Using Twitter to Grow Your Podcast with Yong-Soo Chung
Sep 25, 2023
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Yong-Soo Chung, a high 7-figure business owner with over 300,000 social media followers, shares his journey of using Twitter to grow his podcast. He discusses finding a niche, sharing personal stories, and continuously growing the target audience. The importance of building relationships on Twitter and using a newsletter to bridge the gap between followers and podcast listeners is highlighted. The chapter also explores sponsorship opportunities, podcast growth, and engaging with the audience.
Building relationships and bridging the gap between Twitter and podcasts is crucial for growth.
Sharing personal stories and having a clearly defined niche attract a more engaged audience and create a stronger connection.
Deep dives
Build Relationships and Bridge the Gap between Twitter and Podcasts
Building relationships and bridging the gap between Twitter and podcasts is crucial for growth. The host shares their experience of starting with a small following on Twitter and the challenge of getting people to listen to their podcast. To solve this, they emphasize the importance of building relationships with individuals on Twitter, introducing themselves, and slowly growing their network. They use the newsletter as a bridge between Twitter and the podcast, making it an easier ask for followers to sign up and receive updates. This approach helps foster engagement, enables conversations about the podcast on Twitter, and ensures a consistent growth trajectory for both the podcast and the newsletter.
The Power of Sharing Personal Stories and Defining a Niche
The host highlights the importance of sharing personal stories and having a clearly defined niche. By shifting their content strategy to include personal stories and insights into their holding company and businesses, they were able to attract a more engaged audience and receive follow-up conversations on Twitter. They explain that having a clearly defined niche helps align the content with the target audience's interests and creates a stronger connection. Additionally, they emphasize the significance of continuously honing the target audience and aligning the show to serve their needs while adapting based on feedback and download numbers.
Leveraging Sponsorship Opportunities and Other Growth Avenues
The host discusses their experience with sponsorship opportunities and exploring other growth avenues for the podcast. They mention the use of Player FM's sponsorship package which initially resulted in a significant spike in downloads and helped establish a baseline audience. They also experimented with Overcast's banner ads to increase subscribers. While these avenues provided short-term boosts, the host emphasizes the importance of organic growth through building relationships and utilizing the newsletter as a bridging tool between social media and the podcast. They reveal that the podcast and newsletter continue to see steady growth, with the newsletter helping to facilitate conversations about the podcast on Twitter and foster engagement.
The Current State of the Podcast, Newsletter, and Audience Engagement
The host reflects on the current state of the podcast, newsletter, and audience engagement. They note that the podcast continues to grow steadily with an increasing number of downloads each month. The newsletter's subscriber count is also rapidly growing, approaching 10,000 subscribers. The host highlights the value of engaging with the audience and receiving feedback on Twitter, mentioning that conversations with listeners allow for continuous improvement of the show and a better understanding of the target audience. They conclude by emphasizing the importance of serving the audience while evolving with them to prevent stagnation and maintain listener interest.
Imagine running a high 7-figure business with over 300,000 followers on social media, then launching a podcast. How many downloads would you expect? 100,000? 150,000? What about…10?
We’ve all been there: we spend a TON of time pouring blood, sweat, and tears into a project just to have it launch to crickets. That’s exactly what happened to Yong-Soo Chung with his podcast. Despite the social following, no one cared about his show.
But instead of wallowing in self-pity or shutting the show down, Yong-Soo took action. He reactivated his 12-year dormant Twitter account, and started basically from scratch, growing to 20,000 followers in less than a year.
Now he has a great process for getting people from Twitter to his newsletter, to his podcast.
We’ll cover his entire journey and more. Plus, in the PRO show, we exchange notes on our production processes!
Life Lessons
Have a clearly defined niche, and know how to reach people in that niche. Yong-Soo’s initial problem was a mismatch between his businesses and his show. Once he started to find people in the right niche, he started to find listeners.
Share personal stories – these are the things that resonate with people, no matter what platform or niche. By being a little vulnerable, people will want to learn more about you and your story.
Continuously hone your target avatar and make sure to grow your show to serve your audience and yourself. You need to be interested in the show – after all, that’s how you tell a good story.