Facebook Algorithms Versus Podcast Realities - Where Would You Rather Market Your Content?

Look, I know it's sexy to be a Facebook marketer, but isn't the goal of what we're trying to do actually reaching our audience? I want to chat today about the realities of Facebook algorithms versus the realities of the very back end that makes podcasting what it is. This is Paul Culligan. This is the podcast report. You can find the podcast report on all podcast platforms where if you ever you get your audio, look at the podcast report and you can subscribe. I have to be recording this to Facebook because I do have some fans who will show up on Facebook, and Facebook will show some people this content, and at some point, someone will join, and at some point someone will watch the archive. But the numbers, the proportions, the specifics, the targeting, all these things are based up to a Facebook algorithm that really is in many ways a victim of its own success. Facebook can't show you everything you've liked, can't show you everything you've signed up for, because they did. It would be this constant flow, it would be this fire hose type of bursting of content to you. So Facebook has to decide what you see. And Facebook has an algorithm that's designed to figure out what you see. And there's all sorts of issues with algorithms and AI and all of this stuff. And one thing that is Facebook has done, and in the grand scheme of things, it's not that bad of an idea. Facebook has said, hey, if you really want to get in front of your audience, prove it. Show us by paying. And so there is that option inside of Facebook to pay to. To reach your audience. But a couple of things. A, it's. It's your audience, and I guess you got to pay for something at some point, but that gets a little bit frustrating. But B, it's competing with everybody else who's paying whatever else versus whatever else is happening at any given time. Now, I don't want to complain about Facebook without giving you a solution, but here's the situation. Every single person who has subscribed to my Facebook page for Paul Colligan, where I'm broadcasting this, or the Facebook page for the podcast report. The podcast report does have a page at Facebook. And get this, you can find it@the podcastreport.com Facebook or how to podcast, or even our tool, DialTalk. Done. We've got a bunch of Facebook pages. We have those, and they are destinations. But a tiny percentage of those who have signed up are going to see any one given thing that we've done. And even if we pay for it, I'm spending more and more money each month on Facebook to get access to that audience. But it's a percentage of that audience. It's that audience I pay for. Whereas, flip side, I'm going to release this as an episode of the podcast report about 10 minutes after I finish this recording. And you know who's gonna get this? Everybody who subscribed who has their phone set up to automatically get the episodes will get this episode. 100% spam free. Not this email. 10% delivery. Hopefully not this social media. Facebook, you know, well, if I pay enough and you know, the moons are in alignment, the right person might see it. But 100% of everyone who subscribed is going to get this either automatically they have background notifications turned on or if they're the type of person who set things up to not always disrupt them in the background. And I have great empathy and I have great understanding for people who do that. The next time they turn on their podcast app, this episode will show up in the background. 100% of anybody who is asked to see my stuff is going to get this episode of the podcast. Not 100% of the podcasts report people on Facebook. Not 100% of the Paul Colligan people at Facebook, not 100% of the how to Podcast people at Facebook, not 100% of the Dial talk done people at Facebook, not even a combination of those four are going to get it. Now is that just the nature of podcasting versus Facebook? No. I could put this at YouTube and at some point my automation needs to go back into play to where this automatically posts at YouTube. A percentage of people will see that, but I've got, I can't remember the latest number. I've got a good chunk of YouTube subscribers. But here's the thing. If I were to post this episode to YouTube, even though I've got YouTube subscribers, not all of them will see it. Now part of that is the nature of how many people subscribe to YouTube and how many people check in and log in. But remember, you know, Facebook is a is. I guess Facebook's an app as well, but YouTube is more of a destination. And so nobody's getting a push that my latest YouTube video is live. Yeah, they could sign up for the email notifications, but such a tiny percentage, long story short, maybe 1 2% of your YouTube audience translates to consumers consumption. So Facebook, tiny percentage, you gotta buy it. YouTube, tiny percentage, period. Email. Let's talk about email. Email, still powerful. Email is still amazing. But the fact of the matter is, if we get a 10% open rate. If we get a 20% open rate on our email, let alone the click through rate, we feel pretty good about that. Yet podcasting, 100% of the subscribers who open up their podcast app or who have background refresh happening are going to get this content. Does that mean they're going to consume it? No. But if 100% of them get it, the chances for consumption are a heck of a lot better. And we've chatted about this on previous episodes. The consumption of a podcast is exponentially better than the average consumption of a Facebook video or, you know, even two times that of a YouTube video. So we're in an interesting place. So I started that, I started this episode with the idea that it's sexy to be a Facebook marketer, and I'm going to end it with its more effective gosh darn. At least right now, to be a podcast marketer, you should be designing podcast content because it's the stuff that is going to get through to your audience. It's the nature of the beast. It's not like YouTube figured out something that Facebook can't. It's not. I'm sorry, it's not the podcasting figured out something that Facebook can't. It's that the nature, the open nature of the beast, the subscription paradigm, the way all this stuff works behind the scenes, 100% spam free algorithm, free delivery, as opposed to all the other things where you have to fight all the other noise. Are we going to get to the point to where podcasting joins that noise? And somebody subscribed to so many podcasts that, you know, it's not as complete as it was or is not as complete as it is today. That is possible. But the consumption feel, the consumption flow, the consumption paradigm for podcasting is so different that you're still going to have a better chance here. Does that mean that I should drop everything for podcasting? No, I'm recording this to a Facebook Live presentation. And some of you will catch this on Facebook Live. I might even boost it for some more of you to see it on Facebook Live. But the fact of the matter is, many, many, many, many, many, many times more people will catch the podcast version of this. And because so many more people will catch the podcast version of this, I should be thinking about the podcast, which is what I'm thinking about right now. And because so many more people do the podcast, they'll consume more of it, which is why I'm doing it the way I'm doing it right now. Don't limit yourself to podcasting, but realize the impact of podcasting. Realize how the algorithm of Facebook fights with podcasting realities and the kind of results you're gonna see by doing, you know, the smart things that you should be doing. That's it. That's all I have to say. I want you to think this through. I want you to be smart, and I want you to reach as much of your audience as you can using the technologies that are the smartest. This is the Podcast Report. This is Paul Colligan. Thank you so very much. Make sure you subscribe so that you don't miss a future episode. And once you subscribe, it will come automatically because the nature of podcast. Have a great day. New episode coming soon. Bye.