Home » SquidooHQ

How to write a great Squidcast (and get more readers)

MeganCasey by MeganCasey
Last updated: 05/24/2011

About Squidcasting

UPDATE as of May 24 2011: Our Squidcasting feature is being deactivated, and all previous Squidcasts will be archived for you to reference and save. This lens addressed how the system worked previously.

The lens has also been updated to underscore the point that the theory and practice of creating updates and building relationships with your readers and fan base is still very valid. You can do that every day, even without Squidcasts.

What's a Squidcast?

a broadcasting tool

Squidcasting 2.0 was a featured designed with this goal in mind: Give you a way of reaching people who care about what your lens is about.

Put another way, Squidcasting was a way to keep your lens active and updated, and your readers engaged, without the stress of running a lens like a blog, and without having to add ever more content modules that make your lenses impossibly long.

Actually, you don't NEED Squidcasts

You've already made a great lens. Now, broadcast it to the world in interesting bits and pieces and updates. There are plenty of platforms to do this, including Twitter and Facebook. Develop an audience. You've only just begun.

The theory

it's even more relevant today

What we dreamed of for Squidcast 1.0 a few years ago still stands, even more so today. Here's what we said then:

For those of you who thrive on theory, here's the big idea: Squidcasting puts you in charge of more than just a webpage... it puts you in charge of a conversation. If you place yourself at the center of your topic, if you develop permission to talk to people who are interested in it, then you're creating something priceless: an attentive, relevant fan base.

You've already done the hard part by making remarkable lenses. Every day there are people stopping by your page who want to learn or find out or buy or talk or share. If they think you're authentic and readable and likeable and passionate about your topic, they'll follow your lens. And you can make it worth their while by Squidcasting your latest finds, thoughts and pearls of wisdom about your topic.

Even if you don't use Squidcasts, think about the strategy of how you share your lenses, interests, and stories...

10 ideas for getting the word out

Why wait for someone to find your lens?

Here are a few ways to leverage your readership, get more traffic, make more sales, and develop a reputation as someone who publishes good stuff. You can do all of this without Squidcasts, as a matter of fact. Don't wait!
  • 1Send a Squidcast when you have made a significant update to a lens, like when you've introduced new content, new products, new modules, and you think that readers would find your update useful. Squidcasts help you do more and get smarter than sharing boring "I just updated my lens" notes.
  • 2Mini product reviews! Let's say you have a Green Kitchen Applicances lens. If you find a great new green blender to add to your lens, spotlight it at the top and write a Squidcast about it. Or when you add another new Wii game your lens about of Best Wii Games for Teenage Girls. Surely the right time for sending a Squidcast. Anchor link to the new module or the new content, so people can skip right to the new meat.
  • 3What if you have a lens that gets tons of comments? Duel lenses, debate lenses, lenses that organize people's feedback and tweets and testimonials and mini-reviews. All these lenses that run conversations are perfect candidates for using Squidcasting on a regular basis. What if you featured one comment a day? In the Star Trek vs. Star Wars Debate lens, you could share your favorite argument for either side and Squidcast it out as "Best Comment of the Day."
  • 4Run your own version of Lens of the Day. If your lens features a list of 100 Great Dessert Lenses -- how about Squidcasting one lens a day? You could also Squidcast about new blog posts you've written, if they're relevant to your lens. Squidcasting is a tool for broadcasting what's hot, new, meaningful and relevant. It doesn't always have to be JUST content on your lens...
  • 5Send a Squidcast to celebrate a milestone or a holiday, or to say thanks. If you have a lens on the Best Irish Pubs in Chicago, St. Patrick's Day is probably a great day to Squidcast your lens around and get some votes or feedback! Or consider celebrating your 1 year anniversary of the creation of your most popular lens. Squidcast is a good way to say thanks to all your happy readers.
  • 6Squidcast out a call for help! (Don't cry wolf, please). If you have a new lens and wish your friends on Facebook would see it and help proofread or share feedback for improvements, you can Squidcast it just to them and see what they think.
  • 7Squidcast casting calls. Maybe you want to invite some special guests to contribute writeups to your lens. Squidcast what you need, then when they deliver, Squidcast to help promote the good new content they've submitted for your lens. They'll love the extra exposure.
  • 8Spotlight featured lensmasters who have done good things for your lens. Squidcast when you do. Imagine: "Friends of Funky Laptop bags: A weekly series." Hmm.
  • 9Cross-Squidcast when it makes sense. Take the fear out of "promotion." Let's say you've got a hugely trafficked and great lens about How to Photograph Your Dog. And you just published a brand new lens on How to Photograph Your Cat. Squidcast is a wonderful way to cross promote that new lens on your tried and true lens.
  • 10If you ask really really nicely (and you've built up a good reputation and earned permission to do so), try seeing if lensmasters of some of your favorite lenses would consider Squidcasting a note about your new related lens! If you have a lens on iguanas, and someone else has one too, you can get creative with scratching each other's backs...

The secret to great Squidcasts

Spotlight and broadcast interesting content to people who care.

Subscribe to Squidcasts from your favorite lensmasters

Roll your own Squidcast digest, so to speak

Last but not least, now you can subscribe to your very own custom RSS feed, a mashup of updates from the lenses and lensmasters you have Favorited or Fanned on Squidoo. Just login, look at your My Favorites tab on your Squidoo dashboard, and look for the big orange RSS button on that page.

Now when my favorite people have a Squidcast to share, I won't miss it!

How to write a great Squidcast

A few writing tips

  • Keep it short and focused. It's not a tweet, but it's probably not a whole new article either.
  • Don't over-broadcast. If you want to Squidcast a message about a lens every single day, make sure you're sharing insanely interesting stuff...
  • Stay on topic for your lens. Don't Squidcast about turtles if your lens is about elephants.
  • Come up with appealing titles for your Squidcasts. Kind of like blog post titles, or lens titles.
  • Address your audience. If you're only going to share your Squidcast on Twitter, address your Twitter followers. If you're focusing the Squidcast only on Facebook fans, go ahead and greet them accordingly.
  • Create your own holidays. Celebrate when a lens makes its first sale. Share when you've reached 5000 comments. Broadcast when you get 10,000 visits in one day. Blow out candles on your first lens anniversary. People like numbers and stats and success -- share it!
  • Be a scientist. Try testing and measuring. You have the tools. You could send a Squidcast and see how many visits your lens gets over the next 2 days as a result. Then try a different kind of Squidcast and watch your visits again. Or, Squidcast a link to your Guestbook or Duel or Poll or Quiz and measure how many new comments you get, how many new votes, etc. Tweak, measure, repeat. It's actually a lot of fun.
  • Go ahead and include links! Link people to modules in your lens, offer them shortcuts to your Amazon spotlights, link to your Twitter feed. Whatever is relevant and gives them a useful shortcut for interacting with you and your lens.
  • Pretty soon you'll be able to include images and videos in your Squidcasts. Cool, huh?

Imagining lens updates you might send

Putting words in your mouth

Just a few imaginary updates and what they might look like:
  • My Tofu vs. Bacon debate lens just hit 1000 comments! Here's the milestone comment... And thanks to everyone who has joined the duel.
  • I'm a huge Tim Burton fan, as you can see by my lens over here.... Well, this new lens is all about his upcoming movie Alice in Wonderland, and I've featured a bunch of interesting ways to create Mad Hatter hats and costumes to wear to the theater on opening night! etc etc...
  • Hey guys, this lens is a bestseller spotlight for my Etsy store -- I like to share updates with readers and customers, and plan to Squidcast out an update every week. Guess what: This week I sold 19 squidhats! That's incredible. Next week I'll be introducing a brand new hat I've designed and sharing it with you guys first. Stay tuned.
  • Once upon a time I made this lens about funky toilet seats because I thought it was funny. But today I just made my 500th sale. That's a lot of toilet seats... I've moved the 5 best selling seats to the top of the lens if you want to take a look. I also added a new Comments section so you can share your feedback on each.
  • I just got a new puppy and made this lens all about the organic puppy treats she loves. I also added links to a bunch of other helpful lenses about puppy toys and training, created by other members of the Squidoo community. I think this is turning into a really cool compendium of puppy information. Please share it with fellow doglovers -- and remind them that if they buy any of the toys from the page, they'll be making a donation to the Humane Society for free!

Comments

We're curious to hear your comments about Squidcasting

submit
Show All

This SquidooHQ page written by

MeganCasey

MEGAN CASEY is Editor in Chief of Squidoo.com, the popular publishing platform she started with Seth Godin and a small incredibly talented team in 2005.

She... more »

Official news and updates from the Squidoo Team

Connect with SquidooHQ

This author recommends...