How to Create Effective Podcasts and Engage Audiences

How To Create Effective Podcasts
To Engage Your Audiences
Neville Hobson, ABC

“How-To” in The Next 75 Minutes
1. Start your own podcast and make it a
success
2. Build a community of listeners or viewers
and promote your podcast
3. Use podcasts to support your business
strategy

S2 / Podcasting / Neville Hobson, ABC

What is a Podcast?


What is a Podcast?
• Digital audio Optional:
file, typically MP3 • Auto-sync with
• “Radio show” format portable digital player
– Time-shifted: listen – Detach and go: listen
when you want where you want
• Delivered via RSS • Complemented by
show notes


Podcasting Growth Drivers

1. It‟s easy
2. It‟s inexpensive
3. It‟s portable
4. It‟s available


6

Who Listens to Podcasts?
• Majority of top-rated
podcasts come from
recognizable media entities
that are using podcasts to
expand their existing radio,
TV, cable or satellite
audiences
• The US podcast audience is
ballooning
– By 2013, there will be 37.6
million people who download
podcasts monthly, more than
double the 2008 figure of
17.4 million


Who Listens to Podcasts?
“The demographic patterns of the podcast
audience, like those of the online video
audience, are highly dependent on the
nature of the content.”

Podcasting: Into the Mainstream
eMarketer, March 2009
www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1006937


It‟s All About The Content
• The barriers to entry are incredibly low
– All you need is a computer, a microphone, some
free software and imagination
• Your audience can number in the single digits
– Unlike radio, you don‟t need big numbers to be
successful
• Whatever you do, it‟s all about the content
and your passion
– Actually, it‟s all about your listeners


Podcasting‟s Advantages
• Audience can listen while they do something else
• Deliver specialized content to a niche audience
they can‟t get anywhere else
• Convey information that‟s best conveyed through
audio
• Build a loyal community of listeners
• Use the podcast as a means of soliciting feedback
• Use a podcast as an alternate channel to reinforce
communication via other channels


Why Not to Podcast
• Your message does not lend itself to audio
(or video)
• Your audience is not inclined to listen
• Your message requires focus
• Your boss/client says “Hey, let‟s do a
podcast!”
– there must be a measurable (strategic)
business reason


Why Podcast?
• Easy and complementary extension of your
existing PR and marketing activities
• Connect with customers, employees and
other groups in new and interesting ways
• Reach niche audiences otherwise
(financially) unreachable
• Be perceived to be at the leading edge
• Be seen as a thought leader
• …


Elements of Successful Podcasting
• Relevance • Don‟t sell
• Keep to the point • Be authentic
• Avoid fluff • Respect listeners‟
• Info-tain time
• Build and engage • Integrate into
community blogosphere


Who‟s Podcasting for Business?


Strategizing a Business Podcast
• Communication is strategic when:
– It is planned as a means of addressing core
business issues
– Its impact on the business can be measured

A simple 4-step plan...


Step 1: Goal
• Our example goal:
– Stem the defection of long-time customers to
a competitive brand

(“Produce a podcast” is not a goal)


Step 2: Strategy
• Strategy = Plan of action to achieve a goal
• Our strategy:
– Influence customer perceptions favourably to
our brand


Step 3: Objectives
• Objectives = Measurable activities as elements of
strategy (Step 2)
• Our objectives:
– Help customers feel like they are privileged insiders
by providing a unique window into the brand
– Create a bond between customers and the people
behind the brand
– Give customers more of a say in the development of
future brand extensions and marketing programmes


Step 4: Tactics
• Tactics = Communication channels and tools
• Based on objectives (Step 3), we might
consider a variety of tactics, eg:
– Customer advisory panel
– Brand-focused blog
– Podcast
• The tactics we decide on will be what we
conclude to be the most effective for the job
and where the results can be measured


Building Community

21

Building Community
• Members of a community share a common
bond that increases a sense of loyalty to a
show
• Building community increases listener
loyalty, is a catalyst for content and helps
spread the word to increase your audience
• Tap into the social networking potential
presented by a podcast
• Host your podcast on a blog


The Hobson and Holtz Report
• First episode on January 3, 2005
• Co-hosts: Neville Hobson, ABC (UK) and
Shel Holtz, ABC (USA)
• 60 mins, twice weekly, Monday and
Thursday, recorded via Skype
• Average per-podcast downloads: 1,3001
• Global audience2 Primary:
USA, UK, Canada, Australia, continental
Europe
• Building community: 2 on-the-ground regular
1. Libsyn aggregate metrics averaged for all FIR podcast

2.
downloads, retrieved May 4, 2009.
FIR Listener Survey, April 2009.
correspondents; 2 occasional contributors;
listener comments; Friendfeed Room
• Two sponsors: Lawrence Ragan
Communications and CustomScoop


Building Community
• Involve listeners
• Encourage listeners
• Address their needs
• Engage


Measuring ROI
• What are you actually measuring?
– Much depends on your goal
• Put the question in the context of other
communication tools
– How do you measure the ROI of an employee
newsletter?


Measuring ROI
Not so difficult: Not so easy:
 How many listeners?  Financial return
 First time, repeats?  The value of a relationship
 How many subscribers to  And how are we defining
the RSS feed? „relationship‟?
 How many citations by
others?
 How many comments to
episodes?
 And does the podcaster
comment on other podcasts?
 Anecdotal commentary on
what people think
 …


Desired Outcomes
• Reinforce brand loyalty
• Deliver targeted messages
• Heighten awareness of brand
• Create user-driven community
• Educate to build brand affinity
• …


Producing Your Own Podcast
• Basic gear: Less than
– USB microphone/headset $100
– Free recording/editing software
• Audacity for Windows/Mac/Linux

• Intermediate gear: $1,000 to
– Cardioid or condenser microphone $5,000
– Headphones
– Mixer
– Portable audio recorder
– Higher-end software
• eg, Adobe Audition (Windows), GarageBand (Macintosh)

• High-end gear: $6,000
– + digital mixers, compressors, pre-amps… and up



30

Promoting Your Podcast
• #1: Get listed in iTunes
• Get listed in key directories
– Eg: Podcast Alley, Blubrry Network
• Get some influencer recommendations
• Network in the podcasting community
• Create podcast badges
• Record podcast promos
• Pimp for votes


Reference
• Some of this material
is based on content in
this book
• Available from good
booksellers and
online (eg, Amazon)


Other Reference


Who‟s Podcasting? 5 of The Best
FIR listeners recommend:
• Inside PR with Terry Fallis and David Jones
(Canada)
• Marketing Over Coffee with John Wall and
Christopher S. Penn (USA)
• Six Pixels of Separation with Mitch Joel
(Canada)
• Managing the Gray with C.C. Chapman
(USA)
• Donna Papacosta‟s Trafcom News (Canada)


35

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Copyright applies to this document - some rights reserved.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-
Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License.
Details: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/

www.nevillehobson.com
www.forimmediaterelease.biz

June 7, 2009


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