The Podcast Asylum

101 Things to Do with Audio and Video (to Promote Your Business)
Penny Haynes, 2009
PDF e-book, 170 pages
US $19.99
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In the course of writing this book, Penny Haynes posed a LinkedIn question asking to talk to business owners who had never used audio or video to market themselves. I was hard put to think of anyone besides my mother. It’s not just that I know a lot of podcasters and vidcasters. I’ve spent my time in industries where people have used audio and video to market themselves for decades.

Back when I was teaching Greek and Roman drama, I made video recordings of all my productions. The first client whose book I helped write gave me audiocassettes with recordings of his class lectures to turn into book chapters. Nearly everyone I’ve worked for since has used some form of video or audio—including the old-fashioned “getting interviewed on radio and TV” format.

The only difference between that and what Penny talks about in this book is that most of the audio and video recordings used as “demo reels” or sold as products before 2004 weren’t digital, and they weren’t online.

The rapid growth in both the tools for creating digital media and the bandwidth for sharing it just mean there more ways to use audio and video for your business. More than 101 of them, in fact. Penny lists 103 and then provides some additional ideas in the Sample Projects section at the end of the book.

I defy anyone who reads it not to think of some way to use these tools for his or her business. And I’d be surprised if those of you already using audio and video don’t discover new applications. My favorite discovery was one Penny also mentioned in a recent interview with Anna Farmery: turning audio into video by adding slides to your audio recording.

I don’t know why I never thought of that. It’s probably because I’ve been too focused on extracting the audio from video files where the visuals add little or nothing, the better to listen to them on my MP3 player while driving. Now I just have to find time in my schedule to go back and do it with some of my presentations.

On the down side, 101 Things could have benefited from the services of a book designer, as there are some odd page breaks and layout issues. Those are only a minor distraction, as the repeated references to the Commercial Creation Center are a minor annoyance.

If you’re a podcaster or a podcasting/media consultant, buy this e-book for your clients—but read it yourself first to help you pitch them.

SRG

This condition most often afflicts those who have just purchased a DVD full of sound effects and can’t wait to use them all at once, whether they serve any useful purpose or not. The zings, bangs, crashes, trumpet fanfares, and rounds of applause every few seconds can obliterate the intelligibility—and certainly the listenability—of the podcast.

Podcastus Overproductus in its most severe form causes show hosts to compound the damage done by the sound clips with a fake DJ voice and a hokey script, resulting in a nightmare cross between a morning zoo radio show and a children’s television program.

One painful example of this syndrome can be found at BASF’s Chemical Reporter podcast. The idea is brilliant: explain the chemistry at work in daily life by answering questions like “Why does salt melt ice?” After only a few episodes, the listener becomes possessed by the desire to bash the podcast host over the head with a blunt object.