Estimated reading time: 9 minutes
By now you must be aware of the opportunity TikTok poses for podcasters (if you’re not, then catch up! This blog post will fill you in).
But perhaps you need a little inspiration. Let’s take a look at 10 podcasts (plus a couple bonus ones) that are not only active on TikTok, but are using this platform really well.
This ‘storytelling’ podcast hosted by Maggie and Melanie is centred around everyday people sharing secrets, confessions, and stories. And that makes it great material for TikTok. Why? Because it’s relatable.
From ‘have you ever cheated?’ to ‘how often do you answer truthfully?’ these are all questions that we can join in with as we watch their videos. This also explains why they tend to get lots of comments on their videos – people want to participate, to share their own opinions, and to continue the conversation. As more people flock to their posts, this boosts their engagement rate and allows their content to be shared to a wider audience, expanding the reach of their podcast.
The ShxtsNGigs podcast is also great at making retable TikTok content, so take a look at them too.
The Girl’s Bathroom (as of writing this) have a whopping 432k followers and 6.9m likes on TikTok – all without following a single person. Now that’s not your typical community management strategy, is it?
But one of the reasons why this account is such a success is because their TikTok content is very ‘clickbaity’.
The Girl’s Bathroom podcast is an agony-aunt-esque series, where hosts Sophia and Cinzia answer their listeners’ dating and relationship dilemmas.
On their TikTok, they share some of their juiciest stories. Girls who suspect their boyfriends are cheating, worries about meeting the inlaws… you get the idea. But they never share the second half of the conversation. You have to listen to their podcast to find that out. (Another show that does this really well on TikTok is Shameless podcast).
The Diary of a CEO is one of the most popular business podcasts ever. And with social media guru Steven Bartlett as its host, it’s no surprise to see that the podcast is active on TikTok.
What is interesting, however, is if you look at the podcast’s official TikTok account, you’ll notice that they stopped posting on it back in 2021. Now, they promote the podcast on Steven Bartlett’s TikTok account instead. This makes a lot of sense – Steven’s account has over 60 times more followers, and you can see that the video views are much higher since switching over.
Before you make a TikTok account for your podcast, have a think about whether you want this to be a standalone account, or whether you’ll be using your personal account to promote the podcast (you can always do both). Think about why people come to your podcast. If you’re a big reason, you might want to post directly from your account – to offer more personal content. Or, if there’s a big team behind your show, it might be better to all share an account that’s exclusively based around the podcast.
This popular podcast hosted by William Hanson and Jordan North uses TikTok to give people a sense of the show’s tone and personality. Their account is essentially just a heap of fun, games and banter. You get to know the hosts, they make you laugh, and as a result, you become a fan of the podcast. Result!
On this note, it’s really important to show the faces of your hosts and guests on TikTok (if possible). That’s one element that you can’t offer on an audio podcast, after all.
Tape Notes is an interview podcast where we find out how people write, produce and craft their music. Compared to the other podcasts on this list, Tape Notes has one of the lowest followings on TikTok, but many of their posts have still managed to go viral.
One way they’ve done this is by really utilising their guests – they make sure to tag them in their posts.
The animations that they add to their videos are a fun, simple way to retain people’s attention and as a result, their content’s view time increases, which the TikTok algorithm will love.
Dissect is another music podcast. The host, Cole Cuchana, dissects one album per series, one song per episode, and shares some of the most interesting facts he finds along the way on TikTok. He’s doing very well, with over 500k followers, and many of his videos banking millions of views.
The content is strong because it’s genuinely interesting. It’s educational – teaching you something you didn’t already know – and does so in a fun, dynamic way. And the videos are engaging, as they include plenty of colour, animations and imagery to keep you hooked.
It’s worth trying to keep people hooked for the entirety of your TikTok video because a high video completion rate will bump it up the platform’s algorithm.
The way that Dissect shares fun musical facts on TikTok has become the perfect way for them to attract podcast listeners, especially if we think about the format of the show. Let’s imagine you love Mac Miller. TikTok knows this because you keep viewing content with ‘Mac Miller’ included as a keyword (#MacMiller). So, on TikTok’s ‘For You’ page you’ve been recommended Dissect’s video which is analysing a Mac Miller song. You love it. Then you realise this podcast has a whole series about Mac Miller, which analyses his songs even deeper. Of course, you’re going to check out the podcast.
We love what Duchess has been up to on TikTok. It’s the perfect example of how you can expand on your podcast’s story on social media.
In Duchess, host Emma Manners (the Duchess of Rutland) takes her audience to different stately homes across the UK. She interviews the individuals behind these homes to learn more about their lives and the history of their stunning homes. Now, words like ‘Duchess’ and ‘stately homes’ are probably painting all sorts of elaborate images in your head. And that’s exactly what Duchess taps into on TikTok. Here, they’re adding a visual element to their podcast and engaging their audience with striking imagery – whether that be house tours, behind-the-scenes footage, or sneak peeks of upcoming guests.
Emma has dedicated series 4 of the podcast to her own home at Belvoir Castle. It’s worth knowing that Belvoir Castle was also a key filming location for the Netflix series The Crown. And so, when a new season of the TV show was about to drop, Duchess started releasing The Crown-themed content. This is a great example of how you can use trending topics on social media to your advantage – think of them as a springboard that can give your content a boost and open your podcast up to a wider audience.
The Saving Grace podcast is checking a lot of boxes on TikTok. Sharing juicy teasers for their latest episode? Check. Using ‘clickbaity copy’ on their covers to grab people’s attention? Check. Having a strong call to action at the end of their videos? Check. Consistent branding? Check! You only have to be on their TikTok for 10 seconds and you’ve already got a solid idea of what this show is about.
The podcast often taps into topical or trending subjects, such as the latest scandal to happen on Love Island, a dating rumour that’s just hit the press – anything that their target audience will lap up, basically.
For example, when a guest recently spoke about hooking up with a footballer, the comments started flooding in with guesses of who this could be – and as a result, the engagement rate of this post grew and the post itself went viral, bagging itself over 3 million views.
Planet Money is a podcast about the economy. If that’s making you yawn, don’t be so quick to judge. This is a very creative podcast.
Looking at the branding and tone of the podcast, it really makes sense that it’s on TikTok (and doing so well there). They’ve taken what is often a dry, or over-complicated topic, and made it fun and appealing to Gen Z, which is what TikTok is known for.
Their ‘homemade-looking’ animations and roleplay make their videos highly engaging. Plus, they’re great at interacting with their community. Planet Money often answer questions from their fans (like ‘why don’t we just print more money?’) which really makes their audience feel involved and listened to.
Confession: this account is not for a specific podcast, but is in fact owned by a podcast production company. But we figured it deserved a place on this list because podcasters can learn an awful lot from Studio Ochenta.
To add some context, Studio Ochenta creates multilingual podcasts. And they are using TikTok to connect with multilingual/bilingual/multicultural people. How? By providing relatable adjacent content.
They hop on to trends, create memes, and produce content that will make their target audience say, “ha, I can relate to that! I like these people – they’re like me!”
They even post many of their videos twice – once in English and once in Spanish!
Lory Martinez, CEO of Studio Ochenta, spoke more about how multilingual podcasts can use TikTok to their advantage in our webinar, which you can check out here.
Ultimately, they are providing for their audience, rather than focussing on hard selling. This allows them to build connections with their audience and form a strong, loyal community. And that’s something you should be doing too!
Studio Ochenta also share behind-the-scenes content, giving people a glimpse of the making of their podcasts, which makes them much more down-to-earth and personable – just what you want to be on social media.
That’s 10 podcasts that are using TikTok to grow their show’s audience. Take a leaf out of their books, and see what creative ideas you can come up with.
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