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Podcasters and bloggers love feedback from their audience, but are you providing enough or the right ways for your listeners/readers to share their opinions?
Learn eight options you can add for your community to share their perspective with you.
1. Written email
Have your feedback email address on your site! If you're concerned about spam, you can use Gmail the right way, which will give great spam protection.
Don't write your email address like, “feedback [ at ] theaudacity to podcast [ dot ] com.” That's unfriendly to your visitors! Instead, use the free CryptX plugin for WordPress to encrypt your email address but keep it friendly for humans.
2. Phone voicemails
Picking up a phone and dialing a number is the easiest way for people to send feedback. For podcasts, it's also great to hear an additional voice.
Check out these services for making a voicemail number:
- Google Voice (free)
- Kall8
- K7
- BroadVoice (what Cliff Ravenscraft from Podcast Answer Man uses)
3. Website comments
Write great shownotes and allow instant comments on your site, and it's a great way to receive “replies” on specific content from your audience.
This is easier for you and your commenters with a WordPress plugin:
4. Contact/feedback form
Sometimes, it's too inconvenient for someone to open their email program to write an email. Sometimes, hosts are, unfortunately, paranoid of putting their email address on a website. In either case, a contact form is a great solution for your audience to email you through your site.
This form is easy to add to WordPress with a plugin:
- Jetpack (free)
- Contact Form 7 (free)
- Gravity forms ($39 for one site, $99 for three, $199 developer license)
5. Audio messages
Encourage your fans to record themselves to send as feedback! They can use their own podcasting equipment or a voice recorder app on their smartphones to email the audio to you.
Or use the currently free SpeakPipe voice message service to add a tab or link to your site where visitors can click to record a message right from their computers.
6. Social networks
Be on the top social networks—like Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and YouTube—only if you can do it well.
Wherever you are, encourage conversation among your community. You may need a document or app like Evernote, Springpad, or Workflowy to track these messages for inclusion in future content.
7. Forum posts
When you get some much interaction on your website and through email that it gets hard to manage, it may be time to start a forum. Here are the best forum packages:
- phpBB (free, standalone)
- bbPress (free, WordPress plugin)
- Simple Machines Forum (free, standalone)
- vBulletin ($249, standalone)
8. Website chat
You may even want a way for website visitors to instantly chat with you like an IM through your website. For this, check out:
- Zopim (WordPress plugin used by Dave Jackson from School of Podcasting)
- Woopra (website stats package that includes instant chat, limited free)
Poll: What are your top 2 ways you receive feedback?
[poll id=”13″]
Podcasting tip
Your voice is as valid as everyone else’s. Don’t let inner negative voices keep you from starting. Erik Fisher from Beyond the To Do List
Nick from SPNT.tv certainly didn't let inner negative voices stop him from launching Start Talking and Recording Today, a podcast about podcasting.
What are you thankful for in podcasting?
For my upcoming Thanksgiving episode, I would like to include your top one or two things you're thankful for in podcasting. This could be a favorite app, hardware, or other tool; something that podcasting has helped you achieve; or someone you've met.
Need personalized podcasting help?
I no longer offer one-on-one consulting outside of Podcasters' Society, but request a consultant here and I'll connect you with someone I trust to help you launch or improve your podcast.
Ask your questions or share your feedback
- Comment on the shownotes
- Leave a voicemail at (903) 231-2221
- Email feedback@TheAudacitytoPodcast.com (audio files welcome)
Connect with me
- Subscribe to The Audacity to Podcast on Apple Podcasts or on Android.
- Join the Facebook Page and watch live podcasting Q&A on Mondays at 2pm (ET)
- Subscribe on YouTube for video reviews, Q&A, and more
- Follow @theDanielJLewis
Disclosure
This post may contain links to products or services with which I have an affiliate relationship and may receive compensation from your actions through such links. However, I don't let that corrupt my perspective and I don't recommend only affiliates.
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GREAT episode and topic, and one that I’ve been wanting to ask about. I’m planning to get Google voice, now. Speakpipe I’ve been using for a while, because I saw it on your website, I think. And it’s gaining traction in ways people are responding to us. And I’m also anxiously awaiting the “how do you encourage feedback” topic you teased. Thanks again, Daniel!
I’m glad this help, Ben!
Google voice has been great for me! I actually have two Google Voice numbers: one for my business and one for podcast feedback. The feedback number is setup to notify one of my feedback email addresses, so any voicemails left on it are automatically labels “Feedback” in my Gmail.
We get around 80% of our voice feedback through our Google Voice number. And you even get to choose the number people dial into, so you can have a mnemonic spelling for the number.
Our #1 feedback is our forums though. We have topics for each episode, but also for show segments, off topic, media reviews, etc. It’s been a huge success.