What are the most common mistakes when writing for a podcast?

As a former broadcast journalist who later entered the corporate communications world, it seems to me that writers sometimes forget to be conversational in tone. The writing can get a bit tedious, full of jargon or just plain boring! It's important to think of the audience when crafting a message because the metrics will tell you whether or not your content is landing. Who are you talking with? Why? What do THEY care about? What's going on in THEIR world as you create this pod? Keeping those things in mind help craft a story that they might actually engage with, building trust in your pod, enhancing the overall engagement with your content and even leading to valuable feedback that can inform your storytelling.

Here are some common mistakes to watch out for: 1.Over-Scripting 2.Ignoring the Audience 3.Lack of Structure 4.Ignoring Audio Quality 5.Too Much Jargon 6.Not Rehearsing 7.Ignoring SEO 8.Inconsistency

Even before knowing your audience is to know WHY you want to start a podcast in the first place. As a quote from many years ago still resonates - "The barrier to entry is so low that the barrier to success is even higher". Anyone can start a podcast in an instant. So the podcast is really a means to an end. What's the end? It could be .. educate, inspire, humor, drive prospects, build your own social brand ... Once that is clear - then dive into understanding the audience. And the best way is to start with a few short podcast episodes and then reach out to the listeners and get their honest feedback. Use that to adapt!

I wholeheartedly agree with understanding audience and would add that considering their full journey in your podcast is important. Imagine your listener (and this should be one person - a persona) experience your voice/story in their ears for 30 minutes or longer. Where are they? What are they doing? What do you want them to do or think or feel when they take their earbuds out of their ears and move on with their day?

It is good to have a rough outline. But until you experiment and see if it works, it is just a theory. It could work brilliantly and then it becomes the present master outline. Or it could fail and use those learnings to adapt the structure.

While planning the structure of your podcast is essential, it's worth considering that adhering too rigidly to a predefined format can stifle creativity and authenticity. Over-scripted podcasts may come across as robotic or lack the spontaneous charm that can make audio content engaging. It's crucial to strike a balance between structure and spontaneity, allowing room for organic conversations and unexpected insights. Sometimes, the most memorable podcast moments arise when hosts and guests deviate from the planned structure to explore unexpected topics or reactions. Flexibility within a loose structure can lead to more authentic, relatable, and engaging podcast content.

A falta de um planejamento objetivo e simples gera muitos outros erros. Um dos principais é o roteiro confuso, cheio de informa??es inúteis e falta de direcionamento. N?o ter um roteiro estruturado pode comprometer a fluidez e coes?o do podcast. Roteiro é um documento essencial na produ??o de conteúdo, principalmente para o formato de podcast, onde precisamos saber equilibrar o que é previamente combinado e o improviso. Até para improvisar, planejar é preciso. ??

When I started The Coacharium podcast with two other co-hosts, for the first 30 or so episodes we were worried about saying things that weren't exactly perfect. As a result, we wrote fully-scripted podcasts word-for-word - the content was good but you could tell that we weren't completely conversational and fluent. As we got more confident, we relaxed into it and trusted our ability to talk more freeform from our knowledge, experience and opinions. Surprise surprise, a much more fluid, fluent and engagement podcast conversation! Start with structure to build your confidence and credibility, but find the moment when you can start to let go a bit and get into a proper flow state! What's enough structure but not too much?

I just listened to Paul McCartney talk about how he wrote the song Eleanor Rigby; he speaks to the importance of structure and we're employing this concept for our clients. Focusing on structure is key so the conversation or story doesn't meander - I always say to my hosts "how are you going to land the plane?" - sometimes it's also fun to add - "let's land it in the Hudson River, and everyone lives".

YES! Write for the ear for sure - I always tell our writers to read what you write out loud before you send it over for approval or hit the recording studio. Additionally channel your host, write the way they speak and you'll be sure to capture their authenticity.

Writing for a podcast is like composing music for the ears. Imagine you're telling a story to a friend over coffee. You wouldn't use fancy words or make your sentences too long, right? Instead, you'd keep it simple, engaging, and real. Just like in a song, where repetition, rhythm, and emotion make it catchy, in a podcast, these elements keep your listeners hooked. So, write like you're having a friendly chat, and your audience will feel like they're right there with you.

Communication is verbal (what you say), paraverbal (how you say what you say) and nonverbal (body language). In audio podcasts the paraverbal is everything!! When I record The Unlock Moment I like to get close to the microphone so it sounds as if my voice is right in the middle of your head. I edit out the breath sounds for a super-clean audio. And I'm deeply comfortable with silence. Play around with different ways of speaking - one of my guests delivered a humdinger of a line recently when talking about an Unlock Moment of remarkable clarity. She went close in to the microphone and whispered, "and then I said ... oh my God ... I'm making me scared!" It was SUCH a memorable moment and went mildly viral when I put it in the social teaser!

People listen to podcasts for convenience, so they don't want to have to sit through long, drawn-out episodes. Keep your episodes short and to the point, ideally around 30 minutes or less.

Think of editing your podcast script like preparing a delicious meal. Just like a chef tastes their dish and adjusts the seasoning, you need to fine-tune your script. Imagine you're a musician rehearsing for a concert; you wouldn't want any wrong notes. By reading your script aloud or recording it, you become the editor, ensuring your podcast flows smoothly, just like a harmonious melody. So, treat your script like a recipe, and your audience will savor every word.

I write the introduction section for my long-form interview episodes in advance of the conversation. And when I think it's perfect, I rehearse it by reading aloud into the microphone exactly as I'm going to do it in the live recording. Invariably I pick up little issues where the words don't scan, it doesn't sound natural or I'm setting myself a trap with something that's easy to write but difficult to say. I go through it typically three times before I have something that sounds just perfect. Then when I deliver the lines in the live recording, it's in a flow and I can focus on how I'm saying what I'm saying - the pace, the rhythm, the intonation, the silence, the denouement! Revise, revise, revise ... and then relax!

The #1 mistake I see so many people make when writing for any platform these days is rely on AI tools (ChatGPT but also others) to do the writing for them. Result? Generic cookie cutter content and ideas. AI tools are transformative when used as aids to improve our productivity and efficiency. Using them as the final output, however, is a massive mistake that’s costing you trust and credibility.

Authenticity is everything. Whatever you're writing needs to come from you. It needs to be something you believe in. It needs to be something that your audience thinks is credible coming from you. Don't design your podcast based on what others have done, or based on what you think you should be doing. Design it based on who you are. And if that seems unclear then remember what Carl Jung said, "If the path before you is clear, you’re probably on someone else’s." Take your time and find your authentic voice.

as a Podcast host, I always send out questions beforehand and I do a 30-minute pre-pod interview to get to know the guest a bit so we connect. I ask questions about our topic. Grief and how they've navigated their journey. I need to know if I can ask hard questions and often I'll mention that I'd like to bring that point out on the main interview. I spend time thinking about how I want to introduce the topic to my listeners so they've got an idea of what the episode is about. I prepare additional questions but often will take my guest's lead on something they've said. They often feel very listened to and understood Often the comments I get, I didn't expect to cry and/or I feel I've been coached and had therapy.

Next week I am doing my TEDx talk on this subject. Generative AI has the ability to write, collate, and spin content. It can even create stories. However, it cannot experience events. AI cannot feel emotion. Therefore, even advanced AI content will lack the heart and soul of humanity-based storytelling.

Writing too much! If your podcast is too prescriptive, then it’s going to be restrictive. To get an engaging contribution from your guest, you must be able to react to things they say. Look out for opportunities for follow-up questions. As others have said, you can’t write for audio as you would for text.