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Your ego is the problem. You need to start listening to your audience.
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Okay. This is going to be a tough one, guys. I think you guys are wrong.
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Yeah, it absolutely is.
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We don’t like to take feedback.
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Well, again, speak for yourself. Yeah.
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You mean most people. Let me reframe. I don’t like to take feedback. I don’t like to be told this content’s about shit. Or your audio quality needs work. Or why do you exist as a human being? Yeah. I mean, it could even get a whole lot worse. It does. We did get told that. Nothing. Yeah. We did. Funny. Yeah. But, you know, we have our own reasons for that as well.
Okay. We’re going to talk today about how listening to your audience Can really make a huge impact on improving your show. Yeah. I mean, I think we all know we need to listen to our audience, but it’s really easy to say that and quite difficult to do. Yeah. I mean, also when you get ridiculous feedback, you’re not going to take that to heart.
So let’s qualify this. This is not about listening to the trolls out there. This is about listening to feedback that’s constructive. Well trolls that’s unsolicited feedback. Most of this feedback is unsolicited. Well, a lot of I think that we should solicit the feedback. I agree. Yeah. So what I was going to say is that we should be listening to constructive feedback and asking for it and asking for it and asking for it.
Yeah. So give us feedback. Yes. Yeah. Well, I think so. Give us feedback. Um,
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I can’t remember that. Yeah. I was trying to think of the man that said that we weren’t really human beings. We want to solicit feedback. We want it to be constructive. How do people physically give us feedback on a podcast? How do they go about doing that? Well, again, yeah. So is there any piece of content?
Has the ability to comment on the since the invention of YouTube and social media. Um, and it’s also one of the biggest mistakes some people do is switch off the comment section. Yeah. Don’t do that. No, I know we all nervous about trolls, but everybody understands trolls these days. It’s not new anymore.
Yeah. So comment section is one of the better ways. But some people will email you. Yeah to your info at or whatever. Okay. So that’s the first. Are you going to open up like a feedback at your podcast? Okay. Yes. I think, you know, meet the people where they are. So make it friction free for them to give feedback.
So most most platforms would have a way to deliver feedback. But you can do emails. You can do polls on a lot of these platforms. So on the platform, like Spotify, we all podcasts exist exists. You can ask people there to leave a comment at the end of the episode. Tell us what you what you think. Yeah, answer a question.
I think our specific question, I think be intentional with your call to action. Don’t just say like leave a review. Say, you know what? From today’s episode, are you going to implement in the next ten days or something like that? Yeah. So so be specific. And that call to action is really, really important because people don’t generally just think of commenting if you ask them to comment or respond.
I also find that if it’s an opinion that I’m being asked for, I’m more likely to give it. Yeah. If it’s like a factual answer and I don’t know the answer a little bit more difficult. Yeah, but if you know what is your opinion on this or what on a specific thing. Yeah. You know, those are nice questions to answer.
We could ask the audience, what do you think about our wardrobe matching today? Please let us know in the comments if you think Richard and Karl should have matching outfits in every single episode. Yeah. What if Richard or Karl disagrees? Too bad. If you go back to your ego at the door. Yeah. Okay, so. So that’s how people give feedback.
All right. So so we want it to be friction free, which means ask for the comment to be left on the platform and ensure that comments are open on that platform for comments to be left. Meet the people where they are. Be intentional with the feedback. Um,
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another thing you can do, which is slightly different to what we’re talking about, is look at data. So we talked in a previous episode about the timestamps. And you can kind of then see what parts of the episode people are most interested in. And you could use that as like a signal. Yes. Okay. So listen to the audience in terms of keeping viewing habits, keeping an eye on the trends of how they’re viewing your content.
Yeah, data is incredibly important. Yes, because it’s more quantifiable. Right. Um, you can see drop offs, all of that. And you don’t need someone to give you a comment to tell you that, yes, comments are really helpful to, um, qualitatively assess what you’re doing. So in other words, how much quality will the nuances in it if you start seeing a pattern in the conversation?
Yes, that really helps, but sometimes the comments is a place for your audience to engage with the conversation. Mhm. And then it becomes again a data thing. How much engagement am I getting into the conversation. Yes. Not necessarily what they’re saying in the conversation. Well I think what we, what we’re trying to understand here is how do I get people to engage.
Yeah. right. So obviously they are naturally engaging with the content. And our data analytics will give us a view of where did people drop off, at what points did the content get very exciting and we had a spark or the opposite. It got drier. People dropped off.
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Second thing is, now how do I get people to actually engage with the the content by commenting? So that means there’s some intention for them to engage. How do we physically do that? Well, you’ve got to give them a reason to do it first and foremost. So the call to action, the
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they’re throwing it back at the audience. So in other words hey guys, I’m really struggling with X decision. I’ve got this choice in that choice. What do you guys think. And in the next episode I’ll reveal my decision okay. So that that causes a lot of engagement because people are invested into you as a, as a creator or a podcast or whatever, and then they want to be involved with the decision making.
So then they have a discussion on the comment section. And then you also give them what they want, which is the decision in the next episode, which also causes more engagement with your next episode and creates a reason for them to come back. So there’s lots I think there’s quite a few techniques you could use in engaging the audience, but during the content, during the content.
But that’s really about letting audiences steer the content right. Letting the audience steer the content creates massive amounts of, um, engagement. Right? Um, you see it a lot in these teen teen group YouTube YouTubers. They will let the audience decide what they want. Yeah. They’ll they’ll even let the audience decide who hooks up with who.
And yeah, I was going to say who does what? With whom? Yes. So, um, scary trend, but it really works. There was another comment you made just now rich about, um, polls. So, you know, I think maybe, you know, people from Poland you’re talking about. No, no. Well, that was it was your comment. You said we should, uh, I was talking about people from Poland who you were.
Yeah. No, um, social media poles. Yeah. I think they don’t have to happen all the time, but you can almost do, like, a survey every 3 to 6 months where you actually ask people’s specific questions. It’s easy for them to fill in. Yes, but it’s a good way to get feedback. Okay. I’ll watch a lot of videos where literally like as Karl saying, there’s a there’s a choice for someone to make and they’ll make a poll in the users will go and vote on the poll.
Um, yeah. A lot of people do that. They’re so easy. Well, I think that’s that’s it. It doesn’t require any thought. You’re going to have a feeling one way or the other. You. And it’s reducing friction. We’re not asking you to go and type a comment. And are you putting yourself out there now you’ve got to check your grammar and people are going to see your name and stuff.
You’re just voting on a poll. So it does work particularly well. Polls and surveys and things like that. And you collect that data and use it. Yes. Okay. Um, all right. Um, let’s talk about getting specific feedback. So we’ve we’ve asked for people to tell us, you know, what we should change or what they like or don’t like.
And we’ve started getting some of this feedback. Should we implement every change that’s recommended? I think you’ve got to look for patterns. Okay. One opinion doesn’t really mean anything but several opinions. Maybe it’s a trend, maybe it’s a trend and you should look into that. And then I think it’s important.
Just because someone thinks something doesn’t actually mean you should have to do it. If it doesn’t align with what you’re trying to do with your podcast, don’t do it. Okay? So take it all with a pinch of salt, right? Um, you know, also, don’t be afraid if someone does make a way out comment. But you sit down and think about it and you go, actually, yeah, if you feel it could fit.
Let me try to do. Well, I think what’s interesting is that if you do allow yourself to take some feedback and you listen to things that maybe you hadn’t ever considered, there could potentially be some some gems out there. And I think also, you know, we we are so focussed on producing good content and we’ve got these ideas in our head about how it needs to be.
But at the end of the day, we are serving a purpose for a listener. And so if a listener is coming back to us with feedback, and we don’t actually take into account that that might be better than what we’re doing, it’s a tremendously. What I’m saying is, if you are like a comedy podcast and someone gives you some feedback, you need to be more serious.
I think you can ignore that. If you are an educational podcast and the person and feedback says your explanations are too vague, yes, that’s actionable feedback. That means what you’re trying to put out there is not coming across. Sure. Yeah. Um, so that’s what I kind of mean by. Don’t. You don’t have to take it on board if it doesn’t align with what you’re trying to do.
No, I’m agreeing with you. All I’m saying is that the possibility exists. That one person has an idea that you haven’t thought of. Yeah, yeah. And, you know, you you. Yeah. Might do well to at least think it over in a really good way. Just to to approach comments and feedback is to create a formal process for yourself, where once a week you get all the comments, you categorise them as trolls.
Hmm. Maybe you’ve got something. Definitely sounds like a problem. And then you go through it in a in. Yeah, in a spreadsheet or whatever. And if you’re a team, discuss each one and decide we’re going to prioritise this. We’re going to see
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how it happens in this area for a little bit longer before doing anything and just prioritise them and go. We can make this change immediately. This is a horizon goal. Yes. This is something for next year. Um, see what you can practically do with it. But create a regular system with your team or your. If you’re a solo, make sure you do it every Monday or whatever and give it attention.
Gets systematic about it. I think that’s the biggest problem with feedback, is that we don’t create processes for ourselves to really listen. Yeah, well, it’s because of our egos. Yeah. It’s so much easier to just ignore the comments that deep down, you know. Well, actually, this person might have a point.
Yeah. I think another category I really like that idea of of having, you know, a spreadsheet or some sort of process that you can categorise your comments, your comments. And I think something that really needs to be, um, prioritised is technical, um, feedback. So feedback around like things like sound quality.
Yeah. And those are quick to. Yeah. Action Visual quality.
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Wardrobe decisions. Wardrobe decisions. Yeah. No, no. The more objective things. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Right. And again, if you’re going through that on a Monday morning and you’re seeing technical comments, categorise them as urgent and fix them fast and you fix them overnight or something. And the other one’s the more sort of subjective ones.
Take them on board, see if they are applicable, and then you don’t have to beat yourself up about it. You can just slowly start making those changes. Even if you make a change every three months, you kind of don’t want to receive a load of feedback in the next episode. It’s just completely different with all your feedback.
Yeah, taken into account and could be quite weird. Yeah. Nothing wrong with asking someone in the comment section if they mean X or Y. Oh yes. So you’re talking about responding to the comments that you get. Yes. And engaging with that person to find out more. Yes. Um, because we’ve been in situations where we’ve got clients with comments and they’re like, what do you think they mean?
Yes. Well, let’s go ask them. Yeah. You’re in a in a conversation with this person. That means two way. Yeah. Don’t ignore them. Yeah. Um, acknowledge comments that that are cool. Um, there’s a discussion around what to do with the trolls. Maybe just ignore them or say, thanks, buddy, but don’t be a troll.
Maybe this content isn’t for you. Yeah, exactly. So you can. Whatever your persona is, you respond in kind and and treat your audience like people around the table on the Monday morning session, you know? Um, like, as if they’re giving you feedback. Yeah. Well, they are so weighted. Yeah. You know, and engage with them about it.
And you’ll be surprised how many top fans you can create. Yeah. Ah. Of just giving them the light of day and acknowledging what they’ve said. Mhm. Let’s go back to the discussion about content. Yeah, I think that another space that’s an opportunity for content creators is the ability to listen for what people are looking for you to create for them.
So, um, requesting topic ideas or areas where you need us to cover. Yeah. You know, so, for example, we’re a podcast about podcasting. What are the hurdles that new podcasters are struggling with? What are the topics that we haven’t covered yet that we could potentially cover and help with? Yeah. So opening that discussion.
So it’s not so much about the technical or, you know, wardrobe, but rather about what is being covered and what they would like to hear from because it’s incredibly interesting. You think that you’ve created all this content and there’s a million people creating content, so there can’t be any unanswered questions.
But there is so many blind spots and content because as as creators, you know what you’re talking about. You don’t know what your audience doesn’t know. Yeah. So it’s a big opportunity to to engage them. I would say, though, you need to build an audience that you want to keep before you ask them for comments.
Okay. Why on topics. Because once you know, you’ve built the audience that you love. That’s when you want to grow and nurture that particular group of people. If you ask a group of people that you feel is disparate and have different opinions about different things or whatever, and you ask them about topics, and
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the one group is louder than the group you want, you’re going to start attracting more audience that you don’t want. Surely that just goes into the bucket of of things you would consider and discuss. Yeah, kind of like what I was saying with the you is the feedback you’re getting relevant and yeah, I know, but what I mean is that it could be very relevant content, but it might steer your, yes, your content into a direction you don’t particularly want it to go in, but you’re doing it because the audience is reacting.
Mhm. Um, so I would caution against doing it maybe too early. Okay. And when you know you love your audience. Yeah. They will love you back. So, so just, you know play it by ear. Yeah. So that’s also like like a six monthly survey or something to your. So I think polls are really good for a start up um thing where you give them three options.
I want to talk about these three things. Well that way you can steer it in a certain direction that at least if they choose one of those, you’re happy. Exactly. Yeah. And then when you know you’ve got a big enough audience, um, asking the blanket, Give me the topics. Yes. Could. Could be fun, but I would keep.
I would keep it to 3 or 4 options. Let them dictate the direction. But you still on control? Yeah. Um, yeah. I’ve also seen a lot of people say, like, do a certain type of episode and then say, like what? I’m thinking of doing a bit more in the style. What did you think of it and all of that. And so often when people ask it, but a lot of feedback like, yes.
Now stick to the old stuff. I don’t care for this. This is why I subscribed or whatever. Yeah. And again, that’s a great way to to respond to comments. So you’ve gotten 5 or 6 comments of going, hey guys, I think you should really relook your set. It’s distracting. So then you change it up one episode and you go, hey guys, if you notice I changed my background.
What do you what do you guys think? Yeah, that’s a really good way of testing feedback as well. Um, I love that kind of thing. I think that’s it’s really good. Yeah. Um, and also evolving your content. You know, at a certain stage, You’ve gotten popular for a certain type of content, but it gets to a point where you have to diversify that content.
You have to be Madonna. Yeah. And maybe this is another topic, but some people actually start a separate channel for that new content. Yeah. Um, to keep the original audience happy. But just be aware that now there’s a new audience growing that’s demanding something else from you. And again, that’s all fantastic feedback, but don’t destroy what you.
Yeah. What what brought you there in the first place? Yeah, we see that a lot with creators. They they pivot really fast to something that their core base. Yeah. Don’t like. Yeah. Uh, and now you conquer back. It’s like it’s really complicated. Yeah. Great. Okay. Anything else you want to add for our listeners?
Yeah. I think once you’ve got the feedback, you actually have to close the loop. Okay. Can you utilise it? What does that mean? Well, actually use it and tell people that you’ve done so. That you’ve done so. So. So thank you for your feedback. We’ve decided to do this. And the next thing you can do that to luck on your shout outs.
Thank you to I don’t know, Bob, Susie and Joe and Joe. Yeah I was trying to think of funnier names, but Bob, Susie and Joe will be fun and say, you know, thank you for your, your, um, feedback. We’ve implemented that. Um, you can also do like listener Q&A episodes where you can answer people’s questions. I think that works pretty well.
Okay. So you’re utilising the feedback and showing people that you use the feedback. Um, yeah. Just just using don’t be afraid to tell people that you have used their feedback and you might notice a change because of this. That’s the next thing. Awesome. Good advice and love your audience. If you’re not in content creation to build an audience, then you probably shouldn’t be doing it.
So. So embrace the audience. Yeah. Love the audience. Well, I think it’s this. This weird thing that happens. You initiate a channel or a podcast in order to cover a certain topic that you’re excited about sharing. And then as soon as the comments start flowing in, you start feeling a little bit defensive of that.
Mm. Um, and I firmly believe that if you can lose that and you can embrace that engagement, which is really what we’re seeking at, you know, at the outset, then you will actually probably end up producing better content. And we love them all by that audience. And, you know, so, so build it. Um, in in listening to them better.
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Okay. In closing today, we need you to answer a question for us. Should we get more technical in our content? Let us know in the comments. Thank you and goodbye.
