Reports from the Asylum

Podcasting links for January 30th through January 31st:

• Shovio: Be Your Own TV or Radio Show Host on the Web – AppScout –
• What’s Shovio? –
• Wizzard Delivers 1.4 Billion Podcasts In 2009 – Podcasting News –
• ADM research notes podcast advertising appeals to "unreachable" consumers –
• The Best Podcasting Microphones – Podcasting News –

Podcasting links for January 6th through January 21st:

• Buzzsprout » Create and publish your own podcast. Podcast hosting, promotion and tracking –
• MediaCore | Video, Audio, and Podcast Publication Platform –
• 5 Reasons Your Podcast Technically Sucks –
• San Antonio: Byline Blog: Why Radio will Survive the Media Shake-out of our Decade –
• So You Think You Can Podcast: The Social Network Dedicated to the Art, Science, and Business of Podcasting –

Tee Morris, creator of the Survival Guide to Writing Fantasy podcast (now on indefinite hiatus, but go listen if you do any kind of writing at all) and co-author of Podcasting for Dummies and Expert Podcasting Practices for Dummies, has just lost his beloved wife Natalie. She was only 45. It was totally unexpected, and Tee is left with his young daughter, Sonic Boom, the chaos any sudden death brings, and unimaginable grief.

His fellow writer and podcaster Philippa Ballantine started a “Chip In” fund to help Tee through this difficult time. I’ve made a contribution and encourage you to do the same if you’ve ever listened to Tee, read his books, or followed him on Twitter.

Goddess be with you, Tee. And Natalie, whom I never met: Sit tibi levis terra.

Podcasting links for December 26th through January 4th:

• Why I commit 14 hours each week to podcasting –
• The Lowdown On Audio Podcasting | Six Pixels of Separation – Marketing and Communications Blog – By Mitch Joel at Twist Image –
• How to Podcast –
• How To Set Up A Podcast On TalkShoe – The Forgotten Guide –
• Secrets of Professional Podcasting | Mac|Life –

For FIR 507, December 7, 2009

Transcript

This is ‘Professor’ Goetsch reporting from the Spectacular San Francisco Bay Area offices of the Podcast Asylum.

I’m sure everyone who listens to FIR gets e-mail advertising social media webinars, trainings, and other services. Ragan Communications is hardly alone in sending invitations to these events, though I think they may be the most prolific.

But a few days before Thanksgiving, I received a message that provoked more than the usual “Oh, look! Someone wants to charge me money to tell me what I already know.” In fact, it disturbed me so much that I felt I had to share it here, even though the person who sent it is someone I know…and used to respect.

Back when he was producing his “Survival Guide to Writing Fantasy” podcasts, Tee Morris used to call these “Whiskey-Tango-Foxtrot Moments.” It was kind of like the Bad Pitch Blog for authors who did Really Stupid Things.

In this case, it’s more a matter of consultants behaving badly. You’ll see what I mean when I read the message. I had to spell out the problem to the person who came up with this gem, but no one who’s heard Shel and Neville—or anyone else in this space—talk about transparency is going to need me to tell them what’s wrong with this.

The only thing I’m leaving out is the name of the company and people involved. I’m not sure they deserve my protection, but I am sure that the lesson here is bigger than one misguided “thought leadership” firm.

Subject: New Cheap & Easy Social Media Management

Dear Friends, Colleagues, and Clients:

For too many years I have been preaching, imploring, begging and coaching my clients and prospective clients to master the ways of marketing by blogging, and to start maintaining a presence on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and the other major centers of current web marketing.

A few of you have become expert and have benefited. Most of you are too busy to do it all yourself and don’t want the hassle of fussing with the technology. Some of you have thrown up your hands in despair.

So here’s the good news: We’re going to do it for you, and it’s not expensive. For a limited time, you can start for as little as $500 a month. Our new business will review and set up all the components of your social media infrastructure. We’ll even extract and write your blogs, or edit your original blog posts. We’ll Twitter for you and maintain your connections. Without breaking a sweat, you’ll be a master of the new social media.

And there’s no start-up fees!

All we want is your success.

Call us now and let us start building your public profile.

The part that really got me was the bit about maintaining connections. You’re going to have my relationships for me? Will you sleep with my boyfriend and take my mother out to dinner? Don’t you think they might have something to say about that?

I bet Lee Hopkins has a sound clip of someone beating their head against the wall. I’m not sure it’s my head that needs contramural therapy, however.

When I objected to this person that Twitter is like a cocktail party and individuals do not send other people to attend cocktail parties on their behalf, he seemed completely oblivious to the five years of controversy surrounding ghost blogging, never mind the criticism Guy Kawasaki came in for when he hired people to tweet on his behalf and got caught at it. My colleague seemed to have entirely overlooked the social aspect of social media, and to be pursuing a numbers game whereby he could build an instant “platform” for his clients, who are mostly business-book authors.

It’s true that Twitter can work fine as a broadcast channel—if you’re the Dell Outlet sending notices of your latest deals. And there are lots of social media services a consultancy can provide its clients in good conscience. You can help them write a great LinkedIn profile or develop a good Facebook Fan Page. You can help with media monitoring. You can provide all kinds of training.

But if you can’t make people’s friends for them in person, what makes you think you can do it online? And why, just when the big companies are finding that they have the most social media success by acting more like real people, should real people start acting more like big companies used to?

Literary agent and one-time blogger Miss Snark used to keep a Clue Gun for situations like this.

And the frightening thing is that like the social media certification mentioned on FIR 506, there are people who will fall for it. According to the person who sent the e-mail, there have been several takers already. He even asked if I’d be interested in participating in the project—since I’m a ghostwriter, you know.

You must be joking. I’d have to be certifiable.

Professor Goetsch, signing off.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Transcript:

FIR 500

This is ‘Professor’ Goetsch reporting from the Spectacular San Francisco Bay Area offices of the Podcast Asylum with my thoughts about what Shel and Neville will be discussing in the next 500 episodes of For Immediate Release.

I have no idea what the hot technology of the day will be when we reach Episode 1000—though I do hope we’re not going to be talking about Twitter in every episode between now and then. If Twitter sticks around, I’d like it to move into the background, like e-mail, and become a tool people take for granted and say “Remember, when Twitter was first introduced, companies wanted to block that.”

I do think that the broad outlines of the show will continue to be the same, though, because whatever new communications tools appear, we’re going to see some companies using them well and some companies really putting their foot in it. And there will be early adopters wanting to keep the whatever-sphere “pure” and non-commercial while others want to jump in and “monetize” as quickly as possible.

I think we can confidently expect to hear Shel say “New media don’t kill old media: old media adapt” a few more times in the next five years.

We might even find out whether he wins his bet about the persistence of print newspapers.

How to Celebrate

Now, here’s what I’d like to suggest everyone do to celebrate Episode 500. First, if you’ve never left a comment before, leave a comment.

Then go out and tell someone about FIR. I think we could easily double the listenership overnight if we did this. That’s not just a nice thing to do for Shel and Neville, but a service to anyone who’s interested in PR, communications, marketing, or social media. I sat next to a professional communicator on my last flight to Cleveland, and she was very keen to hear about FIR when I mentioned it in a follow-up e-mail. Heck, I got “Best Answer” on a LinkedIn question for pointing someone to the recording of the panel with Mark Ragan about how to convince your boss to use social media.

So go forth and spread the good news!

‘Professor’ Goetsch, signing off.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Podcasting links for October 24th through November 9th:

• How to Create a Storyboard for a Podcast | eHow.com –
• The Savvy Author’s Guide to Podcasting –
• Mediafly: Digital Lifestyle –
• The $816 CPM Story – #BWE09 –
• twaud.io – Audio for Twitter –
• We Podcasted Today! So, Did you Learn ANYTHING? –

If you have somehow escaped listening to For Immediate Release in its nearly five years of production, now is the time to make up for that lack. Shel and Neville are about to produce the 500^th episode of their stellar podcast about the intersection of business communications and technology.

If you have any interest at all in social media, PR, internal comms, and the impact of new technology on old technology (such as  newspapers), you need to listen to this show. And I’m not saying that just because I record contributions for it now and then.

Go on over to the FIR website, listen to an episode or two, and leave a comment on the blog or call the listener comment line. Congratulate them on producing 500 episodes, and tell them ‘Professor’ Goetsch sent you.

Podcasting links for October 15th through October 23rd:

• Novels by podcast: how to make money from ‘free’ –
• Podcasting for your Business: Interview with Chuck Palm : Inbound Marketing Strategies, SEO, Social Media Marketing –
• Phonecasting, a rising trend in mobile communications? : CloudRecruiting.net –
• Podcasts to Be Eligible for National Magazine Awards – NYTimes.com –
• How to Host a Great Podcast | paulgillin.com –