Podcasts are a popular and versatile medium for delivering educational content to learners around the world. However, if you want to reach and engage a diverse and global audience, you need to optimize your podcast for international listeners. Here are some tips on how to do that.
The first decision you need to make is what language and accent you will use for your podcast. Ideally, you should use the language that most of your target audience speaks or understands. However, if you want to appeal to a wider range of listeners, you may consider using a common language such as English, Spanish, or Mandarin. In that case, you should also pay attention to your accent and pronunciation, and try to use a clear and neutral voice that is easy to follow and comprehend.
Finding your audience where they are is a critical part of connecting with your international audience. As a podcast producer, I adopted a practice of listening to podcasts from the countries where our audience is coming to us from. If you want to land with your audience, it takes a little more time to create meaning from audience data, including context, trends and interests and broad regional perspectives. It is great to find that using data to listen to your prospective audience deepens your connection to them. You must also ask questions, and find creative ways to share responses with your listeners. Creating a listening exchange deepens your understanding of the international audience and allows you to refine your podcast for them.
Communication is key, as in most of life's interactions. I would use English as a native English speaker. There would also be a written transcript & subtitles available for the audience to access later. As a former BBC radio presenter/reporter (ten years experience) I believe my accent & voice could be easily understood. I'm also a teacher, so again, I cite that as an advantage in my ability to convey information effectively. Keep the language simple & avoid acronyms, if you do decide to use abbreviations, then ensure the full form is given first, then apply the shortened versions. Be aware of cultural sensitivities & differences. What may be amusing in one country, may shock or insult in another. Clear, concise & friendly are the keys!
One way to make your podcast more accessible and inclusive for international audiences is to provide transcripts and subtitles for each episode. Transcripts are written versions of your audio content that can help listeners who have hearing impairments, language barriers, or learning preferences. Subtitles are text overlays that appear on the screen when you publish your podcast as a video or on a platform that supports them. They can also help listeners who want to read along or learn new vocabulary. You can create transcripts and subtitles manually or use online tools and services that can generate them automatically.
Another aspect of optimizing your podcast for international audiences is to adapt your content and style to suit different cultural and educational contexts. For example, you should avoid using slang, idioms, jokes, or references that may not make sense or may offend some listeners. You should also use simple and direct language, avoid jargon and acronyms, and explain any technical terms or concepts that may not be familiar to your audience. Moreover, you should consider the tone, pace, and length of your podcast, and try to balance between being informative and entertaining, without being too formal or too casual.
If you are choosing a language like English, you know for sure you have an audience covered globally as it is a popular language. However, working on your pace is extremely important too. Do not be too fast or too slow. Pausing appropriately helps in allowing the audience to absorb. Vocabulary too is another aspect. Make sure you use simple words. the more simple you are the more effectively you are understood.
The format and frequency of your podcast can also affect how well it appeals to international audiences. The format refers to the structure, segments, and features of your podcast, such as interviews, stories, discussions, or reviews. The frequency refers to how often you release new episodes, such as daily, weekly, or monthly. You should choose a format and frequency that matches your content, goals, and resources, as well as your audience's expectations, preferences, and habits. For example, you may opt for a shorter and more frequent format if your podcast covers current events or trends, or a longer and less frequent format if your podcast dives into complex or niche topics.
Based on my experience as a language tutor for American English and South American Spanish, I recommend starting by speaking at a slower pace than usual. As the learning process progresses, gradually increase your speaking speed. It's important to ensure that transcripts align consistently with the spoken words, similar to how lyrics progress on Spotify. I've found this method to be incredibly beneficial. When you incorporate contractions such as "can't," "don't," "shouldn't," "wouldn't," and so on into your speech, it's crucial to enunciate them clearly. These contractions are often prone to misunderstanding, which could potentially lead to incorrect comprehension.
The final tip for optimizing your podcast for international audiences is to promote it globally. This means that you should use various channels and strategies to reach and attract listeners from different countries and regions. For example, you should use social media, blogs, newsletters, or websites to share your podcast and interact with your audience. You should also use keywords, tags, categories, and descriptions that are relevant and searchable for your target audience. Additionally, you should encourage feedback, reviews, ratings, and recommendations from your listeners, and use them to improve your podcast and grow your audience.
Podcast is your thoroughbred, into the known and unknown. Indeeed it is an effective way, of narrowing the margin and gaps, that co-exists, between the public and private domains. Most importantly, podcast breaks directly into the barriers, that partitions oneself from another. It is an effective and often quicker way, to engaging with various conversations, on suitably targetted topics. Basic understanding of various lingo, is an important way, of unlocking the hidden narratives, of diverse worldviews and aspiration. In an attempt to obtain feedbacks, from your selected choice, of the targetted audience, it is imperative to explore and observe firsthand, the contestation binaries, emanating and evolving from within.
As a podcast fan, sound quality is crucial for me. No matter how interesting the content, I can't listen to any episode with poor sound quality. Factors like the volume level, background noises, and the depth of the sound all significantly impact the listening experience.
When your podcast is not interactive, you need to have amethod of interactivity, meaning you can't share a voting, or question and ask audiences for answers to make an interactive presentation, but in podcast you need audiences to focus and not leave you for mind woundering. How? To have your audiences focus in podcast make your presentation in short clear sentences, and maximum time for podcast is 15 minutes. Study subject well to know what is trending? and what is the main questions needing answers in your subject? You can make the whole podcast in the form of questions and answers.
I suggest to see the podcast as a community service and avoid trying to sell directly from it. A podcast is about sharing content. Make it good and relevant to the audience and they will buy whatever you sell on the side.