How to Build a Loyal Podcast Community (Not Just an Audience)

Date: July 1, 2026

Reading time: 9 minutes

Key Takeaways

• Download numbers are the wrong scoreboard. Comments, shares, story reposts, and DMs are the real signal that listeners have become a community.

• An audience is a passive, silent scroller. A community is the person who DMs you at 9am about an editing mistake, or who becomes a sponsor.

• Naming your community (Sip Squad, Swifties, the Beehive) gives people an identity to opt into, not just a show to consume.

• You do not need to be local to build real community. Behind the scenes content, deeper guest involvement, and Facebook groups all travel.

• Start teasing your show on social media about a month before it launches, the same way authors build anticipation before a book drops.

• Co-hosting with the right person does not just split the workload. It merges two personal communities into one and doubles your reach from day one.

• Real community building costs time. Budget for it honestly, about 10 hours a week for a mature show, so you are not blindsided later.

The Silence Every Podcaster Fears

There's a moment every podcaster knows. You hit publish, you share the episode, and then nothing. You wonder if anybody is actually out there.

Some shows rack up thousands of downloads and a completely silent comment section. Others have a few hundred loyal listeners who show up every single week, share every episode, and would genuinely miss the show if it disappeared.

The difference is a real podcast community, not just an audience, and guest Jen Cole joined Strategy Talks to break down exactly how to build one.

Meet the Show Built on Wine Nights and Wichita Pride

Jen's current podcast, So This Happened, started the way a lot of good ideas do: over wine, with her best friend Rachel, laughing about old photos. One night, drinking from a bottle labeled “So this happened...”, Rachel suggested they turn the ritual into a podcast. It took them four years to actually launch it, but the show is now coming up on its first year and has grown into what Jen calls a toast to Wichita, complete with local guests and a stage slot at Wichita Riverfest the same weekend the Jacksons played.

This is not Jen's first rodeo. She has hosted podcasts since 2016, including Making a Marketer with Megan Powers, which is heading into its 10th season this fall. That kind of longevity is rare. Somewhere between 80 and 90 percent of podcasts never make it past six episodes, and Jen's answer for why so many stall out is simple: consistency. “You put yourself out there and you think it's just crickets at first,” she said. “But that's how every social media channel starts too. You have to build that community.”

The KPIs That Actually Matter (Not Downloads)

Ask Jen what she actually tracks and download counts are nowhere near the top of the list. The KPIs that actually build a podcast community live somewhere else: she watches engagement across every platform the show touches, comments, shares, story reposts, and people willing to collaborate on a Reel.

“I feel like it's forgetting to leverage,” she said. “Thinking too much about numbers and not paying enough attention to the human piece of it.” That means checking analytics on audio, on YouTube, and on social separately, since what works for one audience will not automatically work for another, and giving yourself grace when growth on any one platform looks slow.

Podcast Audience vs. Podcast Community: Where Most Podcasters Go Astray

This is the distinction Jen kept coming back to, and it is worth sitting with. An audience is passive. They are the silent scroller, taking things in without ever surfacing. A community is different.

“People that are part of your active community, these are the people that if they're listening to your podcast and you accidentally forget to take out a part that's clearly supposed to be edited out, they're DMing you at 9:00 in the morning saying, did you mean to leave this part in.”  — Jen Cole

One of Jen's longtime listeners texted her about a leftover bathroom break in an episode months before that same listener became a paying sponsor. That is the shift: from someone who watches, to someone invested enough to notice, to someone invested enough to fund the thing.

Give Your People a Name

One of Jen's simplest, most repeatable tactics: name your community. She borrowed the idea after watching Kylie Kelce's podcast audience get a name of their own, and thinking about how Taylor Swift has Swifties, Lady Gaga has the Little Monsters, and Beyonce has the Beehive.

Jen and Rachel named theirs the Sip Squad. Now every piece of content speaks directly to that identity: “Hey, Sip Squad, we're so excited to see you at River Fest.” It gives listeners something to belong to, not just something to consume.

“For those of you listening, we need to come up with a name for Strategy Talks listeners. I don't know what that is yet. Let us know in the comments.”  — Dorien Morin-van Dam

Building Community Even When You're Not Local

A lot of what makes Jen's approach work is genuinely local: coffee shop visits, a bonus mini series called the coffee passport, running into fans at a favorite patio. So what happens if your audience is scattered across three continents instead of one city?

Dorien pushed on this in the conversation, and the two of them landed on a few transferable moves: behind the scenes footage from the green room, a photo booth style moment with guests, or a dedicated Facebook group where you host deeper, smaller conversations with the people who show up every week. Jen even floated streaming a live Q&A directly into that group.

The mechanism is the same either way. When the people you host on your show share the episode themselves, and their own audience follows the trail back to you, the show's reach compounds. “People wanna share,” Jen said. “And so when the people that you host are also sharing this content, then your podcast is also expanding its own reach, because it just kind of starts to snowball.”

The Moment You Know You've Hooked Them

There is a specific moment Jen described that most podcasters dream about and rarely name out loud. Three months into So This Happened, a friend named Brent approached her at a local patio and said, unprompted, “I gotta tell you, I'm loving your podcast.” At the time, Brent was the executive director of Ballet Wichita. That single moment turned into an actual partnership: a merch line where 10 percent of profits go to Ballet Wichita, and ongoing coverage of their shows on the podcast.

“You hear about that and you strive for that,” Jen said, “but when it happens in real life, your jaw hits the ground.”

Dorien had her own read on part of what makes Jen's show pull people in this way.

“I'm just wondering if part of what you're creating is FOMO. You're there with your bestie, and that creates that automatic, I wanna be in there too. It's genuine, it's real. They feel like they're in the room with the two of you, because the two of you are in the room.”  — Dorien Morin-van Dam

It's a detail worth sitting with if you host solo. A co-host does not just split the workload. It gives listeners a relationship to watch, and a reason to want in.

Set the Format Before You Launch

Jen went into So This Happened already knowing how a podcast should work, from her own recording and editing experience to the value of a recurring format. Every episode has segments listeners can expect, including a fan favorite called Trend Decoder, and every episode ties back to a loose overarching theme, like an entire episode built around Mental Health Awareness Month.

Just as importantly, Jen started building the show's social channels about a month before the first episode ever went live, the same way an author teases a book cover before the release date. By the time the first episode dropped, an audience was already waiting.

One Thing You Can Do This Week

When Dorien asked for a single action any podcaster could take this week to start building real community, Jen's answer was concrete: pick one talking point from your show, get on camera, and talk about it for about two and a half minutes.

Post it everywhere, LinkedIn, YouTube Shorts, Reels, ideally once before the episode drops to build anticipation and once after to keep the conversation going.

“You get in front of your audience, show them your face, show them your mannerisms, bring yourself to life for them, and they'll start resonating a little bit better with you.”  — Jen Cole

Dorien had a name for the pattern: leaving a trail, like Hansel and Gretel, so people can find their way back to the full episode.

The Honest Time Commitment

Before wrapping, Dorien asked the practical question most podcasters actually want answered: how much time does this take?

Jen did not soften it. Between recording, editing, content creation, thumbnails, merch, and event logistics, she spends roughly 10 hours a week on So This Happened.

That number matters, especially for anyone building a show around a full time job. It also points to one more reason a co-host is worth considering: sharing ownership means sharing the load on days when you personally do not have the capacity, and it means merging two personal communities into one from the very first episode.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between a podcast audience and a podcast community?

An audience is passive. They listen or watch without ever engaging. A community is active: they comment, share, DM you, notice small mistakes, and are willing to sponsor or promote the show because they feel invested in it.

What metrics actually matter for building a loyal podcast community?

Comments, shares, story reposts, and direct engagement across every platform matter more than raw download numbers or follower counts. Track engagement separately on audio, video, and social, since what works on one platform will not necessarily work on another.

How do you build a podcast community if your audience is not local?

Lean on behind the scenes content, deeper guest involvement, and a dedicated space like a Facebook group for closer conversations. When guests share their episode with their own audience, that reach compounds on its own.

About Jen Cole

Jen Cole hosts So This Happened, a Wichita based podcast she co-created with her best friend Rachel, along with Making a Marketer, co-hosted with Megan Powers and entering its 10th season this fall.

This is my episode on that show

She also serves on the board of Digital Wichita. Find her podcasts under the So This Happened name on Instagram and YouTube, and connect with her personally on Instagram and LinkedIn.

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