The Future of Social Audio Is Here
Recently, a software company based in Toronto invited CFO Thought Leader to join a Beta program for its application to create Audiograms highlighting key takeaways from each episode to share on social media.
CFO Thought Leader is today using Audiograms to promote every episode to thousands of followers and subscribers. Our core strategy is focused on LinkedIn, arguably the most popular social platform among finance leaders and one on which we enjoy an extensive group of finance leader followers (more on LinkedIn below).
The fact is getting people excited about listening on social media is hard when there isn’t a technical solution for sampling a piece of content. You can’t upload an MP3 to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or Instagram. And the thing with audio is—it’s invisible.
Meanwhile, it’s no longer a secret that social media platforms employ algorithms that give special treatment to native video content. “Native,” meaning uploaded directly onto a platform, no links needed. We’re not blaming them; social platform executives have the same desire that most marketers have, which is to keep people on their platform. It’s not surprising when many suppress posts (like YouTube links) that take users away from their news feeds and favor posts (like videos) that keep users onsite.
Getting Smart About On-Demand (Targeted) Media
The power of a movie trailer or TV promo is clear. These videos can make or break a movie. A great trailer compels people to buy $14 movie theater seats. Our goal is to get people to take a deep dive with your finance leader and listen for 30 minutes or more. What’s great about Audiograms is that they work.
Audiograms produced and distributed six months after a podcast episode debuted are now driving new downloads and re-energizing earlier episodes. Ever notice how episodes of The West Wing are still trending on Netflix? It’s the same dynamic. In the world of on-demand media, new audience members are being routinely acquired. Unfortunately, many communications professionals stay engaged only during the episode’s debut and don’t feel professionally obligated (or incented) to contribute to an episode’s on-demand afterlife.
Leveraging a CFO’s Influence on LinkedIn
For many of us, the phrase “content marketing” is a relatively new buzzword used to describe the art of communicating a message to customers and prospects without selling.
And here’s why CFOs can often be counted among their firm’s best content marketers. Think about it. Instead of pitching products or services, CFOs have for years engaged their CFO peers by speaking the language of finance and sharing financial tips and best practices. A CFO’s words and actions often speak to the character of their company’s management, and no media platform is capable of transmitting those words and actions inside a more highly targeted peer-to-peer realm than CFO Thought Leader. Here are some LinkedIn stats from a recent CFO audiogram post (below). If you are not impressed by the number of views (and you probably should be) you should consider its laser-like penetration of the finance community.
Please Don’t Ignore Our LinkedIn Invite
LinkedIn is the best channel for network effects inside the finance realm—and here’s why:
- Posts are visible to everyone in your network.
- Any user engagement from 2nd degree connections are then displayed to that user’s network.
- LinkedIn’s algorithm doesn’t restrict content based on paid or promoted content, like Facebook
- LinkedIn is the preferred social platform of finance professionals
To effectively take advantage of these awesome network effects, I have two requests:
- Please send me a LinkedIn invite).
- Introduce me to a social media representative at the company being featured (we’d like to get LinkedIn with them as well).
Thank you!
I’m confident that by coordinating the engagement on LinkedIn in advance, we can ensure that the episode reaches our highly targeted and influential audience for many months to come. – Jack Sweeney