Podcasts were a 'massive hype' about a decade ago, and as time goes by the phenomenon still lingers about, in fact it keeps growing steadily as a prime social media platform.
If I'm honest, I've never been a big listener myself (apart from a few, of course). Although I was featured in a couple of them personally, I never had the chance to sit down and just listen through many of them.
When I've been asked what I see or predict as an interesting social media platform for a wine company or a wine brand though, I often mention audio as one of them.
But why, you might ask?!
The reason is simple and lies in the stats. Many wine companies and startup businesses try to 'put all their eggs into one basket' and that is Instagram (and Facebook) and while I understand the necessity of being on Meta's main channels, I also try to talk business owners out of putting too much (or all) of their focus on those platforms. Instead, I push them to diversify their social media.
I always say, be on Instagram (and Facebook), mainly because they have to and I wouldn't be able to talk them out of it anyway. I often recommend being on LinkedIn, especially if they are B2B, and on YouTube if they are willing to invest more time and resources in social media. I also like to suggest podcasting mostly because I feel that there is huge potential in audio - just think about Alexa, or Google Home - and because it is relatively cheap compared to the 'OG Social channels' when it comes to customer acquisition, but most importantly because wineries and wine brands could tap into a very engaged audience with audio.
As my friend and colleague Lawrence Francis, Founder and Host of Interpreting Wine Podcast' so adequately explains in one of his recent LinkedIn post:
"New companies have low adoption and so need to go on the offence to secure attention. Their lack of money leads them to focus on social media channels that themselves have a relatively low adoption (to the left) betting that one of these will be the next Tik Tok or snapchat and that their land grab, will be that much cheaper. This is a concept spoken about a lot by @garyvee , who equates getting in early on a platform to buying underpriced prime Malibu real estate.
I think what's really interesting now is that the Facebooks and Instagrams have such high adoption that they are to the right of the graph and are expensive relative to the other platforms. It's also where you'll find more competition from the big brands.
I'm still very bullish on the future of audio and podcasting in particular and see this very much to the left in terms of adoption, so it will naturally appeal more to brands who want to go on the offence and claim the underpriced mental real estate.
The really interesting point here is given the level of awareness podcasting has achieved in recent years and the entry of many big players we may be approaching the tipping point where podcasting becomes a defensive play (because everyone else has got one) and when that happens, even more established companies will enter the audio space."
So, I'd most certainly (at least) consider starting a podcast if you run a wine business or a winery, just to not miss out on that "underpriced prime Malibu real estate"!
Would you have any questions or need help with your social ventures, please don't hesitate to drop us a message, or simply comment below...