All the way from Melbourne, Australia, Sophie Kneebone (which is a great on-air name) shared some insights into getting noticed on iTunes at the Podcast Conference in Chicago. She works with Omny Studio, which also offers radio automation software. I think we have all wondered what it would take to get into the upper echelon of podcasting rankings, but for many reasons radio podcasts have had a very hard time achieving that.
In order to best get noticed on platforms like iTunes, Sophie offered a few tips to follow:
- It’s a myth to think that a podcast needs to be brand new in order to trend on the “New and Noteworthy” section. The importance of that particular section is to be highlighted by iTunes, and using that extra exposure to get more people hooked on your content. It’s an excellent way to get your podcast noticed by a lot of people.
- Your description is worthless. We’ve been told that having a robust description for your podcast is important. However the iTunes search engine doesn’t even look at the description. They focus on your podcast title, the name of the author, and also the number of subscribers. That’s why it’s important to use focused keywords in the title of your podcast. Descriptions are still important, but keep in mind it does not have any bearing on discoverability.
- It helps to launch a new podcast with more than one episode. The advantage to having multiple podcasts posted is that if someone discovers your podcast and likes it, they’ll most likely want to hear more of what you offer. When listeners want to discover more, they’ll do it immediately. The more episodes you have posted, the more multiple downloads you’ll have at one time, and the more likely you’ll be noticed as a hot podcast.
- To get your podcast to #1 in the rankings, you’ll have to get around 5,000 downloads in 24 hours. It’s something many of us have yet to accomplish, but at least it gives us an idea of what we need to achieve to get there.
Ryan Wrecker programs WOWO Radio in Fort Wayne, Indiana, for Federated Media. You can reach him on Twitter @RyanWrecker and also by email at [email protected]
