Podcasting – You never know where it might lead

Nick Barker discusses the potential benefits of podcasting – even fan mail

There’s a saying: “Think of any word and you’ll probably find somewhere in the world named after it.” of course there are always exceptions to these things.

These days it could similarly be said: “Think of any subject and you’ll find a podcast on it somewhere.”

Thankfully, there would be exceptions to this as well. But podcasting is booming.

In October 2006 a friend and I decided we would dive into the world of podcasting. He has a passion for military history, and so would assume the mantle of Editor. I would act as sub-editor and do the voice-over narration for the short military history podcast essays we were going to offer to the outside world. We set up www.thehistorynetwork.org and began…with an audience of two.

Podcasting, setting the scene

Podcasting has been around since the early noughties, but it was only as recently as February 2004 that the name began seeping into common use, when the word “podcasting” was one of several terms for portable listening to audioblogs suggested by Ben Hammersley in The Guardian.

So what is a podcast? Without getting too technical, a podcast is simply (and most usually) an audio file or video file, which is associated with an RSS feed. “RSS” stands for Really Simple Syndication. It was the addition of “enclosures” (the linking to the file) within the RSS feed (pioneered by David Winer in late 2000) that was an important precursor to the way podcasting is used today.

When you come across a podcast that takes your fancy, you’ll find a “subscribe” option. It is the selecting of this subscribe option that places the RSS feed into your RSS reader (typically i-tunes these days), and having subscribed to the podcast your RSS reader then regularly pings the RSS feed so that when a new podcast is posted, your RSS reader automatically downloads the latest one.

If you want to delve in more detail into the technical aspects and history of podcasting then you could start by taking a look here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Podcast

So how difficult is it to produce and publish your own podcast? Let’s suppose you want to produce an audio podcast.

Here’s what you might need:

• A good quality microphone
• A capturing device (perhaps direct to computer with relevant software installed, or possibly to a digital recording device whereby the audio can be transferred to your hardware later)
• The audio editing hardware and software
• The RSS feed associated with your podcasts
• Somewhere to host your podcasts (typically a repository of some sort like an ftp at your website)

Therefore, the process would be: record, edit, attach the RSS feed, and then upload the finished file to your hosting platform. Thus, anyone who has subscribed to your RSS feed will get the latest podcast as soon as their RSS reader pings your feed and sees that there’s a new one available. Simple.

Business benefits

In the business world podcasting within organisations is becoming more popular too. However, it’s important to consider whether a podcast would be suitable for your company. If it isn’t going to add any value to your message it merely runs the risk of becoming no more than a gimmick and your message stands to be lost as easily as in an email.

But there can be benefits to both the producer and the listener. To the producer it offers a different way of delivering a message or important pieces of company information and offers different possibilities than those available in an email. For example, you might be meeting the CEO to discuss various company matters. Perhaps the CEO would be willing to be recorded in an “interview style” when you go to meet them. Thus returning from the meeting you could edit together a short “interview” piece with the CEO for inclusion in your podcast. That’s much more personal for your workforce, perhaps more motivating too, to hear it, rather than just read something in an email. All these things add to the character of your podcast and allow your personality to be heard.

A podcast allows for “chaptering” (in AAC format) – a bit like tracks on a CD. Your podcast might need to go company-wide, but different parts of the content will be relevant to different spheres of the organisation. As an email, your recipients would have to sift through all the text to find the parts that are relevant to them. As a chaptered podcast it’s simple for the listener to skip directly to whatever is pertinent to them. That means your time has been better spent because more people will be getting the messages you want them to receive.

Another advantage could be that of having a dedicated podcast intranet page on your company’s website. Anyone who missed the latest podcast knows instantly where to find it, rather than have to trawl through their inbox to find that email you sent out…if they haven’t already deleted it!

And remember that it doesn’t matter if everyone doesn’t have an RSS reader or i-pod on which to listen to the podcast. For those that don’t, they can still listen to it as a download direct to their PC or Mac. But for those that do you’re offering them – if not actively encouraging them – to subscribe to the podcast so they always have the latest one to take with them and listen to whenever they like.

It’s this ‘take anywhere’ portability of the podcast that’s of real benefit to your listeners. More and more time is spent commuting and travelling to meetings these days. You know the way it goes… maybe on the commute home all their Blackberry activities are finished, they’ve no desire to listen to ‘that album’ again on the MP3 player, and the consequences of an errant elbow while searching for the 7th Chakra on a crowded railway carriage don’t bear thinking about. But there’s still 15 minutes of the commute to go… so what better way to fill some of this dead-time than with your podcast?

A few tips to make it work

OK, so if you’re already salivating at the prospect of delivering your dulcet tones to the masses then there are a few things you can consider. Keep it short and to the point, but friendly. Best not to include critical or actionable information in the podcast. Rather point your listeners in the direction of the relevant document or webpage or policy you’ve been speaking about. Let the listener feel the need or intrigue to go and investigate further.

There’s no need to go overboard and aspire to produce a podcast every day. You’ll create a rod for your own back by doing so and your listeners might feel overwhelmed. Remember that less is very often more.

You could also ask others in your team to produce a piece for inclusion in the podcast. An occasional new contributor helps keep the whole thing fresh. Getting others involved also causes interest in their peers to have a listen, and perhaps ignites an enthusiasm in others to come forward with ideas of subjects to include. All this helps to promote the podcast and get it to the widest and most relevant audience possible. Like anything else, promotion drives the numbers.

Finally…

The layers of an organisation or a department don’t have to be rigid and inaccessible. Adding a personality (or voice) to the management and encouraging everyone to participate brings the spirit of an organisation to life….and brings it squarely into the Web 2.0 world.

I mentioned earlier that a friend and I started our podcasts back in October 2006. Since then they have been downloaded over 420,000 times and the number of subscribers has reached over 5,000. We’ve received a staggering 8 reviews on i-tunes, though this did include some interesting critique about the use of my possibly dodgy character accents in the Marshal Zhukov episodes. We’ve even received some fan e-mail. Aw shucks.

So go on. Why not give podcasting a go? You never know where it might lead.