Found 14 Results
Posts tagged 'podcasting'
The following posts are associated with the tag you have selected. You may subscribe to the RSS feed for this tag to receive future updates relevant to the topic(s) of your interest.
Subscribe to the results feed
Posted on September 26, 2006
5 Corporate Podcast Mistakes to Avoid
BY JENNIFER EUBANKS
The other day I came across an interesting Top 5 list of corporate podcast mistakes to avoid. The article makes some interesting points, and the intelligent discussion going on in the comments also makes this a worthwhile post to check out.
The author, Tony Valle, makes some excellent points. He talks about how a corporation needs to take advantage of all available resources and put a genuine effort into making the podcast work. For instance, your tech guy may know how to set up the podcast RSS feed, but he may not be as good as your markteing person at delivering the message of your company. Working together with a team of the best people can help ensure success--in many cases this means hiring the process out.
Making a great--not simply good--podcast is not a cheap endeavor. If you go it alone, it requires the purchase of appropriate audio equipment and software to professionally edit the final product, although there certainly may be merit in the "authentic" sound of using the microphone that is built into your computer. Furthermore, podcasting may not even be the right method of delivering your company's message. Podcasting in today's terms means producing something with authenticity.
One commenter of the article, Scott, makes the excellent point that in most corporate environments, the authentic voice isn't usually allowed to speak. The people who are enthusiastic about the company's products are not always the ones allowed to speak authentically and honestly. He also points out that he doesn't want to listen to what might essentially be one giant advertisement, but rather someone from the inside who provides interesting perspective.
Indeed, the podcasts Room 214 has helped develop with our podcasting services, namely our Alltel Racing Podcast, and most recently Alltel's 4 NFL player podcasts. These podcasts are kept interesting by the fact that they feature the people directly involved in the sport. The racing podcast features various members of the Alltel NASCAR team, while the NFL podcasts each feature a player from 4 different teams. Because they are intimately familiar with the sport, they provide a more authentic voice than if the PR guy were the one talking about what happened on the field/track and what would happen next time. You also get a peak into more personal aspects of the sport and the team.
Podcasts are awesome, and indeed a growing offering on the internet, but like most web media (ie. blogs), they are only as good as your company makes it. Customers can sense if something is not genuine and it can turn them off to your blog/podcast. As we've stressed in the past, having an authentic voice delivering your message is paramount.
Posted on September 25, 2006
Google Audio Ads: Podcaster Opportunity?
BY JASON CORMIER
Earlier, Ben Castelli wrote in this blog about Google video ads for Adsense. That reminded me that very soon, Google will be launching an audio ad service, too.
Back on Jan. 17, Google announced that it had acquired dMarc Broadcasting, which offers an automated platform to serve advertising into the broadcast radio market -- a very mature ad market, compared to online advertising.
Google said it "plans to integrate dMarc technology into the Google AdWords platform, creating a new radio ad distribution channel for Google advertisers" -- which means serving ads to radio. My understanding is that the new service will launch this fall.
Still though, I wonder if that kind of platform might be used to serve ads into podcasts? That could make a huge difference to the economics of podcasting, certainly.
Although I must admit, the podcast ads I find most effective and least offensive are those which involve the host -- like the way Andy McCaskey of Slashdot Review (one of my favorite podcasts) reads a variety of ads from his sponsors, and often adds some commentary from personal experience. Most of the time, those ads sound pretty relevant to that show. I doubt such custom ads could be handles completely via automated platform -- but my guess is custom audio ads offer higher value to the advertisers, podcasters, and audiences.
Posted on July 25, 2006
PR Firm Doesn't Get Podcasting
BY JAMES CLARK
Whoops, we have another PR firm trying to enter the social media game and shame itself.
Schwartz Communications, who I've been aware of for many years and admired, recently announced a podcasting service, that is not a podcasting service.
This is utterly disappointing as we truly believe that PR firms need to take the lead in driving social media applications, and when a well-know and respected agency such as Schwartz enters the fray and completely bumbles it, the entire industry takes a hit. This is why we worte the paper, "Fire Your PR Firm" and hire a smarter one.
Shel Holtz's post Podcast That Aren't is a great look at the service and how it fails.
I like Dee Rambeau's comment on Shel's post:
I've always found the definition of a podcast relatively simple and don't understand why it's confusing. If you can subscribe to the audio file via an RSS feed, it's a podcast. If not, it's not.
As far as Schwartz's clients are concerned, or anyone seeking to podcast, if your podcast can't be subscribed to in iTunes, then you're missing out on a huge listener market.
Posted on July 14, 2006
Capture the Podcasting Crowd
BY BEN CASTELLI
According to the latest Nielsen/Netratings study, 6.6 percent of the US adult population, or 9.2 million Web users have recently downloaded an audio podcast; 4 percent, or 5.6 million, have downloaded a video podcast. Jason Lee Miller from Web Pro News offers a portrait of the average podcast listener/viewer:
- Between the ages of 18 and 44 (but mostly 18-34)
- Uses Apple's Safari or Mozilla Firefox to browse
- For audio, visits Macworld, Lycos Wired News, Slashdot, Niketown.com, Apple and iTunes, likely in the 18-24 age group
- For video, visits StarTrek.com, Live365.com, Fark.com, eMusic, and Niketown.com, more likely in the 25-34 age group
What the Nielsen/NetRatings study shows is that podcast listeners are the very lucrative 200+ Billion dollar 18-34 year old market segment. This segment is tech savvy, spend a great deal of time online and often have more $$ to spend.
For businesses or advertisers trying to target this lucrative 18-34 demographic, podcasting has become an important component to the marketing mix. Podcasting adds a voice to your message, boosts your credibility and adds a personal touch to your business. Some key elements of effective podcasts are:
- Provide unique content.
- Try to get people excited by the way you tell things.
- Talk about things that matter.
Probably the biggest reason for the growing popularity of podcasting is that it offers On Demand Listening. Podcasting allows listeners to time-shift and place-shift media consumption to listen at the most convenient time (using itunes to automatically receive updates, for example).
