Continuing Studies: for Higher Ed Podcasters

[00:00:00] Jennifer Lee Gunson: Welcome to Continuing studies, a podcast for higher education podcasters. In each episode, we talk to a university podcaster to ask some questions, get answers, and share tips and ideas about higher education podcasting.
[00:00:19] Hi, I'm Jennifer Lee. I'm a radio broadcaster and a podcaster.
[00:00:23] Neil McPhedran: And I'm Neil McPhedran.
[00:00:24] I've come to podcasting after 25 years in the digital agency world. Together we've hosted executive produced and launched seven and counting higher education podcasts.
[00:00:35] Please remember to follow continuing studies in your listening app of choice and drop us a rating and or review. We'd love to hear your feedback while you're at it. Also join the University Podcaster Network on LinkedIn.
[00:00:49] Jennifer Lee Gunson: Okay, Neil. So, in this episode, we're talking to somebody else that we met the podcast movement. His name is John Boccacino.
[00:00:57] Neil McPhedran: John is a super passionate podcaster and definitely have a lot to learn from him. Today we're gonna focus on 'Cuse Conversations. That's the Syracuse podcast that he is the producer, host and just general force behind, which we're going to get into. John also has a side project, uh, called Billieve Podcast, as in the Buffalo Bills. He's a big Buffalo Bills
[00:01:29] Jennifer Lee Gunson: Huge fan.
[00:01:29] Neil McPhedran: Big sports guy. And he's got a whole podcast that he launched some years ago, actually. We didn't really get into that, but we know he did. So, um, he's got a lot going on and he really knows his stuff.
[00:01:40] Jennifer Lee Gunson: Well, John is just so passionate. Like you said, he's got his Buffalo Bills podcast. He also has the Syracuse podcast. So, I feel like we could spend many hours with him because he is the most passionate person, I think I've met about university. And so, we're really excited to talk to him about his podcast and how it's a bit different, he's not in one lane. It's a podcast for alumni, it's podcasts for people that are thinking about going to Syracuse, it's people that maybe never will even go to university. So, I like the fact that it's very inclusive for everybody.
[00:02:11] Neil McPhedran: Okay, well, let's get into it. Welcome, John. It's great to have you here today.
[00:02:15] John: Okay, Neil. It's great to be here on the podcast. My name is John Boccacino. I am the senior internal communication specialist at Syracuse University. It's my alma mater. I got two degrees there, my undergraduate was in broadcast journalism back in 2003, and I got a master's in Executive Public Policy and Public Administration back in 2020. I've been at the university for about eight years. I started off in alumni engagement, made a lot of sense, being a proud alumnus myself to go back and work in the Office of Alumni Engagement where we started this podcast in 2019. And it's been going strong for more than four years.
[00:02:52] Neil McPhedran: You're all in on Syracuse University then, obviously John.
[00:02:55] John: I mean, I can't for a fact tell you this is true, but my wife always tells me if you cut open my blood a little bit, you would see it orange, not red. So, I feel like that's, uh, pretty fitting for an orange alumnus to have that running through his veins.
[00:03:07] Jennifer Lee Gunson: I think it's pretty true. Because when, uh, Neil and I met you at Podcast Movement, you were like, blue and orange, baby, blue and orange.
[00:03:16] John: And how many times did you see somebody who was a fellow alum come up because I had the colors on? It's nice to be noticed. And it plays into the rabid, uh, alumni base that we have, which is kind of, you know, why we got started with the podcast in the first place was to tell, you know, those stories of the passionate alums. And it's really morphed from there.
[00:03:35] Neil McPhedran: You basically wore your Syracuse gear. For the first two days you were there, and all of the Syracuse folks came out of the woodwork, and it was probably a great way to, uh, connect, um, so well done. Tell us a little bit about the 'Cuse Conversations.
[00:03:51] John: Yeah, it's really, uh, it's a passion project of mine. When I went to school, I wanted to be a TV reporter, but I dabbled in radio. Uh, we have two really prestigious radio stations on campus, WJPZ and WAER, and I worked for both of those. Towards my senior year, I realized I liked the long form that radio, and multimedia gave more so than like your traditional TV news hits would give you.
[00:04:18] And so I focused on the radio side of things. I've always had a passion for storytelling. I have the gift of gab. Uh, and I love talking to people about their stories of what makes them tick, what drove their career success. And we got this idea back in, I would say, late April of 2019. Um, it was just myself and two colleagues in communications in the Office of Alumni Engagement, but we all had similar backgrounds.
[00:04:43] And we were thinking, how cool would it be? You know, there's 250, 000 alumni around the world. Everyone's got a story to tell of what Syracuse meant to them. What if we launched a podcast to go out there and just capture those stories? And at the time, there weren't a lot of higher ed institutions that were doing podcasts.
[00:05:02] Cornell had a podcast, uh, Duke had a podcast, and I consulted with people at some of the institutions to kind of pick their brains about how to get this up and running because You know, everyone thinks, oh, you just start a podcast and your audience, you know, follows naturally. But it was tough, I mean, it was a long process to get to where we are now entering our fifth season, but it's been a labor of love every step of the way.
[00:05:26] Jennifer Lee Gunson: Oh my God. You're my people. I love broadcasting people. Neil knows this, this is where I like nerd out. So, I'm glad that you also went over to the podcasting side. I know you talked about that its alumni focused, but what is the benefit to this podcast for the alumni?
[00:05:43] John: So, I should clarify, it was started as alumni focused, um, and it was alumni from 2019. And so, I got promoted to central communications. When I got promoted, I had a conversation with my old boss, and we basically agreed that it made more sense to broaden the podcast and bring it to a more diverse audience. So now, we do a lot of alumni success stories, but it's really focusing on student success, shining a light on the research our faculty are doing.
[00:06:11] We have so much great research. Carnegie Mellon Research Institution has dubbed Syracuse one of these Tier R1 research institutions in America, which means we're one of the most accomplished and driven research institutions for higher education.
[00:06:26] We have faculty that are involved with something called gravitational waves, which basically was the start of life, the start of life on this planet, this galaxy. We had faculty members who were involved in discovering gravitational waves. We've poured a lot of resources into the research component here at Syracuse. And that's what a lot of this is all about is just shining a light on things that you might not know about our university. Yeah, we have podcasts with famous alumni like Bob Costas and Marv Albert from the sportscasting world. But we also really tell the stories of great students who are becoming leaders of their own right.
[00:07:03] And that to me is my part of my favorite part of the job is going out there and doing those unsung hero stories that you just haven't heard about, but you need to. And that's where the podcast kind of comes into play, it's an internal audience. We do have a strong external component as well. But our audience are the 25,000 current students on campus, undergraduate and graduate, the 250,000 living alumni around the world, and the 10,000 plus faculty and staff members that are on our campus.
[00:07:33] So, we like to think of this as it's the internal podcast that lets the outside world in on what's happening on campus.
[00:07:39] Jennifer Lee Gunson: Your passion just like shines through this and the podcast. So how does it fit into the overall marketing strategy as well that you guys are doing?
[00:07:48] John: The way it supports our overarching communications and marketing strategy is it's just a great tool that we're able to go out there and, you know, we presented at this diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility symposium, uh, two weeks ago now. And we had done a podcast, I had spoken with our Vice President for Diversity and Inclusion talking about the state of DEIA efforts here at Syracuse and on campus, because here in the States, it's a prevalent thought that DEIA efforts are under attack, um, through the Supreme Court rulings that took place in June. There's this whole backlash against pushing these efforts forward.
[00:08:26] And we have always remained steadfast in our commitment, providing a welcoming environment for our students. So, we were talking about what exactly is your office doing? How are we going out there and recruiting the next generation of students from diverse and underrepresented communities, knowing that the Supreme Court has basically put an end to race based admissions processes?
[00:08:47] And when she was shining a light on like how you can use your admissions process? How you can use financial aid? You can still encourage the students to tell the stories of how race has impacted them and made them stronger, made them [00:09:00] more resilient. And she did such a great job on the podcast that we presented at this symposium on campus. And that epitomized to me this purpose and value that we bring. I could sit here and tell you that, and I do love to talk, and I love to interview students, but the response has been there from the community. I mean, our podcast average between 25 and 45 minutes in length. We have almost 70 percent of our audience stays around for the entire duration of the episode. What that tells me is, what we're doing is riveting material. It's fascinating subjects we're profiling, and people care about what they have to say.
[00:09:35] I'm telling you, some of the students we've talked with during really sensitive, like, when the George Floyd crisis was happening over here in this country, as we were going through this battle for our soul when it comes to racial issues. Students were vulnerable, and they were talking about where they needed support, how the university was enforcing that support, and making them feel welcomed. And for me, my job is easy. I mean, I just sit back there and give them a welcoming voice and face where they can open up and share their story.
[00:10:03] Neil McPhedran: That's fantastic. I guess drilling a little bit more into that, the podcast actually fits into your, the larger content calendar that the comms department has developed. So, it's not just about celebrating alumni or students or faculty. But there's a bigger sort of purpose to the podcast and how that fits into the overarching calendar that your larger team develops.
[00:10:26] John: Yeah. So, we with internal communications, and I will say I'm very blessed to have a great team of colleagues. We map out a calendar of how we're going to promote the episodes. Right now, we do record both audio and video, we do use the video as a promotional tool on X or on Facebook or LinkedIn to really drive the curiosity for an episode, but we use our Syracuse University news channels to really get the word out.
[00:10:52] And the biggest way we do that, we have a newsletter that goes out to our faculty, our staff, our students, our alumni, and our external audiences. So, it's getting prominent exposure and visibility in these newsletters. And by the way, we average well over 40 percent for open rates for these emails that are going out.
[00:11:11] Neil McPhedran: Okay.
[00:11:11] John: So, you're hitting an audience that is rabidly wanting this content you're putting out. We then map out how we're going to promote the episodes. We do a little toolkit where we'll share it with that school or college communicators. I will put a blurb that will say exactly what the episode's all about, uh, so they can easily copy that and promote it on their social channels. We build these graphics that are pretty visually compelling, that tell you exactly what you're going to be hearing while staying true to our brand standard.
[00:11:40] I mentioned bleeding orange. We care so much about that color. So, these graphics are intentionally cultivated and created with the brand representation, so people see it and they know, ah, that's a Syracuse university property and a Syracuse university podcast. We have an identity let's play to our strengths when it comes to promoting the [00:12:00] podcast on social media, on the newsletters, uh, we have a website dedicated to the podcast. And, I want to say too, we care dearly about accessibility as one of the core tenants of the podcast, so every episode has a full transcript that is accessible for people who might be reading on screen readers. We put alt text in all of our graphics. We care a lot about welcoming in everybody to the big tent that is Syracuse University and 'Cuse Conversations.
[00:12:29] Jennifer Lee Gunson: I love it. I, again, like I said, your passion just exudes. You're bleeding orange all the time, metaphorically. And I think your strategy is amazing. It's really well thought of. A lot of the times Neil and I talk about, especially with clients, how to use your podcast as a whole to work with you. It's not just about creating great sounding podcasts, you got to be able to use it afterwards. And I think the fact that you weave it into a newsletter, and you use it beyond just being like, this is a podcast and people are supposed to listen to it. It's like, no you're putting all the effort into it. So why not make it work as an ultimate marketing tool?
[00:13:04] That being said, how do you find your guests? Because that seems to be the hardest thing for a lot of people is finding the right guests for their podcast.
[00:13:12] John: Right now, we've got our guests mapped out through the end of June for next year. We're talking about 8 months in advance. Now it's a fluid calendar, but we have this created content calendar that we share with communications folks, and we have built tremendous relationships with those communications [00:13:30] partners and directors. Where, when we put out an episode, we will give them a heads up that we're reaching out to one of their faculty. They will oftentimes pitch a faculty or students or staff to profile. So you get that buy in from the internal stakeholders. When the content comes out. I mean, there's opportunities to add to the calendar, but we really try to tie it into current events to what's happening on campus. We love to find those tie ins where not just because something's happening, we must do a podcast around it. But how can we enlighten the campus community?
[00:14:01] So, I mentioned that DEIA symposium, uh, that we presented at, we had a podcast themed around there. And we did this podcast that just dropped last week because we have our second annual BioInspired symposium coming up October 19th and 20th that introduces students to research at an early age. We have pre-college programs where our faculty will work with high school students, sometimes even middle school students. A lot of times they're women and they're people of underrepresented backgrounds to this pre-career program to the BioInspired Institute. It's a showcase opportunity to really see all the great research our faculty happen to be conducting and finding out what BioInspired was all about.
[00:14:44] We really harp on that strategy of letting the left hand know that being the students, the faculty and staff, what the other is doing there. Oftentimes things can be so siloed that you don't know exactly what's going on across campus. And that's where this podcast comes in and getting the buy-in from our communications partners has been essential.
[00:15:03] For example, my old boss and alumni engagement, she has this alumnus, when he was at school, he admitted that he partied hard. He had a problem with alcohol, and he actually checked himself into rehab and is a success story of overcoming being an alcoholic. Well, April is alcohol awareness month. So, this idea came up that he has been working with our campus health center, the barn center to come up with resources [00:15:30] for students who might feel like they're slipping down that slope. What can they do if they find that they're having problems with alcohol consumption? So, he's going to come on in April as one of those guests to really shine a light on what's available to our students, that they're not alone in their struggles. Those are exactly the types of stories we want to share that have tangible takeaways.
[00:15:51] Neil McPhedran: It's wonderful to hear. It strikes me how central or a central component the podcast is to the larger comms and marketing strategy. And it's not just sort of shoehorned in, but it's so central. You had mentioned, uh, that 70 percent stat of listen through, which I think is a great stat to look at. I think that's really important. What are some other key metrics for success?
[00:16:16] John: Yeah. So obviously that retention is something I'm very proud of. But I do go back through and if there's an episode that have had 100 percent listeners all the way through, you might assume that it's going to be the most famous alumnus. But we had one that I really want to spotlight here that was with a student, Thomas Wilson. Syracuse has this great program through InclusiveU that students with developmental disabilities pursue their dreams, and he actually hosted a bunch of his own television programs on the student run programs; Thomas on the Town was one of his programs. And he was basically this cult hero amongst the students on campus. And this is somebody who, again, is not a name outside of the campus community, but his episode had 100 [00:17:00] percent retention. Every single person who started the episode made it all the way through. He has that in common with Dino Babers, who is our football coach. But I guarantee you, you survey our students, faculty, staff, and alumni, 9 out of 10 people know Dino's name, and not as many people know Thomas's. So, it's not quite answering your question, but that was an example again of that retention rate really manifesting itself.
[00:17:24] Look, I'm like any podcaster. I want to know downloads, I want to know listens, I want to know audience origin, where they're coming from, where they're listening? But we will factor in social media impressions as well. Our social media metrics, we found that if we would put a post up there using a video. So for example, I'm not sure if you guys are fans of Ted Lasso.
[00:17:46] Neil McPhedran: Love Ted Lasso. Big fans in our house for Ted Lasso.
[00:17:49] John: Well, it's interesting because we, um, we had an alumnus whose name is Max Osinski from the class of 2006. He played Zava in season three, this dynamic, charismatic, larger than life soccer personality.
[00:18:03] Neil McPhedran: Yeah, totally.
[00:18:03] John: He never played soccer a minute in his life.
[00:18:06] Neil McPhedran: Wow.
[00:18:06] John: And he came on the podcast in June, and he had never had a real connection to Syracuse after graduating. And that was our hook, and I tell you, we put that clip on social media and they're like, oh my God, Zavo went to Syracuse? Like it was such a conversation starter. Those posts went absolutely ballistic. I mean, they had something like 150 percent higher engagement on Facebook and Twitter. They were reshared, they were liked, they were reposted more than almost any post that we have done in the last academic year. And that to me, those are the metrics that go above and beyond just listens and downloads.
[00:18:42] If something resonates with the audience on social media, even if they don't go and listen to the full episode, they're aware of it. We will post the links, we'll post episode, uh, summaries, we'll post ways to subscribe to the podcast. And that to me shows so much more of the power of these conversations.
[00:18:58] Neil McPhedran: I love that. I think that's a really good takeaway for us in the audience, actually. Using the content, as Jen was sort of saying earlier on, but using the content beyond the podcast channel. But then also, you're pulling that back to the success of that recording, getting that hot actor in the moment onto the podcast, they re-engage with the university and everything like that, so that's awesome.
[00:19:20] Jennifer Lee Gunson: And don't be stuck on the listens too. I think that's a big takeaway. We're in business and higher education podcasts, we're not the top podcast. And so, I think a lot of people just are like, oh, well, I don't have billions of listeners. It's like, well, you don't need billions of listeners for a higher ed podcast. 400 people, if they're listening to 70 percent of each episode, that's huge. People don't realize that like you think about it, 400 people are sitting down and taking time out of their day to listen to 70 percent of content that you created. I guess like, that's massive. And I don't think a lot of people [00:20:00] see that as a win. And that's why we're trying to kind of change people's mindsets because like you said, even using it as pieces of content, it's still giving you that awareness. Having a podcast is bringing Syracuse in an awareness.
[00:20:12] John: I couldn't agree more, and I appreciate you summarizing it that way. In Denver, at the podcast movement, we were in a minority, the higher education podcasters.
[00:20:19] Jennifer Lee Gunson: We're no true crime.
[00:20:21] John: We are not, and we're not the datelines, you know, with Keith Morrison out there, shout out to Keith, one of my favorite, uh, both podcasters and reporters out there. But we're telling stories and however it resonates, however, you're able to connect with your audience, you know, that's really what it comes down to and knowing your audience, like I had someone tell me, you need to focus in, you should do a separate podcast just for students, and a separate one just for alumni, and a separate one just for faculty and staff. And I was like, well, I don't like splintering the audience up. I mean, I feel like it helps to be able to cross promote.
[00:20:56] So that the students might be like, I heard that Jay Henderson is doing this great research and that's my passion. I want to be able to come up with the cure for head wounds and preventing catastrophic blood loss when someone suffers an injury. I'm going to take his class next year. Like that's the way you spread the community and take it beyond just listening, you make it be an applicable action that people care about.
[00:21:20] Or every time like Mike Tirico calls Monday night football games, they're going to be like, that's a Syracuse person on the mic. So, when you're watching a broadcast, you can say, I heard the story of where Marv Albert's famous yes! phrase came from on the 'Cuse Conversations podcast, and you kind of carry that with.
[00:21:37] Neil McPhedran: I also like in what you just said that by not splintering, there is, you know, a venn diagram of those interests. Like, I would imagine the alumni, you know, would also love to hear what's going on from the students and they used to go to that university, they start to think about the time they were there. So, it would be of as much excitement and interest to hear what would be the quote [00:22:00] unquote student version of the podcast. Just because you're not a student anymore doesn't mean you're not as interested in what that student siloed podcast would be interested in as well too. I think that's also a really interesting insight and takeaway for any of the audience here that's kind of thinking about siloing. You've actually grown the aperture of the audience, which I think is fantastic. And there's some good, um, takeaways there.
[00:22:24] I think what's one thing that struck me, I'd love to sort of dig into a little bit, is you don't list yourself as the host. If I look at the show description and even, you know, the majority of the episodes, it's not hosted by John. So, just curious about the strategy there. I mean, I think we default to wanting to talk about ourselves as the hosts, we're the host, co-host. So, curious sort of why you've, although it's like so much your baby and it's your voice, but you don't tout yourself as the host.
[00:22:55] John: I feel like it's one of those things where if you know, you know. I mean, people have come to associate the podcast with me. And, but the way I tell all of our guests who come on and our conversations, they're purely organic. I really don't send questions or topics ahead of time, unless there's a really sensitive topic that we're going to discuss. Um, but I try not to make it about myself, I try to be the person who's like, you're the car, you're giving me the directions where we're going to go, and I'm just steering the conversation. I'm making sure that it's something people want to listen to. It's something that I want [00:23:30] to hear what you're talking about; I'm hoping our audience wants to pick up and listen to what the episode is all about. Now, don't get me wrong, on social media, I will promote this pod till I'm blue in the face or orange in the face, I love putting this out there. But we made a decision a while ago that it was like, I don't know, it's not really about me. I mean, it's, again, people who listen, they know that my voice is the one they're going to hear 80 percent of the time or more.
[00:23:55] And we all have our different interviewing styles too. There's no set formula for interviewing, so why should I label this, you know, the John Boccacino Presents Syracuse University, 'Cuse Conversations. It's not that 'Cuse Conversations brand, and you know, when I record episodes, I make sure my voice is heard at the very beginning with my name, and I do a sig out with my name at the end, so you do know who the person is, uh, who's leading the conversations, but I don't want the podcast to be about myself.
[00:24:23] I want it to be about the incredible first-generation students that I'm spotlighting or our men's basketball coach who's taking over for a hall of fame legend who retired after a 47 year career. That's what I want it to be about, but I do enjoy promoting myself. I mean, make me.....
[00:24:42] Neil McPhedran: I love how you slipped that in there, I was glad we didn't say anything. We just let you, we just let it hang, and then you slipped it in.
[00:24:48] Jennifer Lee Gunson: I was like, wow, you're not a true broadcaster then, because it was like, all of us love our egos. But I like the fact too, that it is more of a community podcast and that it's not just you hosting it. Also, another person with a great name, your boss is also hosting it. So, you know, it's nice. So, then there's room enough for all your egos in the boat.
[00:25:08] John: Yeah. It's not my full-time job and I do have to limit myself to two episodes a month. There's some months that we do put three out there when the need arises. You know, for, for example, this month we have three episodes that are dropping.
[00:25:22] We had one that was on mental health and tips on battling social anxiety, because a lot of our students were struggling with finding community. There's stats out there that students who think about suicide or self harm. Um, are at the highest rates they've ever been and so we talked to a counseling director about how to combat that you're not alone.
[00:25:43] We had the BioInspired one on faculty research timing up around the symposium. And then this is something that our university, I'm actually really proud of how we've embraced this. There was a national tragedy that took place in 1988 when Pan Am flight 103 was bombed by a terrorist attack over Lockerbie, Scotland.
[00:26:03] Neil McPhedran: Hmm.
[00:26:03] John: There were 35 Syracuse University students who were on that flight making their way back home from study abroad programs that were killed in this flight. And we have a program that started from that very first sad tragic moment. It's called the Remembrance Scholars, and there's 35 students whose sole goal through the scholarship is honor the life of a person who was on that plane.
[00:26:27] And so there's a podcast episode that's going to be dropping tomorrow on 'Cuse Conversations profiling three alumni who were Remembrance Scholars and talking about the burden that they felt of wanting to live up to the lofty standards of someone whose life was cut short well before its prime. So, when I have a chance to tell those stories, I'll go to, my boss and be like, hey, listen, I got a lot on my plate, but.... And I'll find a way to make it work because those are the stories, we want to put out there and really convey.
[00:26:56] Neil McPhedran: Well, John, thanks. You've shared so much with us. Really appreciate your insights and your experience and your journey. Perhaps you could just sort of leave us with what's the future of the show? Where do you see it evolving? What are your plans? I mean, you plan so far ahead. So, tell us, where's this podcast going?
[00:27:13] John: So, one of the things I'm really excited about, we've got a plan in place to launch a YouTube channel and it's going to start off just being, archiving the old audio episodes. And there'll be a subset playlist that's just student driven conversations, faculty, staff, and alumni. And that's going to be great because that's really, YouTube is the world's largest search engine. If you're not on YouTube, you're way behind the game. So, we're going to play catch up by getting our audience onto the YouTube platform. But what I want to ultimately do with YouTube is I want to have live recorded podcasts with guests where we have myself hosting the conversation and have audience participation where they could actually submit questions real time. These conversations are genuine and authentic, but [00:28:00] they're missing the audience interaction, the audience engagement, and granted, there's going to be some complications you step into with a live broadcast. But I think part of the fun of that would be having the audience members be along for the ride and feel like they were connected even more to this podcast. I have no idea when we're actually going to get to go live with that format, but I really look forward to that because there's a classmate of mine named Aaron Robinson, who lives in Baltimore, who does a podcast, No Pix After Dark, that really shines [00:28:30] a great light on the stories of Baltimore resiliency. And he has had such success doing these live episodes that I got a copy and steal this method because it's working for him. Why can't it work for Syracuse?
[00:28:41] Jennifer Lee Gunson: Yeah, John, that's awesome. We've had such a blast talking to you. And just, uh, before we head out, one more question. This is not about Syracuse. What do you see the role of podcasting in higher education to be in the whole higher ed universe?
[00:28:57] John: So, this might be a little controversial that I'm going to say here, but I really believe this. I feel like the podcasting bubble is bursting. And in a bad way, I feel like we've reached a saturation point with podcasts, except for higher ed. Higher ed seems to be the wild west where there just aren't as many schools and colleges that are dedicating resources to launching a podcast. And with the audience you can reach out there and hit, with the long form stories that you can tell, it's not that hard, it's not that expensive, it's not that complicated. I really hope we see next time there's a big podcast movement gathering...
[00:29:35] Neil McPhedran: hmm.
[00:29:36] John: I predict there'll be a much larger following when people realize that again, it's not as hard as they thought it would be to get a podcast off the ground. And the audience really wants this. So, there might be an oversaturation point in podcasts in general. But the bubble hasn't even begun to get blown up when it comes to higher ed podcasts.
[00:29:54] Neil McPhedran: Totally, totally agree. The higher ed podcast space is unique. It's not monetized, but the other end of the spectrum, which we saw a lot of, was branded podcast, and that's also not what a higher education podcast is necessarily about too. So, it's its own beast and you're right, I think there's a huge opportunity and we need to sort of find each other.
[00:30:14] John: And, you know, there's always going to be an audience. If you give people entertaining content that they can digest whenever, wherever, that's the beautiful part about podcasts.
[00:30:23] Neil McPhedran: Ya, ya.
[00:30:23] John: It's such a perfect medium for the way we are in 2023 and beyond.
[00:30:27] Jennifer Lee Gunson: You wrapped it up perfectly.
[00:30:29] John: I would love it. Even if you have no affinity to Syracuse, if you would subscribe to our podcast and listen to the shows that we talk about, the stories we tell. It's 'Cuse, C U S E, Conversations on all your podcasting platforms. And you can always reach out to me as well on social media.
[00:30:47] I'm on X@JohnBoccacino. I'd love to hear your thoughts, and I honestly feel like for people who don't have a connection to Syracuse, I would love your feedback on our podcast, what we're doing right, where we could improve, because you have an unbiased perspective to bring to this.
[00:31:04] Neil McPhedran: Good stuff. We'll also put all that in the show notes, too.
[00:31:07] Thanks, John. Okay, Jen, that was great. I learned a lot. I'm sure you learned a lot. John is, as we said off the top, he's a real force, um, and you can really see, uh, he has evolved and grown the podcast aperture on who the target audience is, and I think that's a really unique takeaway. And as he said, he's got [00:31:30] pushback on, and he's like, we all bleed orange, let's rally around this school spirit and give students a voice, um, and alumni would want to hear that and really groups in the of the podcast itself.
[00:31:45] Jennifer Lee Gunson: I love that he said he bleeds orange because that really suits his personality. It's always a good talk with him. But I also think that he's got a unique perspective on the podcasting space because like we were saying before, podcasting is still so new. A lot of people, like, I don't necessarily agree with them that it's super saturated, but that's okay I'll get in a fight with him later. But at the same time, I think, you know, it’s great to give advice to people, but at the end of the day, podcasting isn't a size one fits all marketing strategy for everybody, especially when you're doing more branded podcasts. And so, you got to take advice with a grain of salt because what works for you might not work for someone else. So, I like the fact, that John is paving his own path and they're doing what works for the university, and that's really their end goal.
[00:32:30] Another thing that I liked about it is the fact that they're taking clips of their student’s voices, uh, students that are celebrity students that are not there yet are still in their journey of education and they're really promoting them on social media. And the social media is getting real engagement, not necessarily adding up to listens on the podcast, but still being aware that, hey, they have a podcast. They're giving everyone an equal voice and equal opportunity to showcase their skills. And it's still, again, representing that whole culture of you should come to Syracuse. We are a passionate bunch of people. We all bleed orange, and this is who we are. And I like it. They're standing strong on their message point.
[00:33:08] Neil McPhedran: They look at not just the show analytics, but they're looking at the wider content strategy and the usage of the content they generate from the podcast into the other social channels, etcetera. And by seeing, you know, pick up engagement with those social channels, uh, has that positive kind of knock-on effect back to the podcast. So just looking at those things working together. I know we've talked about that before, but I think that's great hear that again.
[00:33:37] And lastly, we're really going to continue to try to push this networking for other higher education podcasters. So, if you're out there listening and you're interested, uh, we're going to take John's challenge up and we're going to run with that, and they've met a lot of other university higher education podcasters. So, we're really just really going to try to figure out this network of creating a voice for, uh, other higher ed podcasters as well. So, reach out to us.
[00:34:04] Jennifer Lee Gunson: Yeah, reach out to us. I know everyone has something to say, so we'd love to hear it.
[00:34:08] Neil McPhedran: Great. Well, let's end it for another episode. Looking forward to our next episode.
[00:34:14] Jennifer Lee Gunson: Sounds great. Talk to you next time. Bye-Bye.
[00:34:17] Neil McPhedran: Thank you for tuning into the Continuing Studies podcast, a podcast for higher education podcasters. We hope you found this episode informative and inspiring. If you enjoyed the show, we encourage you to follow and subscribe to our podcast on your preferred platform, so you'll never miss an episode. But if you've found this episode particularly valuable, please consider sharing it with your friends and colleagues who also might be interested in higher education podcasts.
[00:34:43] We also invite you to join the University Podcasters Network group on LinkedIn. Just search for University Podcasters Network, where you can connect with other podcasters in higher education and learn from others in the field.
[00:34:55] Thank you for being part of our community. We look forward to continuing to bring you valuable insights and conversations around higher education podcasts. See you in the next episode.