To ensure we get the most out of our time together here is your homework, which I would like you to get set up prior to the intensive. We’ll cover social account setup, tool recommendations, and some prep-work on branding.

Social

These are all the major social media platforms. Each one has it’s own merits but I’m a firm believer that you need to have a visible presence on each as you can never predict where you’ll find new listeners. If you currently have these only for your personal accounts, you may want to seriously consider setting up an account specifically for the podcast.

Twitter | We recommend posting your episode here once per day for the first full week of the episode launch. If you don’t have an account specifically created You may want to consider creating an account specifically to tweet about the podcast and topics related to your niche.

Facebook Page | This will be specifically for the episode promotion. Instructions here.

LinkedIn | This is pretty standard nowadays, but if you don’t have one set up or haven’t reviewed your profile, the launch provides a good excuse to review your profile. As you build up an audience, feel free to add “Podcast Host” as a current position to your profile.

Instagram | Given the power of images, we recommend using the episodic artwork to post a new image whenever there is a new episode. Additionally, there is a 2,200 character limit on Instagram, which allows you to post the content of your show notes in the description.

YouTube Channel | One of the recommendations will be to re-purpose your content here. We’ll cover the specifics in class. Instructions here.

Medium | Created by the founder of Twitter, this is a heavily trafficked site for long form content. Perfect for posting transcriptions or show notes. You can authenticate your new account via your Twitter account.

Apple ID | This is a must-have if you don’t have one already, so that you can post your feed to the Apple Podcasts site. Instructions here.

archive.org | A free service that archives audio, and an additional back up for your episodes.

Tools

These are the tools I recommend you set up prior to the intensive to ensure we’re making the most of our time together.

LastPass | This is our preferred password protection and sharing tool. With all the accounts you’ll be setting up, the tempation might be to set them all up with an easy to remember password. Please don’t do that! Set up an account with LastPass, then install the Chrome browser plugin to make it easy to login to your sites. (If you’re not on Chrome you can search for your specific browser, they’ve got them all covered.) Since LastPass is remembering the passwords for you, you can make them as long and complicated as you like, which I highly recommend. Mine start at 25 characters!

Dropbox | Free | This one is pretty standard. It’s a great way to share files with your team and it’s one of the best ways we have found to share media with clients.

Libsyn | $20/mo | This one’s important! You never want to be hosting media files on your website. Your hosting provider does not look too kindly on streaming media if the site wasn’t designed for that. Libsyn is one of the top hosting companies specifically for podcasting. Use promo code “PJHOST” to get your first month free. THe $20 is a good place to start as it provides advanced stats.

Auphonic | Free/Paid | This is the browser-based tool that you will be using to both master and ID3-tag your MP3 files. The first 2 hours of audio are free every month. You can then purchase the credits you need for any time beyond that.

Canva  | Free/Paid | This is the tool we use in all of our productions. It has templates for all the social media properties as well.

Process Street | Free/Paid | This is a great tool for building checklist templates which can then be shared with your team. I’ll be sharing a few of the ones we use to make your production flow a bit smoother!

Edgar | $49/mo | This is our preferred scheduling tool. If you have Hootsuite, Buffer or a similar tool that should work just as well. Having the ability to schedule your social medias posts will greatly help your episode promotion efforts. Free trial available.

WiseStamp | Free/Paid | Allows you to create a custom e-mail signature which we’ll configure to display your latest episode via your RSS feed.

WordPress

These plugins help with the episode production process. Please install these to your WordPress site prior to the intensive if possible. Don’t worry about configuring them just yet. You can leave them as ‘Deactivated’ in your plugin list.

Pretty Link Lite | Used to create short URLs which will make it easy for your listeners to remember where to find your show notes.

Yoast | Helps to make the posts more search-engine friendly

Simple Podcast Press | $67 (one-time) | This is the tool that will allow you to embed a media player at the top of your WordPress posts (AKA “Show Notes”). If you would like a free option, you can opt for the Libsyn player. It is not as configurable, and doesn’t have the same look and feel of SPP but it does the job. We’ll review both options during the intensive.

 

Don’t forget, if you have ANY questions, please email me directly: harry@fullcast.co