Though I’m interested in all things podcasting at any time, the specific subject of the interview, “Podcasting for Business Communications,” was of particular interest because of a LinkedIn question I’d just seen: “What is the current state/future of corporate podcasting?”

One respondent said “Though there are some things to appreciate about podcasting, as a corporate investment it’s headed the way of the fax machine, but more quickly.”

None of the rest of the respondents agreed, though some of them (such as ‘Professor’ Donna Papacosta here at the Podcast Asylum) might be said to have slightly biased opinions. Yet who would know, if not people who produce podcasts for corporations?

Steve Lubetkin certainly didn’t give the impression that his business was experiencing a rapid die-off. The quote Eric chose to highlight in his detailed show notes is

B2B podcasting is, for the most part, not about reaching large audiences. It’s about reaching individuals with an immediate need for the marketer’s product or service. So instead of getting in front of thousands of people who may or may not have a need, podcasting is about automating the awareness, consideration, research and evaluation phases of general buying cycles.

Which is to say, massive numbers aren’t even the point, never mind an indicator of whether the medium is viable. (Though I am taking this quote out of context.)

Eric’s rant about the number of Gold Quill entrants who claim to have podcasts and don’t (because there’s no RSS feed associated with their audio files) warmed my pedantic little heart. Indeed, I feel a syndrome coming on. I just can’t decide whether to call it “Podcastus Imitatus” or “Podcast Envy.”

Listen to the whole interview over on the OTRO website.

• Making a podcast – some notes and observations – Roo Reynolds –
• Micropodcasting – an overview through the eyes of two practitioners | Online Journalism Blog –

If I had the Sansa in MTP mode, it would talk to Windows Media Player, but Windows Media Player is not a podcatcher. And past the point of some update or another to Windows XP, my computer no longer recognized the Sansa in MTP mode, and I had to switch it over to MSC mode anyway. That means that my computer looks at the media player as if it were any other external drive, so the way to get new podcasts onto it was to drag and drop them through Windows Explorer.

Now, I never really minded doing that; it’s not as though it’s difficult, and it doesn’t take very long. Automatic synchronization still seemed like a nice idea, but it didn’t seem as though anyone was going to bother offering the service without tying you to a particular product like the iPod or Zune.

And podcatcher development seemed to have pretty much dried up once iTunes became dominant. Nevertheless, I was in the market for a new one. I’d started using Ziepod rather than Juice once I became a two-computer family on a regular basis, because of the option to selectively download podcasts. But for the last month or so Ziepod has crashed almost every time I’ve started it, requiring  a restart, and development seems dead in the water. (Another one of those Windows updates?)

Then I read the Lifehacker post on the Five Best Podcast Managers. The top score went to gPodder, a tool I’d thought was only for Linux.

After reading the review, I hopped over and downloaded it, then unzipped it and tried it. (gPodder is one of those self-contained tools that runs right out of the folder it comes in; you don’t need to install it.) I then imported an OPML file (interestingly, it couldn’t read the one that Ziepod produced, but I had an older one sitting around), updated a few podcasts, and checked it out.

gPodder displays podcast album art, which neither Juice nor Ziepod does—a nice touch. You can mark episodes as old so that it won’t download them. It tells you how many downloaded episodes are waiting to be played.

And you can sync it. Once you tell it where to find your MP3 player and set a few more parameters, just select Device | Sync episodes to device (or press CTRL+S), and you’re off. I get a mysterious error message at the end of my sync process, but it still works.

I’m delighted. I don’t know that this will save me enough time to notice, but I’m still glad to be able to sync my podcasts automatically.

Now, if anyone is actually reading this, someone may write in and tell me that there’s something else out there that does this. In which case, I’m all ears, and I’ll be happy to test it and write about it.

• 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 –

• 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 –

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.

• 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 –

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.

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.