Wake up and smell the podcast

By Lynda Rathbone

Last year I wrote about podcasting. At the time, this emerging technology was new, exciting, undirected and largely misunderstood. Only a handful of businesses were using it to enhance their websites and only a small population of MP3-player owners were downloading podcasts.

Today, however, all that has changed. Podcasts have taken off in a big way and now there are both audio and video podcasts, opening up new opportunities for a global audience to listen to and watch content, in addition to reading it on websites. Podcasting has quickly become popular as an on-demand, portable method of sending and receiving rich media content and everyone’s doing it – from DJ Pete Tong, with his twenty-minute showcase of new music, ‘Tongcast’, to the BBC’s ‘The World’, a one-hour, weekday magazine programme detailing the latest technology and science stories from a global perspective.

If your organisation hasn’t considered the impact and implications of podcasting yet, it had better get on the ball. New mobile phones are now out that have video recorders of sufficient quality to capture a short video and turn it into a video podcast. New software, meanwhile, is available that enables audio podcasters to simply phone-in a recording, which it then automatically formats and adds to the podcaster’s website.

New sites have sprung up that enable users to share short movies and videos with an almost limitless audience. Combine those capabilities with sites such as Flickr (www.flickr.com) or Del.icio.us, that are essentially photo, link, post/blog and article-sharing sites, and you have an entirely new online trend that should not be ignored.

A few years ago, audio and video files were regarded as an extravagance – expensive to create, maintain and manage. But that is no longer the case. There is no excuse for complacency; all that is needed to start communicating with rich media is a basic understanding of how to leverage this type of file to compliment your standard website content. That is the exciting part: The web is still very much a new frontier and forward-thinking individuals still have the opportunity to start a new trend or set a new standard just by thinking of a new way to apply a technology like video podcasting. In fact, your competitors may be doing just that right now.

I can guess what you’re thinking: Podcasting wouldn’t be appropriate for my organisation, right?

But let’s think about it again. Does your organisation do any e-learning or training online? Well, audio and video files can supplement text and really ‘jazz up’ training materials.

Or what about call centre operations? Employees there are accustomed to taking in information aurally all day, every day. Why not use audio files to alert or update them of new offers or new products that they need to be telling customers about via the corporate intranet? After all, it’s unlikely they have time or the inclination to browse the intranet for written information and audio can be far more engaging and memorable.

And what about those organisations with large retail operations? Making installation or assembly instructions available on a short video podcast would be fantastic. It may even get me back into IKEA again. When self-assembly goes pear-shaped and that little tool they give you doesn’t seem to help, you could just go to IKEA’s website and download a short video showing the experts assemble your new wardrobe. (Anyone from IKEA reading this – call me!).

At a more basic level, what about simply advertising in someone else’s podcast? Most of the popular casts have corporate sponsors that fund a part, or all, of the cast and get a mention in the audio/video. Since listeners usually play the entire file (it’s notoriously difficult to fast forward on an iPod, for example), you are guaranteed a mention. And by selecting the right podcast to sponsor, you have access to a self-selecting but targeted audience that may well be interested in your products or services.

Admittedly there are still thousands of podcasts out there about niche topics like fly fishing and that ‘loving couple from New Jersey’ sharing the details of their daily life together. But the opportunity to get in on the action and apply the lessons learned through that kind of podcasting to business life is great. It could lend an entirely new lease of life to your corporate website’s content and provide an opportunity to engage users in a way that wasn’t realistic before, either on your intranet or your internet site.

And if you are already doing something innovative with podcasting – or you’re from IKEA – contact me at lynda@foursquaremedia.net and I’ll profile your podcast in an upcoming column.