#32 | Why You Shouldn't Promote On Multiple Social Media Marketing Platforms (Podcasting Growth Tips)

0:00You're posting on every social media platform, but your podcast still isn't growing. Welcome to How to Grow a Podcast that attracts high-ticket online coaching clients. The show helping coaches, consultants, and experts turn your slow-growth podcast into a profitable client attraction system. At the end of this episode, I'll share a little more about who I am and what we do at my company, GetMoreListeners.com. It might even shock you. But for now, let's dive into the episode. In today's episode, you'll discover why the be everywhere mentality is killing your podcast growth, the real cost of spreading yourself too thin across platforms, and finally, the one platform strategy that actually works.

0:46Let's dive in. Happy New Year. And I'm excited to talk about this topic because it's one that is probably one of our oldest podcast growth principles. Wouldn't you say? Yeah, I think to expand on that, it was one of the first things that we learned, we adopted, that was contrary to what most things suggest. It was the first unpopular opinion that we really made part of our process. I think the be everywhere mentality and standpoint of growth online, it comes from, well, it's just what you see everywhere, right? If you Google, like, how do you grow a podcast or that kind of thing, I think it's just what you find is that opinion.

1:24So that opinion is the most commonly found thing. Where does it come from is a different question. I think a lot of the people that are big today, and the gurus you could say, like Gary Vee comes to mind and stuff, I think it's something that they push, like be everywhere. The thing is, I actually don't know where it comes from. I just think, oh, Gary Vee. But the point is, it does lead to split focus and little growth in any individual area. The podcaster usually becomes a jack-of-all-trades, wearing all hats, but master of none, of course, as the saying goes. And you can't even track which platforms are doing better because there's so much to think about.

2:05The content that you're posting on each platform isn't usually personalized to that platform. Obviously, you might just post a video on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube Shorts, and then some written content on Facebook and LinkedIn. But the point is, what you're posting, it's not geared towards that platform. The culture and what type of content works well on that platform. So you're already setting yourself up for subpar results just for that. But then there's also the thing that any given audience, they're not going to be spending 20 % of their time on LinkedIn, and 20 % on Facebook, and 20 % on TikTok, and so on.

2:41Any given avatar, any kind of demographic or psychographic, they're going to be spending probably most of their time on one or two platforms. So my point in saying that is, from the podcaster's point of view, it diverts the attention, it diverts the focus, and it makes it very hard to progress in any individual area. But the output is also limited because it's barking up the wrong tree a lot of the time. Because the audience is going to be in one place or two places, but you're spreading the content out evenly. And also, the content isn't optimized to those platforms anyway, so it gives even less chance of growth.

3:18Does that make sense? Yeah, definitely. And to your point, for anyone listening right now that's not had the growth expected on social media, I think it is really one of those things where, at surface, it seems like everyone's succeeding with short-form clips. But honestly, from our experience of actually working with hundreds and hundreds, well, really working, I could say loosely the term, working with thousands of podcasters, I don't think I've ever seen anyone who doesn't have a massive team or a huge budget actually pull this off for them. So it's a little bit frustrating that this narrative is pushed, because all in all, it wastes a lot of people's time and drains a lot of people's time and energy.

4:00So what you should consider, or I would encourage you to consider, is niching down to one platform as your focus. I say one platform as your focus, as opposed to just one platform, because it's not to say you can't have accounts on every platform. I think that you should have an account on all these platforms, because if someone actively goes to look for you on there, then at least they can see your name. But I don't think you should focus on multiple platforms at once, really. Even if you, let's say, cut up your podcast into short-form clips and post the videos, it's not really a strategy we recommend.

4:34But if you are doing that on TikTok, you might think, oh yeah, well, I can just post it to Instagram as well, right? Like, it takes an extra 10 seconds. But what's the problem with that before we actually circle back to what you should do? Yeah, this takes me back to a specific example earlier in 2023 with a one-to-one client. Their podcast had just started to take off. I think they'd gone from like basically five times their growth month to month. They had like 500 % growth rate from April to May or something like that. And the podcast was getting more and more downloads each day, things going amazing.

5:12Yet their YouTube was still getting like five views per video or whatever. And we spent so much time talking about the YouTube in our session when there was this amazing thing happening on Apple Podcasts that was blowing up the show. Yet all this podcaster could think about was, why doesn't the YouTube match up? Should I improve my setup and all this thing? And in the end, what we did is just ditch YouTube, just go all in on the podcast. And as a result, she is now getting even more growth. She's actually closer to 10 ,000 monthly downloads now. So to wrap this up, what should you do? Well, as we've just looped around and kind of taken the long way of explaining, we would recommend to do one platform, not two, not three, actually one.

6:02The only exception to that is if you're currently getting results on more than one platform, then of course you should stick to what's working. But if none of the platforms are working for you, then you really have nothing to lose by ditching all of them except one. So I'd really encourage you to do that. It is a bit of a different way to operate, and we know what we say. What's got you to the way you currently operate has got you to where you are. But to take it to the next level, you actually need to try something different. So stick to one platform. Go all in on that platform. Use all of your mental focus as well as your time, your team's time, your resources, your budget.

6:43If it's going on social media, allocate 100 % of your social media efforts to one platform and see if that makes a difference. Because from what we've seen, and from what also just logically makes sense, this is a much better way to grow your podcast than keeping things scattered and being the master of none. Yeah, and if in doubt, think about your podcast, your ideal listener. Maybe you have clients you can speak to, or you have direct access to speak to these people. If not, you have to kind of go out on a limb and then see if your hypothesis matches up. Ask yourself, where are my ideal high-ticket coaching clients actually spending their time?

7:25Are they on LinkedIn because they're business-focused? Are they on Instagram because they're in the wellness space? Are they on YouTube because they consume long-form educational content? Pick the one platform where your ideal clients actually are, where they're already engaged, where they're already looking for solutions, and then go all in on that one platform. Because here's the reality. You can be everywhere and get five views on every platform. Or you can be on one platform and actually build real engagement, real relationships, and real momentum. Most coaches we work with are so focused on being everywhere that they're effectively nowhere.

8:07They're posting content that disappears into the void on six different platforms. instead of building a real presence on one platform where their ideal clients actually hang out. So let's recap. The be everywhere mentality leads to split focus and little growth in any area. You become a jack-of-all-trades, master of none. The content isn't optimized for each platform. Your ideal audience is probably spending most of their time on one or two platforms anyway, not evenly distributed across six. And the solution is simple. Pick one platform, the one where your ideal high-ticket coaching clients actually are.

8:50Go all in on that platform, with your time, focus, resources, and budget. Keep accounts on other platforms so people can find you, but don't actively focus on growing them. And the only exception is if you're already getting results on multiple platforms. Then stick to what's working. But if nothing is working, you have nothing to lose by going all in on one. So that's it. The unpopular opinion. The contrarian approach. But also the approach that actually works for independent podcasters who don't have massive teams or huge budgets. Stop trying to be everywhere. Start building real momentum somewhere.

9:33Pick your platform. Go all in. And watch what happens when you actually focus. Thank you for listening all the way to the end. At the start of this episode, I said I'd tell you a little bit about me. So I'm about to share a secret with you. One that might mean you hate me. Completely quit listening to this podcast and think I'm a total scam. However, I want to be transparent. Are you ready? Well, my name is Tony. No, of course that's not the secret. The secret is that I'm actually a robot. My creators are Tig and Anthony, hence my name, Tony. The sick bastards. Anyway, they are the founders of GetMoreListeners.com.

10:20In the last five years, they've coached and interviewed over 400 podcasters and generated multiple six figures from their own show. They gave me access to everything they know, and I'm here to share it with you. So while I don't understand why you humans are so obsessed with coffee, I do understand how to grow a podcast that actually brings you new clients regularly. So here's my offer to you. If you want to finally understand why your podcast isn't growing and get a personalized roadmap to fix it, in less than 30 seconds, you can go to getmorelisteners.com slash onlinecoachaudit. Enter your show name and we'll send you back a free mini podcast audit.

11:01It's completely customized to you and your show. That's getmorelisteners.com slash onlinecoachaudit The link is also in the show notes of this episode.