This is a summary of our recent presentation at PRSA Media Relations Workshop, Orange County, CA. I will be posting the summary here in three parts.
Here’s a podcast by one of your PR colleagues - the Hobson & Holtz Report.
Think of podcasting as TIVO for radio, except anyone can create audio programs and they are sent directly to the information consumer for listenting at their convenience. A podcast is a recorded audio program in MP3 format (the popular audio format for the iPod and other portable audio players) but with a twist. The audio is delivered via RSS and is included as an “enclosure” to an RSS feed.
In other words, you can subscribe via RSS to audio content and receive it as a download to your computer or to a portable audio player automatically -- as soon as it is published (see our earlier RSS discussion).
The number of podcast programs is rising rapidly. Podcast Alley, an online directory, currently lists 3500 distinct programs, and Feedburner reports it is tracking 6,000 podcasts. Considering the first podcast was in July of 2004, the term “rising rapidly” may be a gross understatement.
Who’s Podcasting?
Infinity Broadcasting announced in April it was flipping its AM station, KYCY, San Francisco, to KYOU radio – an all podcast radio station. Sirius Radio has hired Adam Curry, one of the inventors of podcasting, to host a daily four-hour show about podcasting, and broadcasting podcasts.
Rapidly on their heels, other mainstream media is quickly adopting podcasting. BBC Radio and Minnesota Public Radio, NPR, CBC, and ABC News have all started to make some of their programming available in podcast form. Broadcasters in Australia, Spain, Sweden, and Belgium are podcasting. Rush Limbaugh, President George Bush, Senator John Edwards and California Governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger are also using podcasting to stay in touch with constituents.
Sample a bit of ABC’s AferNote podcast here.
Corporations are also podcasting. General Motors and Disney have recently launched podcasts. Disneyland launched its podcast as part of its 50th anniversary celebration.
Take a listen to Disneyland's podcast.
Podcasting is here to stay and emerging and large players alike are embracing the medium. There are many popular podcasts on every topic – from cooking to medicine. What’s most exciting is that mainstream media is embracing podcasting as a way of reinventing itself. We, as communicators, need to do the same.
All Media Is Multimedia
Our mantra that “all media is multimedia” couldn’t have a more concrete illustration than podcasting. We’ve discussed in the past that communications professionals must think of every medium in multimedia formats: print media includes streaming audio or video on their web sites; broadcast media publish print on the web; radio broadcasts over the Internet and puts up print and images on their web sites.
But podcasting seems to bring the “multimedia-fication of media” concept home like never before. Newspapers like the Denver Post, San Francisco Chronicle and the Philadelphia Daily News are not just repurposing content for their podcasts, but are creating all new content and shows for the podcast format.
For you, this is a way to extend the reach of your PR and media relations efforts. These are new and expanded outlets to provide content for, and a brand new way to get your news out.
Podcasts are viral - a news hit on one podcast can easily be used on other podcasts – and podcasts are easily shared/sent to others. Content used in a podcast can show up as a print story – online or offline. And, don’t underestimate the influence of the first and very well-respected podcasters – those “citizen journalists” who started the podcast phenomenon in the first place.
The What I Want, When I Want It, How I Want it Attitude
Podcasting, like all modern media, answers the “what I want, when I want it” demand for media. It is “content-to-go” and allows for that all-important time-shifting.
But, there are lots of other PR reasons to consider podcasting:
- Podcasting is an inexpensive and immediate broadcast channel you can easily syndicate via RSS.
- The podcast is pushed directly to subscribers as soon as it is published, keeping your constituents engaged with both your content and your brand.
- You speak directly to and engage customers, investors, partners, media, etc.
- Podcasting is a better opportunity to reach constituents during the right “frame of mind” moment since they listen at their own “right time.”
- You can create original content around your product, issue or theme. For example, General Motors podcasts about car trends and The Kitchen Garden Company produces Gastrocast about food and cooking.
- Podcasting is an easy way to provide your news in a rich media format.
- It is a medium used by influential bloggers as well as mainstream media.
- It is an opportunity to evolve the modern “Radio News Release. ”
- Podcasts are an additional outlet for coverage, as podcast shows need original content and it is ideally suited because podcasting is a medium for talk and news, rather than music.
- The movement of news to and from the various forms of media is becoming increasingly fluid, so an item on a podcast may also makes its way to a blog, newspaper, or to mainstream radio or television.
- Podcasting is a growing tool for internal corporate communication and IR. Earningscast, for example, has started publishing select quarterly company investor conference calls in podcast form.
- Podcasts are popular!
Podcasting is a medium in search of new content. Since YOU are now the media, go out there and provide it!
Getting Started
The first step to being successful in using podcasts in your media relations efforts is to subscribe to podcasts to become familiar with them and to listen. You’ll notice a wide range of production quality and formats, but don't let that influence their importance.
Identify influential podcasters and follow them, subscribe to the RSS feeds – and remember, you don’t need an iPod or other MP3 player – you can listen on your computer.
Start here to find podcasts:
Podcast Alley
Podcast.net
iPodderX
iPodder.org
Podcast Directory
- Once you’ve identified relevant podcasts you would like to approach, first get involved with it through the comments feature that many podcasters enable via their blog.
- If you have a blog, trackback or link to that podcaster’s content, and comment on the value of its content.
- Podcast yourself – and interview, review, recommend or point to the influential podcasts you’d like to get on. If you aren’t ready to start podcasting with all new content, try making your newsletter into a short podcast.
- Contact mainstream media journalists and include them via an interview on your podcast.
- Provide the podcaster with some information they might find helpful and relevant to the topic of their blog via a private email message.
- Give and you will receive.
What You Need to Podcast
Podcast yourself! The easiest way to podcast is to use the telephone. Services like Audioblog.com will create a podcast for you by calling it in by phone. These services result in very acceptable audio quality.
We recommend you opt for the very best audio quality possible in your circumstance, especially considering most people will be listening to this “on the go” – in the car or subway, outside, while eating lunch, etc. Keep your listener’s possible environment in mind.
There are various levels of equipment and software you can use, but a good quality podcast does not need to be expensive to produce. You can use services like Audioblog, or your own computer sound card, and microphone, along with software to save the audio in MP3 format. You can opt for prosumer level microphones and mixers, or, on the high end, use a professional sound studio. In all cases, you will need to upload your MP3 file to a web server and provide it as an RSS feed enclosure.
The most important thing you can do, however, is to create great content.
To start podcasting, start here:
Audioblog.com
iPodder.org
The Future of News
We’ve been beating on the theme in this presentation of “what I want, when I want it, how I want it” for modern media and modern media relations. This means we need to think not only about new delivery channels like blogs, podcasts and RSS, but it also means we need to think about providing content in formats to accommodate the new channels.
Mobile media is the quintessential “liquid media” channel, both for creating and delivering communication at the right frame of mind moment. Mobile phones are today’s all-in-one communication appliance.
Last month, the MediaCenter released its Media and Technology and Society multi-disciplinary research study on the landscape of media. They confirmed everything we’ve said here - it is about any time, any place and any device - it’s about storytelling and sharing - and it’s social.
THE FUTURE OF NEWS IS ... Bigger,
glocal
Accessible any time, any place, any device
Transparent Participatory, a conversation not a lecture
Edited for more, not less
Reliant on social entrepreneurship
Authentic.
Trust is the new trust
--The Media Center
Our challenge as communciators is to provide and participate in news in this environment. We must develop communications programs that delivers “what I want, when I want it, how I want it.”
Provide your content in multiple ways, suitable for all modern mediums and in suitable formats: blogs, podcasts, RSS, mobile, SMS, wireless; audio, video, on-the-go and time-shifted.
When providing reports to your clients, be sure you include your news delivery to all the modern media paths your news is taking today: blogs, citizen journals, podcasts, RSS, mobile accesses and downloads, SMS, and social and collaborative networks.
Be modern. Modern media is everywhere, and showing up in new ways everyday. You are using modern media in your daily lives. Use it to deliver your news in modern ways.
It’s mobile, immediate, visual, interactive, participatory and trusted. Make way for a generation of storytellers who totally get it.
---The Media Center
Thanks for mentioning the Kitchen Garden Company and the Gastrocast Linda!
Posted by: Podchef | June 17, 2005 at 07:29 AM