Could My Show Be a Kids & Family Podcast?

Have you ever ever thought-about producing a youngsters and household podcast? For those who’ve obtained a powerful podcast subject, and also you need to attain a big viewers that will probably be round for a very long time, you may contemplate youngsters and household as a possible audience. Within the subsequent few sections, I’ll discuss why producing a youngsters and household podcast is smart, and present you how one can make that podcast significant, enjoyable, and useful. 

Why Make a Youngsters’ and Household Podcast?

The demand for family-related content material is excessive, you could be your self, and nostalgia is a potent promotion technique. This combo is all the pieces a podcaster may need.

Demand for Youngsters and Household Podcasts: The Information

In case you have youngsters, it’s vital to offer enriching, screen-free leisure for them. The demand for teenagers and household podcasts is robust and rising. In 2023, Edison Analysis surveyed 1272 adults within the US concerning the media habits and consumption of their youngsters, aged 6-12. Listed here are among the findings from Edison Research’s Kids’ Podcast Listener Report. 

• 46% of youngsters surveyed have ever listened to a podcast, and 29% of ages 6-12 within the U.S. listened to a podcast within the final month. 
• 72% of fogeys stated it’s vital for teenagers’ podcasts to have the ability to be loved by the entire household. Adults are your viewers too! 
• 73% of fogeys stated podcasts make household automobile rides extra enjoyable.
• 71% of fogeys stated it’s vital for podcasts to provide youngsters and oldsters one thing to speak about. So, not solely will your podcast’s viewers cross generations, however your present can brighten up your dinner desk conversations. 

Regardless of the robust demand for teenagers and household podcasts, many self-proclaimed specialists on podcasting is perhaps reluctant to embrace this concept. Maybe they’re frightened about sounding juvenile. However, you don’t have to make use of “child speak” to make this form of family-centered content material have an effect. I’ll present you why subsequent.

You Don’t Have To Be Mr. Rogers.

In fact, you need the adoration of your friends and to rub elbows with main A-list celebrities; that’s what podcasting is all about, proper? Or, possibly you consider your podcast’s subject is just too advanced, intellectual, or “grownup” for teenagers to grasp. So why hassle producing content material for teenagers? 

For starters, youngsters aren’t dumb. They might not have the ability to categorical themselves utilizing the identical vocabulary that you’ve. However, kids learn new things more efficiently than adults. And, their brains are hungry for extra. Your podcast could be their subsequent mental snack.

You don’t have to alter who you might be or the way you behave. For those who love your podcast’s subject sufficient to elucidate it to anybody, why not get youngsters hooked on the subject as effectively? They’ll be grownups quickly sufficient.   

With few exceptions, practically any subject that’s vital to adults may also profit from a youngsters’ model. For instance, let’s say your podcast is about…

• Present occasions? Terrific. Clarify world information in a method that is smart to youngsters. Throughout the Seventies, In The News was an academic, short-subject TV broadcast between cartoons on Saturday mornings that defined information matters for teenagers. Schoolhouse Rock made historical past, math, grammar, civics, and vitamin enjoyable with intelligent animation and music. Do one thing related along with your podcast subject, and also you may end up eligible for a Peabody award. 
• Health? Cool. Make a strolling or biking podcast for teenagers. Assist them perceive why consistency, hydration, and stretching matter. 
• Vitamin? Glorious. Each child must eat. The earlier they will gasoline themselves with wholesome meals which can be enjoyable to make, the higher their general high quality of life. 

Test along with your inside youngster and ask them what they need they’d identified about your podcast’s subject once they have been six years outdated. You could be the sort, clever, and beneficiant grownup they need they’d identified then. 

Nostalgia Can Refresh Your Viewers Over Time 

Talking of checking in along with your inside youngster, let’s talk about nostalgia marketing. Nostalgia advertising faucets into individuals’s need to really feel comforted and younger once more when they’re reminded of one thing significant from their youth. You’ve in all probability felt that combination of happiness and unhappiness if you see a duplicate of a beloved childhood toy. (A billion Barbie followers can’t be denied.) Experiencing music from our teenagers additionally makes us really feel younger once more. 

Furthermore, individuals are likely to share issues they liked of their youth with the younger individuals of their lives. The identical holds true for podcasting.

Based on The Youngsters Podcast Listener Report, 68% of adults surveyed stated the children of their lives take heed to podcasts with their dad and mom. Your viewers might develop out of your content material, however once they come again, they may deliver the children of their lives. For those who produce a youngsters’ and household podcast, your viewers will develop up and advocate it to the younger individuals of their lives once they’re grown.

5 Methods to Produce a Nice Youngsters & Household Podcast

There’s a ton of knowledge regarding youngsters’ and household podcasts. To slender it down, I’ll concentrate on some easy methods that will help you develop your viewers on this style:

• Leveraging youngsters’ progress milestones 
• Together with youngsters’ voices to foster engagement and belief
• Designing viewers participation and actions
• Balancing construction with enjoyable
• Context- making use of your content material to the viewers’s lives, and “why this issues”

These methods are true for any podcast: know your viewers, make it simple to keep up a correspondence, and so forth. However they’re a little bit extra clear for teenagers’ and household podcasts. Additionally, you could want to border these methods barely in a different way. Have a look. 

1. Youngsters’ Progress Milestones

For the sake of argument, let’s say we’re producing a vitamin podcast. 

Take into consideration your podcast area of interest, and discover the related growth milestones for social and educational skills. It will assist you to focus your content material and current it successfully. 

For instance, a vitamin podcast for teenagers aged 10-12 may embody recipes that contain utilizing a range and knives, as a result of kids’s motor expertise are higher developed at this age. In distinction, youngsters aged 4-6 may discover filling measuring cups an acceptable problem. Youngsters below age seven may prefer to obtain a coloring web page out of your podcast web site, whereas youngsters over seven usually tend to be fascinated by submitting unique tales or drawings. 

Youthful youngsters can perceive greater than they will categorical. Youngsters can perceive compound sentences at age 5. For instance, for those who ask a five-year-old, “If I crack three eggs into this bowl, after which I crack two extra eggs into the bowl, after which combine it up, what would I get?” they will simply depend on one hand to say, “5!” although it’s a three-part query. However, for those who observe that query with, “Then, what occurs if I minimize the eggs within the bowl in half?” the kid could possibly envision “half of the full” of their heads, and lack the vocabulary to reply.  You don’t should water down what you categorical or how, although the suggestions could appear simplistic.

For those who’re nonetheless uncertain about how your podcast content material can match with youngsters’ processing skill, take a instructor out for espresso and take heed to what they counsel as age-appropriate methods. Not solely can they offer you useful concepts, however they are able to use your podcast of their classroom. 

2. Embrace Youngsters’ Voices to Construct Engagement and Belief 

Tumble Media just lately hosted an internet class about producing podcasts for teenagers. Producer Lindsay Patterson interviewed Sanden Totten of Kids Listen, and so they mentioned an idea known as “near-peer,” which Totten stated is vital to getting and holding youngsters’ curiosity.

“Close to Peer” refers to youngsters’ tendency to view the following age group as extra skilled. The essential thought is that if a seven-year-old hears a brand new reality introduced by one other seven-year-old, they received’t discover it as fascinating as the identical reality introduced by a nine-year-old. Lance Dann, a producer of A to Z for Gen Z Media, stated that his expertise as a podcaster for kids backed this age statement up. “We initially have been aiming at 11-12-year-olds, and we ended up hitting 8-10. We weren’t cool sufficient for 11 – 12, however have been foolish sufficient (and fart-driven) for the youthful viewers.”

Together with near-peer voices could make your youngsters’ and household podcasts extra reliable for younger audiences. For instance, in Unspookable, youngsters describe city legends and in style myths that younger individuals might discover scary earlier than the host de-mystifies them. If you forged a child voice artist, take the age you need to attain, and add two or three years. 

Dann additionally reiterated that child listeners are extra receptive to concepts than we give them credit score for. “Watch out to not “speak down” to your viewers. Take your content material very significantly. Nor do you have to put intelligent “double that means” references in for adults. Because of this podcast networks for teenagers are so vital – dad and mom belief them and park their youngsters on them.” So, as Dann places it, “For those who’re shoving covert drug references and double entendres within the present, then that looks like an abuse of that belief.”

Lastly, to maintain your viewers coming again, Dann additionally recommends that you just “Be certain your first episode is an absolute doozy.  Youngsters pattern a single episode after which drop the sequence rather a lot.”

3. Youngsters Wish to Take part 

Sanden Totten additionally identified that children need to hear themselves on the present. So you’ll want to ask for viewers participation, as a result of your viewers will need to attain out. For instance, the children and household podcast Circle Round has great calls to action, giving youngsters actions to reinforce their understanding of every episode and a platform for suggestions. One other nice case, Story Pirates, consists of youngsters’ voices of their opening music, story strategies, and occasional interviews.

Use a web-based voice messaging tool like Telbee or Speakpipe to handle viewers messages extra simply. These instruments can transcribe and arrange voice messages so that you can use later. 

Due to the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule, be certain that any youngster’s web participation is managed by somebody over 18. On many youngsters and household podcasts, the decision to motion for viewers participation consists of issues like “Get a grownup to assist” or deal with the CTA on to “grownups.”

4. Steadiness Construction and Goofball Island.

As with all podcasts, having a sustainable format issues. So, by all means, give your present a construction audiences can stay up for. For instance, our hypothetical vitamin podcast may have a construction like this:

• Opening and Welcome
• Nutrient of the Week- what it’s, what it does, the place to seek out it
• Meal or snack recipe
• Music or Interview with an Professional on this nutrient
• Name to Motion and Wrap-Up

The acquainted construction helps the viewers know what to anticipate once they return every week. Inside that construction, although, be happy to let your creativeness frolic. Sound results and music immediate the viewers to think about your subject extra vividly. Humor may also go an extended strategy to make your youngsters and household podcast a success. 

For instance, The Cat In The Hat Cast seems to be the unbridled chaos solely Dr. Seuss may present. However, the model of segments repeats, satisfying viewers expectations. Regardless of how wild Cat and Fish’s adventures are, every episode follows a system, giving the viewers dopamine that strengthens a love of studying. 

Discover new and artistic methods to make your subject fascinating and enjoyable. For instance, you’ll be able to ask musicians who write songs for teenagers to collaborate on novel songs on your present. By no means underestimate the breadth, depth, or recognition of knock-knock jokes. 

5. Put Your Ideas in Their Context.

Ask open-ended questions on your subject for the viewers to consider. For instance, for those who create an episode about plant-based protein, ask questions like, 

• What crops do you see in your strategy to faculty?
• Have you ever ever taken care of a houseplant?
• What colour was the final plant you ate?

These sorts of questions assist the viewers think about your episode’s subject because it pertains to their lived expertise.

Wish to make an interview podcast? Native libraries, museums, faculties, and performing arts facilities have particular occasions to advertise. Their schooling division or neighborhood liaison can present results in interview friends, or new matters. Youngsters’ guide authors do interviews, too. When your podcast touches on acquainted components, it’s simpler on your viewers to visualise new or summary concepts.

Share Your Podcast Thought With Youngsters and Households

E.B. White, the writer of Charlotte’s Web, as soon as stated, “Anybody who thinks it’s important to shift gears when writing for kids will find yourself stripping their gears.” The preliminary inspiration for Charlotte’s Internet got here when White was fifty years outdated. However, the lived expertise that makes Charlotte’s Internet an everlasting novel took the earlier fifty years to develop. 

Any thought you cherish sufficient to podcast about could be even stronger for those who current it to youngsters and households. They need extra reveals to take pleasure in collectively, so why not? Simplify with out condescending, stability construction with enjoyable, and provides youngsters a possibility to take over the mic on occasion. Your podcast can deliver households collectively and provides them one thing to share with others. 

For those who nonetheless need assistance determining who your podcast is for, try our article about how to create your podcast avatar (and why). You also needs to try our Indiepod Community, the place we talk about all elements of podcasting. You’ll acquire confidence and perspective, and possibly assist others alongside the way in which.