As podcasts continue to grow and evolve, one topic that is getting increasingly more “airtime” is that of diversity.
In places like the U.S., many statistics have shown that audiences are becoming increasingly diverse. In fact, some recent research indicates that around 41% of podcast listeners in the U.S. are non-white.
With this in mind, B2B podcast hosts need to think about how to create an environment with their shows that welcomes and engages listeners from different backgrounds who have a shared interest or work in the same industry.
By doing this, they can reach a wider audience that feels represented by the guests and content found on their podcasts.
That said, let’s remember that diversity is not just limited to race, culture, gender, sexual orientation, religion, or physical disability, but also encompasses different expertise, professional disciplines, and ways of thinking.
Here are some reasons why diversifying guests for your B2B podcast is not just a great idea, but also important.
Guest Diversity Helps To Eradicate Conscious and Unconscious Bias
One key benefit of having diverse guests on your show is that it allows us to get rid of conscious and unconscious bias.
There are several reasons why these types of bias exist.
Many stem from preconceived notions or assumptions we hear within our homes, schools, or the media we grew up with about people of a certain race, gender, religion, or discipline.
One effective way of debunking these “myths” is to invite guests who have defied these conventions and built successful careers despite these stereotypes.
By telling their stories to your audience, they can help to question these generalizations, dispel misinformation, and provide factual insights based on their own experiences.
This will give the audience a more informed perspective and help them to reevaluate their views on these biases.
2. Guest Diversity Helps You Educate your Audience
B2B podcasters must help their audiences open their minds and move away from the divisive rhetoric they see or read online. They can also help listeners understand that diversity is not something to be feared or frowned upon and should instead be celebrated.
That said, it is a process that requires a lot of learning, relearning, and unlearning.
It’s important to educate oneself on diversity and understand that it should be viewed as a source of a society’s and a nation’s strength.
While it is clear that we may have many differences, there are also some universal commonalities that we all share in terms of our professional and personal lives.
Podcast hosts can invite guests to share their stories and dig deeper into how we can use our differences as points of inspiration or references we can learn from to improve.
Our differences can also unravel new opportunities.
For example, Spanish is one of the most widely spoken languages in the United States after English. It is estimated that approximately 53 million people in the U.S. speak this language at home and work. This presents a huge unmet need and marketing opportunity to an audience across different industry segments that speaks Spanish.
3. Diversity Helps Us To Practice Empathy and Compassion
A crucial part of fostering diversity is that it gives people who have suffered traumatic experiences a voice and allows them to share their stories with a wider audience.
By inviting them on a podcast, hosts can help support these guests so that they may not only move past their trauma but also inspire others to speak up and share their stories.
This also helps the podcast hosts and their audiences to acknowledge what others have gone through and be inspired by their perseverance and resilience.
The key here is to help turn these negative experiences into something positive that others can learn from.
4. B2B Podcast Guest Diversity Opens New Doors of Opportunity for Your Show
We still have a long way to go to make our society an environment that is truly inclusive and where diversity is celebrated as a strength.
That said, we can take small steps to ensure that we invite diverse guests to our B2B podcasts.
As mentioned in this article, having diverse guests will help us to eliminate conscious and unconscious bias and educate our audience about the advantages of diversity.
It also enables us to practice empathy and compassion for those who have gone through traumatic experiences or endured discrimination.
If you have any questions or are searching for a partner to help you set sail on your B2B podcast voyage, drop us a line!
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