How To Use YouTube To Grow Your Show

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(By Troy Price) What used to be two words are now combined, and here is to hoping that they stay together forever! YouTube is awesome and an overlooked resource for podcasters. I’m not talking about adding your podcast to YouTube as a means to increase your audience size. You should be using Youtube to watch tutorials about making your show better.

When my wife recently asked me what I wanted her to buy me I did not hesitate for an instant. I said I wanted a t-shirt made by the Youtuber Joe Scott that has the March of Progress image (the sequential pictures that represent human evolution) but on his shirt the last image is a silhouette of Iron Man. That is awesome. I saw Joe wearing one of his episodes and loved it. Watching “’Answers With Joe’ feeds the 12 year-old science nerd I used to be. I thought the best part of YouTube was in the Edutainment arena. That is until Friday night.

Before Joe Scott, I hated YouTube. I hated it for the same reason I hate cable news. It, for the most part, was talking heads talking in an raised voice about whatever was trending at the time… and a place to find pirated bad 80s movies. Then unboxing videos happened. I saw my online friends opening the coolest gadgets. Being a frugal person, I waited for these videos from the people I trusted before I dropped a bunch of my own money. I reached out to you every time you saved me, but again – thank you influencers!

But, this week YouTube helped me out in a different way. I have been having trouble with a new podcasting website. It was nothing big, but one of the settings was conflicting with a plug-in (as they do) and it simply was not acting the way I wanted it to. I searched YouTube for the plug-in and found an 18 minute video from the designer talking me through how to set it up. I watched a few seconds of the video, then paused it and clicked the boxes on my computer. In less than an hour I had my issue resolved, thanks to that video.

I had searched and searched for websites with a write-up of the fix. The answer to my technical question was a video. I wonder how often I have wasted time figuring out things on Audacity or Libsyn or Wordpress when a video was already created with an answer to my question. I will now turn to YouTube first for my answers.

You should too. I wrote a previous article about how Facebook groups are being clogged up by noobs asking ultra-basic questions. You can get a more timely answer to your new or advanced question by searching YouTube rather than posting a question to a group and then just wait until someone responds. Try that next time.

I had not thought of YouTube as a storehouse of super-technical answers. These answers are there! But the producers of these videos care very little about entertainment. They share the facts and end the video. Trust me, there are millions of them.

Let me know your favorite YouTube videos or heck, post an issue you are facing in the comments below and I will create a YouTube video for you.

_Troy Price is the co-founder of _Front Porch Studios_ in Berea, Kentucky. He’s been involved with podcasting for over a decade. Reach Troy by email at _Troy@frontporchstudios.com.

Comments:

Tom Hailey - Dec 1, 2019

Troy…would you be able to produce a video showing how to install,on my website, the Subscribe Here type of Icons with links to the most popular podcast apps. I use Wordpress.org with the Extra Theme by Elegant Themes.

You asked for it!!! Here is my recommendation for subscription icons… https://youtu.be/ICrQG_ZTy2s

You asked for it!!! Search YouTube for “Social and Subscribe Icon Troy” and my video for you should come up first!!!