Can you convert social media followers to podcast listeners with Emma Edwards
Emma Edwards is the host of popular money psychology podcast, The Broke Generation. She is a financial behaviour specialist, committed to helping people “get good with money”. One of the best things about her approach to podcasting in this space is that it’s free of financial jargon that makes it hard for the everyday person to connect with. She approached us a few years ago now to produce her podcast, and I’ve been so impressed with the quality of the content she provides and her ability to stay consistent.
With a following on Instagram of over 50k, I wanted to know how an audience of that size converts to podcast listeners. Research into social media behaviour tells us that a high portion of Gen-Z at least, find out about new podcasts from their social feeds. I was intrigued to find out whether this is for creators that I know.
It turns out that migrating your audience from one platform to another is no simple task. It requires a high level of consistency, a commitment to providing valuable content, creativity in how you let your social followers know about your podcast and acceptance that it won’t happen overnight.
Spotify Hot Pick Of The Week
When The Broke Generation podcast first launched, it was selected as a Spotify Hot Pick Of The Week, which is no easy feat to achieve. This made it clear from the outset how engaged Emma’s social media audience was, and their willingness to go “off-platform” to consume her podcast.
Emma was able to carve out a space where her thought leadership had a platform. This has not only helped establish her credibility but has also opened doors to further opportunities, such as speaking engagements targeted at specific niches within her audience.
Converting Social Media Followers to Podcast Listeners
While social media provides a valuable platform for promoting the podcast and it certainly helped her achieve a fantastic launch result,, it doesn’t automatically guarantee huge growth over time.
Although Emma launched with a large number of downloads, she mentioned in our chat that her listenership hasn’t really “grown” that much since then.
This isn’t a bad thing. I want to make that very clear. It’s not always about download “growth”, it often becomes about retention. What keeps those listeners coming back every week, and how else do they engage with you as a podcaster over time?
Emma discovered that the best way to let her social followers know about a new episode is not to mention it at all. Seems counter-intuitive perhaps, but it’s actually better to have subtle cues, like videos of her talking into a microphone without there being any call to action. This sparks curiosity among her followers without making it obvious.
The Power of Consistency and Outsourcing
Consistency plays a vital role in the success of any podcast. Emma attributes her ability to release episodes consistently for over two and a half years to outsourcing the editing process to us here at Bamby Media. That’s always a nice thing for us to hear.
Delegating the editing tasks not only provided her with a deadline and routine but also made sure that things would run like clockwork without her having to micromanage. This allowed Emma to focus on generating fresh ideas and content while staying ahead with her episode planning and recording.
Emma also mentioned how important it is for her to have a bank of ideas that she can tap into, especially as the podcast matures. She keeps her content vibrant and relevant by staying organised and planning ahead.
Fostering meaningful connections
While converting your social media followers to podcast listeners mightn’t be the simplest of tasks, it’s certainly possible when you take the right approach. It’s about having a dedication to the podcasting craft, consistently releasing well-researched and high-quality content and being creative with the way you engage with your social audience so they know about your podcast. You need to be okay with your listenership building slowly, even if you have a large social media following to draw from. Podcasting is a long game. Focus on nurturing your social media audience with amazing content, and get creative!
Transcript:
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[00:00:00] Brianna: Welcome back to my face. My name is Brianna and I'm the head honcho here at Bambi Media. Today we are chatting with Emma Edwards who founded the Broke Generation back in 2018. She helps people get good with money. That's exactly what she says. , after she overhauled her own finances and found that there was some holes, there was some things and beliefs that she really wanted to try and change.
[00:00:24] And now she helps other people do the same thing. She has a incredibly engaged Instagram audience, a fantastic podcast called The Broke Generation and an offshoot of that as well, called Broke Business. Emma is a financial behavior specialist. She is one to watch. She is one to follow.
[00:00:42] She's a fantastic writer as well. She has a great newsletter. I would love for you to go and connect with her in any way that you see fit. and she's a really good one to interview on podcasts as well because she's just hilarious.
[00:00:52] She's just a good time. And I know you're going to learn some great things from her about how to build a sustainable podcast. She's been doing it quite a while now, and how that has supported her business. The Broke Generation is a very well received podcast, and in fact, when it first launched, It was a Spotify Hot Pick for the week, which was crazy cool. That just tells you how engaged her audience was. They were just wanting that information.
[00:01:17] They wanted her to start a podcast, and it showed immediately in the actual uptake of that. So you'll learn some things, you'll have a laugh. And let's welcome Emma Edwards.
[00:01:28] Emma started her show on the 1st of July, 2021. I want you, Emma, to take me back to the day and the time, well, maybe not that specific, but the surrounds of the release of that show and tell me why you decided to do it.
[00:01:54] Why you decided to launch a podcast.
[00:01:57] Emma: frankly I'll be really honest [00:02:00] I started it because being in social media and being in the public eye is a lot about like following what's working Following where the people are going and so there was a big part of me that was like, okay People are going to podcast people like audio content.
[00:02:12] I need to you know, show up there But the kind of happy surprise and why I kept doing it was I actually really liked That kind of content, and I liked putting content out in the world outside of social media. Social media has so many benefits, but anyone that's on it will know that there are a number of drawbacks as well.
[00:02:33] And I just feel like podcasting and the people that listen to them, it really gives respect back to content and information, again, in a way that social media doesn't. Like, it's not as churn and burn. You can, there's such a thing as evergreen content again, and I just really like communicating in that way.
[00:02:54] I mean, you, you edit my episodes, you know I can't shut up. The effort I have to put in to do a mini episode. It's never mini. I'm always there deleting the word mini out of the title. But yeah, I just really, like, I did it because I thought, you know, that's where the people are going.
[00:03:08] This is a really great place for these kinds of conversations. I didn't see other money podcasts that were sort of in the category of mine, of like the psychology and the behaviour and the habits. So I thought it was a great place to... talk about this stuff. And then I just loved it and I've put an episode out every week for the last two and a half years, barring Christmas breaks.
[00:03:25]
[00:03:25] Brianna: I was so excited. When you reached out and we started chatting, I already knew who you were. And I was just like, she's so fun and awesome that this show is going to go so well, because you had a good audience already. You said what you meant. You had a great accent And you were intelligent, like as in you weren't blowing smoke up.
[00:03:53] Your own ass, you were providing content that was useful for people and you knew your [00:04:00] target audience enough, maybe not like all the way, but you don't, you know, that changes over time anyway. So to me, this is the kind of show that's very exciting because it ticks a bunch of boxes and you know that you're going to have an audience that's going to be wanting and waiting for your episodes to drop.
[00:04:19] And then when you did launch, I think it was Spotify, you got into the Spotify pick of the week or something.
[00:04:26] Emma: they sent me a cactus.
[00:04:27] Brianna: It was a cactus.
[00:04:29] Emma: Yeah, I was like, okay,
[00:04:31] thanks.
[00:04:32] I assumed it would be something edible and I was like, oh, cactus.
[00:04:35] Okay, I kind of get it.
[00:04:36] Brianna: that's amazing. Yeah, so then you got that. and just a crazy good listenership, really, Who do you feel like it's actually for? And has that changed over two and a half years?
[00:04:50] Emma: has it changed over two and a half years? Probably not, actually. I kind of went back and looked at a couple of my older episodes recently and I was like, thinking I'd be like, cringing, being like, what on earth am I talking about? But actually I was like, nah, I'd probably publish that now. So I think my podcast is for people that are either already engaged with their finances and like, you know, working towards financial goals, or they're trying to get engaged with their finances.
[00:05:19] And I guess that's maybe where it's changed a little bit, in that a lot of my content isn't like a beginner level, but you know, I'm not speaking to people about how to invest 50, 000. Like it's, it's about starting out, building habits, building your relationship with money, uh, that sort of a pocket of my audience, I guess, that isn't like struggling with money and needing help at getting good with money. they either already were like that or they've kind of done that part, but they just still find the ongoing, uh, psychological side of money really interesting. So, that's sort of how it sits. My, like, target listener, if I was to speak to [00:06:00] one person, is somebody that has been trying to sort out their finances, has tried More sort of, um, I don't want to say mainstream because I'm not like that out there, but more like traditional barefoot investor style of financial content. And it's still not working for them and they want to know why. Because that's all of what I talk about, the why behind what we do with money and how we can get more value from our money and... as a result more value out of our lives and more enjoyment out of our lives and our time. So that's like my golden person, but then sort of the fringe listenership around that is people that just find the stuff as interesting as I do and love hearing me talk about it.
[00:06:38] Thank you.
[00:06:39] Brianna: Yeah. And the money psychology stuff I think is, it's a very interesting niche because there's plenty of podcasts that talk about finance and investing and property and all that sort of stuff. In fact, we have clients in all those spaces, which is great, but yours is a bit different because it is that, why?
[00:06:57] Like why do you treat money this way? Why do you feel this way about money? Why do you feel like you have to go buy something when you've had a bad day or you know that conversation? I think is a lot of what the normal Person struggles with that they're trying to get over that feeling of having to spend to get some sort of reward.
[00:07:23] And that's why I thought your, or I think that your wardrobe freeze is a really interesting idea. And if you're interested in that, please go and look at Emma Edwards on Instagram under the broke generation or in Tik Tok on her website, you'll see she's doing this wardrobe freeze and it's just fascinating.
[00:07:42] you've really nailed it as far as who your target is. And, uh, it is very interesting content. So that's great. Uh, how do you feel your show has helped you in your business or personally or both?
[00:07:57] Emma: I think it's really helped [00:08:00] with that long term connection with my audience or my community or whatever you want to call it. I think that showing up on social media, particularly in recent years as TikTok has come along and video has reigned supreme and I, I, think, That, unfortunately, the rise of video has put more and more emphasis on aesthetics in terms of your surroundings, but also yourself. Um, you know, it's no secret, it's been this way for years, that you will have a much greater leg up on social media if you look a certain way. , but I think that video is partially, you know, even out of podcasting, it's partially done that as well. You know, if you've got the professional videos and the professional setup, people are kind of more drawn to it.
[00:08:46] But I just, I still just love so much that Audio side in terms of that communication, you know, I'm showing up every week with a long form conversation, either a solo deep dive or a conversation with someone else. People know that it's there. They know to expect it. It's not sort of like the competing with the algorithm of social media.
[00:09:03] Like, yes, there's algorithms and stuff on, you know, getting in the top 10 and that kind of stuff. But if you're just like a little fish like me, it doesn't really affect me in that way. I really like that from a connection point of view in terms of opportunities. because there is so much content on social media now, I feel like if you have somewhere else for people to go, whether it's a website, or a blog, or a podcast, or something that is a bit more quote unquote traditional, and involves a little bit more than, you know, chucking up a A 60 second video.
[00:09:33] Not that that's easy, but you know what I mean. I think it's maybe... Helped me be taken a little bit more seriously? especially as I sort of accidentally tumbled into the influencer adjacent space. Because, you know, that's how you monetize, you do sponsorship. particularly as a woman, particularly in the financial space, it can... Sort of dent your credibility a tiny bit. Whereas I think having the podcast helped me overcome that and, well not overcome that, but helped sort of [00:10:00] support my credibility on that side. And then I think on top of that, a few opportunities I've had have come from people who listen to my podcast, but sort of that crossover.
[00:10:12] And I worked in social media for professional services for years before I did my own thing. And one thing we always talked about to clients was don't forget that even if you're targeting lawyers, your clients are individuals as well as lawyers. And I've really noticed that because I did a talk, for example, for sort of networking event for cancer nurses because one of the people on the committee there listened to my podcast. For herself, you know, I'm not like targeting medical professionals or whatever, but people listen to my show as them as individuals But they have a professional side as well and they might put me to their employer or they might be the employer or they might hear about me through someone else and that's actually where I've got I guess a lot of Return, if you want to put it that way, it's totally unquantifiable, but a lot of return from doing the podcast. it's not like a, you know, X number of clicks and X number of likes and that converts to this much. It's not like that. Uh, it's much more of a longer term conversation that has, granted me a lot of visibility.
[00:11:16] Brianna: Yeah. And I think that's what I like about it as a medium, because it feels more creative in that way too, where it doesn't feel so much. It's a numbers game and this much, this many clicks is going to convert into this many impressions, which is going to sell you this many ads. And then you're going to be at blah, blah, blah.
[00:11:32] Like there is that side of podcasting and it's something that's going to get more intense. But at the core of what you're saying is like. You've put yourself forward as a professional person talking about things that, are interesting and appeal to firstly, a broad range of people.
[00:11:51] And then you spread through word of mouth into other opportunities because people are engaging with your content that you're not even sort of [00:12:00] targeting. And this is one of the big things that happened in if you don't have, when you don't realize the impact that that actually has. On you as a professional person in the kind of speaking gigs that you can get off the back of that.
[00:12:14] So it is kind of unquantifiable, but it is quantifiable in the same way. Like if you started writing those things down, like, okay, this person came from here, this gig I've made this much money. You could probably start to really have a good picture of that. and it's also not about All the money to like, it's, it's really about making a connection in the community and how you can support that community and how you can support yourself through that. And then at some point you build up a community that's big enough that they really want more from you.
[00:12:46] And then you can make a sell, you can make an offer, you can do whatever that you feel really aligned to. So, uh, I think you're smart with the way that you. Think about it and handle it, which is good. Okay. So then your favorite thing about your show, if you could pick one thing that you're like, this is why I love it.
[00:13:08] And this is why I do it every week.
[00:13:10] Emma: where on social media you're like barking into the void
[00:13:13] regularly and some stuff hits and some stuff doesn't and you don't necessarily always know why.
[00:13:18] There's some rhyme and reason, but not entirely. think the thing I love the most about doing my show is that it's, Every week, on a Thursday, you can open your app, and there I am, and that is the one thing that you get from me that week, that's what people expect. I show up for it, they show up to listen to it, and it's kind of like a, a weekly meeting, that... You know, I don't burn out and not post or it doesn't glitch out with the way it posted on social media or like, it doesn't get completely forgotten by the algorithm and you think, oh, what a waste of time, like, maybe to condense it down, that's kind of it, it
[00:13:51] never, it's not a throwaway and it never feels like, oh, that was, that flopped because people know that it's gonna drop and you know [00:14:00] you're gonna put it out and I love that you can like schedule it in advance to make sure that that all happens and it's just a really nice like anchor in my online presence.
[00:14:10] Brianna: a great message, I guess, to hit on there is the huge difference between social media and algorithms versus something that is just pushed out same time to the audience that have signed up for it. You know, they've clicked on that follow button. They get a
[00:14:27] notification. It's up to them to listen to it, but they get that notification and you become part of their routine.
[00:14:34] That's kind of the coolest thing is it's like they go on a walk and they take you with them. They hang out, they're washing on Saturdays you're there with them. You know, I love that.
[00:14:44] Okay, so what's the thing that you don't like? Is there something about your show that you're like, Uh, what a drag.
[00:14:49] Emma: It's not so much that I don't like it, I think it's just something I didn't expect. , it's really hard to migrate an audience on social media to a podcast. harder than I expected, I've heard this from other people as well. If you have a following on social media, it does not mean that your podcast will automatically be successful.
[00:15:07] And I guess out of that, growing your podcast audience. I personally have found it hard. I know I don't have bad listenership, but even in the two and half years, my listenership has kind of stayed the same. It's not like I started with a thousand downloads and now I get 20 or whatever. It's kind of sat roughly around the same numbers and I've got it up a little bit. , but I think it's just a different way of thinking. You don't necessarily get that exponential growth that you do. on social media if like something goes viral or whatever like there's there's that positive side of algorithms too where you can actually kind of level up I guess your visibility quite quickly it's much more of a gradual game and you have to talk about it just because someone subscribed to your show doesn't mean that they're necessarily going to like it will be there in their feed but they might miss it and Titling is really important, and I think it's just, it's not that I don't like it, it's just the hardest part, is [00:16:00] remembering to talk about it.
[00:16:01] Brianna: I mean, when we look at the statistics on it, 80 percent of Gen Z or I think it was 75 percent of Gen Z find out about new podcast episodes and podcasts through social media.
[00:16:13]
[00:16:13] So it's important to post on social media and the fact that you have a good audience there, maybe it's a positioning thing as to, you don't mention that it's part of a podcast.
[00:16:23] The only thing that's. Sort of classifying it is that there is a microphone in front of you. I mean, that's the way I do it. Uh, that's the way others that we do for podcasting do. We've, we've stopped putting like, , not because of the engagement thing, but we just saw that people were interacting better with.
[00:16:40] The social snippets and the video snippets and things like that. If there wasn't a reference every time to it being, Hey, here's the pod. It's for the podcast. It's for the podcast. It's this episode number one of the podcast or whatever. We got rid of all of that. No end screens, just big captions with really like important Mm. Hmm.
[00:17:02] Emma: I agree, and I've been thinking that, you know, even though a lot of my clips or whatever will get less views than maybe another reel or a TikTok, I feel like it's important in terms of your, like, social media shop front, in a
[00:17:15] way, that when someone new lands on your page, having visuals of you talking into a microphone, that in itself tells them that you have a podcast. If you can put it in your bio, it helps. , But I think it's, I think that's kind of how I've shifted out of that, you know, worrying about, oh, I don't really want to talk about it because it's going to bomb my engagement for the rest of the week, or anything else I say that day. More thinking about, like, putting little, as you've sort of said, like, cues to be like, podcast.
[00:17:39] Brianna: Yeah, exactly.
[00:17:41] Just whisper it. Because again, especially for the Australian audience if you put something like, Hey, this, it's this, the Australian audience is like, Oh, that's an ad. I don't want it. Even though it's not an ad, they perceive it as an ad and they will
[00:17:55] respond as that because of the stupid tall poppy thing.
[00:17:59] The American [00:18:00] audience is fine. You can do that all day. And they, they are fine with it. But the Aussies are a different breed, which I find very interesting. So you're just going to get a little bit more creative with.
[00:18:10] Emma: Mm.
[00:18:11] Brianna: Um, as far as video snippets, we went off topic there, but I mean, this is the kind of thing I could talk about all day.
[00:18:16] how have you stayed consistent releasing for two and a half years?
[00:18:23] Emma: Having Bambi edit the show, it gave me two things that I really need for myself to actually do things. A deadline, slash a routine, and some sort of, consistency level of what I need to do. Because if you're self editing your show, you're going to... run into, oh, you know, a short solo episode might take you 20 minutes, whereas a long guest episode where they had a cough that day, and you keep having to find all those coughs, or where you kept stuffing up and starting again, that could take you two or three or four hours, and it's really hard to... Know when you're going to do all of that. So having like a Baseline that I have to do. I have to record an episode in an intro and put it in the Google Drive And it has to be two weeks in advance because that's when you're gonna edit it and when you're going Away for Christmas leave and stuff like we have to be ready before I'm not saying I couldn't do it on my own because I know loads of people that do but for me personally I feel like what would have happened for one.
[00:19:29] I would have had to have done seasons, I think Because my show is always on evergreen I don't break for seasons. I think if I was doing it myself, I would have had to have done seasons, but also I feel like it would have just, much like many other things that are just you doing it solo, it would have just got swallowed up into the chaos of life at some point, and I would have missed an episode and been feeling bad about it.
[00:19:49] And I know that those things aren't necessarily bad, but I do think that with things like podcasts, you really want to be showing up for your Thursday episode if that's when you drop them. because people come to [00:20:00] expect that of you and like you said you're in their routine so if on Thursdays they have to listen to someone
[00:20:04] else maybe they'll love
[00:20:06] that and they won't listen to you next week so the key thing that's kept me consistent is having editing help, and also having, um, like an ideas bank that I'm way ahead with, because that's the hardest thing I find is coming up with constant ideas, especially after two and a half years.
[00:20:23] It was fine for the first year or so, but now I'm like, hmm, how many ways are there to say this?
[00:20:30] Brianna: Yeah. And that's the rise of things like chat GPT and, you know, these kinds of AI tools can be helpful depending on how you use them to help you kind of get over a bit of that hump of like, what am I going to talk about in this niche? It's always good to have a bank, like Emma says, and thinking about it, like.
[00:20:50] Not being so rushed with it that if you know that you have to have it to us by, or anyone, have it, you have a deadline of some point, you have to have it to us by 10am on a certain day, not only thinking about it at 9am. That day
[00:21:05] to then release the thing, because I can guarantee you the content that you deliver is going to be way worse than if you gave yourself at least 24 hours to do a little bit of research, to think a bit more deeply, to plan it a bit more.
[00:21:20] So the content planning, I think, is huge and the consistency of having a deadline that you must stick to. And even if you're doing it yourself, having that regularity in your diary. Even for me, when I first started Pump Up Your Pod, ages ago. I didn't have anyone else in the team that could help me edit my own stuff.
[00:21:41] I was doing it when I could. And I had to stop. it got swallowed up with all the billions of things as a head of a decent sized company then had to do. So I had to stop until I got to a point where I actually could outsource my own stuff to the rest of the [00:22:00] team and felt like I was then a client of my own business and then it actually started to, to work and the wheels didn't fall off.
[00:22:08] Interesting. Okay. Last question. What is your current favorite podcast that you listen to?
[00:22:17] Emma: I have more than
[00:22:18] one, is that
[00:22:18] okay?
[00:22:19] Brianna: Of course. It wouldn't be ever if there wasn't multiple.
[00:22:22] Emma: So, I have like two that I listen to on like a personal level, that I like to listen to for me, like outside of business or whatever. One is called So I Got To Thinking. It's a Sex and the City podcast out of the UK by, Juno Dawson, uh, and Dylan B.
[00:22:36] Jones. It's just so funny. I'm howling on my walks, go through every episode. They're nearly at the end, so I guess I'll have to start again after that. then How to Fail by Elizabeth Day, really good interviews, kind of a similar depth as like Stephen Bartlett, but I prefer listening to podcasts by women, I don't know what it is, I really try, but I'm like, the, the dulcet tones of a female is much more my vibe, , and then for business, I love listening to My friend Peter has a podcast called The Business Fondle.
[00:23:09] it's really good about learning about online business and she's a gun at email marketing so she's really good at like teaching you about going out and making bank in your business and selling your products and that kind of thing. And the other one is called No Room for Doubt by Kyra Matthews. It's actually also out of the UK.
[00:23:25] She's a business coach. She's coaching me at the moment and I just love everything she says and does.
[00:23:31] Brianna: Oh, wow. What a good list. Oh my
[00:23:33] gosh.
[00:23:34] Okay. So we are definitely going to put all those links in the description of this audio and video. We're also going to put all the links to Emma just generally here so that you can go and connect with her in all the ways. Go and listen to The Broke Generation if you have not listened to this show yet.
[00:23:52] It is amusing. It's interesting. It's insightful. It's intelligent. Emma's a real crack up. She has good guests on [00:24:00] the show. Like I'm not, I mean, maybe I'm biased because we work with Emma anyway, but I just think it's a great flippant show. So go and check it out, follow her on all the socials and all the things.
[00:24:12] And I just want to say thank you so much for sitting down with me today and having a chat on pump up your pod. I love having you in our. Life! and, um, and you're, you're a good egg, so thanks so much.
[00:24:28] Emma: Thank you so much. I would not be sitting here as a podcaster without you. So I am equally grateful for your presence in my life. Cool.
BAMBY MEDIA LINKS:
WHERE TO FIND EMMA:
Podcast: The Broke Generation
Instagram: @the.brokegeneration
Website: https://thebrokegeneration.com/
