Boosting Podcast Community Engagement in 2023: Exclusive Content

The power of a strong, supportive podcast community

Having a strong podcast fanbase and community can definitely boost your longevity and profitability as a podcast creator. In fact, many of the long-standing artists and celebrities of today have one thing in common apart from talent and good marketing: Their strong, supportive fans.

Starting early can give you a head start when forming strong relationships with listeners. Grow your podcaster-listener bond while growing your podcast. This way, you’ll have a strong support system that will back you up throughout your podcasting journey.

From podcast listeners to paying customers

Building your podcast community doesn’t have to involve money. You can most definitely build a free community for your listeners. However, wouldn’t it be great if you could earn a little profit from this too? Profitability, is after all, an aspect of sustainability. In this case, the greatest challenge lies in converting podcast listeners to paying customers.

We’ve looked into 3 Firstory-hosted podcasters who have successfully built their podcast communities from ground-up, turning their passion into a successful business:

In each case, these Firstory podcasters were able to successfully convert podcast listeners into paying customers, earning enough from podcasting to sustain themselves and their loved ones.

💡 Tip:

Did you know that listeners are 714% more willing to provide monetary support for podcasters in 2021 compared to 2020?

How to build a podcast community

Outside of Firstory’s community feature, you can also build your podcast community on platforms such as Patreon, Ko-Fi, Buy Me a Coffee, and Memberful. These are just some of the many ways you can create your podcast membership from scratch. For more information on podcast memberships, check out 👉 this article.

To complement your monetization platform, you can also create a member-only social media group or account.

Here are some tips & tricks on building your podcast community on social media:

Choose a platform that most of your audience already has (e.g. Facebook, Instagram)
Look at what other podcasters in your niche are doing (e.g. Discord for gaming niche)
Choose the platform that matches the type of exclusive content you plan to post (e.g. Instagram for exclusive photos or audiograms)

Building your podcast community using Firstory

For countries with supported built-in monetization, you can now use Firstory’s community feature. Listeners who have subscribed to your recurring subscription plan will have the privilege to view your posts on the member-only community board.

With this community board, you can:

Provide exclusive podcast transcripts
Communicate & update listeners on exclusive announcements
Post the link to your exclusive Discord chat/ social media accounts
Provide sneak peeks and previews for events/ special episodes
Co-create podcasts with or collect feedback from your subscribing listeners
Promote your business among the very people who support your show

Building a podcast community can be the strong foundation for your podcast; and being involved in the creator economy is a great way to earn passive income. In some cases (like the 3 Firstory users above), they can even surpass the pay you get at your 9 to 5 job.

Setting up your Firstory community:

From Firstory Studio, go to the Monetization > Donation menu
Make sure that monetization is enabled
Select the Community Tab
By clicking Add, you will be able to Create a New Post that only subscribers can see