What are the defects and taglines that we should avoid in our podcast? step by step guide

Because podcasts consist entirely of a monologue or a conversationthe verbal skills of your presenters they are crucial to delivering a quality podcast to your listeners.

Nevertheless, beginners just starting out in the world of podcasting tend to have verbal tics, or taglines, which are involuntary and that can cut the dynamic of the conversations in the episode.

On this note, We will teach you what are the most common mistakes when narrating a podcast, as well as the reasons why they may ariseand you’ll learn some helpful tips on how to improve your diction and make your podcast episodes more entertaining.

What is a tagline in podcasting?

Taglines are words, phrases or sounds that are repeated on a regular basis by force of habit. These are unnecessary statements, without any meaning or value and that do nothing but take away the strength and rhythm of your speech.

Most people have at least one tagline of greater or lesser intensity, and this is especially problematic when your speech is the tool by which you communicate your ideas in places like an audio program. Although they are used as a resource to move forward with the idea of ​​a message, usually only weaken and lessen the impact of the speechdue to the unnecessary noise they produce.

Why avoid taglines in the podcast?

Although, in normal situations, the sporadic use of taglines does not represent a problem because they allow us to return to the idea of ​​our message, the repetitive use of these during the massive transmission of a podcast can be harmful.

To get started, they are verbal resources that can become a habit, to the point where they can be used without being aware of it, and depending on their frequency, they can reduce the coherence and strength of the message you are trying to convey. In addition, the excessive use of them is a deterrent for listeners, which can lose interest very quickly when perceiving the weakness and hesitation in the messagea very damaging situation for a podcast.

Main mistakes and taglines to avoid in podcasting

While the use of most taglines is manageable within a podcast as long as it is controlled and infrequent, there are taglines and other errors that you should avoid as much as possible, since they affect the integrity of your speech and the coherence of your message to a greater extent.

Let’s see below:

Onomatopoeic taglines

This kind of taglines is made up of unintelligible sounds that are used to fill in gaps in a dialogue or monologue, typically to regain confidence and organize ideas to begin or continue the speech. The most common are sounds like “uhh…”, “East..” and “Y…”, among others.

While its use has some value for broadcasters, semantically it does not add any value to the discourse, in addition to the fact that in most caseswhen used once, is likely to become repetitive and irritating to listeners. This type of tagline can be avoided with prior preparation before the recordings. While a podcast requires some spontaneity, the best thing you can do is create and maintain a structure that helps organize your ideas.

Overproduction

Although production is an important factor in maintaining the cleanliness and quality of a podcast, it is important to know where the limit is at which the audio begins to sound overdriven with effects. One of the most attractive factors of a podcast is the naturalness and spontaneity of the announcer’s voice, and that is an aspect that must be taken care of when applying effects to each episodein order not to overshadow the emotion of the voice.

Do not modulate your voice

One of the worst things you can do is not match the tone of your voice to the context of your message.. For example, maintaining a monotonous tone of voice during the delivery of your podcast, and a flat voice, or using exclamations at points where they do not belong. This often happens to novice broadcasters who stick their shows to a script. And while creating a script is a highly recommended practice, You must make sure that your voice reflects spontaneity, in order to keep your audience interested.

Exceeding the duration of each episode

The duration of an episode, although it is a consequence of the volume of the contentis a fundamental factor in maintaining the interest of the listener, so you must adjust it until you find the point where you hold the listener’s attention. One of the biggest mistakes is cramming a lot of content into a single episode, and getting to an excessive duration that, in most cases, will bore listeners And it will make them lose interest.

Other tips to make a more entertaining podcast

Exists a large number of topics to which you can dedicate your podcast, so you can plan and execute it in the way that suits you best. Nevertheless, there are certain tactics and tips that will be of great help to you to increase and maintain the interest of your audience.

Go for it:

Create content you’d like to hear

When you have defined what audience you want to reachyou must make sure that the content you are going to publish is entertaining, informative and that it adds value to the listener. To do this, the best thing you can do is research the most successful podcasts to create more innovative techniques. Choose a topic that you find interesting and that you are passionate about.

This will keep you hyped for each episode, which in turn will capture the hype of your listeners. Podcasts that focus on pop culture and talk are very popular, and although they are a good option, the competition in this field is very stiff. If you have a specific topic that you are knowledgeable about, feel free to launch a podcast about it.. Niche podcasts are very well received, and your knowledge will give you greater popularity and access to guests.

Define the duration

This is a point that must be agreed from the beginning. From the first episode, you must define how long each installment will last and commit to your listeners in this duration. While the length of each episode is up to you, a standard you can go by is a duration that varies between 15 and 60 minutes.

There are a lot of very successful podcasts with extremely variable duration, which can range from 10 minutes to 6 hours per episode. The trick is in the quality of the content and the consistency of the duration. If your episodes are 15 minutes long, that’s how long your listeners will reserve to listen to you, so launching a 1 hour episode unannounced will be a bad surprise.

Interact with your listeners

Listeners are the life of the podcast and the source of its growth, so that’s a great idea maintain contact with them through the comments of the podcast or its social networks. Also, From the comment box of your podcast, feedback can arise with excellent ideas to apply in your programs. and improve its quality. The idea is to strike the right balance between the authenticity of your episodes and ideas of what the audience wants to hear.

Mix the script with improvisation

Creating a script for your podcast is an excellent practice, since it defines the course of each episode and allows you to maintain a thread of coherence in your message. Nevertheless, sticking to the script 100% may not be the best strategy.

Since podcasts use an almost entirely auditory format, your voice is the main tool to maintain the attention of the public. For this, a little spontaneity and enthusiasm goes a long way. There is no problem in breaking the script to add your own comments, ask the audience a question to interact with them, or any action to interest your listeners a little more.

make it flashy

The first thing any potential listener will see of your podcast is the title and cover image., which makes them aspects that you must treat carefully, since it will be the way in which your audience will recognize you. The aesthetics of the cover image is very important too, as it will make it more likely that they will stop at the listing to listen. Therefore, do not hesitate to design a striking cover that reflects the central theme of your podcast.

Another point you should keep in mind is the description. In this case, you must make sure that it is well written and that it accurately summarizes its content.. And if you decide to add an intro and outro to each episode, make sure they are short introductions and exits.