Crafting your Podcast

One of the first questions asked by clients who are attempting their first series of podcasts is: How long should a podcast be? A typical podcast episode is usually 15 to 30 minutes.

Remember podcasts are episodic so for a given podcast, since you have your audiences attention for that amount of time, you can build advanced or nuanced themes over time. Remember think of your podcasts as scheduled sequence of audio (or video) files, downloaded to a computer or portable media device.

Strategies learned from successful corporate podcasting:

• Plan your podcast: spend time determining your audience, the purpose, format and audio alone or audio-video
• Stylize your podcast: Will you use a one person presentation or an interview. For interviews use participants who are knowledgeable in the podcast subject /theme.
• Podcast in a series: Podcast users expect a continuing series that they follow, not just a one-time file
• Combine with interactive blogs: This will create an even higher level of interaction with the audience (Remember when we first started this series of blogs concerning New Media Marketing – the rule of 7 clicks to get someone into you Buyers Community).
• Internal and External Use: Consider using podcast series for internal use for employees, associates, partners, etc..

How do I “get my podcast out to the public?”

Similar to other NMM tools, specific distribution tools are required. Podcasts use the same delivery mechanisms as does blogs. GoDaddy (www.godaddy.com) or BlueHost (www.bluehost.com) provide basic podcast delivery tools.

Podcasts have their own directories. Submit your podcasts to as many directories as possible. Most, if not all, are free. It is actually not that difficult to add your podcasts to iTunes (www.itunes.com) for more details

To close the discussion on podcasts, we provide some don’ts:

• Don’t garble your words
• Don’t speak in a monotone
• Don’t record with background noise
• Don’t try to show-off by bombarding your audience with too much information
• Don’t use loud, harsh music
• Don’t try to act as a broadcaster be yourself
• Don’t publish a podcast that is not relevant to your audience
• Don’t make your podcasts too long. Even though a 15 – 30 minute max is suggested, as audiences become even more time starved, 10 minute podcasts are strongly recommended

For those who have ventured into the exciting world of podcasts, please share your lessons learned and some tricks of the trade.