LET'S GET PODCASTING IN 2025!

As Boxing Day dawns and you are recovering from Christmas Day, here are some podcast thoughts for consideration as the new year dawns.

Have you been pondering whether or not you should create your own podcast this coming year? What is the value I hear you think? Well if you don't start then you will never know will you?

All things involve time and money - there's no way around it. You can spend less money and you will probably take more time or you can invest more in it and that will take less time. However with a podcast it is generally all about you, your team and your own culture and ethics.

Let's get into the meat of how popular podcasts are in the UK at the moment. In 2024, more people in the UK are listening to podcasts than ever before. Although there is some debate, it's widely accepted that the first podcast was created in 2004, 20 years ago - so this is no overnight thing.

This year, it's estimated by Edison that 72 per cent of UK adults (more if you consider younger people) are listening to podcasts now - 42 per cent on a monthly basis, 30 per cent weekly. Of those listening to weekly podcasts, the average time of listening in a week is five hours and 27 minutes.

Podcasting now is a form of entertainment and learning alongside other platforms involving video or even general website browsing. This potential audience in the UK is huge.

At time of writing the top ten podcasts in the UK in reverse order are:

10. Sha**ed, Married Annoyed - with Chris & Rosie Ramsay.

9. Sherlock Holmes, short stores - narrated by actor Hugh Bonneville.

8. The Rest Is Politics: US - with Antony Scaramucci and Katty Kay.

7. Parenting Hell - with Rob Beckett and Josh Widdicombe

6. The Diary of a CEO - with Stephen Bartlett

5. The Rest Is Entertainment - with Richard Osman and Marina Hyde

4. The News Agents - with Emily Maitlis, Jon Sopel and Lewis Goodhall.

3. The Rest Is Politics - with Alastair Campbell, Rory Stewart & others.

2. The Rest is History - with Tom Holland & Dominic Sandbrook

1. The Rest Is Classified - with David McCloskey.

How can I compete with that?

The truth is that you probably cannot. These podcasts are generally cast around people who are famous, covering subjects which are extremely popular and have been created on the crest of a popularity wave, produced by companies with big budgets and therefore attracting big sponsors.

If you let the above overwhelm you - just take a breath and think of this - for most of us in business, only a small fraction of such an audience is enough to make us more visible. When you have a podcast that it is that successful then that's a whole different process and it may even become totally overwhelming and your main job.

We can all 'show up' and in business we all know that there are a ton of people who are far more successful than us, businesses that are much bigger and more 'important'. Does that stop us doing business? Does that make us think all that we do is a waste of time? The truth is that there are also a ton of people who are less successful than us too. That's where opportunity lies.

A podcast - or your own radio show - is simply one tool in the toolbox of good practical and honest PR ie. public relations. It's very relevant for some and not as relevant for others. The key to success for most of us is not wishing for millions of downloads, it's being consistent and being committed.

If you've been mulling this over for you, your company, your team or your brand - what's stopping you? All things require time and money, it's simply about understanding the steps and getting comfortable with the trade off between time and money and also being realistic.

Many of us will have preconceptions around what is and what is not successful. Don't do that with a podcast or you'll never stick at it. Success may come in many ways and it will not bring you a shedload of sales or leads overnight. This is what it will do:

*Visibility - it will become another tool where you can showcase your brand, yourself and your company or your team and convey your ethos, ethics etc by being very personal.

*Contacts - it will demonstrate that you do walk the walk and that you do have a wide circle of very trustworthy and relevant contacts. For me that tends to be in the media.

*Expertise - it allows you to show your expertise in bite-size chunks and not by ramming it down the necks of others.

*Opportunity - it allows you to start little conversations with people you are interested in, or might think could be potential clients or who are just interesting in your sector or spheres of influence.

*Influence - over time you become an influencer in your own right, just by having a podcast with a bit of a legacy and you will become a go-to voice for your sector and/or your geographical area.

*Fun - it should be fun. It's okay for something to be joyful and not always transactional.

In 2025, I'm going to be running one course on how to begin a podcast, the how, the why, the what - I'm undecided if it will be in person or online - so email me if you are interested to see which you would prefer - fiona@fionascott.co.uk

PR Not BS: my podcast

To give you some context here are my podcast stats for 2024 which will guide my thinking for the next year. I don't dwell heavily on them but they are interesting for you to get a clue as to where you are having an impact.

My podcast is now three years old and I put out a new episode every other week and in 2024 at time of writing I've uploaded 25 podcasts with one more to come. In total, at time of writing, in the last three years I've had 4,896 downloads. My podcasts are mostly listened to via Apple Podcasts and in second place via the Buzzsprout platform where it is hosted. This month for the first time, Facebook downloads have registered.

Across the year I've had 1,550 downloads which averages 62 per episode in 2024, this may sound modest but I'm thrilled with it. I do recall, earlier this year interviewing Tom Holland the historian though. We talked about my podcast and I was thrilled to let him know that I'd had over 4,000 downloads at that time. He started his podcast at about the same time. I asked him how many downloads he'd had. His was not a podcast I listen to - so was rather shocked when he said over 60 million. Let's just say, I was rather stunned into silence!

My most popular cities for downloads are: Salisbury; Southwark, Cirencester, Bristol and Swindon.

Now four of those are more local to me but Southwark? That was a surprise.

People from 30 countries have downloaded my podcasts and the top five countries in reverse order are: Ireland; South Africa, Sweden, USA and UK. I am rather surprised by the USA and Sweden...

My most popular download of all time with more than 220 downloads is one with Wiltshire business man Mike Rees, who stood as an independent candidate for the role of Wiltshire Police & Crime Commissioner earlier in the year. He came in third and we've recently recorded an update about him, that election and what he's up to now.

All of this means that PR NOT BS is coming back strongly in 2025 and most will also be video'd too and can be found on my aligned YT channel Reel PR - so do take a look. In the meantime Happy New Year!