I spend a lot of time talking with clients and potential clients about how to make compelling podcasts. We review the structure, music, and storytelling to ensure they deliver something of extraordinary value to their audience. That’s my happy place. That’s where I’d like to spend the bulk of my time.
On the contrary, I don’t spend enough time discussing podcasting the news and why that’s also important. Today, I feel compelled to discuss how podcasting the news fits into a broader marketing strategy that could benefit my readers. This column follows a major news development that reminded me why podcasting is so important and why content publishers should react to the news more.
The incident: Silicon Valley Bank fails
As some of you may know, Silicon Valley Bank, headquartered in Santa Clara, California, failed after a class bank run. Think, “It’s a Wonderful Life.”
It was the 16th largest bank in the United States and the second largest bank failure in the country since 2008.
The financial press has covered this major news event with gusto. But it’s important to note that podcasters have also played a significant role here. And so I spent the weekend searching for episodes that covered the fallout with the importance it deserved.
What I found was both major publishers (CNBC, the Financial Times, the Wall Street Journal, etc.) and savvy individual content creators were all over it, explaining the effect on SVB’s customers, which are predominantly VCs and tech startups, what “contagion” means, how SVB got into this mess, and who might be going to jail.
Let me point to NYU professor Scott Galloway as one content creator who stepped up this weekend.
Professor Galloway has made a name for himself as an incisive voice on business and marketing, with two podcasts focused on the subject, the Prof G Podcast and The Pivot with Kara Swisher. (He also is an adviser and investor with companies at SVB and runs his Prof G Media company out of SVB.)
On Saturday, Galloway dropped an emergency pod on his Prof G Podcast and followed with another emergency episode on Pivot Sunday.
Galloway understood the assignment.
Not only was his timeliness important, but also his responsiveness to his audience, which was egging him on to produce an episode covering the fallout. His listeners have come to rely upon him for his ability to explain the markets and talk through strategy.
If you’re a wonk, I highly recommend his shows.
I also found some new podcasts while searching for reactions to the bank’s collapse, thanks to some clever titles, like this one from The Financial Samurai Podcast, “Why would Silicon Valley Bank buy 10-year treasury bonds at the top of the market?”
I think we all want to know why.
This brings me to my point. Podcasting the news is important for brands to educate potential customers and clients.
The big emphasis here is on education.
News events can serve as opportunities to educate and demonstrate your expertise.
If you’ve been on a call with me, we’ve discussed “demonstrating your expertise” on multiple occasions.
There’s no better way to do that than by podcasting the news in your industry and educating your audience.
I’ll give you an example I hope to see reflected by some of the online business owners, coaches, and consultants I follow. (But don’t feel pressured to use this, it’s just on my mind.)
Stripe, the San Francisco-based payment processor, is raising fees for international transactions for U.S. businesses. It will no longer return dispute fees to customers — even if they win the dispute.
Here, you have a news story that affects businesses of all types, especially online business owners and freelancers with an international clientele.
Should business owners swallow these new costs? What are alternatives to Stripe? How much of a headache is it to switch payment processors? What is a dispute fee?
A good coach or consultant is answering these questions and communicating how these changes might affect their clients.
“Communicating” and “educating” sounds an awful lot like journalism. And that’s partially true. As content publishers, there is an unspoken promise to your audience that you’ll provide something of value to them, whether that’s information or entertainment, just like journalistic institutions.
Double points if you can do both.
Because Sam Dogen (Financial Samurai) put together such a well-done episode, I will follow his podcast and look into his book. Prior to this weekend, I had never heard of him.
But he asked a good question in his episode title, had good audio, and demonstrated his expertise over the course of 10 minutes.
Isn’t that the outcome you want?
How to integrate the news into your podcast
If you want to podcast the news, you just need to react to the most important matters to your audience.
But you can only do this if you know what they care about and, in the case of business owners, the pain points your customers are experiencing.
For example, I know a coach who put together a list of 40 episode ideas based on surveys she conducted with her audience, including clients and potential clients. The list was full of evergreen content that would last a year and reinforce her messaging.
It was a good content plan.
But when I looked at the list, I saw some opportunities for the podcast to expand in a way that could make it more timely, useful, and noteworthy. And that’s what I want you to focus on when you consider integrating the news into your podcast.
You need to consider the following:
- Timeliness — Is this important to my audience now? If you don’t communicate with your audience in the first 24 to 72 hours of a news event, will you have missed an opportunity to provide a valuable service with your expertise front and center? If the answer is yes, act accordingly.
- Utility — If something can change how members of your audience function in their day-to-day lives or businesses now, it’s your duty as a trusted expert to communicate that with them as soon as possible. Can you accept that responsibility?
- Significance — The more significant the news event, the more important it is to react quickly and be visible to audience members who rely on you.
The other thing to consider is your nimbleness. Can you digest the details of a news event, go to your studio space, connect with your co-host, and record something intelligible in a couple of hours?
Only some people have the skill or the resources to work on the fly like that. But if you do, you can take advantage of news events in a way that is advantageous to you, your business, and your brand.
Lastly, if you’re accustomed to writing a script for each episode, a news episode can easily throw you off-kilter. You can quickly adjust using bullet points with key facts and topics you want to address. If you’re running solo, I suggest writing those points down as questions so you can answer them yourself.
Most importantly, don’t overthink it. A shortened episode with a few thoughts to share on a major development is better than ghosting your followers.
Summary: Podcasting the news can only help you
Podcasting the news helps build effective relationships with your listeners, increases the trust between the listener and the host, and is a cost-effective way to educate your audience on an ongoing basis.
So much of podcasting is about likeability and consideration. Regularly reacting to news items your audience is discussing and worried about is a great way to build a relationship and keep your brand top of mind when it comes time to sell something.
Podcasting the news also helps fill the gap when you’re not creatively inspired, when your evergreen assets need further development, and helps round out the monotony of the interview podcast format.
But to do so also requires a general awareness of news events and commentary as it’s happening in real-time and some nimbleness to address the news and deviate from your current content plan.
If you can pull it off, you’ll have a more dynamic, engaging, and resourceful podcast. But most importantly, you’ll have your listeners’ ear when it matters most.
That’s a wrap for this month. I hope this inspires you to be more responsive to the news. But if you’re unsure, you can always reach out to me for help. Let me know your thoughts, feedback, or podcast recommendations by leaving a comment below. If you want more content like this in your inbox, sign up for my monthly newsletter here.