Taylor Swift Phenomenon: 5 Lessons to Boost Your Podcast

Taylor Swift and Podcasts: don’t see the connection?

Let me explain everything to you!

In recent years, Taylor Swift has transcended her role as a singer to become a true influencer and, more importantly, an inspiring businesswoman for all content creators. 💪

Including us, podcasters.

According to Forbes, her net worth is estimated at around 740 million dollars. She has also been named one of the most influential people in the world by Time Magazine three times, and she has received 13 Grammy Awards so far, among countless other distinctions. By the way, Spotify just awarded her the “Top Global Artist” of 2023. Needless to say, she knows a thing or two about success and influence. 🔥

With over 275 million followers on Instagram, 95 million on Twitter, and engagement that reaches new heights on all platforms, she has created more than just a simple community. It’s a true media empire she has built, and if you look closely, you’ll find precious lessons that can help us grow our podcast, well.. at our level!

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Lesson #1: Storytelling is your greatest strength!

Taylor Swift isn’t just an artist; she’s an exceptional storyteller. 🤩 Her songs are mostly based on her own experiences and emotions. She shares every mood, her romantic breakups, her fears, her dreams. All this creates a strong emotional connection with her millions of fans. 🤜✨🤛

Podcasting is a medium whose primary characteristic is storytelling.

We, as podcasters, must also tell stories. And the more embodied, the better! Your audience listens to your podcast for the ideas you convey, of course, but they’re also there for you, for your view of the world, for your unique voice.

So, when you share personal anecdotes, learned lessons, or even failures, you create a much stronger bond than any advertisement could. You turn your listeners into loyal fans. They are the ones who will then share your content and talk about you. 🥰

Lesson #2: Take Care of Your Community

One of Taylor Swift’s greatest strengths and a cornerstone of her media and marketing strategy are the “swifties,” Taylor Swift’s fans. ✨

She has meticulously cultivated an engaged and fervent community around her brand. These fans are not just passive consumers; they are ambassadors, defenders, and even, in a sense, friends. As I just mentioned, Taylor Swift shares intimate elements of her personal life with her fans, gives them clues about her new projects, and even glimpses of her creative processes.

Applied to podcasts, this model is a masterclass. 🔥

Imagine your podcast as the center of a content ecosystem. Give your community a name to create a sense of belonging. Establish rituals, whether it’s specific hashtags, wordplay, private jokes, or recurring questions at the end of each episode. In short, create your own language.

Lesson #3: Innovate like Taylor Swift, while staying authentic

Taylor Swift’s first hit “Tim McGraw” was released in 2006, when she was just 17 years old. Don’t worry, I’m not going to give you her biography, but at that time, she was considered a rising talent in country music. After 3 albums in this same style, she shifted to Pop then Folk, then back to Pop. In short, Taylor Swift has experimented with many different musical styles without losing what her fans like: the storytelling of her life in her sometimes vengeful songs. 💁‍♀️

Clearly, she’s one of the few singers who has managed and still manages to reinvent herself while staying true to herself.

On the podcast side, the message is clear: you too can evolve your style, try new formats, take breaks, resume, resume but differently, do solo episodes and interview episodes, etc. The key to not losing your audience is to remain as authentic as possible. 🎙️

Lesson #4: Make social media your primary distribution channel

Taylor Swift is a real pro when it comes to social media. She doesn’t just use X or Instagram to post photos, no. 📱 She creates an entire experience for her fans. Well-thought-out teasers for her new albums, wordplays and anagrams to make them guess the titles of her new songs. Social media is not just a promotional tool, it’s a channel for discussion with her audience!

And that’s the lesson of this 4th point!

Social media should of course be used to tease your upcoming episodes, but it’s also a way to provoke interaction with your audience and to talk about things that go beyond the podcast itself. 👋

Ask questions, launch quizzes or even small contests based on the content of your previous episodes. It’s this kind of content that ultimately creates a real community and not just a passive audience. 🥰

Lesson #5: Don’t let your audience forget you

If her first hit dates back to 2006, how does Taylor Swift manage to stay at the top? 🔺 Well, the answer is simple: she doesn’t give her fans time to forget her. Between the releases of singles, albums, documentaries, or even more recently movies in cinemas, Taylor produces a lot of content and occupies all the space.

You see where I’m going with this…? 😏

One of the things that excite the algorithms of listening platforms the most is publishing often and regularly. This is what makes platforms like Apple or Spotify notice you and position you more or less high in their rankings and search results.

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So, are you convinced by Taylor Swift and her girlboss attitude? 🤩

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