How to create a community around your podcast — here are the top shows

“Community” is back to being a buzzword but with a twist. Community 2.0 is thirsty for deeper relationships and hungry for more than posts on a newsfeed.

Unlike all other forms of media, podcasting has the greatest potential for real and meaningful communities. There are several reasons for this:

• The intimacy of the human voice
• The time people spend listening to podcasts
• The correlation with listener values to podcast topics

The more niche the podcast, the higher chance of a vibrant community. But building a podcast community is equally met with inherent challenges:

• The passive nature of podcast consumption: people are multi-tasking while listening to podcasts.
• The distributed nature of the ecosystem: people consume podcasts on many different apps.
• The lack of voice-activated interfaces: when people are listening to podcasts, they can’t use voice commands to engage with audio content.
• The lack of a good platform: Facebook groups, Slack, and Discord have been among the top platforms for podcasters to build community, but none of them are designed for podcasts and have major limitations.

Building a community moat around your audience is a strategic investment into the future. Here are a few resources that will help you think critically about how you can start this journey:

1. Masters of Community with David Spinks — This show brings you conversations with the top community builders, leaders, and experts in the world. Hear their stories, insights, and advice, and take your community strategy to the next level.
2. Create Community — Exploring the human side of community. On this podcast, host Marsha Druker (Founder of Fuckup Nights Toronto) chats with fellow community builders to define what “community” truly means and how it evolves with changing times.
3. Community Experience by Jillian Benbow and Tony Bacigalupo — Whether you’re facilitating an online community based on a brand, fandom, niche hobby, or something else, you’re in the right place. Join hosts Jillian Benbow and Tony Bacigalupo for weekly insights from folks on the cutting edge of community building.
4. Audience by the Castos team — Grow your podcast through creating incredible content your listeners are looking for, and promoting your content like never before.
5. In Before the Lock — a podcast from Erica Kuhl and Brian Oblinger about community, customer experience, and leadership at scale.
6. The Community Corner with Beth Mclntyre — Tune in every week to hear our host Beth McIntyre interview the world’s best community builders. Hear strategies and stories you’ll love, all in 15 minutes.

If you’re a podcaster looking to build a community, consider joining the Building Podcast Communities by Listen App — A new podcast and community focused on helping podcasters think through the challenges and benefits of starting an online community. The community will be launching in October of 2021, join now to get free access.

If you haven’t already, consider following David Spinks on Twitter to add gems like this into your Twitter feed:

Post in the comments if I’m missing something and I’ll add it to the list.