Chapter 13
Speaking Directly to Your Peeps
IN THIS CHAPTER
Encouraging listener feedback
Starting a discussion group online
Finding conversations on the web
Handling listener feedback, good and bad
Communication can be defined in a multitude of overly complex ways. For the sake of argument (and not to copy each and every dictionary entry we can find), we define the term this way:
The exchange of information between two points.
Note that last part — between two points. To us, this implies a bidirectional flow of information, to and from both parties.
If you've had the pleasure (note how well we can say that with a straight face) of attending any productivity or team-building seminars, the presenters really drive the message home: Effective communication is not a one-way street.
Over the past few years, podcasting has evolved as a more effective communication than traditional media (such as radio or television). We all have the same tools to communicate at our disposal — email, websites, phone lines — so why do podcast listeners seem to get more involved with podcasting? Two simple reasons:
- There seems to be a closer bond between podcast consumer and podcast producer. The simple fact that anyone can do this makes the producer seem more like a real person than a personality and easier to relate to.
- The podcasters are asking for the feedback — and getting it. Audience size doesn’t matter. We’ve seen some instances of shows with a couple hundred loyal followers where the podcaster has to spin off a second show just to handle the listener feedback.
In this chapter, we show you some real-world examples of how to foster communication between you and your audience, touching on a variety of methods and venues you probably haven't considered.
Gathering Listener Feedback
It must be a natural human reaction to fear the opinions of others. Perhaps it's insecurity, but we think it has more to do with our culture's constant reinforcement of the “How are you?” — “I'm fine. You?” — “Fine.” meaningless chatter that precedes most of our conversations.
That cultural crutch, however, is left next to Tiny Tim’s seat when it comes to podcasting. Listeners, for whatever reason, are compelled to give real and meaningful criticism. And podcasters, for the most part, take to heart those responses.
Of course, we're speaking in general terms. Yes, there are flamers and trolls out there with less than helpful opinions at the ready. Podcasting can't change basic human nature for the ill-evolved, unfortunately.
You can foster good communication with your listening audience in a multitude of ways, such as:
- Allowing and responding to comments on your blog
- Creating and visiting online discussion groups and forums
- Responding to listener email
- Participating in online social networks
- Leveraging voice mail
So, let’s get cracking on how we make these methods of reaching out and touching someone work for your podcast.
Fostering Comments on Your Blog
In an ideal world, all communication, feedback, rants, and raves about your show would take place in a neat little box, keeping things nice and tidy for you. But because that won’t happen, your best bet is to build a website that both enables and encourages the communication in your own backyard.
In Chapter 12, we demonstrate how much adding show notes can improve reaching new audiences on account of search engine optimization (SEO). Well, here’s one more reason show notes are important to your podcast — show notes serve as mechanisms for interaction.
In the world of blogs, this interaction is referred to as comments. Visit just about any blog you can find, read a post, and you’re likely to find a small Comments link at the bottom. Figure 13-1 shows one example, though the treatment varies widely from site to site.
FIGURE 13-1: Grammar Girl gets quite a few comments on each episode.
If you’re already using a blog, you usually don’t have to do anything special to turn on the Comments feature. Most software comes configured to accept comments by default. If you decide comments are not for you or your podcast, turning off that capability is simply a matter of selecting the right option.
Some podcasters get dozens of responses per episode. Some get none. Although there is some relation to the size of your listening audience, the frequency of your podcast, and the number of comments you’re likely to receive, it really has more to do with the connection users feel they have with your podcast.
Much like two co-workers chatting about last night's The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, two or more listeners using your website to talk to each other about your show speaks to the attachment they feel to what you have to say (or play). From the very first moments of attachment, you can nurture for your podcast its own community. Here are some simple ways we recommend to foster your following:
- Mention that you have comments on the blog either as a standard practice as part of the show — part of the intro, outro, or break perhaps.
- Include a one-line promotion of your podcast in your email signature.
- Ask questions during the show and direct listeners to your blog to leave their comments or opinions.
- Actively respond to received comments.
Communication develops amongst the listening community itself. Rather than talking to you, listeners start talking to each other, and the conversation — and sometimes, the community — takes on a life of its own. If this happens to you, don’t fret over it. Encourage it! Podcaster Jack Mangan did just that during the run of Jack Mangan’s Deadpan (http://jackmangan.com) blog. Comments on individual show posts were consistently reaching into the hundreds, and these comments would begin on one show only to break off into a tangent of their own and appear on another show. The activity had become so lively when the podcast was live that Jack developed a regular segment where he used a 20-sided die to pick several comments at random to read on the show. Even with his podcast on hiatus since 2015, long-time fans of Jack Mangan’s Deadpan continue to banter between one another on the show’s blog and even schedule yearly “MMMMMeetups” so fans can get in real-time face-time with Jack and one another. This kind of interaction between host and listeners reinforces the value of a community that not only supports your show but meets regularly on your blog to share links, feedback, and random thoughts. Even after your show goes dark.
Sometimes, comments that take on lives of their own mutate into hostile takeovers, and the conversation is lost amidst an onslaught of personal attacks either to other posters or to you, the podcast’s and blog’s host. Neither your community nor you need this kind of conversation. You may want to consider moderating blog comments. Moderating still allows people to post comments, but you get to approve those comments for public consumption. When someone posts a comment, you get an email. With a couple mouse clicks, you can choose whether to approve it. You have to do a little more work, but moderating ensures all comments meet your quality standards.
You may find your name or podcast mentioned other places on the Internet via search engines (discussed both in this chapter and Chapter 12). We recommend you get engaged with those discussions as well. Be sure to check back in a couple days for additional follow-ups, or if you are responding to a blog comment or forum, check to see if they have an option to alert you to replies.
Focusing on Online Forums
An online forum allows individuals to post their thoughts and ideas on a variety of topics — at their own choosing. Through a concept known as threading, multiple discussions can exist independently of all the others. Topics can get buried quickly in a mailing list like those mentioned in the previous section. Forums work differently, keeping all threads and topics available for clutter-free commenting at any time.
As easy as it is to create places for these types of conversations to occur, someone else may have already done it. Spend some quality time searching the Internet for your name and your show. Maybe a devoted fan has already done the not-so-heavy lifting for you.
Finding free, hosted forums
Using a hosted forum, like a hosted blog, takes away much of the burden of downloading, installing, and configuring the software. On the other hand, you don’t have quite the flexibility with a hosted solution as you would with a package you host yourself. One of the easier hosted forums to use is ProBoards. To get started, just follow these steps:
Browse to
www.proboards.com.If you have a ProBoards account, enter your username and password.
If you don’t have an account, click the Sign Up link.
Create a username.
Choose carefully. Your username becomes part of the URL that followers will navigate to. We suggest using your show name as the username.
Enter the remaining information in the form.
Provide a password, your name, email address, and category for your topic.
Click Sign Up.
Information regarding your newly created forum will be displayed including the URL to publish, your administrator account, and password. That’s it! You’ve created a new forum, like the one shown in Figure 13-2.
Customize the forum.
Click the Admin link at the top of the screen, and you can create new boards, categories, and other customizations to create a framework around which discussions can happen. For example, visitors will find it easier to find information about where to get car parts if that discussion is kept separate from auction values for classic vehicles.
Send invitations.
Using the same etiquette as a distribution list, let the world know your forums are available. You can send an email or announce it on your podcast.
Keep in mind the issue of how some people might see invitations as spam.
FIGURE 13-2: ProBoards offers free forum hosting that you can use for your podcasts.
That’s it! You can now customize your forum, start new posts, and spread the word of your newly created forum. Much like discussion groups, you can promote your forum by
- Posting the address on your website
- Adding the address to your email signature line
- Mentioning the forum on each of your podcast episodes
Other hosted forums are available. You can find plenty of options by entering hosted forums into a Google search. Most are supported by web ads or voluntary donations.
Forums take some time to build steam. Be persistent, post every day, and constantly encourage your listeners to interact with you and your podcast in this manner. But above all, be patient!
Now, although your forum performs admirably — for free — it most likely doesn’t have The Look (and you know what we mean by The Look) of other online forums. Popular podcasts also host forums that sport a spit-polished look, interfaces that make posting and replying easy-peasy, and little details peppered throughout that make you think “Wow, I’d love to have a forum that does that!”
You can … but a bit more effort (and investment) is needed. See the following section.
Remember when we said podcasting has an element of marketing with it? Here’s another opportunity to take your name to the people. Developing a public forum means your information becomes available to a lot of potential listeners. They may find your discussion list and become interested in your podcast, rather than the other way around.
Gaining more control of your forum
After a time, you may find yourself wishing for more control of your lively forum. Perhaps you’d like to implement the look and feel (branding) of your website on the forum, eliminate the advertisements you get with the free service, or more tightly integrate your forum into your overall web presence. When that happens, it’s time to think about installing some forum software on your website.
Here we go with the tech stuff again. We're not going to go into great detail on how to install and configure forum software on your web server. But we give you some things to think about when wrestling with the decision of using free forum software or dropping some cash on one you can purchase.
There’s the old saying: Why should I pay for the cow when I get the milk for free? Choosing between a free or paid solution depends on many factors, at the top of which are your level of technical prowess and tolerance for downtime. Like anything in life, there are tradeoffs with each option. Consider this checklist:
- Are you comfortable editing PHP or Perl scripts?
- Do you have the ability to create new MySQL databases?
- Can you change the permissions of files and directories on your web server?
- Are you willing to continually seek out patches and updates to keep the hackers out?
- Can you handle having your forum down for days on end while you research problems?
- Do you want to field “I can’t remember my password” questions from your listener base?
- What is the capital of Assyria?
If you answered No to one or more of the preceding questions, you probably aren’t ready to tackle installing your own forum software.
If you answered Yes to all the preceding questions — except for the last one, and, by the way, the answer is Aššur — you don’t mind getting your hands dirty. We recommend finding out what forum software your hosting company already has preconfigured on your web server, if any. If your hosting company doesn’t have a forum preconfigured for your system, start searching through the multitude of options out there ready for downloading and installing. You can also visit some existing podcast sites that use forums and ask them what they use, what they like (or dislike), and perhaps some of the technical details.
One option for your own forum is to consider open source solutions that many podcasters implement on their sites. For the Fear the Boot guys of www.feartheboot.com, their forums as seen in Figure 13-3, are powered by phpBB (www.phpBB.com), a download that needs only your web host to support PHP (a programming language that gives site developers methods of creating dynamic content that interact with databases) and databases in order to work. Although knowing PHP helps you use phpBB to create a better forum, it isn’t a prerequisite. With its built-in GUI (graphic user interface), phpBB can do quite a lot for you, even if you know nothing about PHP. It’s a bit like working with the WordPress blogging software in that you can use what phpBB provides or go beyond it with a background in PHP.
FIGURE 13-3: Fear the Boot hosts a forum with sizzle, powered by phpBB.
Moderating a forum takes only three to four hours a week for troubleshooting, answering user requests, and keeping the spammers and forum troublemakers at bay. Four hours is a modest investment considering the return is a strong community of Fear the Boot listeners.
Like blog comments, you might find your name or podcast being thrown around other forums. We highly suggest you sign up and participate in the discussion. Respond to the comments — positive or negative. (See the section about not-so-positive comments later in this chapter.)
Like many other things on the Internet, the most popular software is often the biggest target of attacks from spam and hacking — that includes phpBB. You might want to choose a “path less traveled” like Simple Machines Forum (www.simplemachines.org) that is very secure and easy to set up.
Social Media
Social Media has become a part of our lives over the past decade and a half. Online communities built around these platforms are made up of profiles, tweets, updates, pages, images, and snaps for people of all ages and backgrounds. They can serve as one-stop shops for when you pay a visit, or combine popular forms of communication into a hybrid that gives you all the best features. Some of these platforms have been online longer than podcasting has been around, but podcasters rely on these platforms as a ways and means of reaching new audiences.
We cover many of the more popular networks out there. Yes, there are more than the ones highlighted here, but these are the ones getting a lot of the attention.
You can find plenty more social networking sites out there, and many more will probably appear (and disappear) in the time it takes this book to reach your hands. What’s important is finding the network or networks that can get the word of your listeners back to you, help you create a better show, and make you a better podcaster.
Facebook (www.facebook.com) has evolved from the “alternative to MySpace” (yeah, remember when MySpace was cool?) to a one-stop shop offering a blog, bulletin board, online scrapbook, video streaming, and forum, all on one convenient location. Facebook gives registered users the ability to create online Groups where comments can be circulated across others’ networks as well as your own. You can also establish a Page where you control the message being sent out to the public and boost posts that will appear in Facebook News Feeds around the world. Facebook provides your listeners a quick interface both through your computer and your mobile device to not only offer feedback on what just went live, but also preview what’s coming up next on your podcast. You can also use your Groups and Pages to solicit voicemail or offer up polls that serves as instant content for your show.
Facebook now offers Facebook Live (as we talk about in Chapter 9), a video streaming service where your mobile device’s camera captures where you are, what you are doing, and what you are saying. While you are filming, comments and reactions are shared with you and your audience. If you are sharing video in your podcast feed, you can easily download your video and drop it into your feed. If you would prefer not to offer video, then go on and pull the audio from your Facebook LIVE segment, then drop it as a new podcast episode. Facebook LIVE can be used as either a promotional device for your podcast, or provide content for upcoming episodes.
For more information on Facebook, pick up a copy of Facebook For Dummies by Carolyn Abram (Wiley).
Twitter (www.twitter.com) continues to be a fantastic and instantaneous way of beginning conversations, garnering feedback, and getting word out about your podcast while not becoming a distraction or time-sink from your productivity as Facebook sometimes tends to be. Twitter, either through its website, its mobile app, or a third-party application that is Twitter-enabled, gives you 140 characters to say anything. You can use Twitter to direct people to your blog when a new show posts. Listeners can post (or tweet) what they’re listening to and comment on it. From various tweets, topics can be created on the blog or forums, resources can be cited, and quick announcements can reach a wide variety of listeners in moments.
Twitter delivers the instant gratification of posting a comment but gives you only 140 characters to do it, preventing you from losing your intent in a drawn-out posting. It’s based on the premise of answering the question “What’s happening?” If you find people listening to your podcast, ask them for feedback. Good or bad, begin a simple chat and ask for the opinions of others in your Twitter network. Use Twitter to post teasers on upcoming episodes, ask for validation from comments found elsewhere, and tweet relevant links either you or your listeners provide that tie back to your most recent episode’s topic.
Before Facebook LIVE, Twitter developed its own video streaming platform — Periscope (www.periscope.tv) — allowing for viewers all over the world the opportunity to comment on what you are sharing. As we discuss in Chapter 9, your video in Periscope can be saved to your phone, and then uploaded either to your feed or your video platform of choice. If you would prefer not to offer video, then go on and pull the audio from your Periscope segment, and drop it as a new podcast episode. Periscope can be used as either a promotional device for your podcast, or provide content for upcoming episodes.
Known more as a haven for D.I.Y. projects or slow cooker recipes, Pinterest (www.pinterest.com) is a platform waiting for you and your podcasting street team to take full advantage of. How podcasters should tap into the potential of Pinterest is to understand how Pinterest works. Think of the social network as a visual bulletin board and every time you post a new show, you go to your virtual bulletin board and post an image relevant to your show. That could be your show art, or it could be an image you dropped into your show notes. Your fans go up to this board, click the image you just posted, and they eventually find themselves on your podcast’s site. That’s how boards on Pinterest work.
Set a podcast board for your show, and then, when putting together show notes, incorporate relevant images for whatever you are talking about. When you create a new post — Pinterest calls this a pin — Pinterest will ask where to pull images from. Use your latest episode’s URL and then pick an image to represent the new content. Others in your Pinterest network can now interact easily with this by either leaving a comment or re-pinning it to their boards, reaching a whole new network.
YouTube? For audio?!
“My podcast is audio-only. What possible use could I have for YouTube?” Yeah, that’s what many podcasters think — they couldn’t be more wrong. The challenge is that YouTube (www.youtube.com) doesn’t allow uploading of MP3 files. Everything has to be a video. It’s not a big leap to use something like iMovie, Premiere Elements, or Screenflow to take your audio track, slap in an image, and create a video file you can put on YouTube. You’ve already done the editing for the audio file (if you’re in to that sort of thing). Now it’s just a couple additional steps to import and export to upload to YouTube. If you skipped over Chapter 9, this gives you a good opportunity to go back and find some of those useful bits for creating a simple video file.
What’s the point of putting your audio-only podcast on YouTube? Simple: You want to be where the people are. Billions of people are on YouTube all looking for content. Suppose your podcast is on Chinese history … People are searching for information on Chinese history on YouTube. Sure, it may not be your biggest distribution channel, but like the other sections in this chapter, it’s all about making yourself as visible as possible.
One example of a successful podcast published on YouTub is the TGGeeks podcast, shown in Figure 13-4.
FIGURE 13-4: Ben and Keith of TGGeeks distribute every episode on YouTube.
Instagram (www.instagram.com) may not come to mind as a promotional platform or communication channel for your podcast, but with some ingenious approaches, the image-exclusive platform gives your podcast an exciting new way to let people know that new episodes are live and how to send feedback through voicemail.
So how do you turn an app all about capturing the moment visually into a community platform for your audio podcast? It may require a few workarounds, but once you find your workflow, it becomes second nature after a few postings.
Once your latest episode goes live:
Mail your Show Art to your smartphone.
At the time of this writing, there are no apps that allow you to upload photos from your computer to your Instagram account. Instagram was always meant for smartphones.
- Save the Show Art into your smartphone’s Photo app.
- Open your smartphone’s browser and find your new episode’s URL. Copy the URL to your phone’s clipboard.
- Launch Instagram and go to your Instagram profile by tapping your profile icon in the lower-right corner of the app’s Options.
- Tap the Edit Profile option.
Where you can enter in a URL for your Instagram profile (shown in Figure 13-5), paste the new episode’s URL into your profile.
You can use the main URL for the podcast, but the individual episode’s URL will take your audience directly to the new episode.
- Tap “Done” to accept and activate the changes.
- Tap the Create Post option (the “+” icon) in the Instagram menu.
Create a new Instagram post with your Show Art as the featured image. Be sure to include in the post “Follow the URL in my Instagram profile …” so people know where to find the new content. (See Figure 13-6.)
URLs are not active in Instagram posts. If you are creating an Instagram profile just for your podcast, you do not want an Instagram account that is nothing but images of your Show Art. You will want to either create “Instagram Show Art” that feature images relevant to your show’s content, or post other content that may be in tune to your interests, or even the show’s interest. Reporting the same image over and over again could get you reported as SPAM and, in turn, shut down.
FIGURE 13-5: Dropping in an individual episode’s URL into your Instagram profile gives visitors to your Instagram direct access to new content.
FIGURE 13-6: Use Instagram to give people a platform to comment on as well as discover what you are up to in the podosphere. (Don’t forget your keywords.)
Now that you have your podcast featured on Instagram, how about giving your listeners an easy way to leave you voicemail? They are already on their phones. How can you make that happen?
- Launch Instagram and go to your Instagram profile by tapping your profile icon in the lower-right corner of the app’s Options.
- Tap the gear icon in the upper-right corner of your screen to access the Account Options menu.
Scroll down to the Switch to Business Profile option. Tap this option and follow the steps to link this Instagram account to a Facebook account.
You will be asked to link your account to a Facebook Profile. Any Pages where this Facebook Profile is listed as an Admin will appear as an option for where you can post.
- In the steps featured on switching your Instagram account from Personal to Business, you will be prompted to enter in various contact options. Enter in your email and voicemail line here.
On finishing this process, you will notice your Instagram profile now comes with a Contact button. By tapping this button, visitors to your Instagram profile can directly reach out to you, as shown in Figure 13-7.
FIGURE 13-7: With a simple tap, listeners of your podcast can now leave you either email or voicemail feedback on your latest show.
Social media offers you these options and a whole lot more. These platforms are a breeze to set up, but you know what else is easy-peasy to set up? Voicemail. If you have a smartphone and if you can navigate through Google, you are only a few clicks away from your own voicemail account.
Using Voicemail
One of the strengths of podcasting is that the content is so portable. That means your listener is quite likely to be away from a computer while listening to your podcast — making the interaction more difficult. Plenty of people, including your authors, listen to podcasts during their commute to work or on road trips. How do you get comments from those listeners? Simple: Have them call in.
Mobile phones are practically ubiquitous. It’s a fair assumption that if your listeners have one — they will often listen to your podcast on it. If you want those listeners to give you feedback, give them a number to call. Many podcasters have set up a number through Google Voice (https://voice.google.com). Google Voice lets people call and leave a message.
To set up a “listener line,” follow these steps:
- Sign up for a free Gmail account (
https://mail.google.com) if you do not already have one. Go to
https://voice.google.com.Notice the message at the bottom of the screen that prompts you to choose a number. In the left menu, seen in Figure 13-8, click the option with three vertical dots (More…) and choose Settings from the menu that appears.
- Click the Choose Number link.
- Review the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy, then click Continue.
Enter the city or area code for which you would like to get a free phone number. Note, this does not have to be a number in your area.
You can choose the phone number, so find one that is easy for your listeners to use. If you are doing a Star Trek podcast, for example a number with 8735 (TREK) somewhere in it makes it easy for your callers to remember.Click Next to link your Google voice number with your mobile number.
Be sure to enable the Do Not Disturb option for your Google Voice number. This will automatically take any calls going to your Google Voice number straight to voicemail.
- Google will send you a verification code. Enter this on the screen presented and click Verify.
- When the process is complete, click Finish.
FIGURE 13-8: Google Voice is a free, online service that allows you to download voicemails in an MP3 format so you can easily play them back on your podcasts.
You can now tell the world about an easy way to leave you a voicemail. When someone leaves you a message, you’ll get an email notification!
Okay, Google Voice is fine and dandy if you’re calling from the United States, but let’s not forget that podcasting can reach anyone anywhere. How do you get in touch with the listeners from Australia, South Africa, or Tierra del Fuego? You can encourage your international audience to leave you a voice memo through Facebook Messenger or take advantage of WhatsApp. Their audio can come from anywhere in the world for free.
You may find yourself with so much voicemail that you’ll have to do what several podcasters have done and create a separate show for their listener feedback. Listeners, including your authors, often get a kick out of hearing their comments aired before the world.
Seeking Out the Comments of Others
There’s an old saying about the best-laid plans of mice and men (and how they often go awry). That adage can be applied quite aptly to when podcasters pick up a walking stick, throw a haversack over their shoulders, and proclaim, “I’m going on an adventure!” You see, it is a certainty that listeners of your show, both fan and foe, will talk about your show to others in a variety of formats and on platforms of which you have absolutely no control.
There are existing forums, chat rooms, and social media threads that deal with your podcasting topic. At some point, those people will find out about your show and start listening. Current research shows these people will post reviews faster than Han Solo’s time in the now legendary Kessel Run. In fact, uneducated opinions on the Internet stand as the only things faster than the Millennium Falcon’s unbroken Kessel Run record.
Welcome to the community of the Internet.
There are a variety of ways to keep your eyes and ears on these groups and to find comments regarding your podcast. Doing so will give you valuable, direct feedback from listeners and let you respond quickly and easily. But before you set off on that journey, consider the warnings passed on to Indiana Jones before setting off on an archaeological quest: Be careful what you unearth.
Whoa. Two Harrison Ford references in one section? Madness, We tell you. Madness.
Trying a general search
Is it just us, or don’t most people do a Google search for their own name at least twice a week? Could be just us, but that’s a great way to see whether people are talking about you. Google has a gazillion pages in its search database and constantly crawls a good percentage of the web, finding interesting tidbits and adding more data with each pass.
When you search, try various combinations. If your name is a common one, such as John Smith, you’re probably going to get a lot of hits unrelated to you. Try adding the topic of your show to the search for more relevant results. For example, if your name is John Smith and you’re podcasting about underwater basket weaving, type John Smith underwater basket weaving in the Google search box. If your show name is unique, or at least uncommon, try using the name of your show as a search term.
We realize that there are other search engines besides Google. Yahoo! and Bing produce fine results, as do a few others. If you have neither the time nor the inclination to experiment with a dozen search engines, we suggest these three. They syndicate their results to other lesser-known (but equally valid) search engines. But as we’ve said countless times before, your mileage may vary. The same techniques we outline work well on just about any search engine you prefer.
Searching within a site, blog, or social media platform
As extensive and cool as search engines are, they can’t cover everything on the Net. Not only are there physical limitations as to how wide of an area the spiders and bots can cover, there are also self-imposed limitations set up by website owners that inhibit a good indexing of the site.
Take forums, for example. Some forums are set up in a manner that renders their internal pages invisible to the spiders and bots of even the best engines.
But most forums have an internal search engine that you can use to find the content within the forum — though you may be required to register with the forum to access its search engine. Blogs, forums, and even social media platforms such as Twitter have search features, and the results are easy to track down, as shown in Figure 13-9.
FIGURE 13-9: With the right hashtag associated with your podcast or episode, people can easily search and track Twitter for comments related to your show.
When the Comments Are Less than Good
First, don’t panic.
Second, don’t respond. Not yet.
Third, let your blood pressure come down to a normal level.
Let’s face it. Anytime someone has any critical comments about us, we get an emotional reaction. We call that being human, and it’s perfectly understandable and impossible to suppress. Following that impulse of replying right away only leads you to discover the two reasons why it’s called a knee-jerk reaction: It’s a reflex to clashing viewpoints, and you come across like a real jerk when you don’t think about your response before riding the emotional roller coaster. (The classic wooden ones like the Rebel Yell, Beast, or Grizzly. Yeah. Roller coasters. Cool.)
When you're calm and feeling a bit more detached, reread the comment and plan your course of action. Here are some suggestions:
Reflect on the comment.
What does the comment say, really? Does the person make a valid point? Is there an area of improvement you should make? If the comment was specific, relisten to the show in question. Did you say what the person said you did or stumble as bad as the person made it out to be? You may need a different perspective, so feel free to get someone else involved.
When you fully understand the criticism, decide whether you want to respond.
Obviously, if a comment is in any way libelous, you may want to seek legal counsel before proceeding. If a comment is simply pure vitriol, your best course may be to ignore it and go about your business.
If you decide to reply, consider sending an email.
If you send an email, count on that email being posted right alongside the negative comment. There’s no guarantee the person will keep your correspondence private. In fact, count on the opposite. Whatever you say in a private email should be something you would be willing to say in a more public forum. Keep your rebuttal rational, civil, and, above all, professional.
Just like any argument, it’s best to keep things on a professional level with your words and mannerisms. Although it may be hard to not put it on a personal level, try to refrain. It’s not going to help the situation.
Negative feedback is never an easy thing to stomach, but look at the positive aspect of this: People are listening. They’re listening, and now they’re most assuredly talking, blogging, and podcasting about you. We’re not saying to rush out and say something completely irrational simply to drum up controversy, but we’re saying that people will disagree with you now and then. It should be expected, and you should be ready to face that tough love when it comes your way.
More than anything, grow from the experience. Understand that anything you say in your podcast will be heard by a variety of people, with different backgrounds, experiences, and expectations of the world. We’ve been on both sides of this and can count many times where the negative comments we received turned out to be some of the best feedback. We think we're better podcasters for it.
Feedback, good or bad, is only as constructive as you make it out to be.