Creators Lab: Episode Art & Social Media Calendars

New Media Lab with Robert Southgate

Rob follows up with Kevin about how the social media tactics worked from the last episode. Social media calendars are discussed and how to use them effectively. Plus Rob breaks down episode art and the important sizes to create.

Each week, Rob answers questions from Kevin Long and offers advice on how to have a successful podcast. Good for newbies and seasoned podcasters alike!

Learn more, subscribe, or contact us at www.southgatemediagroup.com. You can write to Rob at [e-mail] and let us know what you think. Be sure to rate us and review the episode. It really helps other people find us. Thanks!

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SHOW HOSTS: Rob Southgate

SHOW EDITOR: Rob Southgate

PRODUCER: Rob Southgate

#NewMedia #Podcasting #Business #YouTube #Blogging #Vlogging

Transcription

00:00:00 This is a really difficult question. Oh, that's a great question. That's a good question. That is a great question. It's a really good question. I love this question. And I think this really is going to help me kind of meditate and grow on it. Want to hear the answers checkout season two of new media lab with Robert Southgate new episodes every Tuesday available on Spotify. I tunes. Google hod Cass and wherever you subscribe to your favorite podcasts. Welcome back to the new media lab. This is the creator's lab. I have with me Kevin long from the Kevin long show. And I am your host, rob Southgate. We are in week three of this experiment. We'll call it that somebody. You sounds great. All right. So let's recap just a little bit. I actually we didn't do it for a couple of weeks. And there's a reason there's couple of reasons one is some craziness on our end. We got asked to do a couple of pockets Marathon's that are coming up at like four weeks. So, wow, that's cool. I have underwater trying to figure that out. But number two after that last conversation, we had I gave you some some homework, and I wanted to give it time to do something one thing that that podcasters I thought about this after we did that one thing the podcasters tend to think is I am going to make one tweet and I'm going to. See an effect.

00:01:41 Not true. It takes time. Everything takes time. You don't just build an audience overnight. Although there are times you'll see a spike like we did after week what we're going to go back, and I'm gonna talk to you about where the numbers are now because they are different again. But before we do that. I wanna talk about that homework. We did. Did you do that social media stuff that I was talking about? I noticed that the first time right after you gave it I was really good at doing five five posts out the day for, hey, here's the show or hey, here's this thing. But the last two shows of come out I wasn't as diligent in posting five separate hosts ended you those all in one day. I did do the first time it was five in one day. And then the last two shows it was just, hey, here's my show and totally forgot about it. Okay. And did you do the case you missed it posted do those? And did you have any interaction from any of this? I had one. The first magic Monday that we did after we talked. I had one guy on Twitter. Get back to me and say, hey, this is what I do in my own cool. All right. Very cool. So there was a little bit of engagement there. Now, here's the thing coming like, I said it takes a while for the stuff to build up.

00:03:13 Yeah. And engagement is a real tough one. It takes a while for that to kick ins- you have to be diligent you have to keep at it. Now, something that I did and one interaction is good. I gotta tell you something that I did in the interim here between these shows I created a social media calendar for people used just basic one. And then I shared the one that I was using four new media lab two points on that number one. I already have not used my social media calendar that I created. So if you fail added, if you don't do it don't call it a failed to say, you know, what a started now or maybe it's too much at this point. But. I know that that is a best practice for me. I literally just couldn't pull the time together to set up a month's worth of post when I do it. I will actually create that. So that literally twenty five out of the thirty days are done in one day ready to push out there. Okay. So I just wanted to let people know that a even though I'm talking about it. Trust me. I am not perfect in any way. And I understand it takes time. I want you to understand that to now. Did you look at that social media calendar thing that I share I like that it, and I need to I need to do it. Yeah.

00:04:32 You know? Here's a thing. You could do Kevin is take take what we did with the five posts try to make that a habit. Okay. And try to make the case you missed of a habit. And then look at that calendar and say, okay, can I get it? So I'm doing something each day doesn't have to fit the counter just something maybe look at the cow. Lindor and say oh today. I might try this great. So it's not like you have to look at it and say, oh, rob said, we should do an Instagram post on Wednesday. And then we should do an encasement stuff Thursday, and they should do this on Friday. Many just if you can't think of something to post look at the calendar. What does it say for the day, and you go, oh, I could throw a quote up there? Boom done talking. You have one of the easiest things in the world. You could literally as long as you have your hashtags that we talked about locked and loaded. You could literally share a piece of D artwork. He could share pictures of dice. I mean, there are people that all they wanna see are the different types of dice out there. You could just search the internet find that setups pictures each day, boom, you've got interaction you've got something or take a quote type in Gary guy gags quotes and put those up, you know, it's really simple stuff. It's nothing that use a lot of brain power for and it should take you about thirty seconds of your old day.

00:05:54 Okay. So let's talk about your numbers. What's happened? On that last one we were celebrated because we went over one hundred right right in one day, you have gone right back to where you were. Okay. Do not disappointed with that. I think the reason that we jumped up to one hundred is because of what I did on the back end of not taking credit for this. I'm telling you the reality on the back end. I submitted you to various platforms when you do that it starts painting around and it showed up downloads on here. So now, we have the show in more places for people to find it. Now, it's all about building that awareness, and it will start to really grow before you think that I'm going like. Yeah. It's because what I did if you look at some of my shows take this show for temple. I did the same thing. I added this to to to various platforms that it wasn't on. And I hit a day where the number spiked. I went oh, cool as I started thinking about it was like, yeah. It's ping around. That's why that's happening. Right. So now now we've set the table all of our stuff is right. Let's get in there and promoted to try to draw attention. Okay. You said you said you have a question. What's your question? I do on the show with wanna say entry ah from the creative imposter.

00:07:23 Yep. She says one original post on Lincoln every day. Yes. So what she's doing is? She does video every single day and they're about a minute long. And it is her heaven connection on Lincoln Lincoln is a phenomenal platform when you understand how to use it. I do not use it properly yet when I wrote the blog post about the social media calendar, I put it up on there. And it got a lot of response. If you look at our website, you look at the ticks a lot of traffic. Came from that Linden post. That's Andrea is doing that every day. And I believe she's making video everyday, I might be wrong. She might be doing a blog post or posted show. She might be using that same type of strategy strategy that we were talking about of have something unique each day. But I know for awhile there, she was doing a short video every day. And it would be something about training or whatever. In your case, you could do the same thing. But once again, Kevin that's a lot of content. When you're you're still trying to get your feet, you know, stable on this whole, how do I tweet every day? How do I do Facebook every day? Right. And my concern is I was trained that linked in is a professional website. So like my net would be even niche ear on link dead. Sure. But what you're doing is. You're not how do I say this on Lincoln? You're promoting your business which is.

00:08:58 This show. Okay. So you're saying I have a new episode. Here's my new episode. We talk about this. And then maybe on the next day post the question very specific to the industry or the people that that are very involved in it create content right for the platform. That's something that I'm stickler about. And that's why I haven't really gripped what I do on Linden yet. Because I wanna make sure the content creating there is proper rattling is about business. But that doesn't mean you can't post your shows. I've seen people post, you know, they're fan of the flash they post their show about the flash. But then the next day they're posting something about the business Harvey. Okay. They're sharing something about social media promotion, they're saying something about content marketing, they're sharing something about new media. And then they post their show. So basically what they're doing by doing all those professional posts is they're earning the right to share their show. Gotcha got. And like with this show, and we do these you should absolutely be posting these Lynton because this is the business side of X Sherrit from your life. Don't just like when I posted share your own, I guess on this show, and we talked about this hashtag has take hashtag hashtag guess what you're going to attracting attention. Hey, wanna know what show we were talking about? Here's the Kevin long show. Here's a post, boom. You've earned the right then for people. All right. Who will I hope that made sense? And you know, you could always reach out to Andrea. It's Andrea Klender. She is wonderful. She will answer questions. You can also reach out to basically anybody. You've heard any media lab. I know that Dave Jackson. He's right on it. You write to him. Boom. He'll right back you Brent. And right back to you. They're all great people, and they're all acceptable. That's why I put their contact information in the show notes. These are all people that reached out when I reached to them like immediately. Whether I knew or not they were like, yeah. Want to be part of it. They were super gracious.

00:10:59 An awesome with the information. And they all said, hey, when you share it with your your fans, make sure they know they can they can reach out to us. That's awesome. Okay. So I'm gonna I'm gonna go Nici here. We talked about the social media counter stuff. I'm going to actually do a separate short episode about that. Because people are asking me how that works. I'm gonna do one separate from this separate from new media lab where I literally just talk about the blog post, and how you do it. Okay. Sows get into that in particular. But it will probably bring up questions for you at another time. What I want to talk to you about something really specific that is overlooked a lot, and that is show artwork. Now, I look at your show. And if you go back, you can't really do this necessarily, but if you were to cycle through your post, you would see that there are a handful of shows where I made artwork for most of the time. It's just. Your show logo. Now the show logo is fine. But it's not fresh for people. Right. When people see new episode post. They're seeing the same image every time. Dow some people say to me. Yeah, I tunes. It doesn't show the image. Actually, does there are places on I two where it does show the show image. Yeah. I see change all the time on some of the shows that I listened to and then take platforms like like, Stitcher, it, it doesn't really do it there but in car mode. I think it might I know Spotify shows the different ones. I know that like spreaker I believe does blueberry does like all these different platforms that you should have your show on a lot of them. When you click on it. It does show the artwork you've put it.

00:12:46 Okay. Also, if you're we use Lipson, and you use Lipson when you use Lipson it creates a website. So we have our main website and what I'm doing now is used to. Create a different page for each show that I had to keep populating, and it gets to be too much with the hundred shows. So now what I'm doing is. I've got the main frame of that. I just make minor Justice here and there and then when he click on listen to past episodes. It goes to this really beautiful whip Lipson page that has all the episodes laid out. If you don't do original artwork. They all look the same episode. You have to read all this text if what's going up. Okay. I encourage you to make artwork. I encourage you Kevin and every one listening to make something, and here's what you need to do you need to make it. So it's fourteen hundred by fourteen hundred pixels. I usually do it at three hundred DPI, but it can be like one hundred twenty five you just want to have something that looks good. What I say make something original it can be this podcast. This is a little different than if I'm bring something in a magazine. So in your case, Kevin you could take every episode take a different image from dungeons and dragons, okay and just just crop down a fourteen hundred fourteen hundred and then put like episode fifty spolot Spencer in big letters on it.

00:14:17 Okay. Okay. And that way any fan that looks at it goes clearly like, oh, it's about to you D. And look this is episode fifty. Gotcha. That is a really effective way to do it. I get bogged down in creating more elaborate stuff, right? Put talk bubbles and do all the stuff that I ended up dropping off of at some point because I was doing a hundred shows. But if everybody when they sent me there episode sent a piece of artwork it would go right in there. Number two on that. So everyone understands the dimensions. You wanna use fourteen hundred fourteen hundred pixels and two hundred three hundred DP. I is is best. Okay. There is a second place on Lipson when you put your artwork, Ed where you can put it a wide screen image. This is for YouTube. Okay. So if you're going to do the YouTube image, you wanna make it nineteen twenty by ten eighty that's the wide screen image that it says here. I do a little different, but that is a perfectly acceptable size. I'll actually post something when I when I do this. I'll do a Saizen an image. Sizing chart then I'll share my long. And that people can see like, what are the dimensions? I actually have. And the reason I don't want off my head is I actually have it preset in pixel mater, which is what I use for this some people use, you know, Photoshop their various other programs can vibe think something people use use pixel mater, and I just have I have one set at fourteen hundred fourteen hundred and the other one set it on twenty ten eighty or whatever it is.

00:15:56 I'm using at this point for YouTube, and those are the two sizes us, and actually the reason you want to do that is if it pushes to YouTube, or if it's a service that uses the wide screen image. If you just use the fourteen by fourteen it's going to put it in the middle and have white just junk at the sides, nothing at the sides. If you make two images one that's the fourteen hundred then you make one that is something other than just nothing at the sides. So you've got the fourteen hundred fourteen hundred in the middle, and then maybe a law. On the sides, make a black barred put your social media stuff or something. Okay. If you look at some of our shows, if you go to our YouTube channel for Southgate media group, and you look at the biters podcast. I make a YouTube original YouTube piece for every single one. And all I do is take my fourteen hundred image. I plug it into a framework that I've already built. So I don't have to do this. Every time it's already there. Just type in the new show name and drop the artwork in boom done super easy. But you do want to do this. Because once again, if you go to the website from your server, it's not going to. Is gonna look great. If you don't have different images, and when you shared on social media, if it's always the same image people, go blind to it. If you have the new episode, and then you take the image artwork from this episode. And you cite, you know, Hayward with bag of holding. And it's got an image of bag of holding more. People are going to go lot cool people that are into that are gonna go like oak or people that are going to go.

00:17:37 Oh, I wonder what this is. Whereas it's always that the Kevin long show image. Right. It's going to get looked over. Okay. So anyone that wants to see this page at actually I have not done the work on your page. So anyone that wants to see it before? I do the work on. It can go to Kevin long show dot Lipson L I B S Y, N dot com. That is the before I've done the update on it. And if you wanna see how it's done the way, I think it should be done than what's going to happen to Kevin show. Go to new media lab dot Lipson dot com, and you can see that I've got artwork for everything. And yes, it doesn't change drastically. I'm just changing some of the tax on some of her shows I make graphic some of my don't, but it has something different each time. And this is a really slick nice looking page that lives in his up, and it's got all the social media links on it too. So there you go and pay attention because Kevin your page will change over the course of the next week her vase. Oh, one more thing about that. You could send me artwork for passed up Soad's to. Okay. So if you want to go through and do that I'll be happy to put them all in there. So one more one more thing before we go. Kevin one thing.

00:19:00 I noticed. I don't know. What this I'm gonna have to look into this. But. But every page, I just looked at it came up with consistency era of categories have changed. This must be something that I choose doing. I'm not sure, but I see that on yours all three category. Areas are different new media lab it changed. It says I have to choose a different one. It might be that has to be more specific. But just be aware. If you use Lipson go in where you set your destinations and check for consistency. Irs it pops up in red. You can't miss it. And I think you just have to change your categories, something, more concise. Okay. So kevin. I guess you don't have to do that. But listeners you have to. All right. Any other questions? Kevin not this week. Excellent. Will we will come back next week and follow up on this? I promise you. We're going to be back on track with all of it. And we will maybe do a bonus episode where we talk about some of these pockets birth things we have going on because it is quite an interesting process. I might actually make a sideshow judge. Just talking about that. Because my gosh, there's a lot involved and a lot of people have no clue what's involved in trying to put up a live show. So maybe we'll do some of that too. All right, Kevin. Well, why don't you give your social media and we're out? So you can find us on Facebook by searching Kevin long show. You can find us on Twitter. We've got a new Twitter just for the show at Kevin long S H one or you can Email us at the Kevin long show at GM dot com. Wonderful and I'll be back this Thursday with an all new new media lab, featuring Scott Philbrick from stashing legends. This is one you to not wanna miss. I know I said that every time, but it's a really really fantastic interview. And once again, if you want to if you want to support this show, go to patriotic we've got one patron right now, the gaming outsider kicked in and.

00:21:12 They're really happy with everything. I it's beta on there. We're going to keep this thing knowing and there are costs ball. So that is one way to keep this thing alive. Just go to patriot slash new media lab and become a patron and get the answer to how do you monetize your podcast from each of these amazing amazing people? That's it. Gillette? Ceim keep creating. ?