I recently discussed best practices for promoting your work on digital platforms with my private coaching group. I’d like to share some of the insight here with you as well to help you succeed with your content.
Adam Roa is a spoken word poet who has grown his message about choosing love into a very successful YouTube channel and speaking career. He asked me how he could best promote his new podcast on Instagram. In our conversation, he acknowledged that his best performing posts on Instagram are those he takes his time to share a profound message, while the posts that promote his podcast or YouTube show, The Art of Choosing Love, don’t appear to have the same performance. He wondered if he should stop promoting the shows to grow his following instead.
Here is the advice I provided:
It is unrealistic not to make asks on our social channels. I am a big believer that the work we put into growing our social followings should be for the purpose of affecting behavior offline. For most of us, that has to do with growing our business. Promoting what you offer is part of this.
In Adam’s example, the best way to cross-promote is to take a compelling snippet from his YouTube or podcast show and share it on his Instagram, as Instagram doesn’t currently allow long-form content. It gives his followers a sample of the show and can help drive attention to it.
This can also work for promoting his shows on Facebook because most Facebook users won’t watch or listen to the full length.
I also shared that many influencers promote their podcasts and YouTube episodes by taking a snippet from the episode and combining it with attractive footage that relates to it, then including a story in the post’s caption that makes the audience want to engage. Many highly successful influencers like Joe Rogan and Jay Shetty use this strategy very effectively.
This comes down to one of my pillar concepts: Provide value.
Always be conscious of providing as much value to your audience as you can. There are many ways you can post an ask or something promotional while still giving your audience value. Challenge yourself to have a high value-to-ask ratio, as well. If you’re flooding your platforms with things that only benefit you, you’re losing sight of creating for them.
I share insight about best practices for creating videos here.
