Recently, I’ve discovered a fantastic new platform and just HAD to share it with you.

It has the potential to be a real player within the social media industry. Say hello to Anchor.

“Make cool audio, right from your phone” - that’s what Anchor is all about. You can broadcast your voice, conversations and music all for free. You can share it anywhere and even turn your audio into a podcast. All with just one tap.

So today, I’m going to talk you through how you can use it!

How to Use Anchor

STEP ONE - DOWNLOAD THE APP

Anchor makes it super easy to create your profile. You just need to pick a username, along with a photo, bio and URL.

STEP TWO - CREATE YOUR FIRST EPISODE

When you want to record, you’ll see a red ‘+’ sign at the bottom of your screen. Tap that and swipe upwards so it locks - that way you don’t need to keep your finger on the record button.

Your audio can be a maximum of five minutes long, so bear this in mind. I’ve found it useful to plan my scripts in advance so I can stay on track.

For your first episode, it might be best to just do an introduction. Here are a few things you could cover:

Who you are
What your blog/business is all about
How you started
An overview of the type of content you’ll be sharing

When you’re done, you can preview your recording and then choose an audio sample to play in the background. This really adds an extra element to the audio when you listen back to it!

If you decide you’re happy with it, the next step is to publish it to your station. Anchor will ask you to add a caption (which basically acts as the title). Try to choose a catchy caption that explains to your audience what your audio is all about, without giving too much away.

Then you can publish your audio to your station and it’ll remain there for 24 hours (like your Instagram Story). If you want to keep it, Anchor also lets you download it too.

PUBLISHING AS AN EPISODE

You can even stitch together different clips that you record to create an episode. This will ensure that the content stays live beyond the 24 hour limit. It even means that you can easily push that content to iTunes or the Google Store.

Who knew you could make a micro podcast in five minutes or less?!

Plus, Anchor hosts your content and distributes it for you too.

STEP THREE - SHARING YOUR CONTENT

Another great thing about Anchor is that you can use your existing social platforms to promote your audio content.

You can easily push new episodes out to your Facebook page. It’s also a good idea to include a question, so you’re actively encouraging your audience to respond in the comments.
There’s an in-app prompt that allows you to send a tweet. This encourages your followers to listen to your episode directly in Twitter. Genius.
Lucky enough to have the feature where you can swipe up to view a link on Instagram Stories? This is a great opportunity to utilise that. Just add a snippet to your story promoting your latest post. If not, you can just use link.tree and always update the link when you publish a new episode.

STEP FOUR - CONNECT WITH OTHERS ON ANCHOR

Since I’ve started using this platform, I’ve come across some amazing content creators who I already know online. Share your support and favourite their stations. This means you’ll never miss an episode from them.

You can also search to find other stations that are relevant to you, comment on their recent episodes and - my favourite - send in a voice message by calling into a station!

WHY I THINK IT'S SO GREAT

This platform is only just starting out. For once, it feels like it’s easier to get noticed, because it’s got fewer content creators than all the other big game players out there.
Audio content is like no other form of content. You don’t need to be “camera ready”. All it needs is you and your voice.
You know from the get-go that you only need five minutes max to listen to an episode. It’s about being to the point. Short and sweet.
You can get other people involved by inviting them to call into your station, which is a really authentic way to encourage conversation.

I can’t wait to see how this platform develops and to listen to lots of new voices!

You can follow me on Anchor here.