When I first started promoting the Spur of the Moment podcast on our social channels, it kind of felt a little like I was tossing spaghetti on to a wall—some things stuck, some things didn’t. It’s truly not a one-size-fits-all approach—for instance, we do not have a video component to our podcast—but here are a few guiding principles we stick to that have worked best for us in the past in promoting the CSU Spur of the Moment podcast!

Mixed media is your friend

Being that our podcast does not have a video component, an audio-centric medium presented its own challenges when we were thinking about how we wanted to promote each episode. We knew that utilizing pull quotes from the conversation was something we wanted to do, but we also wanted to make it more dynamic and interactive in the post. In the first season, we would animate each quote word-by-word, but finally settled on a static quote in a graphic with a moving audio wave beneath the quote.

Not only do carousels/albums, on average, generate more engagement across just about every platform we post to, it gives us an array of templatized graphics to utilize in more high-volume channels, such as Instagram Stories or Twitter (before we sunsetted our channel). If you can involve live photos of BTS filming or guests themselves, that’s a little cherry on top! Below is an example of how we would post an episode to Instagram:

Empower your guests (and make it easy)

This one might seem a little intuitive, but it is, pound-for-pound, the easiest thing you can do to drive higher traffic to your podcast episode. For each episode, we send our guest a little toolkit that includes a handful of graphics to use, suggested copy, the episode description and links to download the episode. As with any social toolkit, you want to make it *easy* for your guests to share the episode within their networks—relying on them to do so themselves just hardly works. Not only did we see a noteworthy jump in guest buy-in when we started setting guests up for share success, but we also see up to 2x the amount of downloads per episode when a guest *does* share on their own channels.

There is a reason your guest is on your podcast—they have information that you feel is pertinent to your audience. Their networks are your best bet at gathering new listeners for your podcast, and empowering your guests to share in their network is a great way to get your show in front of people who might be interested in all of the hard work you are doing! At one point, we had a guest, after publishing, ask to cross-publish the episode to their podcast with 1M+ downloads, and it remains the highest traffic timeline to Spur of the Moment to date.

Post (a little) late

This tip is in part due to a little bit of tinkering, a bit of a hunch, and a touch of strategy. You’re all uploaded, your episode is set to publish at 5 a.m. on Tuesday morning, and then voilà: it’s online! Don’t rush to get your social post online immediately. Let it sit, marinate for a while. Let your subscribers have the first bite at the apple — after all they will already see it in their feeds and will listen when they can. Why not wait a day?

By waiting a day to share on your social channels, you actually create a second wave of attention. It gives the episode a chance to gain organic momentum first, and when you do post, you can highlight reactions, quotes, or insights that your early listeners loved, and give an extra nudge to those who may have missed it or have put off listening to it.

1 isn’t enough, 3 is too much, 2 is just right.

I suppose this can depend on the cadence of your show and how often new episodes drop, but for us, two posts per episode — roughly one a week — ended up being the sweet spot. Every time we shared a follow-up clip, quote or takeaway from the episode, we saw a clear bump in downloads. But after the second post, the momentum leveled out. A third post didn’t really move the needle, so two became our ideal promo rhythm.

It also helped keep our feed from feeling repetitive or spammy, while still reminding listeners that the episode was out there with more content to be consumed. This pacing gave us room to highlight the strongest moments from the discussion instead of stretching our content thin. And by spacing posts out, each one had its own little window to shine, instead of competing with the others. It feels like just enough to stay on people’s radar without overwhelming them.

Reshare episodes (when relevant)

Did one of your guests win a prestigious award? Give them props while highlighting your episode. Is a guest’s organization being thrust into the discourse? Highlight that episode! Perhaps the conversation you had with a guest is topical and relevant again—you get the idea. Your podcast episodes are living, breathing conversations that exist in the ether, meaning they don’t have to sink into the dustbin of history the day you post on social media. Always keep an ear out for a moment when past episodes become relevant again, and don’t waste a single opportunity to promote your podcast.

You can even use smaller moments as opportunities to resurface an episode. Maybe your guest shared a quote that suddenly feels timely again, or a news story echoes something you discussed months ago. Think of your back catalog as a library of evergreen insights you can constantly pull from. Repurposing content this way not only boosts visibility, it reminds listeners that your show has depth and ongoing value. In a world where attention spans are short, giving your past episodes a second (or third!) shot of life helps new audiences discover you and keeps longtime listeners engaged.