Major football publisher Goal has kicked off season 2 of their popular US Women’s Soccer show “All of Us” with a footballing superstar.
Launching ahead of the 2021 summer Olympics, “All Of Us: The U.S. Women’s Soccer Show” provided unrivalled insight and analysis of the US Women’s National Team’s (disappointing) medal campaign.
Goal womens’ soccer correspondents Seth Vertelney and Ameé Ruszkai return for season two with the promise of speaking to the best guests and tackling the biggest issue in the women’s game.
Launching last week, Episode one certainly lived up to that promise as the pair were joined by US Womens’ soccer royalty Carli Lloyd who spoke about her long career as she prepares to call time on her career after over 300 appearances for USWNT.
When asked why she was hanging up her boots now rather than emulating evergreen NFL quarterback Tom Brady Lloyd said:
“Well, Tom Brady doesn’t have to have kids, that’s the one thing for starters! My husband and I are eventually going to start a family so the kind of the clock of ticking on that.”
Carli lloyd
She went on to add that she would rather it was her making the call on when she ended her playing career.
“I don’t think every athlete gets the opportunity to dictate when they go out, to dictate if they’re on top of not. I’ve always wanted my career to be dictated by me making decisions”.
Her comments on the show were picked up by a variety of national publications stateside including Fox News.
You can hear more from “All Of Us: The US Women’s Soccer Show” weekly on the Sport Social Podcast network.
Daily Premier League podcast Football Social Daily has launched a brand new show for the 2021/22 season.
“The Dugout” has been added to the raft of daily shows offering football fans around the world an expert-led preview into all the best of the weekend’s Premier League action.
Regular host Niall McCaughan is joined each show by a rotating cast of former Premier League heroes to offer their insight and knowledge on playing the game at the very highest level.
Manchester City hero Paul Dickov, West Ham record signing Matt Jarvis and Southampton Legend Francis Benali are all amongst the former professionals involved in the new show which McCaughan says has been a pleasure to work on.
“We all have an opinion on the game at the top level, but it’s great to hear first hand the thoughts of those who have played it. A lot of the guys are still close to their former clubs and often have some great stories to share about life as a top flight player.”
Niall Mccaughan
You can listen to “The Dugout” every week on the Football Social Daily podcast feed. A new show is published every Friday night in the build-up to the weekend of Premier League matches.
Former Scotland boss Craig Brown has been adding to the excitement ahead of Scotland’s crunch match with England at the European Championships – but playing down his former team’s chances of victory.
Speaking on Scottish football show; “The Free-Kick Podcast” the former Tartan Army manager explained that there was no doubt that the Scots were second-favourites going into the big game this Friday at Wembley.
England have every advantage, not only the fact they’re at home, but they have an extra day’s rest, which can make all the difference and that’s not something that’s been mentioned too often.
Confidence in the Scottish camp going into this game won’t be helped by their opening game against the Czech Republic, which resulted in a 2-0 defeat, but Brown felt that Steve Clark’s team did enough for at least a point.
The ex-Rangers player previously managed Scotland at both Euro 96 and at the World Cup in France in 1998 and knows only too well the effect a poor result can have on the group.
I’ve got every sympathy for Steve after Monday. I’ve been through this experience and while it was a disappointing result, the performance didn’t reflect the result and I felt we should have got a draw.
The first game loss won’t do anything to dampen Scottish expectations, however with Brown convinced that the team will be in no doubt exactly how important this game is to the country, to the team and for the manager.
A game against England is a game that, for Scotland, can’t get any bigger. We played Brazil, Germany, France and had some hard games away from home, but the most demanding is England at Wembley. This is probably the biggest game Steve Clarke will ever be involved in and it’ll mean a lot to the whole nation.
The guest slot from Craig Brown was a great booking from the Free-Kick team who were looking to capitalise on the hype around the European Championships and only reinforces their reputation for excellent insight and analysis around everything to do with Scottish football.
Listen to the full interview with Craig Brown on the Sport Social Podcast Network.
Making a podcast is hard work… finding an audience for that podcast can be even harder!
The world of podcasting is a competitive space and no more so than in sport. A quick search of a simple term like “Football” in your favourite podcasting app will turn up a dizzying number of results and so finding the right ears in that crowded market can be tough.
There is no magic bullet when it comes to finding a podcast audience (unless you have very deep pockets) but there are some tips and tricks you can deploy to help along the way.
We asked some of the team behind Sports Social and the Sport Social Podcast Network for their advice on how to build and grow a podcast audience.
It takes time and commitment to create a great sports podcast but that effort is of no use if no one can hear you. If you put as much time and commitment into finding listeners and building your audience then you are giving yourself the best chance of success.
Neil has worked in radio and audio for 20 years in a career spanning the BBC, commercial radio and independent production.
Find your niche… and be consistent.
Making sure your content is the best it can be is always going to be at the centre of any podcast’s success. Interesting, well thought out and engaging audio is a must-have in any genre of podcasting. Sadly though, having a great show doesn’t always mean you will have a successful show. However, from a content point of view, there are two key things to consider both before and after you launch your new sports show.
Firstly, does the world really need another podcast with 4 men talking about Manchester United with plenty of “banter” thrown in for good measure? Probably not. Even if you can deliver that content better than anyone else, unless you’ve got a headline-grabbing name (have you got Zlatan’s number?) involved you are unlikely to get much cut through. Here is where the power of the niche comes in. With podcasting, the more niche the product the more powerful the podcast can become. Whilst the appeal of a global fan base for “tennis” may seem appealing there can be real value in pinpointing who your audience is for and identifying an under-catered for the market. Not only will this help you find and market to a specific audience but it will help you shape your content and serve that audience in the best way possible. Having a very focused audience also helps you learn more about them, where they live, what they do, some platforms even tell you what other podcasts they listen to. This information can be really valuable when trying to monetise your show with a potential sponsor.
Post-launch, consistency is key! Releasing episodes in a scattergun, random way can not only be frustrating for an audience but it can also damage your podcast ranking. Even the most engaging, interesting podcast can get forgotten about by listeners if they are dropping two episodes one month and none the next. Building a routine into your publishing and listening habits can be key in building a regular and committed audience. Make your episode releases an “event” in your listeners lives rather than making them work to discover new episodes as and when you decide to drop them.
Sophie Hind has built a successful career working in strategic roles with some of the biggest media companies in the UK. Before joining Voiceworks, Sophie was the Regional Strategy Director at Global for nine years. Prior to this, Sophie also held roles at ITV, Jazz FM and Capital Radio Group.
Join a podcast network!
There can be many benefits to joining a Podcast Network… and there are a few out there to choose from.
First off, if you are new to the world of Podcasting then having fellow content creators who have “been there and done that” can be a valuable sounding board for your ideas on everything from show features to new artwork.
It can also be a great way to market and grow individual shows under one umbrella, something we actively do on the Sport Social Podcast Network. Podcasting isn’t as competitive as a media format as Radio and TV – shows rarely compete for ears so recommending and promoting what might be termed a “rival” show is very unlikely to impact your own audience figures.
By the same token, podcast networks can be a great way to source guests for your podcast and opportunities for you to guest on other shows. Inviting guests with good networks onto your show and appearing on other shows can both be great ways to grow your audience. The former means the guest is likely (and you can agree this first) to share their episode with their network of fans whilst the latter allows listeners to another podcast to sample a bit of you as a personality and may encourage them to find out more about your podcast… almost like a try before you buy!
Whilst guests can be friends, experts, or fellow network members. The golden egg is always going to be, particularly within sport, the athlete with the big, loyal following. If you are lucky enough to secure some time with the David Beckhams’ or LeBron James’ or Brodie Retallicks’ of this world make sure you make the most of it. Not only do all you can to ensure they are willing to share the episode and any appropriate marketing material (maybe even create a mini-press kit) into their social media but also plan your own marketing using social media and episode teasers to maximise the impact your guest will have… there are some more tips on that from Marley later.
A good guest need not be a one-hit moment either. Keeping an eye on their activities can provide opportunities to re-post old episodes or even specific moments from those episodes, and benefit from the exposure all over again.
Jim heads up the Sport Social project. He has spent 20 years making audio for a number of high profile brands including the BBC, Communicorp UK, Global Radio and Bauer Media and has been making podcasts since the early days of the iPod.
Learn the Dark Arts of Podcast SEO!
The magic formula to podcast discoverability is shrouded in mystery. The likes of Apple and Spotify remain the prominent way that listeners discover podcasts and it can feel like that without cracking the chart code or having a superstar host you are fighting a losing battle.
Whilst both those things do no doubt help discoverability there are a few tips and tricks you can also employ to give your show the best chance to reach a listener’s ears.
Listen, Follow, Review: You will hear this on every podcast you listen to… guaranteed. Whilst these three simple instructions do help your podcast ranking (each one impacts your position on the charts by different extents AND helps you retain audience) the phrase has become so commonplace it has lost all meaning. Whilst offering incentives and prizes for reviews is forbidden by Apple Podcast’s rules there are other things you can do to encourage people to take those actions. Think about how you can treat the topic creatively… Is there something you can do on the podcast that makes the reviews an interactive part of the show? Can you give people a specific reason to hit follow by teasing some brilliant content coming next week? Before just churning out “don’t forget to subscribe” on your next show ask yourself what’s in it for the listener?
Podcast SEO: You will have no doubt heard about Search Engine Optimisation. We are all familiar with how Google works and how it finds the best solution to your query – well podcasting works the same way. There is no way to cheat the system – you need to put in the hard yards – but you can give yourself the best chance of being found. Loading keywords into your podcast title and description can really help discoverability. If you have a show about horse racing but you call your podcast “The Track” you are missing a trick. The best approach with podcast titles is a Ronseal “Does what it says on the tin” tactic. Be explicit about what your show is and it’ll make it much easier to be found (ie. The Track: A Horse Racing Podcast). The same goes for episode titles and descriptions. If your series is about a specific event in the sporting calendar make sure you are mentioning it in EVER show title on that topic and including it (and variations of it) in your podcast description and remember; the higher up the page the term the more important it is considered. If you want to take your podcast SEO seriously there are a few tools available that help you analyze and improve your SEO score.
Build a Webpage: In an ideal world, your podcast should have its own website and each episode of your podcast should have its own page with detailed descriptions, show notes and maybe even a transcript of that episode but in truth… who has the time?
There is no doubt that this approach helps people to discover your show via regular web search (again it’s about SEO) and may even play a really important part in how search works in the future with the growth of “Voice First” but the effort and money involved in doing so can be prohibitive.
Some podcast networks (such as ours – The Sport Social Podcast Network) offer their podcasters a bespoke landing page where they can add show information, photos and help build that online presence. It won’t have the same impact as building your own site but it does give you a searchable footprint on the world wide web!
Marley is our chief meme maker, podcast regular, and resident Newcastle fan. He’s been a social media manager for over five years, working for one of the world’s biggest social media companies before joining us as head of social media.
Promote (and promote and promote) your podcast on Social Media!
Social media can be a great tool when building a podcast audience – but I guess I would say that.
Just because you’ve made a new episode and stuck it on the usual channels doesn’t mean that listeners are going to find you. Social media can be a great and effective tool in not only finding new fans but also reminding old ones that you are still active.
My most important piece of advice here is to make sure what you post is engaging. A simple tweet announcing a new episode and its content is fine but is unlikely to have much impact, especially in terms of engaging new listeners. At Sport Social, we use Audiograms (a short video enhanced audio clips) on a regular basis to give social media users browsing their timeline a taste of what our shows sound and feel like – it’s a great way of enticing people to click “Listen”.
Does Pep Guardiola get the credit he deserves for his achievements at #MCFC?
— Sport Social Podcast Network (@TheSportSocial) May 24, 2021
Make sure you mix it up too. Social Media can be a tiring place if you are constantly being “Sold” things. Whilst it can be a really effective tool in driving listeners it can also be a great way to reinforce your own brand identity. Post about the world around your podcast, not just the world within it. This is particularly important in Sport podcasting where there is a constant dialogue around matches, events and games. Think about what you can do and how you can react to major news stories and think how you can position yourself as an important (and entertaining) voice in that market.
Remember, Social Media should be just that…social. It’s not a one-way broadcast. Don’t treat your channels as ONLY a way to shout about your latest show. Have a conversation with your followers, ask questions, get involved in debates. All these things will help generate a community amongst your followers/listeners and deepen their engagement. This will help lead to a loyal and passionate following – something that is massively appealing to potential sponsors.
If you want to join the Sport Social Podcast Network then get in touch!
Belle Vue in Manchester will be the first sporting venue in the CIty to welcome back fans later today as the Aces face Sheffield Tigers.
With the likes Brady Kurtz, Charles Wright and Rising Star Tom Brennan making their debuts for the home side it was no surprise that tickets for the event sold out in 48 hours of going on sale as UK sport prepares to welcome back fans into stadiums up and down the country!
Sheffield boss Simon Stead said:
“It will be good to go out there and race on one of the best tracks in the world and I’d love to go there and pick up an away win in our first meeting in the Premiership, that’s the dream and that’s the aim.”
You’ll be able to hear interviews and reaction from this landmark even with Ian Brannan and Eurosport’s Dave Rowe on “No Brakes, No Fear” The Official British Speedway Podcast on the Sport Social Podcast Network.
Former Rugby Union star Ed Jackson is eyeing another climbing challenge just 3 years after being told he may never walk again.
Having captained England U18’s, Ed was considered a hugely exciting prospect in the professional game until he suffered a career-ending back injury in 2017 after diving into the shallow end of a swimming pool.
Speaking to the Tap and Go podcast the London Wasps and Dragon’s No.8 spoke of his exciting plans for 2021. These include climbing the highest mountain in the Alps, Mont Blanc and a trek up a 7000-meter peak in Nepal… but even that may not be the limit to his adventures.
“I can’t imagine being in a position that I am in today without stumbling effectively on climbing mountains. I think it is something that I am not going to look back from and if anything I am looking to go higher and higher and we’ll see how far it can take us.”
After being told by experts that he would be unlikely to walk again, Ed has since proved his doubters wrong by completing a number of remarkable challenges; including climbing Mount Snowdon just 12 months after spinal surgery.
“At the time, my physio said I was mad when I said I was going to do it. He thought I was actually planning for the year later, so a whole year afterwards”.
On the new podcast Ed talks about his recovery and the early days after the accident and how he wants his story to help inspire others and show that no matter what has happened, there are always positives to be taken.
You can listen to the latest Tap and Go podcast on the Sport Social Podcast Network Now.
The Blue Day podcast is kicking off March with two exciting new additions to the team!
The Chelsea fan podcast has signed up two Blues legends to join the show each week to discuss and dissect all the action from Stamford Bridge.
Each week regular host Keith Lawrence will be joined by former Defenders Gary Chivers and Ron “Chopper” Harris who’ll share their views on the latest Blues news.
Cult-hero Harris made 795 appearances for Chelsea throughout the 60s and 70s before moving across London to Brentford in 1980 whilst Gary Chivers spent five years at the club after joining in 1978 and racked up 133 appearances for the first team.
If you're a Chelsea fan, make sure you check out the @bluedaypodcast, which has two Blues legends talking through the latest events at Stamford Bridge.@ronharrisCFC and @Garychivers bring you the latest, and it's all on the Sport Social Podcast Network! pic.twitter.com/ikY5og9soQ
— Sport Social Podcast Network (@TheSportSocial) March 3, 2021
Both will be offering a depth of experience and knowledge to the podcast whilst no doubt sharing a few behind-the-scenes stories from their time at the club too.
“I’m not just a former player, I’m also a Chelsea fan! I’m really excited to be joining Keith and Runny Harris every week to get stuck into everything Blue and everything Chelsea!”
Gary Chivers
You can listen to The Blue Day Podcast NOW on the Sport Social Podcast Network.
Former Speedway champion Chris Morton MBE joined host Ian Brannan on the latest episode of The Sport Social Podcast Network’s “Humans of Speedway” show and promised that he has high hopes for the sport in the coming years.
Morton’s success has led to him becoming a legend of the sport, having claimed the title of British Champion back in 1983, and World Pairs Champion alongside Peter Collins a year later.
After retiring from riding in 1990, Morton’s influence on the sport has been massive. He’s now involved with Manchester-based team Belle Vue aces, and has been for the last 15 years.
Speaking about the “National Speedway Stadium” in Gorton, which opened in 2016, Morton said that he felt it could help push the sport to the next level.
“There’s more on offer yet, there’s more to see as riders get better at riding it”.
The new national stadium was designed to recapture some of the magic of the Belle Vue/Hyde Road stadium that was demolished back in 1987. It was a track at which Chris, when riding for Belle Vue Aces, experienced much of his success: a motivating factor in his ambition to give the sport its stadium back.
“I carried a lot of these ideas around for years and years, and to be able to do it was just a fantastic thing to be able to do”.
Since its opening, the stadium has held prestigious events such as the Speedway World Cup and is due to host the Speedway of Nations final later this year.
You can hear Ian chat to Chris on the latest episode of Humans of Speedway available via the Sport Social Podcast Network.
While you’re there, why not check out some more episodes from the series, which takes a look at the people who make Speedway tick, including riders, coaches, fans and more.
Bringing together the biggest news and best sport content from around the world.
Voiceworks.ai have launched the UK’s first dedicated Sport Podcast Network – marking the latest innovation from the voice technology and audio content company.
The Sport Social Podcast Network is a new podcast platform that will bring together sports content creators to help them grow and monetise their audience.
Helping listeners discover the very best sports podcasts and audio news in the UK, the network allows podcasts of all sizes to access advertising and sponsorship whilst also encouraging cross-promotion between network shows – creating an opportunity for advertisers to buy a targeted sports audience through audio.
Head of Sport at Voiceworks.ai Jim Salveson said;
“With around 30% of Podcast listeners in the UK enjoying sporting podcast content we saw the opportunity to help support, surface and grow the wealth of great content that is already out there. Plus provide production, marketing and advertising solutions for talent wanting to create their own podcasts.
We are bringing together some of the best content creators in sport under one roof, whilst helping advertisers to tap into a collective, engaged, targeted and hugely passionate audience”.
The Sport Social Podcast Network will curate and launch new podacsts from sports personalities whilst continuing to deliver sport audio news via web, social media and voice assistants. It supplies podcasts to all major platforms including Apple, Spotify, Google and Podbean.
Former Wigan goalkeeper Chris Kirkland has hit out at a lack of loyalty in football and the end of his time at the DW Stadium.
Speaking to Paul Musa on the “What The Footie” Podcast Kirkland explained that the club failed to live up to its promises when he reached the end of his deal in 2012.
“Roberto Martinez told me I could be at Wigan for as long as I wanted, because of what I had done at the club but come the end of the season he said right you can go.
This is how fickle football is. There’s no loyalty in football anymore, unfortunately.”
The former England keeper made 112 appearances for the Latics but was deemed surplus to requirements at just 31 when he was left seeking a new club.
Despite limited options he eventually moved to Sheffield Wednesday, where he spent three seasons, in a move he has no regrets over making.
“I didn’t have many options, to be honest. I had a couple down in London but didn’t want to move my family.
I’m glad I went to Sheffield Wednesday because what an amazing club that is.”
Listen to the full interview now on the “What the Footie” podcast and discover your next favourite show now on the Sport Social Podcast Network.
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