As a podcaster, you may wonder how to use Instagram for your show. Should you create your own Instagram account for the podcast? How to publish new content for every episode you release? Can you even upload a podcast to Instagram? In this article, we’ll see how Instagram can help you leverage your social followers to grow your podcast and find new listeners.
In the last few years, podcasts is really booming – we’re seeing a massive growth in the number of new podcasts released every year, the total number of listeners/downloads, and the industry giants developing apps, acquiring companies and pushing hard to conquer the market. This impressive growth has made it harder for podcasters like you to stand up in the crowd and compete on a limited number of listeners. To grow your show, we recommend as many tools you can get; A podcast website is a great start, and growing your podcast on Instagram is an amazing option to find new ears for your show.
Instagram is one of the most popular social networks out there, it has millions of active users every day, uploading their images, stories and videos. While many brands, celebrities, athletes, musicians or just private people are using Instagram, it really is a great tool for podcasters too. With Instagram, you can publish lots of different types of content to push your shows to the next level and constantly find new listeners.
Different ways to use Instagram for podcasters
Branding – When you have an entire profile for your show on Instagram, it creates a better brand awareness and puts your podcast as its own “entity” on the web. Having your own Instagram (or Twitter, Facebook etc.) handle helps people find your show. If your domain name matches the handle, it’s even better!
Posting audio clips – In recent years, you must’ve seen short clips on social networks like Twitter or Instagram –
There are several companies that can help you generate soundwave clips that you can post on Instagram. (like the example seen above)
These clips can catch the eye of visitors who see your Instagram post. They can listen to 15-60 seconds of one of your episodes instantly from their feed. That’s a great tool to get the attention of users who scroll around social networks, and you can re-share those clips over time to generate more traffic to older or most popular episodes.
Promoting upcoming episodes – Your next episode(s) is featuring a high profile person? A relevant or newsworthy topic, you can share bits or excerpts of your upcoming episodes before they are published. This can help you build anticipation within your Instagram audience towards the upcoming episode. Your audience would be able to subscribe to your upcoming content before you release those.
Podcast guests & networking – Another great marketing tool is to leverage your co-hosts or guests. So many people have lively or large Instagram accounts. You can tag other accounts who may re-share your content, and expose their own audience to your episodes. This can help you reach more people.
Link in your bio. A link-in-bio is one of the most popular and easiest things to do to promote your show. We highly recommend that you use your own podcast website rather than an “all-in-one” link like LinkTree. When you have a link in your Instagram bio, that’s one of the first things people will see. You can catch their attention more easily and get traffic directly to your website.
How to include an Instagram gallery on your podcast website
If you have a podcast website, an important tool would be to include your Instagram posts on the website itself. This creates a flywheel that sends users from your website to Instagram and vice versa. If you have a podcast website hosted on Podcastpage.io, it’s super easy to connect your Instagram account and display a gallery with your most recent posts anywhere on your website.
To get started with Instagram, head over to your “Integrations” page –
Then, you’ll have to sign in with your Instagram account. Then, you’ll be able to select the number of posts your want to display –
Lastly, you’ll need to add the Instagram Gallery widget into any page, sidebar or footer area to display your posts! Here’s an example of how the gallery widget can look on a custom page –
Conclusion – Leverage social media to grow your podcast!
Social media can be a very powerful tool when growing your podcast. If you have a strong social media presence, along with a great domain name and landing page, you are destined to a great start. Instagram is one of the most popular social networks out there. You can use it to grow your podcast, find more listeners, and build a brand around your it.
We recommend the following strategies for promoting your podcast –
- Build a brand behind your show with a good handle, profile images, messaging and colors.
- Post short audio clips of your episodes.
- Leverage your guests and their own network.
- Promote upcoming episodes.
- Use your link in the bio to point to your podcast website.
