If you’re passionate about podcasts then you’ve likely come across The Diary of a CEO, the most downloaded podcast in Britain. Well earlier this month I had the opportunity to attend a live podcast recording in London, with Adobe’s Andy Lambert and The Diary of a CEO’s marketing director Grace Andrews, hosted by Katie Street of The Street Agency.
To be invited as a guest on The Diary of a CEO is the The Crème de la Wish List for some of our clients as is attaining comparable success with their own shows. So when I heard Grace Andrews would be pulling back the curtain on how they’ve used and continue to use social media to grow The Diary of the CEO I knew I couldn’t miss it.
The Diary of a CEO
The Diary of a CEO is hosted by Steven Bartlett who launched the show in September 2017 after resigning as CEO of Social Chain, a marketing company he started when he was just 18. When he left at the age of 26 Social Chain was generating $600 million a year in revenue.
I was late to the party discovering The Diary of a CEO on a BA flight to San Diego a couple of years ago. After stumbling across an episode with Patricia Bright I was captivated and binge watched half a dozen episodes.
If you’ve yet to listen to an episode, Steven Bartlett speaks with influential people, experts and thought leaders who’ve achieved great things. The interviews are real and vulnerable as guests often share insights you won’t have come across before.
According to Chartable in 2022 The Diary of a CEO was the most downloaded podcast in Great Britain adding 50,000 subscribers per month on YouTube.
Getting Your Podcast in Front of New Audiences
During the live event, Grace pointed out that with a podcast you don’t have organic search to help people find it so social media offers a great way to get your podcast in front of new audiences.
Short Form Video: To promote episodes of The Diary of a CEO the marketing team uses a lot of short form videos. She said:
‘For the biggest return and for us, it’s a no brainer to lean into the current trends, short, short form video and do it really, really well in a way that’s not just copying and pasting per platform, but is dedicating and tailoring your content to your different audiences on your different channels and reaching them via socials.’
Show Not Podcast: When Grace confirmed that social media has been central to the growth of The Diary of a CEO she explained that they see it as a show rather than a podcast because it’s so much more than audio.
Consuming Content: Grace told the audience that she’s spoken with people who say, ‘I love watching the show on TikTok,’ and noted that they just show clips on TikTok but that is how some people consume the content, never listening to a whole episode.
People we speak with who are either side of the mic can get so caught up in download numbers but this is why you need to bear in mind the wider audience a show can have on social media.
Grace said, ‘We see our podcast as a show that’s watched via social media. So they’re not in the numbers. They’re not in the downloads. They’re not in the data, but we know we’re reaching millions a week via socials.’
The System: The Diary of a CEO
Grace explained that if you’re working to grow your podcast, social media shouldn’t be an add on, something you think of at the end:
She said, “If you’re thinking about growth, your audience needs to be at the forefront of every decision you’re creating, every post you’re creating, every concept or strategy you’re nurturing and you’re creating.”
So how do you go about doing that? Grace shared the process they follow once an episode has been recorded and it’s something we can all follow:
- Record the podcast episode
- Brainstorm ideas for the title.
You need the title to create a trailer, the copy, the email marketing etc - Dive into audience
Consider who is the audience for that guest and where do we find them? Where do they live?
4. Select channels
Remember it’s not going to be the same channels for every episode you create.
5. Recap who it is you want to talk to and what’s the piece of content. Marry this up.
Make sure your content speaks to your audience. Does it solve a problem or make them feel something?
The Power of Consistency
The size of our teams vary. It was acknowledged that not everyone has a whole team available to work on content. So Grace talked about the importance of experimenting with content and choosing consistency over frequency, “You can post one excellent piece of content that is so value driven that you’ve tried something new on and learned something. And that is 10 times more valuable to you and your business than just getting three posts out because I’ve been told I have to get three posts out.”
When you’re consistent with content creation your audience knows what to expect and that creates reliability. Episodes for The Diary of a CEO are released on Mondays and Thursdays.
Conclusion
And that’s a wrap. As you look for shows to guest on bear in mind their overall reach, not pure download numbers and as you work to grow your own show remember the vital role that social media can play in shaping your success.
The live panel discussion was recorded for the Marketing in the Madness Podcast which you can listen to here.
