🥜 Community Building 101: Turn Listeners Into Super Fans

You must build a community to take your show to the next level, build predictable and scalable revenue, and easily achieve growth.

“Community” has become a buzzword in the creator economy over the past few years, but its impact, when done correctly, can’t be overstated.

A strong community of super fans gives you endless opportunities to grow your show and your income, but it doesn’t just happen. It happens when you are intentional and strategic with community development and today, we are teaching you how.

How To Build Loyalty With Your Podcast Audience

Podcasting is intimate by nature. Long-form content naturally builds strong relationships quickly, but there are things you can do as a podcaster to build a community that rides for you, buys everything you sell and tells all your friends about you.

Let's go through some of them, I’m confident some will surprise you.

Community Involvement

Allowing your core fans to participate in the show is the easiest way to turn casual listeners into super fans. Simply giving a shoutout in the show to a subscriber, community member, or someone who purchased one of your products can achieve lifelong fandom for seconds of work.

Here are some ways you can get your community involved in the show…

• Shoutouts at the end of episodes

• Answering polls on platforms like Instagram

• Taking fan questions for you or guests that get worked into the show

• Going live on TikTok or Instagram

Get creative here, there are infinite opportunities, but these should get the creative juices flowing. The last one is my personal favorite because you can give shoutouts instantly for those in the live which makes each fan feel special and shows you genuinely care about your audience.

Build Products For Your Audience

The biggest thing I see creators and podcasters get wrong when it comes to monetization is thinking that selling something will piss off their audience and ruin their show. This couldn’t be more wrong.

Selling something shitty, will have this effect. BUT selling something genuinely valuable that you know your audience wants and needs, can actually deepen the relationship with them & their fandom for the show.

I learned this lesson the hard way. I waited years to sell things through my content, and as soon as I did, I saw that all my fears were in my own head and completely wrong. Nothing feels better than people paying you and thanking you after. That’s what becomes possible when you build something awesome.

Play Connector

People love to engage with others who have similar interests. All of your core fans have at least the love for your show in common, and likely a lot more.

Building a place where fans can connect and interact with each other can help you build a cult-like audience. You can do this on free platforms like Discord or a Facebook group. Or even monetize this group using a platform like Skool.com.

Once you create a place for your fans to hang out, every benefit they get from this group gets attributed to you. This also doesn’t have to be a ton of work for you.

Give your biggest fans the opportunities to be moderators within the community and keep things active and engaging. You’ll be shocked by how much pride people will take in helping run a community of like-minded individuals.

This gives you another opportunity to provide a different style of content, and the opportunity to monetize the group is always there.

Why Focus on Community?

A community makes your life so much easier. You create a team of promoters, supporters, and advocates who spread your message, brand, and business for free.

The best podcasters focus on building community, and you should, too.

Also, if you would like us to monitor your content and potentially give you feedback in the HIT & MISS of the week, reply with the name of your show and the link to it on YouTube!

Happy Podcasting.

See you next week.

-Ben