All sorts of companies and marketing experts try their hardest to predict what people want. Sometimes they are spot on, and other times, they just can’t see what’s coming. Nobody knew that an interview with Katt Williams on a retired football player/commentator’s podcast would go viral – I mean Covid 1.0 viral, okay? In just hours, HOURS, the views on YouTube had surpassed any other episode on Shannon Sharpe’s channel. In days, it was the most talked about thing on the internet – 52 million views and counting as I type this – two weeks after it was posted. Was Shannon Sharpe ready for that kind of viral success? You better believe it. You can be too.
Here are nine things that you can do right now to be ready to go viral like Club Shay Shay.
Know Who You Are
On his podcast, Shannon Sharpe interviews famous African American men about their lives, sports, and pop culture topics. That’s his niche, and his listeners know what to expect. Defining your niche is free (unless you are stumped and hire a consultant). What will people learn by listening to your podcast? Will they be entertained? Should they expect laughs? Thoughtful commentary? Set expectations, define your niche, and deliver what you say you will every time. A clear and unique mission and value proposition will make it easy for listeners to not only share your episodes but also trust that you will deliver content that meets their expectations.
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Tell Others Who You Are
Once you go viral or get mentioned by a notable influencer or media outlet, your new audience will want to connect with you, the voice behind the podcast. Make sure that each host’s bio is not only complete but also regularly updated. Share personal anecdotes, professional achievements, and any relevant changes in your hosts’ lives. This adds a human touch to your podcast and strengthens the bond with your listeners, who may have just discovered your podcast during your viral moment. This helps them decide to subscribe and stick around to see what you have to say next.
Have a Media Kit Ready
A well-constructed media kit is your podcast’s professional resume. It can be one page or multiple pages. Include high-resolution images, detailed host bios, key statistics, and any notable achievements or recognitions. This kit becomes invaluable when media inquiries come your way, making it easy for journalists and influencers to cover your podcast accurately. You can make one in Canva for free, or use a template from Adobe Stock and edit it in Photoshop or InDesign. Have a professional looking headshot ready as well. One that shows your personality, and that you take yourself seriously. A selfie just won’t cut it. If you are on a budget, get a friend to take a photo with your cell phone and edit it in a free photo editing app like Snapseed.
Show Them the Numbers
Be ready to showcase your podcast’s performance metrics at a moment’s notice. Familiarize yourself with platforms like Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or other hosting providers that offer detailed analytics. What can be measured, can be improved. Understanding your audience demographics, download numbers, and listener engagement metrics positions you as a knowledgeable and data-driven podcaster. If a media outlet asked Shannon Sharpe’s team what their numbers looked like before the viral Katt Williams episode, they should be able to tell them so that they could craft a compelling story about the impact of the episode on his podcast as a whole.
Be Consistent
Club Shay Shay has new episodes weekly. Listeners expect an African American man to join Shannon Sharpe in his man cave-like studio to talk about whatever they want to talk about. The conversation shifts from their lives, pop culture, hot-button topics, controversial stories, and back again, but no matter what – it is going to be the same format, the same type of guest, and at the same interval. Club Shay Shay is consistent. If you aren’t the most consistent person generally, you can hire a podcast coach to help you establish a regular release schedule and stick to it. However, you can set up a content calendar on Google Sheets or Google Calendar for free. Engage your audience with high-quality content that aligns with your podcast’s theme. Consistency builds trust with your audience and makes your podcast more attractive to potential collaborators and media outlets.
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Optimize Your Online Presence
Shannon Sharpe’s Club Shay Shay is part of a podcast network that has several shows by sports personalities about sports-related topics. While the show doesn’t have a stand-alone website, Club Shay Shay has a page on the network’s website with links to Shannon Sharpe’s two shows, merch, and embedded videos. If you are part of a network, make sure that they build out your page with links to your shows on popular podcast platforms and all of your social media links.
Building your website if you are not part of a network could cost you some money, but it doesn’t have to be expensive. You can get a domain name for a few dollars a year, and forward it to a free Google site, or you can have someone build a custom site on WordPress for you. Having a website is great for SEO, and allows you to share blogs and more. Your podcast host may provide a website as part of your service. When we started, for the first year we used the website provided by our host, Libsyn.
Whatever you do, make sure there is a place where media and new listeners can find detailed information about your podcast, including an ‘About’ page, episode archive, and contact information.
Set Up and Manage Your Social Media
Club Shay Shay has accounts on all the major social media platforms. Setting up accounts on X (Twitter), Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok is free. You may want a social media management tool like HubSpot or CoSchedule, which has a fee, or you can hire a social media manager to help manage all of your accounts. You can also just post updates to each platform yourself. Do what you can afford to do to keep your social media profiles updated and engage with your audience regularly. Make it easy for journalists to find you with a strong online presence.
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Handle Media Inquiries Professionally
Put a plan in place for your success that includes how you will handle media inquiries. When you go viral or get mentioned by a celebrity, do you have a standard, professional media kit that you can send by email? As your popularity grows, journalists may reach out for interviews, features, or reviews. Respond promptly and professionally, and give them all of the information they need. Having a well-prepared press kit with high-quality images, key podcast details, and relevant links will make the process go smoothly. Your press kit doesn’t have to be publicly available, but it should be readily available and updated regularly with current statistics and photos.
Prepare for Viral Success with Clips
While you can’t predict when an episode will go viral, you can be prepared for it. If you have a website, ensure your hosting provider can handle sudden spikes in traffic, and have a plan in place to capitalize on the increased attention. Check your hosting plan to see if you have unlimited downloads. Shannon Sharpe’s viral show with Katt Williams lasted three hours. THREE HOURS. That turned a lot of people off, BUT his team had shorter clips and viral moments ready for sharing. Some people watched the whole thing, and others watched clips that led them to want to see the full show.
Those shareable, bite-sized clips were shared hundreds of thousands of times on all of the major social media platforms. You can do the same thing. Make shareable clips yourself with your phone, or use a service like Riverside FM to make clips for you. Leverage social media to amplify the reach of every episode.
While your podcast might not have nearly as many moving parts as Club Shay Shay, with producers, directors, multiple cameramen, editors, sound engineers, and craft services (seriously, you should be making yourself snacks while you work), you can do the budget-friendly version of what Shannon Sharpe and his team have done as far as being ready for success. Being ready to go viral requires a combination of strategic planning, consistency, and being prepared for unexpected opportunities.
So get on Canva and get that media kit going, get on Google Docs and write your bio, log in to your podcast hosting provider, and collect the statistics for your podcast, so that when you go viral, you will be ready for everything that comes with it.
