Guide to Doing Fan Shoutouts On Your Podcast
Fan shoutouts are an easy way to reward your fans for listening. And it’s a reward you can generously give out for free. It’s one of the most widely used fan engagement tactics by many podcasters…and for good reason.
Doing fan shoutouts is a sure way to get your fans excited about your podcast. When a fan hears their name on an episode, they often get super hyped, and will naturally share that episode with their friends.
This is how word-of-mouth happens. According to research studies done in the podcast industry, word-of-mouth is still the top way podcasts grow.
Shoutouts are a great way to bring your audience closer to you and build rapport. It makes you feel much more personable and accessible. This close connection with the podcaster, whether real or perceived, is why listeners love podcasts.
In this guide, we’ll go over:
What's a Podcast Fan Shoutout?
First, let’s clarify what a fan shoutout is. Simply put, it’s when the podcast host mentions their fans directly in an episode. It can be their fan’s name or their social media handle.
It can be done anytime during the episode, but it’s typically done at the beginning or at the end of the episode. If it’s a core part of your episode segment, you can incorporate it in the middle of your episode.
It’s typically a pretty short segment, about 15 – 45 seconds. And it can be anything from rattling off a list of a dozen names, like…
Just want to thank our top 10 supporters this week, Jane Smith, John Dakota, Pam Brown, Frank Collin, Danielle Dobbs, Grace Holly, Tina Banks, Jerry Winger, Jimmy Lee, and Dave Friedman.
or paying tribute to 1, or a few, fans in more detail, like…
We wanna welcome our newest community members…Jane Smith, from Wichita and John Dakota, from Portand. Thanks for joining our private community!
Who to Include In a Fan Shoutout?
Something we always teach is to include fans who participate in your PRIMARY call-to-action. Hopefully, you have a call-to-action (CTA) for your podcast. If you don’t, read our article, Guide to Podcast Call-to-Actions.
If you have a CTA in mind, try to include fans who followed your primary action, and include these fans on your shoutout list.
The reason you want to do this is to show OTHER fans, that there’s a nice little payoff, for doing your primary CTA. By publicly demonstrating a payoff for your CTA, it makes your primary CTA much stronger and more compelling.
For example, a pretty common CTA is…
Please rate and review this podcast on Apple Podcasts...
By itself, this is a pretty weak CTA. To clarify, it’s a perfectly fine goal for YOU. But, there’s no tangible incentive for a fan to take that action.
But pair that CTA with a shoutout, like…
This week’s featured review on Apple Podcast. A fan of the show, Jane Smith wrote...
‘I just found this podcast, and I already binged the entire season. Great podcast!’
Thanks Jane for the uplifting review! If you enjoy the show, please rate and review this podcast on Apple, and I’ll feature my favorite review on the next episode.
The latter example is MUCH stronger. It shows your passive listeners that there’s a reason to take an action…cause you’re actually rewarding fans with an actual shoutout.
If you learn nothing else in this article, the biggest takeaway is to tie your shoutouts to your primary call-to-action, cause it incentivizes fans to take action.
10 Effective Fan Shout Out Ideas For Your Podcast
Hopefully, you’re convinced you want to incorporate shoutouts into your podcast episodes. Here’s our list of 10 effective ideas for shoutouts!
1. This week’s featured fan review on Apple Podcasts
If you’re trying to grow your podcast reviews on Apple Podcasts, give a shout out to your favorite reviews and reviewers. This not only encourages more reviews, but it will also encourage well written ones.
For this week’s featured review on Apple Podcast. A fan of the show, Jane Smith wrote…[read a snippet of the review here]
Thanks Jane for the uplifting review! If you enjoy the show, please rate and review this podcast on Apple, and I’ll feature my favorite review on the next episode.
2. Most recent social media followers
If your call-to-action is for more social media followers, give shoutouts to your most recent followers and call out their social media handles too.
Just want to give a shoutout to our most recent (Instagram, Twitter, etc) followers. Jane Smith @janesmith, John Dakota @therealdakota, and Pam Brown @pambrown007.
Tag these fans on social media when the episode airs, so they can listen and easily share it.
3. Most recent tips or donations
If you’re using a fan monetization platform, like PodInbox or Patreon, you can give shoutouts to your most recent supporters
Just want to thank my most recent supporters. Jane Smith, John Dakota, and Pam Brown.
It’s fans like you that help keep this show running. If you wanna support the show, just leave me a tip on my PodInbox page at [URL], and I’ll give you a shoutout on my next episode.
4. Top 5 supporters
If you’re using a fan monetization platform that has leaderboard feature, like PodInbox, you can give props to your top supporters. This will also create some friendly competition to encourage fans to keep supporting, to stay on your shoutout list.
Just want to thank my top 5 supporters on PodInbox, Jane Smith, John Dakota, Pam Brown, Jake Flemming, and Francis Pan.
If you want to support this show, just head to my PodInbox fan page and make a donation. Every week, I give a shoutout to my top 5 supporters, and maybe you can make it on that list!
5. Most recent newsletter subscribers
If you have a newsletter and are looking to grow it, give a shoutout to your most recent newsletter subscribers.
Just want to give a shoutout to my newest newsletter subscribers…Jane Smith, John Dakota, and Pam Brown.
Thanks for subscribing and hope you enjoy the newsletter!
And every week, I feature the best newsletter reply I’ve received. This week’s featured reply is from Jane Smith, who writes…
‘This is such a great newsletter! It’s already helped unblock me with something I’ve been struggling with for the past several weeks.’
Thanks Jane, glad you find the newsletter helpful…and remember to share it with a friend!
6. Most recent crowd funders
If you’re running a crowdfunding campaign, using a platform like Indiegogo or Kickstarter, shout out your latest supporters. This will let you give props to new supporters, and encourage potential new supporters to contribute to your campaign.
Just want to thank the newest contributors to our crowdfunding campaign…Jane Smith, John Dakota, and Pam Brown.
As you know, we’re trying to raise money for Season 2 of our podcast. To contribute, head to our Indiegogo campaign and we’ll have that link in our show notes.
7. Featured question of the week
One of the most used shoutout tactics is the listener Q&A (question and answer), or AMA (ask me anything). This can be done as a segment on every episode or even as an entire bonus episode. Using a tool like PodInbox, you can even get listeners to leave you an audio question, so you can download their audio clip and include it in the episode.
This week’s featured question is from Jane Smith…
[insert question here].
Thanks for your question Jane! What I’d say to that is…
[insert answer here].
If you want your question featured on an upcoming episode, please record your question on my PodInbox fan page at [URL]…and that link is in my show notes.
8. Featured listener story
Like listener Q&A, you can also share listener stories. Listeners often want to hear stories from other fans. You can use a tool like PodInbox to let fans record their listener stories, so you can download their audio clip and include it in the episode.
This week’s listener story is from Jane Smith… [play Jane’s audio clip].
Thanks for sharing Jane. If you want to share your story on an upcoming episode, please record your story on my PodInbox fan page at [URL].
9. Newest community members
Many podcasters run some kind of community…maybe based around or course, or a Discord chat room, or a Facebook group. You can effectively get new members to join your community with a simple shoutout to new community members.
Just wanna welcome all the new community members this week. Jane Smith, John Dakota, & Pam Brown.
If you’re also looking to join the community, we’re happy to have you! Just go to [URL] to join, and I’ll include that link in the show notes.
10. Featured community member of the week
If you run a community or group chat of some sort, featuring your most helpful members is a great way to publicly give them props. It’s also a great way to get other community members more involved and active.
One of the hardest things about communities is keeping the members active and engaged. By praising your most active members in public, you’re incentivizing other members to also be more active.
Just want to give some props to our community member of the week, Jane Smith.
Jane just led a session called [session name]…which was super high value, thanks Jane! Congrats Jane for being our featured member of the week!
If you want to be a featured member of the week…so something good inside our community!
Some Final Thoughts & Takeaways…
We hope you find these 10 podcast shoutout ideas helpful! And of course, there are many more creative ideas you can do for fan shoutouts…it’s really up to your own creativity.
As you’re creating fan shoutouts for your podcast, here’s a short checklist of some important things to keep in mind is…
- Shoutouts increase word-of-mouth growth
- Your fans get hyped when they hear their name, and they’ll share your show to their friends.
- Align your shoutout to your primary call-to-action or goal
- This will help incentivize fans to take action, and convert your passive listeners into active superfans.
- Do it consistently as a recurring segment
- When done consistently, you develop rapport with your fans and it encourages more fans to participate.
- Make it easy for your fans to earn a shoutout
- Remind listeners how to participate and include links in the show notes.
- Serve your fans
- Genuinely appreciate your fans and give fan service. The best shoutout ideas come from a place where you’re giving value and fans respond.
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