Understanding Podcast Reviews
As a podcaster, you can receive reviews about your podcast on various podcast hosting platforms (i.e. Apple Podcasts). You can also collect reviews on your website or request that friends, family or podcast guests send an emailed review. But are podcast reviews important?
Podcast reviews may be useful, but important? You have to decide that. There’s a well known proverb that all publicity is good publicity. This phrase means that if people are talking about you, then you have already won because you have their attention. While this is a positive way of thinking about podcast reviews, a little work is required for you to learn how to best handle your podcast reviews.
WHAT ARE PODCAST REVIEWS
Podcast reviews may be positive or negative.
A positive (or good) podcast review is a review that makes you feel proud of the podcast that you created, makes you smile or happy, and makes you want to tell the world that someone else loves you! Unless the review says that they love you, don’t go around telling folks that podcast listeners love you. Positive podcast reviews make you want to make more podcasts. Common positive podcast reviews are:
This podcast is the BEST!
I learn so much from every episode
Keep up the good work
I needed to hear this episode
Depending on the topic and guest that you include on your podcast, your podcast content could make a listener very happy. So happy that that listener took the time to write you a review. Pat yourself on the back.
A negative (or bad) podcast review is a review that upsets you, makes you doubt your work or challenges your work. Each of these descriptions (upsets, doubts or challenges) are completely up to you to recognize and deal with. Common negative reviews are:
I hate your voice
This guest has no idea what they’re talking about
_____ podcast handled this better (a show that is not your podcast
Haven’t we discussed this enough? Move on
Depending on the topic and guests that you include on your podcast, your podcast content could irritate someone. Someone could be so frustrated by what they heard on your podcast that they need to let you know how they felt about your podcast.
But you must keep in mind that a negative podcast review is one person’s individual opinion about what they heard on that specific day. That same listener could hear the same podcast episode on a different day and love it. And if a podcast listener does not like your voice, are you going to begin using an accent the next time you record your podcast? I hope not.
Let’s talk about when you should read your podcast reviews, how to process podcast reviews, and how to request podcast reviews.
WHEN TO READ PODCAST REVIEWS
As a podcaster, you create content for others to hear and enjoy. As your podcast grows or when you need to share podcast reviews with marketing companies, you may need to pull your podcast reviews. Looking at your podcast reviews for a specific reason is a great time to read your podcast reviews. Because you are looking at the reviews for a specific purpose, you should not be surprised if you see a negative review and you will not get overwhelmed by any positive review.
If you are having a great day, this is a great time to read your podcast reviews. Most great days involve good moods which mean that you will not be devastated by a negative podcast review. You can laugh at these reviews and pat yourself on the back when you read the positive reviews.
If you look at your podcast reviews for a specific purpose or are in a good mood, take a look.
HOW TO PROCESS PODCAST REVIEWS
If you receive a podcast review that is negative, you have to decide what to do with the feedback you received. You should not allow a negative podcast review to make you change the goal of your podcast and you should not allow a positive podcast comment to make you change your podcast.
Because each podcast listener is different, you have to realize that podcast listeners will learn different things from every podcast episode.
Also, every podcast review will come from a different place. Most negative podcast reviews are petty. Again, are you going to change your voice because someone does not like the sound of your voice? NO! So you can ignore this petty podcast review. Other podcast reviews are praise. A praise podcast comment will encourage you to keep working and make you feel like you are making a difference with your podcast. It is not good or bad to receive petty or praise filled podcast reviews. Read the review and remember that this review is someone’s opinion, it is not fact.
Another part of processing a podcast review is to use the review for your podcast advertisements. You could take a negative podcast review and display it on your social media page and challenge others to listen to your podcast and tell you if this review is correct. You could screenshot a positive podcast review and use that in a tweet to announce that someone loved your podcast. By using the podcast review to advertise for your business, this is another way of processing the podcast review. This should also help you see that the podcast review is a tool for your podcast.
HOW TO REQUEST PODCAST REVIEWS
Podcasters can ask for podcast reviews. Yes, you can ask the listeners of your podcast to leave you a review. In a social media post, mention that you want a podcast review. At the beginning or ending of the podcast episode, say that you would like a podcast review. In emails to podcast guests or announcements about your podcast, ask for a podcast review. The podcast audience will not know what you want or need unless you ask for it. Take a moment and ask the listeners for a podcast review (and understand that they may not all be positive).
REVIEWS ARE USEFUL
We want podcast reviews to be important because someone took time out of their day to give you feedback about your podcast. But podcast reviews are personal. Every podcast comment will reflect the mood of the podcast listener. If the listener is in a good mood or gained something from your podcast, they may reward you with a positive podcast review. You have to decide which podcast reviews to keep and what podcast reviews to ignore.
When you are having a rough day or in a bad mood, this is not the time to read your podcast reviews. Misery loves company but reading some negative podcast reviews on a rough day will make you put away your microphone forever. We don’t want you to stop podcasting, so do yourself a favor and don’t even think about your podcast reviews on a bad day. Your podcast audience will thank you for continuing to podcast.
Whenever you think about your podcast reviews, you should ignore the reviews. Yep, keep this as a rule to ignore the urge to look at your podcast reviews unless you need the reviews for a task. Podcast reviews will not go away if you do not review them.
You are not a bad podcast host because you have never looked at your podcast reviews. Keep creating your podcast and entertaining your podcast audience.
