Podcasting. In a word, it’s simple. You need a bit of equipment (you probably already have what you need). You need a subject and focus (if you are in business, you have this, we hope). Outline your podcast, then jump in. Tape and publish some practice episodes. Ask your critics to provide constructive feedback. Then publish and market. It’s fun, easy, and a great way to put a global face to your business. These are steps to putting together your own podcast kit.

Let’s get you started.

The Five Steps

1. Plan and revise
2. Create
3. Publish
4. Market and Syndicate
5. Listen — and a conclusion

Podcasting 101: Step 1 – Plan and revise

Plan — Outline a script. Make your podcast memorable.

Plans don’t need full line by line scripts. If you are scripting a short marketing message, such as recording your telephone voice message, writing out your message will simplify the recording. Otherwise, create a template: a segmented format you use over and over. Consistency wins listeners.

Possible segments are:

• Open/welcome
• Tips or announcements
• Reviews or News
• In depth discussions/Interviews
• Audience Feedback
• Wrap up and promotion of the next podcast

Summarize your podcast with notes on your web site for those who have not listened yet. Notes drive search engine traffic and turn visitors to your site into listeners and subscribers.

Five Ways to Kill Your Podcast is a good example of writing a summary.

The 6 Keys

1. Who is it for?
2. What is it about?
3. Where will my target audience be listening?
4. When will I broadcast?
5. Why is my subject and knowledge important to anyone but me?
6. How will I know it is successful and meets my goals?

Revise — Refine your outline: I am listening to you, not reading what your wrote. Write for the ear, not the eye. This is an audio file. Use short sentences, little bytes and chunks of information. Add a bit of a cliffhanger.

TIP: Listen to old time radio shows to improve your command of your recorded message.

Podcasting 101: Step 2 – Create

Basic Equipment — The basic equipment to record, save and convert to an MP3 is all you need. A sound editor, a microphone and a way to compress the sound file to an MP3, the standard for distributing audio files on the Web.

Once your content is ready, what platform or application should you use to record and edit? It really doesn’t matter. Audacity is a free, open source recording and software program (Macintosh, Windows, Linux). Other popular applications are Adobe Audition and Sony Sound Forge. If you are an Apple/Macintosh user, GarageBand is all you need for recording, mixing and editing.

The microphone is the most important equipment expenditure you will make (starts about $100). As with automobiles and sports teams, no one ever agrees which microphone is best. We do agree that studio recording and field work require 2 different microphone types.

For studio work, get a directional condenser microphone with the largest diaphragm you can afford. Do not get an omnidirectional microphone. Large diaphragm means a larger surface to pick up the natural variations in your voice.

Field microphones are rugged, having top-notch noise rejection. Get a portable rig to go with your field microphone.

Condenser microphones need power. Some use a battery. Most get power from a 3-pin XLR cable which hooks into a pre-amp. Use a portable mixer (or USB pre-amp box) that powers the microphone and digitizes the signal.

For greater in-depth on the intricacies of sound and microphones, read this moderately long article.

Once recorded and saved (most likely as a .wav or .aiff, the best quality files), convert (compress) these large files to MP3 for distributing on the web.

Before compressing, do a bit of editing to refine the broadcast. This might include removing the (natural) breath intakes you’ll hear. Some extraneous noise can also be removed. Use Audacity or GarageBand, as mentioned above, for editing.

TIP: have the speaker as close to the microphone as possible and practicable.

Podcasting 101: Step 3 – Publish

You have your MP3 file, now. So how do you publish it to the world? — There is no mystery to RSS publication, although some would make you think so. An RSS (real simple syndication) file is a simple text file that links to your MP3 file.

Upload the MP3 audio files to a folder on your web site or blog and validate using an online RSS validator such as FEED Validator.

Most web sites provide the tools to easily create your RSS feed. Feeds describe your podcast using meta information about the URL, making it easy for search engines to index your podcast feed.
RSS feeds are a huge topic and there are lots of tutorials on this (here is one from Podcasting News. If you use blog software (Blogger, WordPress) or a good hosting company (Bluehost is one I recommend).

Publish your podcasts to popular sites, including

• iTunes
• Podblaze
• Podcasting Tools
• Podcast.com
• Podfeed.net
• Podcasting News

Podcasting 101: Step 4 – Market and Syndicate

Where can my audience find my podcast? — Make your podcast available where your audience is listening, regardless of their preferred method of delivery.

It’s the belts and suspenders method of communication.

• Some wear belts.
• Some wear suspenders.
• Some wear both.
• Some wear neither.

Make sure your audience can reach you no matter how they choose to do so (handheld devices, desktop computers, varying operating systems and applications).

Put your podcast on your Web site, make it available through an RSS feed, offer it through iTunes-type stores, make it bookmarkable, put it on a CD and hand it out as a business card, put the URL on your telephone voice message. Let your audience know where to tune in.

Market — Don’t forget traditional marketing methodologies, including

• Press releases
• Email marketing
• Search engines
• Promotions
• URLs on your business card and voice messages
• Syndication (see below)

You’ll also need a way to feed (RSS) your broadcasts and a way to publish your files (FTP program). Podcasting Scout is one good site about this, with lots of links to more resources.

Syndicate — Your content is created, uploaded and ready for viewing. Spread your knowledge through syndication: making your content available for others to use across multiple web mediums (web sites, feeds, e-zines, PDAs and web applications are a few).

Weblogs.com, Syndic8, and blo.gs are good sites to ping (let them know when you add content and they push the information to their subscribers).

Podcasting 101: Step 5 – Listen & in conclusion

Listen to your audience but don’t wait for feedback to do some updating. Spring cleaning time is a good time for a marketing and promotion tune-up. How are you currently keeping your show fresh and relevant? Review your album art, your blog, your formatting, your template.

Take time to review your template, adjusting based on all that valuable listener feedback. Tune-ups can be done annually (spring cleaning time or when the new year begins are always good calendar markers). If you are getting a lot of listener feedback on one particular point, it is good practice to update that sooner than later.

In Conclusion — Unlock the mystery of podcasting with 6 marketing keys, a few professional tools and a bit of knowledge. Whether new to podcasts or an old hand, this brief overview shows you how to build a most successful, stand out from the crowd, podcast – one that people tune in to hear.

Much as comics spend time writing and perfecting jokes, even practicing for public speaking engagements at improv theaters, with a bit of planning, your podcast will become one of your often-used business marketing tools.

The 6 keys* (who, what, when, where, why and how) form the base of your successsful broadcast. And that’s all a podcast is: an online broadcast. A podcast is simply an audio program, distributed to portable devices and computers, meant to inform and/or entertain. It is not difficult nor should you be afraid of this technology.

• Plan and revise your plan.
• Create.
• Publish.
• Market and syndicate.
• Listen to the feedback and adjust accordingly.

Tip: React positively to your listener feedback and you’ll be pleasantly surprised by the success viral marketing will bring to you. *Email mothergeek@businessherway.net for a brief overview of The 6 Keys.

Gayley Knight is a guest blogger for Terametric. She is Founder/Principal of Business Her Way (a social media management company). Delighting in opening the technology world for your company, Gayley draws on her extensive network and personal business experience to simplify your online world. Showing you best social business practices and simple tech tools designed to increase your business visibility brings social media into perspective, saving you time and money. You can contact her directly at http://www.businessherway.net or via email at gayley@mothergeek.com.

Tags: General, Social Media Strategy

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 18th, 2009 at 12:00 AM by Wendy Troupe and is filed under Wendy Troupe's Perspectives. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.