Find New Podcast Listeners on Facebook Audio Hub

According to Edison Research 20% of weekly podcast listeners said they listened to a podcast on Facebook. That's right Facebook is going all-in on audio and today we're going to talk about that on this episode of The Anchor Show I'm your host Ileane Smith so let’s get started.

First, they introduced something called the Audio Hub.

Audio Hub.

And what happens is, if you have a podcast and I hope that many of you have podcast. If you're listening to this, if you need help with starting a podcast, let me know.

And once you have your RSS feed and every pie Cast host will provide that RSS feed for you.

You can add your podcast RSS, feed to your Facebook page. 

Now, this is a really exciting because there is a huge amount of people who are on Facebook, they know what a podcast is. They just don't bother ever opening their podcast app.

They have a curiosity about podcasting, but they don't really religiously follow any podcast, but they're constantly on Facebook, so this is definitely giving you exposure to new audiences.

And there's also several people that are already listening to podcasts, they just haven't found you yet.

And so they think that when they see your podcast on your Facebook that - Oh, this is another way that I connect with that content creator through their podcast.

So you can add your RSS feed is just super simple.

All you have to do is navigate over to the podcast app.

On your Facebook page.

If you haven't added your RSS feed their yet, just add in that RSS feed.

And if you have more than one podcast, hey, you can add more than one as well.

And all they do is they send you an e-mail because they can detect your email from your RSS feed and you have to verify that it's you and boom.

Your page is connected now to your podcast and that will give you an extra tab on your Facebook page for your podcast.

Also, the other way that people can find your podcast is over (and it's kind of ironic) it's over in the Facebook Watch area, this is the area where you normally would watch videos but up at the top.

Now, this is on mobile only and I forgot to mention that earlier all the podcast listening happens on mobile only but you can add your Facebook to your page.

You can add your podcast, you can do that on desktop or on mobile.

So in the Facebook watch area on mobile, there is now a little icon up at the top that says audio and this is really the Audio Hub.

And what will happen is when someone Taps on that, they will see one of the really popular podcast will be up on the top, and then they can scroll up a bit.

They don't have to really dig too far down, and they will see podcast from the pages that they are connected with.

So hopefully, your podcast will show up in that area. Next, if they scroll down even further, they will see something that's called sound bites.

Sound bites.

Now, these are just short little audio Snippets that you or I - anyone, even if you don't have a Facebook page, can record an audio snippet and somehow Facebook determines, which ones will appear in that section.

But if you do have a page, it will also be on your page.

The other thing I want to tell you about podcasts, when someone's listening to your podcast, they can share a clip so you can do this as well.

You can share a clip a snippet a little teaser from your episode and it has that little animation on it, which is very attractive to get people's attention to listen to your show.

So you can do that.

You can share it as well as any of your listeners can share it, so encourage your listeners to share if they're listening on Facebook.

The last thing I want to tell you about when it comes to Facebook embracing, audio, did you know that you can create a live audio room on Facebook?

Yep, that's right. You can create a live audio room.

Now, this worked best for me on my Facebook page.

And once again, this is mobile.I have heard people say that you can do it from desktop. I have never seen it done and I don't have access to it from desktop, so I am just going to tell you about mobile.

I had a great experience because I did one yesterday and two of my friends came in, and we explored all the buttons and figured out, you know, what happens if I do this or what happens?

If I do that, can I share it here? Can I share it?

And, so I went through all the buttons that I could push and one of the things that I am fortunate on my Facebook page I have something called Stars, so my page is actually monetized on Facebook and my friend gave me some Stars, and so it was a great experience.

I got comments from others - other people were there listening.

They stayed because the room lasted for about 45 minutes and you can see the people's profile icon show up there.

So, I know that some people bounced in and out, but others stayed at least half an hour listening to my audio room, and I was really fumbling around at the time.

So, Facebook has embraced audio finally, so I want you to go over there and check it out.

this is a great opportunity for podcasters. And hey, even if you are a listener of podcasts go over to some of the Facebook pages that you follow and especially if you know that they have a podcast go ahead and listen to their podcast. For example if you wanted to go over to my Facebook page you would just search for my name Ileane i-l-e-a-n-e and you should find my page and I’ll have the link in the description and in the show notes of this so that you can check it out. 

And you'll see that tab there for podcast and share a clip!  Share that out - you can share on your timeline you can share it in your group and you can even share it on your page. 

This is a great way to get your voice heard, and I want to hear from you. Go ahead and leave me a message here if you are on the website, it’s TheAnchorShow.com

Go ahead and there’s the audio button over there on the right hand side where you can leave me your feedback. I always want to hear from my listeners, and I’d love to include your voice here on The Anchor Show. I’ll talk to you again soon.

Happy podcasting