minutes of your episode. The name of the article is called “Your Intro Matters.”

The importance of creating a meaningful and attractive intro is given the importance by Staudt: “People decide if they are going to listen to a podcast in the first minute. If you don’t give them the full picture in that time or hook them with interesting audio they will most likely move on to one of the other million podcasts out there.”

Now, although we have discussed good introls and outros before in this podcast show — especially with the reference of an earlier podcast episode in The Audacity to Podcast show by Daniel J Lewis — Staudt relies on a very simple and quick list of suggestions that he has seen work best for him when he produced his shows:

Voice first — as this needs to be warm and friendly to invite the listener to stick around and consume some audio that will contain the value that he seeks;

Set up the show — Deliver a “tease” with brief and relevant info: “I usually suggest a quick tease of content followed by these three important elements. Name of the show, who you are, and the show’s tagline/mission statement.”

What’s on today — The brief tease that describes the content to be delivered and the value that will be given to the listener.

Create your intro as the LAST task for your content — As Matty states, “One last thing. Do your intros after you have produced the rest of the show. It should be the last thing you do so that you know exactly what you are going to tease. A good intro takes thought, good writing, and the remembrance that each show is a new show for someone.”

Now, for this podcast, we have had a standard format for intros. This would include the episode number, then the key theme or the question that will be answered in the content (this is the “tease”). And then we will go straight into the meat of the content and provide the VALUE to our listeners so that they will not get bored. And instead of including many segments in the episode, we focus only on one theme in a short form episode. And many of our listeners have commented that they enjoy this format — especially now that many of our audience has to stay isolated during the virus crisis.

And the tease or tag line and intro are usually all created at the end, or they are set out at the start of production, but reviewed and mainly improved and modified after the episode has been produced (just as Matty states). It seems to be a good formula for us to use, and we strongly suggest that perhaps you can try this out for your podcast episodes and see how well it can work for you.

So we wish you the best in creating your exciting intros for your podcast episodes to hook your audience and keep them as loyal fans of your show.

Thank you for your attention.