Make Podcasting Work for Your Business Feb 21, 2007 3:02 PM
, By Lisa Wehr
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It’s a fact: People learn better and retain more information when more senses are engaged in the education process. With all a company does to educate consumers, the media, vendors, and staff, podcasting is an ideal way to further engage your audiences.
But where to start?
You don't necessarily need to create brand-new content for podcasting purposes. If your business is like many others, it already has plenty of useful, podcast-ready information on hand. To serve consumers, industry shareholders and stakeholders better, smart organizations stay on top by informing people of advances through a number of different outlets, including newsletters, press releases, white papers, annual reports, customer service, and training materials. When you look at each of these items, you’ll see some intriguing possibilities regarding the repurposing of this content for podcasting.
Newsletters, for instance, are a time-honored source of information. By creating a podcast to feature newsletter content, you enable users to listen during a commute, at the gym, or wherever else they have time to listen.
To create a greater sense of authority and credibility, press releases can contain actual interviews with experts.
A Website’s “about us” pages are a company’s chance to inform those interested about what they stand for and why they exist. Through podcasting, your president, chairperson, or other key executives can reinforce these same messages.
Business-to-business marketers often conduct marketing studies or other research for white papers. Some of the findings are compelling enough to make for a lively podcast discussion. Recording a podcast version allows end users to explore the topics of white papers in a lively way—at a time and place that is most convenient for them.
Long a staple of the business world, an annual report is a key piece of information of great relevance to company shareholders and stakeholders alike. Using an annual report as a foundation, organizations can create podcasts that expand on that content, breaking down the balance sheet and moving it into the real world.
Even customer service documentation is a resource. Offering information on everything from assembling products to how to use all the features on the newest gadgets, manuals and instructions are the first line in customer support. Creating video podcasts that bring these instructions to life in walk-through tutorials can simplify what’s difficult to understand in writing.
Until now, most of the podcast suggestions talked about have been outreach communications. One major internal application for podcasting, however, is in human resources—specifically training. As each organization is different, so are its policies, procedures, and practices. Podcasts are an ideal way to relate that information on cue to employees, dealers, wholesale distribution networks, manufacturers’ sales representatives, and even district offices or retail locations across the globe. They can also help your company reduce training costs by minimizing travel and travel-related expenses and reducing turnover by improving performance.
Podcasting allows users to go mobile and take the information they need anywhere they need to be. It's communication on a user's terms. And that is always the best type of communication.
Lisa Wehr is president/founder of Oneupweb, a provider of integrated online marketing services
