AP 0003: How Do I Increase Engagement and Participation in My Community?

AskPat 3 Episode Transcript

Pat Flynn: Hey, what's up everybody? This is Pat Flynn, and welcome to Episode 3 of AskPat. You know, this is actually my third podcast that I currently do. I love podcasting. It's done so much for the businesses that I've created a podcast for.

A lot of people have been asking me, “Pat, how do you actually create your own podcast?” Well, I have a tutorial that I created for you. It's completely free. No emails or opt-ins or anything required. It's all there for free for you. Go ahead and check it out. You can check it out at PodcastingTutorial.com. That will redirect you to the page on my main site where I show you six high-quality videos, exactly how to start a podcast. Many, many people, hundreds of people have used it to start their own, and I hope you will to.

Now, today's question is an awesome question because it's asked by a kid. I know there are a ton of kids who listen to my other podcast, and I just love that. That's why I keep my shows clean. This kid, Briggs is his name, I mean, just . . . you've got to listen to the question, it's a great question. Also, just the fact that a ten-year-old kid is asking this question is just so inspiring. Here's Briggs.

Briggs: Hi Pat, it's Briggs from KidsDrummingLessons.com. I'm ten years old, and my dad and I love to listen to your podcast. My website gives out free drum lessons to beginner drummers. Pat, I need your help. We currently have over 150 students, but we can not seem to get any good interaction with our students. We've tried asking questions during the lesson, but our students are not taking the bait. Please help us, Pat Kenobi, you're my only hope.

Pat Flynn: Ah, young Briggs. First of all, ten years old and already working on websites and helping people. So cool, that is so awesome, Briggs. Keep doing what you're doing. I can't . . . seriously, just a couple of things. One, I wish I had done what you are doing at your age. Although, the internet wasn't around then, so I was playing video games mostly. I wish I was doing what you are doing at your age. I can't wait to share your question with my son. He's only four right now, but I'd love to show him other cool kids who are doing amazing things like you do, so just keep up the great work.

Now, to answer you question. You have a community of about 150 students, but it's hard to get them to speak up. This is a very, very common thing that happens in any online community. Not everybody's going to talk, and typically it's a very small percentage of a community that will. It's great to hear that you want to get your students to speak up. It definitely adds a lot to the overall user experience on your site and in your communities. Especially if you have students, paying students who pay a recurring monthly fee to be a part of your group, that communication from your students, not just with you but with each other, is what can help keep those students in your program for much longer. You can end up making more money down the road too, and everybody's going to be happier. Because everyone—everyone, all human beings—we love to belong and feel like we're part of a group, right? We love to feel like we're part of a group and we love to contribute to that group whenever we can.

It's not always easy. As you can see. Sometimes just simply asking questions will help. In your case, you said you did that already, but you need a little bit more. You need something else. So let me give you a couple of tips that you can try to help increase communication with your students. I actually just talked about these things in a recent presentation, so I have these stories fresh in mind.

There's a guy I know, his name is Steve Spangler. He's awesome. He's a scientist, he's a teacher, and public speaker. He's been on Ellen Degeneres and a bunch of other TV shows (Jay Leno, for late night). Super cool guy. He does these really cool science experiments. Well, he was having trouble getting his audience to speak up too, especially on YouTube, which was his primarily content platform. What he would do before is, he would do this. He would demonstrate these really cool experiments, and then talk about the science behind what happened in that experiment at the end of the video, he would explain what happened.

For example, he would suck in air from a balloon, and then his voice would be super low. Then, he would explain it, he would just talk about it. He would say, “Oh, well, the gas in the balloon was sulfur hexafluoride, which is six times denser or heavier than air, so that's why your voice came out lower.” He would say, “leave comments or questions, or let me know if you have any questions,” and that was how he was getting his audience to engage. He would ask those questions. But, what kind of comments or questions can you leave about a video like that besides, “That's awesome,” or “Where can I get some sulfur hexafluoride?” Right? Not much else though. Cool experiment, but not really a good opportunity to speak up.

Then, he switched up his videos. He did the same thing. He showed the really cool experiments, but then instead of sharing why, instead of talking about and explaining the science behind it, he left it to the audience to talk about why. He took out the explanation and instead asked his audience, “Why? Why was my voice lower? What happened here?” When he did videos like this, the comments and the communication exploded on his website. People pulling out their chemistry books, having debates with each other in the comments section of YouTube, just because Steve asked his audience for what the right answer is.

Now, why did this work? This worked because everybody loves to show that they know the right answer. So don't just ask questions, Briggs, ask for the right answers. I don't know if you or your dad ever watches any game shows, but I know what I do. When there's a question that I know the answer to, doesn't matter who's in the room. I mean, it doesn't even matter if anybody's in the room. There could be nobody in the room. I will shout it out at the top of my lungs. Maybe not at the top of my lungs, but I'll say it because I want, if there's people in the room, everyone else to know that I know the right answer. Even if there's nobody in that room, I want to know that I know the right answer, you know? It's so cool when you're watching a game show and you say the answer and they say that same answer. You're like “Yeah, see, I knew it,” right?

Now, you might do this in school already. Think about your teachers at school. They're teaching you, but they know the answers to the questions that they ask you. They still ask them anyway. That's when you raise your hand and get called on to share the answer. Online, Briggs, you are the teacher, and you totally have the right to ask your students for what they think the right answer is for certain things. I'm not sure how you run your course, but maybe some of the videos can be like quizzes. You're asking them questions, and for the right answer. You do, maybe you do a drum lick or some technique, or some riff, and you ask your students, “What's the name of this technique,” or “When during a song would you use this?” Something like that. You're the pro drummer, not me. I play the trumpet. Maybe we could start a band, I don't know.

Please excuse my random questions there, but I think you know what I mean. Ask your students for what the right answer is, and give them an opportunity to talk about it with each other. If they know the answer, and even if they don't, they're likely to speak up way more and learn at the same time, more than if you were to just ask them a random question. Don't ask them a question, ask for the answer, and you'll get more engagement that way. Give it a shot, Briggs, and let me know how it goes.

There's another quick strategy that I can share with you. Now, instead of asking for the right answer, you can also ask your students for some help as far as what you want to see next, or what kind of content you should create next. There's a lot of great YouTube channels out there that know exactly what kind of videos to create because they ask their audience at the end of every video, “Well, what should we do next?”

There's one YouTube channel out there. It’s called “Bad Lip Reading.” A lot of you listening probably know about this. They got famous by . . . what they do is they take a video and they got famous doing an NFL one where they had famous football players talking, or the referees talking, but instead of using the actual voice of those people, there would be a guy just doing voiceovers. It would be hilarious, because it would be like, I mean it would actually look like they were saying those funny things that they dubbed in. Anyway, at the end of those videos they say, “Okay, what do you want us to do a bad lip reading for next?” Then their audience just goes crazy. Do this video next, or do Twilight, or do Hunger Games, and they did those. One Direction, they did a One Direction video. Bad lip reading One Direction, which is hilarious.

You see, when you give your students, or the people in your audience a chance to affect the decisions that you make for your business, it gets them to become and feel like they're more a part of the community, and it gets them to speak up too. They are your students, especially if they're paying, they want what's best for them, and if you give them the opportunity, and you give them permission to speak up and help guide what you're going to do next, they will.

Give that a shot too, Briggs, let me know how it goes. Briggs, thank you so much for your question. It's super cool that you're only ten years old and you're doing these amazing things. Keep up the great work. Hi to your dad for me. I'll be sending you and your dad an AskPat t-shirt very soon. I'll contact you via email, and I hope you enjoy it. Thank you for your question, again.

If you're listening and you have a question about online business blogging, podcasting, entrepreneurship, start-ups, anything that I can help you to help you with your business, let me know. Head on over to AskPat.com, ask it right there, right now, and I'll see you in the next episode.

Thanks again for listening to Episode 3 of AskPat. As I mentioned at the top of the show, if you are interested in starting your own podcast, head on over to PodcastingTutorial.com. That's my free tutorial that I created and put together for you. No opt-ins, no emails, no payments required. The only requirement is that you check it out and you commit to doing a podcast, and after you create your podcast, you send me a link to it so I can check it out too.

Now, like always, I'm going to finish today with a quote, and that quote is, “The harder you work, the luckier you become.” I'll credit Thomas Jefferson for that quote, but a ton of people have said that quote too, and I say it all the time because it's true. The harder you work, more luck will come your way. Keep working hard and you'll see, you'll become a much luckier person. Take care, I'll see you in the next episode.