In this week’s episode, we talk with the host, writer, and producer of This is Purdue, Kate Young, about why a university like Purdue would start a podcast.You’ll hear how they measure success, what their goals are with the podcast, how it impacts growth at the university, and how they grew to 116,000 listeners in 2021.Guest-at-a-GlanceName: Kate YoungWhat she does: Host, writer, and producer of the This is Purdue podcastConnect with her: LinkedInKey TakeawaysUse YouTube as a way to grow your podcast.Don’t forget about YouTube when it comes to sharing your podcast. Particularly, if you record video versions of your episodes. The Purdue team uses a mix of organic and paid strategies to boost their podcast views by taking an entire 40-minute interview, optimizing the titles and descriptions, and also uploading the audio version of the podcast using Wavve or Headliner. They’ve seen a 195% increase in downloads using this strategy.Podcasting allows you to tell a more personal story.Purdue uses their podcast as a pure brand play. Rather than writing these stories, they bring on faculty, alumni, and students so listeners can hear these stories directly from the voices making an impact on their school. Not only does this create a sense of community within students, but it also connects alumni and faculty back to their alma mater.You can reach older alumni by sharing the podcast RSS feed on Facebook.Some of the older alumni might not be as familiar with podcasts or podcast apps. So in order to reach that audience, the Purdue team connects the podcast’s RSS feed to Facebook so people can listen directly from that platform. YouTube would be another great way to reach an audience who might be less likely to subscribe to a podcast but are more likely to subscribe to a YouTube channel.It’s important to repurpose each episode into digestible social content.Purdue shares everything from audiograms and TikToks to short video clips and quote graphics for every episode they publish. Because this is their official university podcast, the marketing and communications teams are able to manage the show from start to finish, meaning the branding is consistent throughout, and social content is created on a regular basis. This helps their audience grow on all platforms.Work hand-in-hand with your PR team to cross-promote your podcast episodes.When pitching to media outlets, Purdue’s PR team embeds any relevant podcast clips into their articles to provide an audio version of the story they’re trying to tell. Not only does this give the reader and media outlets a more personal perspective on the story, but it also increases your podcast reach and downloads.Growth can explode when guests share your show.It’s important to give your guests a nicely packaged set of assets they can use to promote your podcast episodes. This should include graphics, videos, show notes, and even social copy. Make it as easy as possible for them to share your content in order to increase your podcast’s reach within their audience.The ultimate success metric is getting positive podcast feedback from people outside the Purdue community.When Kate hears compliments on Purdue’s podcast from people who went to other schools (even rival schools), that’s when she knows the show is a true success. Those people aren’t tied to Purdue, they didn’t drink the Kool-Aid, yet they still enjoy listening to the podcast and find value in it. That’s the ultimate goal and measure of success.It’s not too late to start a podcast.It may seem like there’s an overabundance of podcasts out there and your window to start a new one may be closing. But Kate mentioned out of the millions of podcasts in production, only 322,000 are active. Many people and brands realize how much work goes into creating and sustaining a show and give up after a season, or even after 10 episodes. So if you’re thinking of getting into podcasting as a marketing or brand play, know that it’s not too late.Having 100 people listen to