Are AI-Generated Podcast Clips Worth the Time and Effort?

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So pretty much every podcast-related software company out there has a feature where they can really quickly, easily, and automatically pull clips from your podcast episodes that you can share on social media.

But do these clips actually work? Do they do anything? Are they better if they’re done by hand, or can you use an automated tool to create them?

There’s a lot that goes into video clips, audio shorts, short-form video – and the short answer is that yes, they do work, but probably not for the reason or for the outcome that you think they’re going to.

So the theory is that you record a great interview, either by yourself or with somebody else, and then you get some short-form video clips that you can share on social media that hopefully are going to attract attention, get engagement, and get people interested in the topic enough that they listen to the whole episode.

So you can spend a whole lot of time figuring out these clips, finding them, editing them, putting on captions. And whether you’ve got a tool helping you do it or not, it’s still an investment of time.

Then you put them out into the world, you get them on social media, and absolutely nothing happens because nobody cares and there’s no context for what is actually going on.

We have found time and time again that purpose-recorded short-form clips, like the one you’ll see at the end of this post, are going to perform better and have more business value because they are complete and contextual.

They contain a whole idea in this one clip, rather than being chopped down from something longer without context to support or give a reason why someone should listen, or continue the thought, to the extent that someone can actually do something with what they heard. And they are fantastic for your SEO and AEO! We’re seeing some awesome results with Micro-Podcasts in terms of increasing visibility and rankings.

Where these video clips, especially from guest interviews, do have a ton of value is helping your guests feel like a million bucks. This is actually a relationship-building strategy, not an audience-building, growth, or even a visibility one.

When you’re getting clips from long-form content to share with your guests, you’re showing them you’ve thought about it, you want them to look good. You’re demonstrating the quality of the work that you provide, the time that you put into making them look good.

It’s a relationship-building power move to give someone a beautiful, branded, thoughtful asset that they may or may not share. But the point is that you decided to do it and you gave them something high quality, and that is something people are typically going to remember.

So go ahead and make clips, especially if you are relationship building. Send the clips to your audience, but just moderate your expectations about how well they’ll actually perform on social media.

And if you really do want to take advantage of short-form video for growth, for visibility, for SEO, or for thought leadership, then create purpose-recorded short-form videos.