PodMov Daily: Monday, April 27

Episode 192: Your Monday Mix

Monday Guest Feature: Navigating Critique of Your Podcast

This Monday’s guest feature is the first in a three-part series, “Podcasts in Public.” Elena Fernández Collins and Wil Williams will be covering critique, feedback, and call-outs in the world of podcasting. What qualifies as legitimate critique, and what makes it effective? How should a podcaster go about responding?

“By making a podcast (or any art) public at all, you do necessarily open it up to critique,” Williams explains. “It could be discussed by professionals whether or not you ask for it.” The two reviewers lay out what creators need to know, “especially given the particular natures of this digital medium and era.”

Fernández Collins makes a crucial point: “Critique is not inherently negative. There’s positive and negative critique, and a critic’s work is often a blend of both.” From an experienced and compassionate perspective, readers will learn what to expect from comments and how to responsibly engage.

Pacific Content: It's Time to Rethink Podcasting Best Practices

Now that we’re over a month into this altered state, Steve Pratt of Pacific Content suggests podcasters reconsider old patterns. “Best practices that were developed for a pre-pandemic world clearly need to be revisited and questioned,” he writes. “Everything that those best practices are based on has changed.”

Strategies from format choices to marketing plans may need tweaking. For example, “browser-based paid promotion strategies might become more effective than in the past” due to increased home listening. Above all, ask yourself: “Do audiences really want to hear from you right now and will your message really be heard?”

The lesson applies to creators of independent and branded podcasts alike, in all contexts. “You don’t need to wait for a pandemic to think this way,” Pratt points out. “The moral of the story: it’s almost always a good idea to revisit fundamentals, question assumptions, and constantly revise your playbook.”

Happy Monday, readers, and thanks to Bello Collective for this terrific list of upcoming podcast events. Among many: Every Friday night, join Dinner for One Sutanya Dacres on Instagram Live as you assemble a dinner for one together from her Paris apartment. C'est magnifique!

Here's what else is going on:

• Be everywhere: A Spotify for Podcasters post explains how to share content via the platform’s social media integrations. Users can instantly send series, episodes, and playlists to Instagram, Facebook, and Snapchat, or with sharing links and scannable codes.

• Gift registry: In response to recent need, Resonate Recordings has made its Resonate Recorder Version 2 freely available to the public. The tool allows easy monologue recording directly from a browser and double-ender capability for ‘same-room' sound quality.

• An invitation: A webinar with Dave Jackson, founder of The School of Podcasting, and Brenden Mulligan of Podpage will discuss effective web presence and “how to make a great looking, fast loading, Google finding website.” Wednesday, May 20 at 3:00 ET.

• Technical details: Producer Jeff Towne of Transom explains why Zencastr beats most remote-recording programs. Its “hybrid approach” with locally saved audio “eliminat[es] the sonic compromises inherent in real-time audio transmission over the internet.”