Enough About Me … I Need to Know About You

I want to know more about you. Actually, I need to know more about you. The more I know about you, the better I can make this show. The better the show, the happier you are being a listener.

Of course, in full transparency, the more I know about you, the audience, collectively, the better I can select sponsors or advertisers to bring to you. I don’t want a podcast ad to turn you off, so knowing you better allows me to say within some degree of reason that an advertiser either is or isn’t relevant for you to know.

Either way, my focus on wanting to know more about you is to continually improve your experience. If I don’t do that, I won’t have listeners or advertisers. 

Fortunately for me, my friend Tom Webster shared some great insights about discovering more about your podcast audience this week on Sounds Profitable. That’s the podcast from the company of the same name. Sounds Profitable is an industry think tank if you will for podcasting and podcasters. The Marketing Podcast Network which I run and on which Winfluence airs is a Sounds Profitable partner. 

Tom has deep experience as a consumer researcher. He spent nearly two decades at Edison Research and was the main engine behind its Infinite Dial research which is still the social and online media research report of record. I attend its unveiling each year and devour the stats as it informs all the strategies I develop for clients. 

Tom shared questions he would ask listeners of a podcast to get to know them better. I have borrowed those recommendations with some minor tweaks into a listener survey I’d like to direct you to. But I thought I’d choose this episode of the podcast to share those questions with you and give you time to think before you jump in and answer.

If I can persuade you to jump over to the Winfluence survey after sharing the questions and why I am asking them with you on the show today, I will be very grateful for your participation in helping me make a better show for you. 

And even if you’re not necessarily inclined to have a small take-home assignment and fill out a survey after listening to a podcast, please do listen to the full episode. It may give you a better understanding of what you like and dislike about podcasts and help you choose more satisfying ones in the future.

I’m going to break down Winfluence, all of its elements, explain my intention and expectations for them, then ask you for feedback to make it all better.

Fill out the listener survey at jasonfalls.com/survey.

Scroll Down for a Show Transcript!

The Winfluence theme music is “One More Look” featuring Jacquire King and Stephan Sharp by The K Club found on Facebook Sound Collection.

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Jason Falls Commentary Transcript

If you are a regular listener to the show, you know we just came out of our standard commercial break that airs after I welcome everyone in and set up our topic of the day. On interview episodes, there is usually another commercial break about half way through. That commercial break goes away on the commentary episodes because they’re generally shorter and I don’t want interrupt the content with ads to the point of being annoying. 

The advertisements on Winfluence are important because they support The Marketing Podcast Network. Winfluence is one of over 40 shows on that network. We aggregate our show downloads each month and offer advertising insertions to sponsors. All the ad money goes into a pool and all the MPN members split that ad revenue evenly at the end of each quarter. 

So the ads on Winfluence support a community of marketing podcasters, not just me. You may hear promotions for those shows in our commercial breaks. One also plays at the end of each episode of Winfluence if you listen all the way through. 

The only other advertisement is typically from CIPIO.ai, the Community Commerce Marketing Company. My day job is as its EVP for Marketing. The company is the presenting sponsor of Winfluence to support my work bringing the show to you, but also to inform you of the Community Influence Marketing software and other applications it offers to help your brand grow.

That advertisement is what we call an “in-show read” and is typically offered up “live” as I record the show, meaning its not a pre-recorded commercial. That comes just before the commercial break between the setup and the main part of the program, which we’re in now on this episode.

I add some reminders to rate, review, subscribe and such at the end, but that’s essentially the run-of show. 

The two types of episodes you have from Winfluence are our regular, Monday interview shows. And the occasional commentary like this one where it’s just me offering up my thoughts on a given topic relevant to the influence marketing world. My intention with these is to spur your own thinking about those topics to help you arrive at a more informed place from which to make decisions for your own use of influence marketing. 

My intention with the guest interviews is largely the same, but mixing in the expertise of others. I know I am not, nor do I possess, the answer to everything. My hope with the interviews is to bring a variety of guests so you hear from brands, agencies, talent managers and influencers themselves. You are informed of new softwares available to help you, see thinking from companies of all sizes, and hear different perspectives on how the industry is run, what are best practices and beyond. 

The bottom line is I’ve built Winfluence to make you smarter about influence and influence marketing, and help you see the difference between using influencers and actually influencing. If I’m not doing that well, I need to know. If I can do it better, I need to know that, too.

So here are the questions inspired by Tom Webster, that I am asking you to answer on my first Winfluence listener survey. Don’t worry, I’ll share the link in a moment and you can find it in the show notes as well. 

What I’d like to know are answers to these questions. I’ll tell you why after each one:

Question 1 – Where, how and why did you subscribe to the show? Did someone recommend it? If so, who was it and what did they say that made you think, “Yeah! I’ll give it a listen?” Were you searching for a topic and found it that way? If so, what were you searching for?

This helps me understand the where, how and why people discover the show and why they subscribe. If I know that, I can better serve other people doing the same thing and make sure I’m there when they’re looking, or am top-of-mind to the people recommending podcasts. 

Question 2 – What parts of the show do you like? What parts of the show do you not like? What parts would you make longer? What parts would you make shorter? 

The answer here helps me know where to tinker to create a better experience. I sometimes think my setup and preamble to the show can be a little long. I like hearing myself talk, I guess. But you may think it’s just fine and enjoy the narrative that sets up the rest of the episode. Either way, I need to know. And “shut your pie-hole, blabber mouth” is certainly an acceptable response here.

Question 3 – Do you prefer interview episodes or commentary episodes. What do you like about either? What do you dislike about either?

While somewhat related to me liking to hear myself talk, it’s important for me to know if one is less useful to you than the other. Your answer here may not eliminate one or the other, but it might change the focus and frequency of them. 

Question 4 – Think of a friend or colleague who you think would like listening to Winfluence. Tell me everything you can about them. Describe their job, their personality, their interests … paint a picture of this person for me.

This answer helps me know who you think might like the show. (HINT: You’re probably right.)

Question 5 – How would you describe Winfluence to that person if you were to recommend it to them?

This informs what my audience says about the show, not what I think they might say. And gives me a list of strengths (and perhaps weaknesses) on which to build. 

Question 6 – If Winfluence died tomorrow, what one thing about the show would you miss?

This is pulled almost verbatim from Tom Webster’s recommendations. He closes out most focus groups with a question like this. It just zeroes in on a product’s “thing.” What one thing makes people like it? This answer can help get closer to me understanding Winfluence’s “thing” so I can make more “things” for you.

That’s it. Just six questions. Sure, they’re open-ended and I need you to write a sentence or two for most of them. But this type of information from you can greatly improve the show I bring to you each week, and your happiness listening to it.

I’ll also include some optional demographic questions in the survey. You’re all marketers. You know why. But I will leave them optional.

To participate, just go to jasonfalls.com/survey. Easy to remember, right? JasonFalls.com/survey. 

And thank you. For listening. And for helping me make the show better. 

I would be super excited if, in addition to the survey, you wanted to share some thoughts with me via voicemail that I could use on the show. Good or bad! Pull out your phone and record them on your voice memo app then email me the audio file. The address is [email protected]. 

Remember these commentary episodes are audio feed exclusives. Our interview episodes stream on YouTube, LinkedIn and Twitter each Monday at 11 a.m. Eastern, 8 a.m. Pacific. But the audio podcast has these bonus thought starters for you. 

Why not make sure your friends and colleagues know about the audio version of the show so they don’t miss out? Tell someone who might want to know more about influence marketing about this podcast. Send them to WinfluencePod.com or share a link to this episode on your social network of choice. If you have a moment, drop Winfluence a rating or review on your favorite podcast app. We are on them all.

Winfluence is a production of Falls + Partners. The technical production is by MPN Studios. It is presented by CIPIO.ai – The Community Commerce Marketing Platform. Winfluence airs along MPN … the Marketing Podcast Network.

Thanks for listening, folks. Let’s talk again soon, on Winfluence.