Hey, everyone.

I am Dave Clements, customer relations and media specialist here at Blueberry.

And I'm Mackenzie Bennett, marketing specialist at Blueberry.

Today, we're diving into how podcasters can turn their passion into a purpose and what to keep in mind when representing sensitive issues or vulnerable communities.

Yeah.

Podcasting is this really personal thing.

When you're recording an episode, your voice lives in the ears of your listener, and that is gonna build trust.

And I think a lot of great podcasts that are out there are advocacy driven shows, which is what we're gonna talk about today.

You're listening to Podcast Insider hosted by Mike Dell, Dave Clements, and Mackenzie Bennett from the Blueberry team, bringing you weekly insights, advice, and insider tips and tricks to help you start, grow, and thrive through podcasting with all the support of your team here at Blueberry Podcasting.

Welcome.

Let's dive in.

It's one of those things that it's very easy to reach your niche audience.

Advocacy can can really get down into the weeds about some stuff.

It can be as broad or as small as you want it to be.

This is really a good way to do that.

And, also, it is still a private way of consuming media.

It's definitely not like a public one that's shown on your TV or your shared laptop necessarily or books on the shelf in your house or in your bag.

This is available directly on your phone.

So you can listen to whatever it is that you want with hopefully or potentially no repercussions in that matter.

So it's creating a space for the personal stories and that deeper context that you're trying to reach with listeners.

In the years I've been doing support, we've had several advocacy podcasts that have contacted us for various reasons.

And to me, they're always interesting people to talk to because these are, like, very personal stories that they're sharing with the audience or maybe they're interviewing people or things like that.

And that comes across even, like, on a support side, just the way that they interact with you, the way you interact with them.

And you learn a lot about the best way to communicate with people who are talking about sensitive subjects.

We've had a lot of cancer podcasts, a lot of health related or mental health related podcasts contact us.

And some of the things that I've noticed with the way that they speak in their episodes and just in person is they're really looking out for the consent of the person that they're talking to, making sure that all of the data that they're passing back and forth is accurate, and trying to avoid, like, any unintentional or intentional trauma, exploitation, or anything like that.

The they're very interesting people to talk to.

They're very mindful, much more mindful than I think I am.

Yeah.

It's a really great way to give people who might feel underrepresented or their cause, whatever that may be.

It gives them a platform, and it also gives them what I would think in the context of media is an affordable one.

Besides picking up your phone for a social media platform and doing something there or a website, this is something that easily goes along with that and can actually help organize and convert the listeners that you have into real supporters or volunteers of whatever it is that you're trying to do.

If you're trying to do your your cancer five k or something like that as an easy way to call out those people and say, hey.

We need your help.

This is where we're gonna be.

That type of stuff.

But, also, there's the privacy is still there.

You can learn about the demographics of who is listening to your show, but also listeners can rest assured that their listening habits are not gonna be shared with anyone besides the host of the show, besides whoever is paying for this account with Blueberry, and that all of that is private and that we don't share any of that information whatsoever.

So I think it's just a great way to do whatever kind of show you feel needs to be out there.

Yeah.

I think that's important.

Just conveying that with sensitive topics, you're in really good hands and safe hands, even if you are just a listener, that nobody's gonna take advantage of you because you're listening to this specific type of show.

And I think we're being vague because there are so many different kinds of advocacy driven podcasts, and a lot of them can be very sensitive.

Mhmm.

Like you said, this is a safe space where you can put your earbuds in and work through something that you're going through, whether that's a health thing, a relationship.

I think it's a very niche genre, I guess.

I don't even know if you'd call it a genre, but I think it's overlooked.

I personally don't know a lot about advocacy podcast, but like I said, we have talked to advocacy driven podcasters.

And I'm always very interested in how they got into doing this kind of show because I've always looked at podcasting as, for me at least, it's always been more entertainment driven or even information driven, and this is even more niche information driven.

Yeah.

I think it's really when you get down to the weeds of whatever it is that you are passionate about.

And like you said before, the why do they want to advocate for this?

What happened to them in their own lives that is causing them to want to do a podcast where they can advocate for their chosen topic?

Why do you wanna do a show about domestic violence?

Why do you wanna do a show about something that is happening in the world right now?

These are all things that are very personal to people, and that's something that podcasting has always been, is personal.

But that does lead us into the next part of this is some best practices for responsible storytelling within podcasting in general, but specifically, it does just talking about advocate podcast.

And the purpose of it comes the responsibility of what you're saying out there.

So for telling stories ethically, we wanna encourage you to prioritize consent and accuracy, avoid trauma, exploitation, and sensationalism.

There's definitely some true crime that I will say crosses that line sometimes.

And you wanna center the people in the communities affected and not glorify things necessarily.

And lastly, follow-up with real resources and actionable next steps.

That's my biggest thing for a scenario such as this.

Yeah.

I think that those are really good points.

And even expanding that into building out, like, show notes or downloadables and things like that for your episodes that have helpful links and resources that people can access securely, privately, that kind of thing.

I think that's really good.

And that kinda leads us into partnering, not just with your community, but other organizations.

I think as podcasters, a lot of us are especially indie podcasters.

That's a lot of Blueberry customers.

We're doing a lot of things on our own.

We're wearing multiple hats, and I think it's really easy to feel like you're carrying the entire weight.

Like, this is solely your mission to put out this show, but that's not really the case.

So I think ways that you can strengthen your own advocacy and not have to shoulder everything is to look for nonprofit organizations that match up with your topic.

There are a lot of them out there.

I'm sure you could do a Google search.

There's probably a repository somewhere that you could find.

And in doing that, you can find subject matter experts that you could interview or just flat out just have a conversation.

You don't even have to ask them questions.

You can just dive into their specialty and come up with some really good content.

You can also, from a marketing standpoint, create campaigns that are aligned with different days or months that would align with your topic.

Work some of those things into campaigns that should come naturally, but maybe it doesn't.

So that's an idea.

And then, obviously, encourage your listeners to share your episodes with people that have that in common.

That's how you build community.

And I think that's how you avoid feeling like you have to carry the weight by yourself.

Yeah.

Podcasting is definitely something that can start out as just you and then evolve from there.

There's definitely a lot of listeners out there who don't necessarily wanna be solely a listener.

They will be a supporter, whether that is just word-of-mouth and consistently listening to your episodes or if that is saying, hey.

I know how to produce.

I know how to edit.

I can do graphic design.

I know so and so at this center that does that focuses on the same topic or they're like, I wanna be a guest on this show.

It can really build like that.

It's your listeners are there, and you're building that community.

And we live in a world full of comments, I wanna say.

People definitely will leave a comment on a video or or your post or whatever it is.

So there's definitely ways that you can build this out and not have it just be you.

And I think that's also very helpful in sustaining your show because doing it all by yourself is exhausting.

And especially if you're doing it about a topic that is emotional in the sense that not just a positive one, that can really take it out of you faster than you think sometimes.

So this is definitely a good way to prolong something like that happening to you.

Overall, podcasting is very personal, and that's, I think, what makes it most powerful.

We've seen a variety of shows over the years, and it's never gonna stop shows that are advocating for something, whether that is the most tragic thing you've ever heard of or the most exciting, joyful thing that has happened in the last year.

I think podcasting is a great way to celebrate and support.

Yeah.

For sure.

Build a community while you're doing it.

It's not fun to do a lot of these things alone, so get out there and build something.

Thanks for joining us.

We can't wait to hear about the incredible advocacy and awareness that you do with your own voice.

Thanks for joining us.

Come back next week.

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