How to Get Feedback From Listeners (And Build Community)

Over the weekend, my daughter started to play a song on our HomePod that drives me absolutely crazy; I won’t even tell you the name of it, to save you from the pain.

Even though I put the kibosh on that quickly, it was too late — the song was already stuck in my head. For the entire morning.

That’s the thing about “ear worms”: they’ll stick in your head even when you don’t want to think about them.

Thoughts are the same way…anyone who’s reacted physically to an embarrassing from 15 years ago can vouch for that.

Well…an ear worm thought for me for about 3 months now has been getting engagement and feedback from your podcast listeners. And it’s obvious why.

Podcasting can sometimes feel like shouting into the void — especially if you’re not getting much feedback from your audience. But it’s also crucial for so many reasons:

• Improving your show
• Building community
• Making money

…and so much more. So I’m back at it again today — with some fresh thoughts and new tools for how and why you should engage with your audience.

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Ask Early, Ask Often, Ask Everywhere

Let’s start with what I said the last time I wrote about getting feedback: don’t ask, don’t get.

I won’t rehash that article, so here are the broad strokes:

• Ask early on in the episode — like after your first valuable point. Invite listeners to share their thoughts while you still have most of your listeners.
• Ask multiple times throughout the episode — remember you might not have your listeners’ full attention. Repetition is key.
• Don’t just ask on your podcast. Ask on your mailing list, on social media, and anywhere else you have an audience.

Interacting with your listeners — and your audience on other platforms — is crucial to what I’m starting to believe is the life’s blood of a truly great, sustainable podcast: community.

Build a Community Around Your Podcast

A podcast community can help you capture ideas, answer questions, and even inspire future content.

But it also gives you the fuel to keeping going.

When I look at shows like Upgrade or Cortex, I see how well they’ve cultivated communities that not only support them but are willing to invest through their membership.

In-fact, their listeners are so engaged that even when they announced a price increase, the community largely backed them up.

Why? Because they see value in being part of something bigger.

As the podcast host, you need to lead the charge. That’s not easy, but there are tools to help you.

Tools to Help You Engage and Get Feedback

As someone who over-engineers basically everything, I’ve always felt inclined to build my own platform for my community.

But a lot has changed since I started podcasting 12 years ago, and luckily, there are some great tools out there today…many of them free.

YouTube: If you’re posting your episodes on YouTube, take advantage of its built-in tools. Comments, community posts, and even memberships (once your channel is monetized) can help you gather feedback and monetize.

Just remember: you don’t own your audience on YouTube. So, while it’s a good tool for engagement, make sure you’re driving listeners to platforms you control.

Spotify: Spotify recently added comments, and while I haven’t had much success with them, this could be a goldmine for those of you whose audiences are more active there.

You can also add polls to episodes, which might spark more interaction. This does have the same problem as YouTube though — you don’t own your audience.

Ripple.fm: This is a relatively new platform that automatically pulls in your episodes and allows listeners to comment on either individual episodes, or the entire show. It’s a nice, easy to use platform — you can even create a private podcast for followers.

My biggest concern here is that the founder seems distracted by several projects right now, and I fear that I might build a community on Vaporware. Still, I think it’s worth a shot.

Circle: If you’re serious about building a community, Circle is a great option. It offers single sign-on, so if your listeners are part of other communities on Circle, they won’t have to create another account to join yours. It’s not free, but it’s a robust platform for anyone looking to centralize community engagement — plus there are other features like events, courses, and lots, lots more.

Fanlist: I’ve also been experimenting with Fanlist, a tool that makes it easy for listeners to give feedback via text or audio. It’s free to use as long as you aren’t making money on it, which I appreciate as a model.

You can also sell memberships and perks there, showcase sponsors, and create multiple inboxes for your listeners. So far, I’ve been using it for both of my shows, and I like what I’m seeing. You can try it out over at https://podcastworkflows.com/feedback.

Final Thoughts

If you want your podcast to grow, you can’t be afraid to ask for feedback. But more than that, engagement is how you turn your listeners into a community. The stronger your community, the more feedback (and support) you’ll get.

And the best part? Your audience will feel like they’re part of the journey with you.

Now, I’d love to hear from you (naturally). How do you engage with your podcast listeners? Do you have any favorite tools or strategies for getting feedback?

Let me know!

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Originally published at https://podcastworkflows.com on September 23, 2024.