The Most Popular Podcasting Questions
At the mesh conference in Toronto in May 2007, a few people asked me about podcasting. (Does this mean I am getting a reputation? In a good way, of course.)
Here are the five most common questions that I heard, along with my answers:
- How do I persuade my boss that our company should be podcasting? I always preface this answer with my standard advice that a podcast is not a strategy, but a tactic. So, if you can establish that podcasting is a tactic that can help you achieve some of your communications goals, fine. You can also tell your manager that podcasting can be a relatively low-cost, low-risk vehicle for reaching both internal and external audiences. One more point: Why not try internal podcasting first? It’s best to learn in familiar territory.
- What’s better? Video or audio? Unfortunately, there’s no short answer to this question. My friend Chris Brogan wrote a brilliant blog post on this topic recently. Chris says that audio is “good for information you want to absorb deeply. It’s wonderful for building a bond between the listener and the speaker. It comes off as far more personal, sometimes even intimate, to listen to the spoken word.” And of course audio is easily portable. Anyone who gardens, runs on a treadmill or washes dishes with an MP3 player in her ears can attest to this.
Chris adds: “Video is good for visual information or for showing someone something you wish they could experience in the way you’re experiencing it.”
Of course you can usually produce audio more quickly and inexpensively than video. This can be an important consideration.
Overall, there’s no simple answer to the question of audio vs. video. You can hear more on this subject in an interview with podcaster and radio producer Victoria Fenner on my Trafcom News Podcast.
- What if I start to podcast and then become a victim of podfading? Will I look bad? Podfading means to start podcasting and then to fall off the end of the earth. To me, the best way to avoid podfading is to set up your podcast as a finite series. This can be a great tactic for a corporate entity. Instead of putting yourself out there and saying, “Hey, aren’t we great, we’re podcasting twice a week,” you can launch your podcast and announce: “We’re producing a series of 10 episodes on personal finance” – or whatever the topic is. To YOU, this is a pilot project, but to your audience, it’s a series of podcasts that are of value to them.
- Another popular question, which several people asked me at mesh: Do I think that corporations are now more receptive to podcasting? My answer is a resounding yes. A year ago, when I talked to clients about podcasting, they nodded their heads politely and said, “Thanks very much, Donna, that sounds really interesting.” Now they’re calling me back and saying, “Remember when you told us about podcasting? Can we talk about this again? We’re ready.” I have several projects in the hopper that just could not have happened 12 months ago.
- Finally, the most popular question: How is the Trafcom News Podcast recorded? In my studio, I use an Apex condenser microphone, an Art tube preamp and a Macbook. For software, I have Audacity, Amadeus and Garage Band. If you have a PC you can try Audition. For remote recording I use an Edirol R-1 to which I hook up an Audio Technica Pro 24 microphone.
No matter which microphone they buy, some people complain that they can’t get a good, clear sound. You need to take the time to experiment with your microphone. Listen to the interview I did with voiceover expert Joe Cipriano in December 2005. He shared some great tips.
So, we’ve covered the five most popular podcasting questions that I hear. I should address this topic a year from now and see if they’ve changed!
©2007 Donna Papacosta.
