unLTD PODCAST
PODCAST SPOTLIGHT This month our podcast producer James Marriott leads with some industry insight, top tips – and turns the spotlight on his choice of another local homegrown podcast for readers to check out Follow, follow, follow! What a difference a word can make. Big news in the podcasting world this month as Apple announced they're switching to a 'follow' link button rather than the existing 'subscribe'. So, at the moment, if you go onto the Podcasts app on your iPhone, it'll invite you to subscribe to shows. But in the next update, instead that'll say follow. Yeah, it's just a word, but it's significant. Subscribe is a weird word. It generally has negative connotations – commitment, cost – which doesn't reflect how podcasting works, and I worry can be a barrier to new listeners. There's still plenty of people out there who have never listened to a podcast. At some point, hopefully, they will decide the time has come to give it a try. If they go exploring
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in their podcast app and see the word 'subscribe' everywhere it could scare them back off. 'Follow' is friendlier and more accurate. This is a change Spotify introduced ages ago and so it's great to see a bit of an industry standard finally forming on this. Podcast Spotlight: Help Sheffield If you're active on Twitter, you'll likely be well aware of Help Sheffield. It's an account run by a handful of lovely people with the aim of helping people across the city and wider South Yorkshire area. You might not know that they do a podcast and have been for a couple of years now. It's an honest, organic show, which highlights some of the great stuff going on around the area. They're 31 episodes strong now, so there's a good back
catalogue of content to catch-up on. The most recent, touching on mental health issues in lockdown, is well worth a listen. Podcasting Q&A: Does it matter what day you release episodes on? This has long been a debate around the podcasting world. I've seen people get really hung up on worrying about the right day. Wednesday is a particularly popular day for podcast releases. Monday and Friday also. Weekends a bit less so. Does it matter? For some podcasts, it probably has a bit of significance. For most, to be perfectly honest, it's as long as it is wide. Most podcast listeners subscribe (sorry, follow) loads of shows, and end up with a queue of new episodes
waiting for them to get to. They probably don't listen to your show on the day you release it. If there is a day which stands out as obviously the best, then go for it. Otherwise, go for whatever works best for you. Is now the right time for you to start a podcast? There seems to be much more hope and confidence as we start to head toward summer and, ultimately, restrictions being lifted. If you don't already, maybe now is the perfect time for your business or brand to launch its own podcast. If you want to learn more about what's involved, and how to get things off the ground, we can help! Just drop me a line at james@unltdbusiness.com and we'll get a good old chinwag in the diary!
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