Letters to Humanity: Keeping it social
Letters to Humanity, a post-apocalyptic podcast, needed a platform to host a community that would allow a space for conversation and contribution, and that space became Twitter.
The tweets created for the Letters to Humanity podcast can be placed in two categories, quotes from the show and announcements about the show(which begin with the words ‘incoming transmission’). These announcements are concise, with a positive, welcoming tone, while the quotes come from quotable momentes during the episodes. Illustrations for these quotes follow the same styling and font as the logo for consistency. The hashtag #letterspod is introduced and used generously.
- Call for feedback
This announcement is the first of five created for the account. To further distinguish the difference between announcements and quotes from the show, the ‘incoming transmission’ is implemented. The phrase also gives a nod to radio transmissions. This tweet also included a strong call to action.
2. The first quote
Fun quotes from show episodes are tweeted to attract interest to the show, with the episode number included. Quotes also have quotation marks around them to indicate they are spoken.
3. Availability announcement
Our main audience streams in from Spotify, but Letters to Humanity is published on a variety of platforms through Anchor. Episodes take longer to upload to YouTube since they are always uploaded with accurate captions,
4. Second quote
The punchline to this quote was decided by my voice actor, and was happily kept. Not much else to add except it is a quote that I’m happy to share.
5. YouTube link
This announcement tweet includes a video link to the episode on YouTube. YouTube is an accessible, free to use platform for listeners, and it may be the best mode for some listeners to access our content.
6. Third quote
One of the most recent quotes from the show, this quote delves into the reason why bucket lists have their name. All punctuation is as written from the script.
7. Get involved announcement
One way to better include our twitter audience and listeners of the show is include a way for listeners to both tweet about the show and have a chance for their name to be featured in an upcoming episode. A podcast I follow doesn’t pay for advertising but relies on word on mouth and uses this method to give a nod back and include the community.
8. First illustration
I was really excited to try incorperating illustrations and visual aspects to tweets. I created a more shareable, postable banner that includes a quote from the show and the show hashtag. It’s lineart mimics the lineart of the logo, while the text curves aorund the eye. The text in the tweet encourages conversation.
9. Episode airing announcement
This tweet serves as a vehicle for creating hype for a new episode. It includes the episode number, the date, and the time of the release, with an encouraging ‘Stay tuned’.
10. Second illustration
Though perhaps the simplest illustration, this one was my favorite. The full quote prefaces the illustration, with the episode number underneath, while a strong part of the quote is in white in the illustration. The yellow show hashtag calls attention without being the center piece of the illustration, while the yellow frame draws in users eyes.
Overall, this experience in creating tweets was extremely fun and a great exercise. Most of these tweets weren’t kept on the official @letterspod account, but I am hoping to implement them as I continue creating episodes. I would love to make more illustrations and links, and I think this system of announcement and quotes works well for the platform, and could encourage conversation and the growth of a community.