Audio on social media is the sound of your success
By: Jim Katzaman - Get Out Of Debt
Tags: Entrepreneurship, Social Media, Twitter, Podcast, Marketing

Are you camera shy? Great at storytelling but not a writer? Then audio might be a great solution.

That’s what digital marketing experts Dakshin Adyanthaya and Madalyn Sklar recommend. Audio is an increasingly used feature on social media that can give enterprising entrepreneurs an edge on their competition.

Adyanthaya finds that audio is becoming popular because it is low on production value, adds voice to text and meets the increasing demand for podcasts, audiograms and audio tweets.

“Audio provides another way for you to communicate with your audience outside of text or video posts,” Sklar said. “This way, you have another outlet to be creative and express your thoughts or share tips with others.

“People love bite-sized, easy-to-consume content on social media,” she said. “Sharing short and sweet audio posts is just another way to do that.”

Audio supports marketers who share behind-the-scenes content on Twitter. For example, social media management company Hootsuite promotes such content via quick videos, although mostly for Instagram Stories.

Sklar has an article about the types of behind-the-scenes content that can be shared on Twitter featuring these upshots:

Showcase Your Personality

Updates on Projects You’re Working On

Share Your Personal Interests and Hobbies

Adyanthaya favors behind-the-scenes videos and pictures, boomerangs from Instagram or a GIF, along with Fleets — Twitter’s version of Stories.

Many ways to advertise

He said audio fits into social media content strategies in multiple ways:

Promote your blog by adding an audio tweet or snippet.

Tease a podcast episode.

Make an audio announcement of your campaign, Twitter chats or events.

Send an audio book snippet.

Create 15-second audio stories for Reels, Instagram Stories and LinkedIn Stories.

“I do a lot of 15-second audio stories for my podcast and a quick campaign or event announcement,” Adyanthaya said. “That works pretty good for me. It’s very engaging when I add a question, poll or any idea to it.

“Audio also gives a voice to fundraisers,” he said. “Credibility and the trust factor increase, which could help raise more funds.”

This is just one way audio can provide valuable content to your audience.

“Share quick tips they can easily implement or tell a brief story that will inspire or educate them,” Sklar said.

For best connections to audio or any other type of content, it helps to know opportune times to post, especially on Twitter.

“The best time to post is when the majority of your audience is online to see your tweet,” said Nick Martin, head of global engagement at Hootsuite. “That timing will be different for everyone, but testing and analytics can help.

“First, create an audience persona,” he said. “Then you’ll have an idea for when your audience might be online. Test publishing at that time. Then, test a little earlier and later. Does the content perform better or worse?”

Monitor trial and error

The end result is your particular prime posting time.

“You’d want to have a publishing schedule that shares to all of your audiences, but even within those 24 hours there will be hot spots for your content,” Martin said. “That’s where testing to find those times comes in.”

To increase tweeters’ odds of getting noticed, Sklar has rounded up the best posting times from her favorite resources across the web.

Although it can make great connections, using audio on social media can be an acquired taste.

“Most people shy from audio because they feel they need professional equipment,” Adyanthaya said. “Not true. Recording, editing and publishing is not a complicated process and will work.

“The value of audio content is still very underrated,” he said. “Unless given a chance, you would never see the power of it.”

The payback comes from incorporating audio content into an online strategy.

“People hold back because they don’t know what to talk about or if their audience would be interested in listening,” Sklar said.

“Many people are self-conscious about their voice,” she said. “They don’t feel good about creating content where they’re talking — such as audio and video.”

For businesses, audio tweets check several boxes.

“Audio can help in personal branding,” Adyanthaya said. “They help you repurpose content. I use my podcast as Youtube, Audiogram, Instagram TV Snippet and Stories, and insert it in blogs. Audio helps you focus on voice ads on Spotify and Audible, using brand jingles. This is worth a try.

“Repurposing content has worked wonders for me,” he said. “On YouTube, I gained 700-plus subscribers in two months by repurposing audio into a video format. It’s totally worth the effort.”

Luring consumers

That carries over to Spotify.

“I have been using it for my brands,” Adyanthaya said. “I’m also associating with podcasters for brand inserts and jingles. Convert audio into a sales opportunity by giving the listeners a bait.”

Using sound is still cutting edge.

“Audio tweets are great because not many people are creating this kind of content,” Sklar said. “It helps you stand out. It’s a great way for people to connect with you because they can hear your voice instead of reading a post. It’s like you’re talking directly to them.”

Adyanthaya noted points to consider when making an audio tweet or podcast:

Make a flow. Tell a story.

Avoid “Uhh” and “Aahh.”

Most podcasts die by their seventh episode. Plan at least 10 before going live.

Investing on a good mic is not necessary.

If you find it hard to edit audio, then learn and use mobile apps or hire freelancers.

“Get straight to the point,” Sklar said. “With an audio tweet, you only have 140 seconds to share your message. This means you don’t have time to ramble about a bunch of topics.

“For a podcast, it helps to have an outline of the things you want to discuss — whether it’s a solo episode or an interview,” she said. “This way, you can stay on track and cover all of the important topics without missing anything.”

Deceptively simple

Audiograms might sound intimidating, yet are easy to create.

“On social media, audiograms refer to content that uses audio content displayed via static images, animated videos or just text,” Adyanthaya said. “You can create them in no time using tools such as Canva or even your PowerPoint or Keynote.”

Canva or VEED.IO — Simple Online Video Editing can add audiogram elements such as progressive bars, waveforms, subtitles and more.

“An audiogram is an audio wave animation,” Sklar said. “You can use it to share a snippet of your audio content — like a podcast — on your social media channels. Wavve is a great tool that I use to create these.”

Wavve has a guide for creating an audiogram with captions.

Adyanthaya prefers these tools to create audio content:

Anchor app by Spotify. It’s easy to record, edit and publish.

Voice recorder apps.

Zoom or Skype. Use Zoom for sound quality, and edit it on Adobe Audition. You can also try SoundTrap.

Canva for graphics.

VEED.IO for progressive bars and subtitles.

“Zoom is much better than Skype,” Adyanthaya said. “I use Zoom for my podcast interviews. Editing gets easier with good sound.”

If audio sounds like an expensive proposition, Sklar disagrees.

“No need to spend a fortune on fancy tools,” she said. “You can use free programs such as GarageBand or Audacity to record your audio content. You can even use the Voice Memo app on the iPhone, which is perfect if you’re on the go.”

She suggests checking out Zencastr, which is “a really cool audio tool.”

Podcasts to tune in

Sklar listens to lots of podcasts with these among her favorites:

Adyanthaya often listens to Akimbo by Seth Godin and The Joe Rogan Experience.

“Apart from that, I have my own podcast,” he said. “I host amazing people such as Madalyn Sklar where we chat about digital marketing, entrepreneurship and more.”

About The Author

Jim Katzaman is a manager at Largo Financial Services and worked in public affairs for the Air Force and federal government. You can connect with him on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.