My experience as a guest on Emily Aborn’s “She Built This” podcast was so amazing that I had to drop everything and write about it this morning. I’ve easily been on more than 100 podcasts by now, and Emily has mastered the best practices for getting a guest to share the show like almost no other.
It boils down to making it easy for your guest to share the show, but the details matter.
1. Give your guest a heads-up before the show is released
Emily emailed me a few days before the show came out to let me know the release day (and time). This helps me get ready to share it as soon as it comes out, not days later.
2. Include the custom images for your guest to use on social media
Emily included professional-looking images with my headshot that I’d be happy to share, and she provided them in all the sizes I need for different platforms.
This is something very few hosts do, but it helps a lot. More than once, I’ve made my own social media images to promote my appearance on someone else’s show because I didn’t like the way the default image from the link looked. Don’t make me do this extra work.
3. Include text your guest can use in social media posts
Emily included text from the show notes in the email, summarizing what we discussed, which I used to write my social media posts. (An alternative I also like is when hosts send me prewritten text specifically for social media posts.)
This is important because although I’ll eventually listen to the interview, I’m probably not going to listen to the whole show before I promote it on social media. But we did the interview a while ago (because Emily is organized and produces shows well in advance), so I don’t always remember exactly what we discussed (or the parts that turned out to be the most interesting).
The summary refreshes my memory and makes it easy for me to write my own custom social media text.
4. Include the link you want your guest to use when sharing
Emily included the link she wanted me to use to share the show, and it was a custom bit.ly tracking link, which is nice because it is short, has my name in it, and also lets her track how many people I send to the page.
This is also important because it saves me time — I don’t have to go looking for the link — and she controls where I send the traffic. (There are far too many choices when you’re deciding where to send someone to find a podcast! But that’s post for another day.)
https://bit.ly/SBTMignonFogarty
5. Include your social media handles
Emily included her handles, which makes it easy for me to tag her.
I can’t praise including this little bit of information enough!
I hate trying to hunt down handles for a show and host when I’m promoting a show. If a host has a common name, or the handle isn’t quite the same as the show name, and they aren’t prominently listed on the show website, it can be a real pain.
6. Tag your guest when you share the show on release day
Instead of emailing me again, Emily tagged me in her social media posts, which is a great non-pushy way to remind me it’s time to share.
Make it as easy as possible for your guest to share the show
The goal is to make it as easy as possible for your guest to do what you want — to share the episode.
It’s not trivial for a guest to share your podcast episode. (And, yes, I should want to because it makes me look good too. Hey, look, I’m interview-worthy!) but it takes time, and sometimes I don’t even get to promoting all my own stuff.)
Even with all these things Emily did to make it as easy as possible, it still took me ~15 minutes to share it on all my platforms. It can take twice as long when you don’t make it easy.
These best practices may seem obvious when you see them written out, but very, very few podcasters do all these steps. Emily is a real pro, and I’m a new fan!
Listen to our “She Built This” interview on Podbean or wherever you get your podcasts.