After a mostly quiet and frustrating January as far as the podcast goes, things have really burst into a hive of activity in the last few weeks, thanks mainly to some much-needed and very valuabl publicity on ABC Radio Hobart and SBS News.
The interview I did on ABC Radio came about mainly because a producer saw a post I'd put on Instagram calling out for more nationalities who might be interested in participating. From that I had a short interview with Mel Bush, very early in the morning. There wasn't a huge amount of response to this in terms of people messaging me, but Mel was able to put me on to Nizam, who originates from Ethiopia and I ended up having a really interesting interview with him, about which I will do a separate blog post. I also got a surprising email from a lady from Kyrgyzstan, whose Tasmanian husband had heard the broadcast. Certainly not a country I expected, but she's still awaiting her partner visa in Dubai.
Back In December I did an interview and some filming with Sarah Maunder from SBS News, along with two of my previous podcast participants, Eri (Japan) and Melika ( Iran). However, it took almost 2 months to be published on SBS's website, and you can read it below.
The impact of this was pretty immediate, and most of that day I found myself responding to emails either giving me positive feedback, making suggestions for finding people, or offering to participate. Unfortunately, most of these would-be participants were from nationaliies that I'd already covered ! Nevertheless, I did get some interesting contacts, including a Mauritian who I'm going to interview in Devonport shortly. In sharing it on social media too, I've received a lot of interest and positive comments, including from people I don't really know, which is heartening.
The biggest, and perhaps most pleaseing, impact though has been the dramatic increase in listnership since the story came out. In the week after the story, the number of listeners was more than double the best week the podcast has had previously, and the subsequent week was at a similar level, so let's hope the trend continues
Although the number of direct contacts that have resulted in interview appointments hasn't been huge (yet), the publicity has really helped generate more interest and I've got a number of other interviews lined up to the point where I'm looking to do 3-4 a week, which will be an interesting challenge for my editing and time-management skills ! Of course, as you do things more frequently, you tend to become more skilled and more efficient and, hopefully, just generally better.
If you haven't checked out the podcast before, you can find it here :
Comments