“I love listening to comedy of Professor Frink but I don’t
always have time to catch it. But, I can subscribe to the podcast and when I
wake up in the morning, there will be a new mp3 of the latest banter on my
desktop! I can either download it to my I-pod or listen to it while I surf the
internet.” Podcast user, Karen
Podcasting
101
Originally designed to be part of the new “social networking” on
the internet, Podcasting is fast becoming a valuable marketing and delivery tool.
It allows you to communicate with the most wanted demographic, the 16-35 year
old, in a non-aggressive way. Statistics show that this generation desires to
“choose” to become involved rather than being “sold.”
Consider
a podcast a subscription, just like any other subscription, to one or many
files on the internet. By formal definition “Podcasting entails audio content that is
delivered via an RSS feed presenting a downloadable or streaming file, most
often a mp3 file." It’s actually possible to have a PDF, video, excel or just about any file
format delivered in a subscription based podcast.
The world of sales is changing. The new generation of internet savvy
people do not want to be sold directly. Today, with freedom of access to music
and other content on the internet, you must entertain and engage the audience
because they have the power to decide to listen to a message or not. One
popular format is UTUBE.com. This is an entertainment video format that causes
people to share the link to the video with friends.
Publish
the Podcast
After you
have created your podcast you must publish it on the Internet. Unless it’s
published it can’t be found and heard. Find a robust host with the necessary
speed and bandwidth. Keep in mind that the more simultaneous subscribers to a
podcast, the more bandwidth will be required.
When you
create the MP3 file, be sure to create the ID3 or meta tags also. These tags
contain the title, artist, artwork, description, copyright and other
information about the message. The ID3 tag will allow
the podcast to display properly on the computer, MP3 player or Ipod.
I also recommend
that the data rate of the published MP3 file be considered. The lower the data
rate, the smaller the file and the faster the listener will be able to hear
it. Choosing the right data rate is a compromise between quality and speed.
You must choose wisely, my padawan.
I hope
this article at least sparks your interest and helps you think in global terms
for your business. We tried to create an article without so much geek-speak .
I hope we succeeded without losing the content. If you have any other
questions or want more technical info, please feel free to write.
A future
article will address the publicity for a podcast and how to get your listing to
the top of the search engines.
Authors: Dwight Cook and Mark Meyer - Sound Works
www.soundworks.com
Sound
Works creates and hosts podcasts