What it takes to build a podcast audience on social

1. Think of your podcast as raw footage, not a finished product

You’re not cutting down a podcast; you’re building something new. The branding may look or sound familiar, but the product is different.

"I see a lot of companies that take this long podcast and just make it vertical and shorter. But you really have to think of it as a new product," Peter Sleiman, creative director of What's Uptin, told me. "Instead of chopping it down into a short video, I think of the podcast as raw footage."

And raw footage demands a sharp editorial eye, because attention on social is never given — it's earned. "My North Star is usually: Will this make someone stop in their tracks?" Hodan Ismail, Spotify's senior social media manager, told me. "We're asking people to go from a quick scroll to committing 30–60 minutes of their time. Social becomes the bridge that invites audiences into long-form content."

• Express tip: Get your edits done fast with video editing tools in Adobe Express. Import, trim, and reorder clips in a few taps, so you can make sure you showcase the most attention-grabbing moments.

2. Build an audio identity alongside your visual one

The standard rules of brand identity apply here — consistent colors, fonts, and visual cues that make you instantly recognizable. But because podcasts are an audio-driven medium, sound deserves the same attention as visuals when you're designing for social.

“Discovery and recognition are top priorities when we’re thinking about social style. We want new people to see us, but we also want them to recognize us when they see us again,” Rishi Rajagopalan, Vox Media’s senior video producer, told me. “Our visual branding is a big part of that — we have a very distinctive orange and yellow set and Tefi [of Tefi Talks] is always dressed in a shirt and tie.”

Sound, though, behaves differently on social than it does on Spotify or Apple Podcasts — and your edit should reflect that. "In our full podcast episode, we only have music in the intro. After that, it's pure silence," says Sleiman. "But when I transfer it to vertical video, I have music playing throughout, or else it's too silent."

• Express tip: Create the perfect soundtrack by searching over 19,000 Adobe Stock audio tracks and sound effects to find exactly what you’re looking for.

3. Lead with personality

Audiences follow people, not podcast shows. What keeps someone watching, sharing, and returning is the feeling that they're seeing something genuine.

“There’s often an idea of what a podcaster ‘should’ be, but audiences are incredibly good at spotting what’s real versus what’s performative. The shows that stand out are the ones where the host feels authentic and unfiltered in a way that’s true to them,” said Ismail. “Don’t be afraid to lean into what makes you different, even if it feels niche. Those qualities are often what build the strongest fan communities, people want to feel seen, and when they do, they stay.”

• Express tip: Ensure your personality shines through – even on mute – by generating captions in a single click.

4. Tailor your content to the platform

What works on YouTube may not land on Instagram, and what thrives on TikTok might fall flat on LinkedIn.

“We’ve seen a lot of success with carousel quote cards on Instagram,” said Rajagopalan. He keeps YouTube long and mid-form to build continuity. "We don't want to spam our audience with bits and pieces of an episode they've already watched."

On TikTok, the Spotify social team takes a more experimental approach. “It’s where you can lean into volume, personality, and cultural relevance by being less polished and more present,” said Ismail.

LinkedIn, meanwhile, rewards depth. "Especially if you're talking about something technical — finances, for example," says Sleiman. "For LinkedIn, we can dive deeper, make the clip two minutes instead of one." Same content, different edit.

• Express tip: Keep your brand consistent – no matter which platform you’re creating for. Set up your brand colors, logo, and fonts in Adobe Express, and then apply it to any project in just one click.

5. Take a test-and-learn approach

Like any good social strategy, the goal is to experiment and iterate. That might mean testing formats — carousels versus Reels versus static images — or using short-form content to pressure-test ideas before committing to a full production.

Sleiman and podcast host Uptin broke all the rules. They reverse-engineered their podcast to test what worked and gauge audience interest — launching a series of short-form videos across Reels, Shorts, and TikTok that looked like podcast clips long before any full episodes existed.

• Express tip: Don’t waste time searching your files to find all of your designs. Stay organized by keeping all your variations – including videos, images, and carousel slides – in a single file in Adobe Express.