Last year, I asked several social marketers what books they would recommend aspiring pros read in 2017. This year, we’re turning our attention to podcasts.
There are, of course, a myriad of marketing and business podcasts available, with more turning up every week. To help you cut through the clutter, here’s what your fellow social media experts are listening to this coming year:
Natalie Barnard, Frog’s Leap Winery (@npbarnard)
"For marketing direction, I like Online Marketing Made Easy. Amy Porterfield’s podcast consistently shows up in your professional corner with an upbeat personality providing encouragement, business insight, and marketing direction. As humans, we tend to overcomplicate things (especially marketing), but no matter your current stage of business growth, Amy offers simple solutions to complex tasks and plans to execute the basics brilliantly.
You’ll also find me listening to School of Greatness. Lewis Howes, a former professional athlete and now sought-after business coach, speaker, and podcast host, offers three episodes weekly to an audience who is eager to become their greatest self. He asks powerful questions that even make guests like Tony Robbins take pause. He seeks to find the common thread of success, personal development, and humanity. He orchestrates moving conversations that invite the listener to dig deep to find the truths in life and business. I absolutely love this podcast."
Nick Gilham, Luxottica (@nickgilham)
"While it isn't a podcast in the traditional sense, I listen to Digiday’s TLDR every morning on my Amazon Echo while I'm getting ready for work. It's 90 seconds of the top news in digital marketing. I feel like it helps keep me in-the-know about what is happening with content publishers, social platforms and the agency world.
On the weekends, I'm usually listening to NPR's Ask Me Another podcast in the car. It's a game show taped in front a live studio audience that features word puzzles and current events trivia. I always have a good laugh and feel a little smarter at the end of it."
Kate Hutchinson, Dell (@kehutchinson)
"For marketers, I recommend two podcasts in particular:
- Being Boss – Hosts Emily Thompson and Kathleen Shannon are creative entrepreneurs who both work in branding and strategy consulting. On the podcast, they share a wealth of information on topics like working with brand ambassadors and crafting a marketing strategy. Guests include writers, makers, consultants, and coaches, all offering a different view on their niches. You’ll also find a lot of talk about ways to increase your productivity or get more creative about your work, plus lots of interesting book recommendations.
- Freakonomics – This podcast is the ultimate in interdisciplinary thinking and looking at how things work. It’s not directly related to marketing, but it covers a lot of concepts that could apply, like how long people are willing to wait in line or what happens when you design a program to help people, but it actually harms them.
Another podcast you’ll find me listening to? Reply All. It in, you’ll learn the secrets of how the internet works."
Chad Parizman, Pfizer (@cparizman)
"If you’re looking for a marketing podcast that educates, but still brings the funny, you can’t do better than The Marketing Companion podcast from Mark Schaefer and Tom Webster. No one understand the podcast business itself better than Tom, who’s been releasing The Podcast Consumer from Edison Research for more than a decade. The pair cover the entire landscape of digital marketing, from dissecting the annual Meeker Report to impact that voice and smart speakers will have, they always seem to see where the puck is going.
And, at the risk of sounding too hipster, but I’ve been listening to podcasts long before the recent boom we seem to be in right now. My gateway into the world of podcasting was while planning my wedding at Walt Disney World. I came across a whole ecosystem of Disney planning podcasts like The Dis Unplugged. Additionally, I enjoy Kevin Smith’s podcast empire, SModcast. Hundreds of episodes later I’m still listening. I look at the SModcast network as one of the first to prove the model of finding a core passionate audience, try lots of different ideas, regularly deliver them free content, and then sell merch and tickets to see live shows."
David Shephard, MicroFocus (@d_shephard)
"Podcasts form a constant reference point for me, but I do not listen religiously to any one or two casts but rather use several as libraries of content that I drill into as I need. There are two constant companions, and toward the top of my short list are: Buffer’s The Science of Social Media, which, while I might not always agree with, does actually give you real strategies and if needed, resources; and Agorapulse’s data-driven Social Media Lab podcast.
For personal development, there are several, but the two that stand out: Nerdist and Against the Stream, for a bit of spiritual enlightenment."
And finally, here’s my take …
For those of us who spend our days knee deep in Instagram Stories and Tweets, there are two podcasts I turn to help keep my skills sharp:
- The Future of Everything: The Wall Street Journal’s snack-sized podcasts give you quick, insightful commentary on where our planet is headed. As someone in the martech space, I find it extremely helpful in keeping me on top of emerging trends and technology.
- Head, Heart, & Hustle: Full disclosure – Allen Plummer is a friend. Regardless, his podcast for creatives continually profiles intriguing individuals and, as a marketer, helps inspire me to think outside the box and push through when I hit those inevitable creativity roadblocks.
When I’m not listening to marketing-minded podcasts, you’ll find me devouring The Babysitter’s Club Club, for my childhood nostalgia and kooky conspiracy theory fix, and You Must Remember This (of which Kate Hutchinson is also a fan), for my classic Hollywood fix.
These are a few of the podcasts worth your time in 2018. Check them out if you're looking for something new.