How to Promote Your Podcast in Groups Without Getting Banned

We are always in a hurry to promote our podcast, and often we take steps that come back to haunt us when there's a very easy thing you can do to do it the right way.

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So I was on Reddit and there was somebody who has a little House on the Prairie podcast.

I guess they're going to reboot that show.

And they went in and said, hey, I'm doing a show.

Here's where it is, yada, yada, yada.

This is what is called self promotion.

And almost every Facebook group, almost every Reddit, says, hey, you can't do that.

Now why is that?

Because when you get a couple thousand people, in some cases tens and twenties, and hundreds of thousands of people, and they all go, go, listen to my podcast, that forum has no value.

It's just, listen to my podcast.

Listen to my podcast.

Listen to my podcast.

No, no.

Listen to my podcast.

And there's a very, very simple solution to this.

Find out who the moderator is.

Now, I know.

Oh, my gosh, I want you to do some work.

Yeah, I know.

It's not hard.

You can usually go in there and see who the moderators are and then go to them and say, hey, I'm going to do a show about Little House on the Prairie.

This is a forum about the TV show Little House on the Prairie.

Is there any way I could mention this in the group without being banned?

And in some cases they will mention it.

In some cases they will say no.

And when that happens, realize there are like 8 billion zillion other places you can promote your podcast.

And here's something else you might want to throw in while you're talking to the administrator of the Facebook group of the Reddit whatever.

Hey, would you be interested, as you are the moderator of the.

Whatever subject you're in, would you want to come on my podcast?

Because you know who's likely to promote an episode of the podcast would be the administrator where they are on the show.

There's a novel idea.

It's not that hard.

Now you have to take, I don't know, two minutes to figure out who the moderator is, et cetera, et cetera.

My favorite self promotion story is this was before Facebook group.

So this was a while ago again.

I started in 2005 and I found a forum online for ex radio DJs.

And I walked in and I was like, I swear I heard voices like angels singing.

And I was like, oh, my gosh, this is my target audience.

These are people that want to get back on the air.

And so I signed up for the forum, I went in and my very first post was, hey, I'm Dave Jackson from the School of Podcasting.

If you want to get back on the air, I can get you in front of a global audience.

Follow me to the School of Podcasting.

And I was banned in about 20 minutes.

Why?

Because it was self promotion, better known as spam in many cases, where if I'd gone in and made some friends.

That's why we say when it comes to growing your show, the steps are number one.

Make a show that people want to hear and then go to where they are, make friends with them, and then tell them about your show.

And there are things you can do.

Like in my latest episode, I talked about this subject.

But don't put a link.

And then anyone who really wants to know about that subject will probably click on your name in the forum or group.

And then you better have a link to your website in your bio or in your profile so they can click on it.

And then hopefully it's easy to find the podcast on your website.

But don't self promote.

You're just gonna get banned.

And then I see this in Reddit, probably twice a month, somebody complaining that they did self promotion and got banned.

Well, yeah, read the rules.

When you go into different Facebook groups especially I had a Facebook group for Podpage and it said clearly in there, no self promotion.

And there are people that don't care.

They come in and the very first thing is, listen to my show, here's the link.

And you just have to go in and ban them.

And that's the way it is again, because if we let everybody do that, the form would be absolutely useless.

The Facebook group, the Reddit, it just people are there to learn from each other.

And I know you're going to go, yeah, but you can learn from my podcast.

It just.

I'm here to tell you there are different Reddits.

Where, like, there's one, I think it's guest exchange.

And it's just people going, I am somebody that does this.

I would love to be on your podcast.

Then somebody else is like, I do a podcast about this.

I'm looking for people who do this.

And that's one way.

There are also things like podmatch and podcast guests, things like that.

But just Keep in mind, if you want to get yourself kicked out of a forum really easy, just go in and self promote.

And instead maybe you should reach out and ask for permission.

And while you're there, ask the moderator if they'd like to come on your show.

If you need more help with growing your podcast, we've got lots of ideas, lots of resources, and an amazing community over at the School of Podcasting.

And use the coupon code listener when you sign up and that will save you on either a monthly, quarterly, or yearly subscription.

I'm Dave Jackson.

I help podcasters.

It's what I've been doing for over 20 years, and I'd love to see what we could do together because I want to be your podcast consultant.