I admit that I've said that CEOs are more often than not the wrong person to be blogging on behalf of the organization, but podcasting as the chief sales evangelist of the company is a perfect role for the CEO.

The current problem for the CEO as head of sales is the limited visibility the CEO has with a majority of the customers. Now, yes, they should spend time with the top customers and keep them happy, but what about connecting with all of the other customers, potential budding top-customers, who don't receive any of the CEO attention? Right now the options are limited - read the press releases, subscribe to the email newsletter that is cleansed by marketing and legal.

What if the CEO had a Podcast provided exclusively to the company's customer base? What if as part of the podcast, the CEO was able, through the podcast, to answer questions submitted by customers?

Podcasting provides the one-to-many dsitribution format that solves the limited customer visibility problem, while creating a sense of intimacy that is lost in written communications. Also, and maybe even more important, just the fact the CEO is reviewing customer submitted questions is a huge advantage to them in the role as head of sales. By providing a feedback loop and addressing questions in the podcast creates a conversation rather than a message being brought down from the top of the mountain.

The CEO as Podcaster is the perfect role.

A noteworthy mention: My co-worker, Kris Smith, spoke earlier this week at the eLearning 2007 conference about using RSS and podcasting for distance education. Incidentally, he spoke with a company right after his talk that said they would have missed the mark with their new initiatives had they missed his presentation.

A company that most effectively embraces the concepts he revealed will take the lead. Eventually, however, a company that does not will simply be considered behind the times.

Podcasting
Now you can Digg your favorite podcast series and individual podcast episodes. Not only can you see a list of the most popular podcasts by section, you can also dive into any individual podcasts to see the most Dugg individual episodes. And don't forget - every time you Digg a podcast or podcast episode that is bookmarked in your profile and shared with your friends.

The Podcasts Section: what does it offer?

After we all had some time to play around with this section and get a feel for its popularity it is time to get down and dirty and figure out how to use it to promote your podcast. Instead of following the traditional "newest items first" scheme used in every other section, the digg team decided to sort podcasts by lifetime diggs. The basic idea is that each podcast is represented in order from highest diggs to lowest with the image, title and short description of each podcast as well as the good old Digg This button. Those curious enough to dig deeper have noticed that once you are on an individual podcast page, Digg proudly allows everyone to vote for individual shows within a podcast. While the diggs you get for individual shows do not reflect on the grand total for your show, they seem to play a significant role in the "Upcoming Podcasts" section featured on the main podcasting page.

The visibility of the Podcasting section is incredible, but after 2 long months, getting to that page is extremely difficult for an up-and-coming podcast. To make matters worse, and crush your hopes of getting recognized for your great podcasting talent, 6 out of 10 Revision3 (Digg's videocasting company) shows reside snugly on that front page without a chance of being pushed out. To gratify your work and challenge the front-page status quo you must not look to digg, but rather your own subscribers.

Tips on utilizing Podcast Feature to promote your Show.

The plan is simple. You need to utilize your listeners and subscribers to increase your visibility on digg, which in turn will drive more traffic to your podcast and get you more subscribers. To help you through this process, digg has some great tools for us to use. Recently they updated the embeddable "Digg This" buttons for your site in order to be smarter and less intrusive than ever. Here are a few tips on how to take advantage of them while promoting your podcast:

-Include digg button in your posts and on your site. With each blog post or in a designated location on your site there should be a "digg this" button embedded. After these tips there is a quick step-by-step guide explaining how to do it in more detail. You have 2 styles to choose from and you can change out the background color, but that's it, you cannot change the color of the link, nor use something other than yellow if its not your color. If the button does not work with your design or for personal reasons, you can just include a link to your podcast section on Digg with an encouraging and, possibly, a life-threatening message. Before you ask "Can I add the button to my iTunes podcast page?" the answer is "No," iTunes does not allow you to embed or link to anything other than your home page. Your best bet is to verbally ask your listeners to ether go to your site and digg your show, or direct them to your podcast page on digg.

-Include a link to the individual show page in your blog posts. This should be your number one priority because the diggs you get for individual podcasts directly determine if your podcast is worthy to be featured in the "Upcoming Podcasts" sidebar. There is no easy way to do this, and sadly the "smart" digg this button isn't smart enough to recognize the links pointing to the individual pages. To add insult to injury, there is no way to know the link to that page beforehand (although, they are all sequential and you can just +1 the number at the end of the link), so you are stuck with doing some mouse work after you get the URL and including it in your blog post that way. Some of you are beginning to wounder if you can just skip this step, but like I said earlier, the upcoming podcasts sidebar is a great way to promote your podcast. And the diggs that individual shows get seem to be a significant influence in getting featured there, so prompting your audience to digg the individual shows is very important.

-Promote your digg account and encourage your listeners to add you as a friend. Digg is becoming widespread and has accumulated a huge user base. Chances are some of your listeners are regulars on digg. If not, some will definitely like the idea of following what you digg and would love to share some of their interests with you. If you show some love and promote mutual friendships, with a bit of luck and depending on your demographic, you will have quite a few people digging every episode. This will only improve as you visibility on digg solidifies. Also do not forget to digg your own shows, there is no harm in that.

How to add a "digg this" button for your podcast to your site.

The process of this is quite simple. All of this is taken straight from Digg Tools:Integrate page.

1. Make sure your podcast is on digg and identify any mistakes it might have. If you have an iTunes feed, chances are all is well and digg is syndicating your content correctly.
2. Identify podcast URL. Navigate to Podcast Search and do a quick search for your podcast. Take a note of the URL. For these instructions I'll use our own Kris Smith's podcast, Croncast. The URL of the digg page for his podcast is http://www.digg.com/podcasts/Croncast_Kris_and_Betsy_Smith_2
3. Pick a button design you wish to use. You've got 2 to pick from: Plain Vanilla or Slim Peach


If you wish to use Plain Vanilla remember "normal" and for Slim Peach keep "compact" fresh in your mind.
4. Get to embedding! With all info collected, use the code below to embed Digg This Button in a post, or anywhere on your site. It is quite straight forward, just remember to replace bold, italicised parts with your own.

digg_url = 'http://www.digg.com/podcasts/Croncast_Kris_and_Betsy_Smith_2';
digg_skin = 'compact';

That's it! You are done. Now comes the time to use the social media reactor and get your audience pumped up and participate in the promotion of your podcast. So that your mad ninja skills can finally be rewarded with some fame.

We get into the link building conversation quite frequently as it is still a major factor in how Google ranks a website, BUT and it's a big BUT, we don't like anything that has to do with a link exchange, buying links or any auto-generated link building programs.

Our advice is simple: get active in publishing great content (blogging, podcasting, syndicating press rooms), syndicate your content through RSS, track the conversation online, post comments on other's blogs and actively participate in discussion groups.

1) Podcast Quality Matters - A guy in Texas drives for three hours and wants to listen to a podcast series regularly but he can't because the audio quality drives him crazy. Why is this post important? He tells the podcaster how to fix it.

2) Effects 101 - A bad title for a great 'how to' on a budget. Why is this one important? It is written by Stephen Eley, master of all things podcasting.

3) Pump Up The Volume - This gem from Wired magazine in 2004 spotlights the fact that audio CD's have been getting louder and louder. Why care? People like what they already know. Produce your podcast with the same production value that mainstream media does. It can be done on a budget. Your audience will reward you for it with their attention and not skip to the next item in their playlist.

Congratulations to Cingular for also being a believer in Apple's ability to deliver industry break out products.

Two things that get me most excited.

1. The phone runs on OSX with support for Widgets, Google Maps, and Safari, and iTunes combined with WiFi that automatically engages when in signal range. This gives us in the conversational media world an entirely new set of customers to reach out to. The possibilities are plentiful.

2. iTunes. I know I listed this above, but it's enough to bring it up again. As an organization that believes in the power of podcasting - simple easy access to your iTunes account and podcast subscriptions opens up the medium to even larger audience. Yes, Cingular already has iTunes enabled phones, but the combination of iTunes with the Safari browser allows for greater real-time interaction.

Funny thing is that I was just at a Verizon Wireless store to upgrade my phones, but it required me renewing my contract for another 2 years. Luckily I resisted and came to my senses.

Cingular - you've got a new customer. Apple, you've got a loyal fan.

I'm Kris Smith. I am a podcaster and Founder/CEO of Palegroove Studios a podcast production company. I've been podcasting for nearly two years with over 400 total podcast episodes under my belt and a great list of clients.

In an effort to keep it short and get on with this conversation I will stop talking about myself and mention a new audio production tool called Levelator and comes from GigaVox Media.

Levelator was announced two weeks ago at Podcast Academy 4 in Ontario, CA by GigaVox. Those in attendance were given a quick demo of the software and then asked to test it out ourselves. I loved and love it.

I'm not going to get audio nerdy about this and try to describe why it works better than other audio normalization tools and plug-ins currently available. And it isn't just simply an audio normalization tool. I'll simply say it will save you time.

I care so much about this application for one reason: it was designed by podcasters. As podcasting matures many of us have started to develop our own tools to do the jobs that we need done because many of the pre-existing ones either don't work for what we need them to do or they take too much time to use.

Levelator is on a short list of applications that are podcaster-centric but as we move forward I expect that list to get longer as other podcasters hit the wall and need their software to perform in ways that no one has imagined yet.

The Levelator runs on Win 2k, XP , Vista and Mac OS X 10.4.

I'll be back around later to check on this conversation . . . right now I need to refill this red Solo cup.

First as referenced by Stan Gibson, of CIO Insight in his article Podcasting: An Enterprise Hit: "The issue: Podcasting presents a conundrum for technology executives, many of whom told eWeek they don't have a podcasting strategy or much to do with the practice. For now, business units--say, the marketing department or sales--are leading podcasting efforts. These units may create their own systems or acquire them without consulting the technology department."

Very true to our own experiences. The sales and marketing departments see tremendous value in the currency of being able to quickly and efficiently communicate within the organization and with customers through podcasting.

Imagine a regional sales VP being able to easily upload a podcast on pricing strategy and having all the traveling sales rep instantly get the update on their mobile phone.

The natural advantages of podcasting has many sales and marketing groups end-running the IT department, because as Stan mentioned, IT has no strategy and little to do with the practice.

The danger in not including the IT department in this process is from a content privacy standpoint. Sales and marketing understands the benefits of podcasting, but often overlook the basic technology behind it.

By definition a podcast is audio delivered through an RSS feed, and if a competitor gets a hold of your sales team RSS feed, they'll also happily listen to you're selling strategy. This is huge double take for enterprise podcasting and often shuts down the effort all together.

A true RSS feed authentication platform is where IT departments need to start crafting its corporate podcasting strategy. Sure for a podcast like FitPod.com the more listeners the better, so protecting the feed is of no concern. But from an enterprise perspective, where corporate strategy and inside discussions take place, the highest level of RSS feed authentication and security is required.

Room 214 has a RSS feed authentication podcast platform that we've been using for such programs, one in particular is for the Alltel Audibles podcasts featuring NFL star receivers Steve Smith, Joe Horn, Larry Fitzgerald and Joe Jurevicius. The podcast feed is exclusive for Alltel customers for two days, prior to the public release on Fridays.

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.

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.

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.

- 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).