A Podcast Success Story
The Rabid Fans Behind My Favorite Murder
Are you a Murderino? Do you SSDGM? Are you a Georgia…or more of a Karen? Do you have no clue what I’m talking about?
Well, whether you’re already a fan of My Favorite Murder (MFM) or not, this podcast can teach you a lot about building a unique and interactive audience - because holy hell have they done it. The show first landed in early 2016, and quickly bolted to the iTunes top 10 podcast charts where it’s stuck around ever since. And this podcast is one of many in the true crime genre. Honestly, it’s overwhelming. There’s Serial, The Sword and the Scale, The Last Podcast on the Left, Casefile, In the Dark and so, so, SO many more. And sure, the true crime audience is a voracious crowd that can handle more than one hit a week, but what has made MFM rise about the rest?
I say, embracing their niche.
Their audience is predominantly female, which might be surprising until you look at some of the stats. A 2010 study that is often quoted on the subject reported that women are more attracted to true crime novels than men, who opt for different violent stories. The study supposes that women are drawn to these books for self-defence tips. Whether the hosts of MFM read this study or not, they’re playing their cards right. The tagline of the show is “Stay Sexy, and Don’t Get Murdered,” and they feature survival stories and celebrate women who escape. Georgia and Karen, the show’s hosts are in their late 30s and 40s respectively, and they function as pseudo-big sisters to their audience of young women. They remind them to “Fuck Politeness” and empower them to protect themselves. So many of the other true crime podcasts are produced through a male lens, but MFM puts the focus on the victim, more often than not a woman, and lifts up stories of women surviving.
They’ve already built a strong base of rabid female fans that sell out their live shows, buy their merch and flood their Facebook group. But this niche gets even more specific. Georgia and Karen both openly discuss their struggles with mental health or addiction on the show, and it turns out their fans share this trait with them. Perhaps this is less than a coincidence. The women who sought self-defence tips from their paperbacks revealed in that 2010 study that they weren’t merely being practical, they were trying to quell a pre-existing anxiety. Indeed, the same women were more attracted to stories with female victims, almost like they were exorcising a fear about their own fate. As a fan of the genre myself, this rings true. The hunger for these stories of violence against women might be a way to look that fear in the face and learn something from it. When Lindy West described her own obsession with Law and Order: SVU, she called it “pressing on a bruise.” The shows are not initiating an anxiety, but rather leaning into the ones that already manifest themselves every night when you walk home alone or hear a noise from the basement. MFM presses hard. Many fans have shared that the podcast got them through a tough time, soothes their anxieties, or encouraged them to seek counselling. Having these open conversations about true crime and anxiety hits an intersection in this group that breeds exceptionally loyal fans.
And these fans are not a passive audience; not by a long shot. They have Etsy pages full of homemade merch with inside jokes from the show, more fan art than the MFM Instagram can hold and a truly wild Facebook presence. The MFM Facebook group currently holds over 160,000 fans, and boasts 179 spin-off groups, from My Favorite Furderinos (for MFM fans with pets), Parenterinos (true crime fans with children), or But What if Something Bad Happens (for murderinos with anxiety), plus a spin-off for just about every major American and Canadian city, including a 600+ showing for Toronto Murderinos. The Facebook group started as a way to gather fans of the show, but has branched into a support network for like-minded people to share stories and connect in ways that exceed the podcast.
I’m hesitant to credit the show with all these fan initiatives, but they’ve definitely been on board from the start. Most notably, they received so many fan stories of near-misses or uncle’s-friend’s-mother-in-law connections to famous serial killers that they started a segment called Hometown Murders. This segment blossomed into offshoot episodes they call ‘minisodes,’ so now Georgia and Karen will read out listener-sent hometown murders in a separate episode once a week. They didn’t start these initiatives, but their enthusiasm and accommodations for listener contributions have fuelled the fire.
So is this correlation between true crime, female listeners, mental health and maker culture an authentic evolution or some seriously brilliant marketing? I’d like to believe that Karen and Georgia really are making it up as they go, so outside of getting struck by lightning, how can we learn from MFM as media creators or producers ourselves?
Well, for one, authenticity. I don’t want to say the lesson is *bE yOuRsElF* but kind of, yeah, be yourself. Authenticity is key: the MFM hosts are funny, self-deprecating, and unpolished, which adds to their charm. I listen to other podcasts with really different hosts, but in every case, it’s the genuine ownership of their own style that works. Especially in audio, you can hear fakery a mile off, so you have to be honest.
The other takeaway from MFM is know your audience. I don’t think Karen and Georgia sat down and read those studies I mentioned above, but these resources are very googleable to the savvy producer. Do your homework — know what’s out there, who else loves your subject, and what they’re about. We don’t have to make media for some amorphous mass audience anymore, because well, there are a lot of people out there. And a lot of platforms. Niche is enough, and leaning into what makes you different only makes you stronger. Your product won’t be for everyone, which means it can be perfect for some. Oops, I’ve fallen into platitudes again. But really, know your strengths, and how you fit into the community around your subject. Be receptive to your audience — their contributions, their criticisms and connect to them on any platform you can. And if you figure out where you fit around the intersections of your audience, maybe you too can get struck by lightning.
