Is Your Business Podcasting? Well, It Should Be.

It has been said that podcasting is where Blogs and radio intersect. It is my belief that podcasting is quickly emerging as a media that stands completely on its own. Podcasting is nothing like radio in the traditional sense. It is only similar in the fact that you can listen to audio. That is where the similarities end.

Podcasting will not be anything like Blogging in the very near future. It already is only slightly related to Blogging from the perspective that anyone can create and publish, and the fact that some Blogs can produce an RSS Feed output. That is where the similarities truly end.

The potential business uses of this media are limited only by a smart marketer’s imagination. Marketing managers and advertising executives should embrace this technology as a media tool that can deliver results to achieve goals in your company’s marketing plan.

Corporate Podcasting: There are many valid reasons why corporations may want to embrace and leverage podcasting. Corporations can set up internal or public facing podcasts.

Corporations and businesses (both large and small) have an opportunity to create a loyal listener audience that can extend their brand and communicate to the target audience.

Businesses can also use this technology both externally & internally as a communication medium to keep local, virtual and world wide groups of clients or employees informed. This could be used for sales meetings for companies that have employees in worldwide locations. It is also an effective medium for distance learning, or in helping to get the entire team “on message” on any specific topic.

Example: Consultants could use podcasting to interview clients, convey success stories, interview other thought leaders, expose business trends, and become a trusted advisor and source of valuable information. This can produce additional clients, increased reputation within a specific community, and extend your valuable brand perception with customers and prospects.

Podcasting Best Practices: The following best practices should be applied to your podcast to achieve maximum effectiveness.

1. Know your audience/target market.

2. Be organized in the messaging that is to be delivered.

3. Have notes & an outline to keep the show on topic.

4. Edit podcast show appropriately for content, quality and length.

5. Deliver valuable, informative, engaging and entertaining content to your listeners that they can’t get from any other media.

6. Ensure good quality audio by using proper recording hardware and software

7. Provide show notes for listeners to review content of the show before and while they listen to the podcast.

8. Use proper tagging of Meta data so that you podcast can be found and organized easily by podcasting software and directories.

9. Ensure that the RSS feed for the podcast is valid and in compliance with the 2.0 standard. Additional functionality is required if you want the podcast to be apple iTunes friendly.

10. Submit your podcast to the popular directories such as podblaze.com here so that your podcast can reach a greater audience.

11. Ping the major podcasting, RSS and Blog directories after each podcast to ensure that your podcasts are updated. Use the free ping service at Freshpodcasts.com

12. Have the proper web server technology that can handle delivering the content quickly and be able to handle the server bandwidth issues. Don’t underestimate the importance of this critical point.

13. Have an experienced podcasting consultant design, map, and oversee the entire process to ensure success the first time. This will ensure that you will achieve maximum market impact with this new media format. Your audience will not be forgiving of a poorly executed podcast strategy.

Creating the actual podcast is only a very small part of the success equation. If you need more information about how you can design and execute a proper and fully leveraged podcasting strategy you should work with a qualified consultant that has experience in this media format from a technology, best practices, strategy planning, marketing, and execution perspective.

You can get a free copy of the Podcasting Whitepaper to learn more about this technology and how you can leverage this new media technology for your business. Get on the podcasting train soon, it is filling up fast.

Learn more about podcasting at these 9 Podcasting Resource Blogs