Will Facebook become the home of social audio for podcasters? We’re told Facebook will soon end its prohibition of audio stance, finally allowing podcasters—and anybody else, really—to share full episodes of podcasts as audio files in social posts.

As a working podcaster, you should be thinking about what happens to our world when your podcast episodes can finally “go viral”. 

And if social media can actually start driving meaningful, socially boosted attention to a show in a way that the show actually sees real growth and not just vanity metrics… it’ll change how podcasters think about success. And when podcasters start thinking about success differently, that will, in turn, change how podcasters optimize our podcast episodes to get more of that success.

If you notice your retention/completion rate is slipping, you may blame it on the length of your content or the frequency of your episodes. Reducing one or both may boost your completion rates, but it may also cause your paying members to see less value in your content, so they stop paying. But maybe those who appreciate the shorter/less frequent episodes decide to become a paying member, making up for the shortfall.

If you’ve optimized your episodes to get the most shares by saying dumb things just to get attention, you may alienate your most loyal listeners, causing your retention rate to plummet and your paying members to flee. But what if getting tons of shares makes your download counts skyrocket to the point where you can sell advertising against your inventory, exceeding your prior revenue milestones?

All of this is wild speculation on my part. We don’t know what's going to happen when podcast episodes are granted the power to be shared on social. We don’t know if any of them will “go viral”. But it's going to be a fun time as we once again see a redefinition of what it means to publish a podcast.

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A written-to-be-read article and a full transcript of the audio of this episode can be found at https://podcastpontifications.com/episode/getting-your-podcast-to-go-viral-a-healthy-move

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Evo Terra produces Podcast Pontifications four times a week to provide ideas and ask questions every working podcaster should be thinking about.

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Support For Abortion Rights

While Americans overwhelmingly support the right of an individual to make their own decisions about abortion, unfortunately, that right is no longer protected everywhere in the U.S. The Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade on June 24th.