✨ Make the most of your ratings and reviews ✨
Plus, 52 weeks of podcast growth
Last month, Lauren and Devin delved into how to get more ratings and reviews (plus: does it matter?). Ratings and reviews definitely seem like they make life easier and more fun for podcasters. But, ratings and reviews are not always what we hope them to be.
Today we’re sharing how to make the most of your good, bad, and helpful ratings and reviews.
First, a quick word from our sponsors for this month: Lulu.com.
🦄 52 Weeks of Podcast Growth
Create a listener survey.
No matter how many listeners you have, it’s always advisable to get to know them better. We recommend using Edison Research’s listener survey template as a starting point of designing a survey. We know how daunting it can be to send this though, so it’s okay if you don’t want to send it, yet. We can do that together next week!
To sum it up, the last five weeks’ growth tips are:
Check your website for maintenance.
Transcribe a new or old episode of your podcast.
Add two promotional to-dos to your calendar: 1) share episode on social media, and 2) share episode to the podcasting Discord.
Find 5 podcasts that you love and share them on social. Bonus: leave each of them an intentional review. We wouldn’t mind if you tagged us too!
Create a listener survey.
New here? Start at the beginning.
Let’s get on with it, shall we?
💟 Make the most of your reviews
The good
What is a good review?
A good review is one that just tells you how awesome are! Here are all the things you can do with a good review:
🍾 Feel good about it! First and foremost, read the good review repeatedly and take yourself out for a little celebration. You deserve it.
🎤 Share it. Shout it out from the rooftops. Tell everyone on social media, your online forums, and even your podcast about it.
🟡 Repurpose it. Turn it into a graphic and put it on your website. If you’ve got more than one good review, make a list and keep it on your website. There’s no harm in tooting your own horn. Looking for ideas to repurpose? We got you! ⬇️
The helpful
What is a helpful review?
A helpful review is one that gives you actual feedback. We’re not talking unnecessarily critical reviews but ones that actually make you think about your content.
There’s only one thing to do with these: use it!
Let’s demonstrate this via examples. Recently, Lauren tweeted asking about helpful reviews and we got some cool responses:
The bad (and arguably the most useful)
We don’t need to tell you what a bad review is; you’ll likely feel it where it hurts the most. As awful as it is to receive those reviews, we think they are the most useful of all. Here’s what you can do with a bad review:
💪 Own it. Having haters usually means you’re doing something right, or at least something interesting. As Arielle Nissenblatt says, if you’ve got a hater, you’ve probably made it.
📢 Amplify it (and thus, yourself). A podcaster sharing a bad review is, in the world we live in, juicier than a podcaster sharing a good review. Share the review and your response to it. Feel free to draw inspiration from this sign I once saw outside a bar in Vancouver.
Got nasty reviews and learned how to turn them around? Tell us how!
🎙️From the desk of Tink
America is at a crossroads. On the one side, politicians and the media are profiting off of dividing us. On the other side, many now believe that our problems are just too large for individuals to do anything worthwhile about and so they leave it to a government which hasn’t solved them. The solution is An Army of Normal Folks, “doing what we can.” And if each of us does this in our own communities, we’ll have a different country. A podcast with this rallying cry can build a movement that changes America and begins to solve the desperate hunger for positive, inspirational and unifying content.
🌟 More Magic:
On The Podcast Host, Lindsay Harris Friel writes “do podcasting conferences having a problem with women?” This piece comes after two podcasting conferences geared towards women podcasters had to scale back after a lack of support and funds from the industry.
At The Podcast Show in London, Imriel Morgan, CEO of Content is Queen, spoke about how the gender pay gap in audio has increased in the last three years. She is currently inviting companies in audio to read and sign the #EqualityinAudio pact.
Branded podcast production company Quill released A Brand’s Guide to Podcasting: a free report that shares key metrics, measurement techniques, and best practices for branded podcasts.
Meanwhile, in Podcast Therapy…
This week we had great Podcast Therapy sessions with:
Tech Trends: James Quinn’s podcast gets smart about emerging tech in the corporate world. Through interviews with experts, listeners can gain insights from AI experts, corporate technologists, and sustainability pioneers. The tech podcast shares strategic approaches for entrepreneurs and innovators to both enhance corporate positioning, and achieve sustainable growth.
Lunch with Shelley: In a world full of small talk, come listen to some real talk! Join Shelley and her special guests in their deliciously fun and authentic conversations at the best restaurants in Washington DC during LUNCH. This show will remind you that human connection is nourishment for the soul and the essential spice of life!
During these sessions, we tackled questions about partnerships, pitching to other podcasts for interviews, pitching to apps, improving content, and more. If you’re interested in signing up for Podcast Therapy yourself, learn more here!
Once again, a HUGE thanks to our sponsor for this month - Lulu.com.
PMM will always be free for readers but, we are also always looking for sponsors. Our sponsorship packages start at $50 (and are named after wizard classes.) Write to shreya@tinkmedia.co for more info!
Gold, as always.