For Headliner Highlight 23, we hear from Shannon Entin and Fadra Nally of Stinger TV and Movie Podcast.
Tell us about your podcast.
Shannon: Hi, I’m Shannon.
Fadra: And I’m Fadra. We are the co-hosts of a podcast called Stinger TV and Movie Podcast, which comes out every other Tuesday, and we talk about TV and movies!
Shannon: We’ve been podcasting since August 2017, so [we just passed] our second anniversary. And then, we added three more podcasts in the Fall of 2018 because we love [podcasting] so much. We also podcast about Ozark, a Netflix Original. We have a podcast dedicated to Homecoming, the Amazon Prime video series, and a podcast devoted to Black Mirror, the Netflix Original.
Why did you start podcasting?
Fadra: So we started podcasting because Shannon and I both work in the social media world, we met each other that way, and we found that we both had this shared love of entertainment and a shared love of talking.
So we do a lot of writing, but podcasting is a whole different medium. It allows more emotion to come through. I think it allows for more spontaneous conversation, more interaction, and I really feel like it’s lent itself well to our personalities.
What do you do to share & promote your episodes?
Shannon: We do a lot of social media; as Fadra said, we are very active on social media. So the first thing we do after publishing a new podcast episode on our blog, which is stingeruniverse.com, we then push it out to Facebook, we push it out to Twitter, we push it out to Instagram, usually where we’re maybe sometimes a little lacking on Instagram, cuz that doesn’t fully translate as well. But we have been using audiograms much more for that, and sometimes we’ll do audiograms for Facebook, like a small short video.
Oh, I also go into Buffer. I use that tool to regularly repost the episodes, so they will be seen repeatedly on social media.
What has been most effective? Least effective?
Fadra: As bloggers, Shannon and I have a particular strategy for promoting written content.
And guess what?
That doesn’t necessarily translate for podcast listeners. We found this out, but what we have found to be effective, a couple of things, first of all, is we built a community. So we have a terrific Facebook group, and we have a lot of discussions that help give us content for the podcast and get people kind of excited about the topic that we’re talking about.
The other thing that we like to do is we like to do audio clips because we found that a lot of the people that are interested in what we’re talking about aren’t necessarily podcast listeners. They don’t always get podcasts. So when they get the chance to do some audio clips or even video clips, they get a better sense of who Shannon and I are and what we like to talk about.
I’d say least effective are the traditional social media channels because frankly, you have to go where podcast listeners are, and they’re not always going to be on social media. They’re probably going to be out there listening to other podcasts.
Why do you make Headliners?
Fadra: People on social media or are bloggers or are friends or family are not always listening to podcasts, or maybe they don’t even know what podcasts are.
Shannon: So, I stole your thunder?
Fadra: I enjoy making them because I like to go through our podcast and pick out like maybe the most entertaining or the most intriguing clip or something where like you leave them hanging and then they want to come and listen and learn more about what you’re talking about.
Current Podcasting Setup?
Fadra: So this is when it’s really great to have a partner. Shannon and I, from day one, have had this great division of labor. I do most of the editing, and I use Garageband. When Shannon does the editing, she uses Audacity, which is a pretty common one.
We use Cast to record the podcast.
Shannon: Which we love, and not many people I feel have heard about it, so shout out to Cast.
Fadra: Yeah, shout out to Cast. Shannon and I live in different states, we’ve had guests on, and everything has always gone off without a hitch. So we record, we edit, and then thanks to some expert podcasting advice, we run it through Auphonic, which helps adjust the sound levels to give it really crisp quality sound.
From there, we use Blubury as our podcast host, which integrates really nicely with WordPress, which is what our website is hosted on.
Shannon: We also use the same microphone, the Audio Technica ATR2100.
What is something you think is overrated or underrated in podcasting?
Shannon: Well, one thing I think is overrated is social media. We always push all of our stuff onto social because you have to, but I don’t feel like we get a good return. I think you need to go where podcasters are to get podcasters to listen to you. I really wish more podcasters would engage in commercial swapping. We did a couple of those, and I tried to reach out to more people to do more, where we would have a commercial on a similar podcast, and they would do a commercial on ours.
Fadra: I think one of the most overrated things is Apple Podcasts if I can say this without penalty. Because I think that even though people are straying away from Apple as their podcast provider; I know I don’t use it, I use Castbox, which I love. I feel like Apple Podcasts has a real tight hold on the medium, so unless you have some spectacular debut, and unless you rank on the Apple Podcast charts right away, you aren’t going to get discovered. So I think Apple Podcasts is overrated.
What I think is underrated, though, is podcasting. I know many brilliant, intelligent people that I think would really enjoy podcasting if they gave it a chance. And not every podcast is for every person, but I really wish more people would take a chance on it.
If someone was to only listen to one episode of yours, which one would you send?
Fadra: I think I would send them our Episode 0 for Stinger TV and Movie Podcast. Episode 0 was really just a fun introduction to what Stinger is, how we came up with the name, and what it means.
Do you have a favorite podcast?
Shannon: Oysters, Clams and Cockles
Fadra: West Cork (Audible exclusive podcast)
