Podcasting - the ultimate form of communication
Do you run a business and want to make a podcast?
Or maybe you’ve recorded some one-off interviews and published them, but now you’re asking yourself why they’re not gaining any traction. Then slowly you lose momentum…until you’ve completely run out of steam.
All of this happens before you’ve even made it to the finish line.
Why make a podcast?
People come to podcasting for different reasons. There are those who love listening to them and want to make one themselves. The media have also been producing podcasts for some time, especially the likes of NPR, BBC, the ABC and RNZ, here in New Zealand.
Radio and audio has been the mainstay of their content and they are experts in the realm of audio storytelling often with skills you won’t find anywhere else. There are also groups, businesses and organisations who want a podcast to run alongside their business to promote their messaging, cause, products, or brand.
All of these are relevant and podcasting can be a meaningful way to reach new audiences and potential customers. But in order to find answers to the questions posed earlier, it’s important to go back to the basics.
The most common question I’m asked by people wanting to make a podcast is: “Where do I start?” This is the perfect question, and one that I get very excited about.
What often hampers the process is having a million and one ideas. Having a lot to choose from is better than having none at all, but if you’re not prepared to let any of them go, it will quickly become your biggest obstacle - impatience gets the best of those who are eager to jump in front of a microphone and press record!
Fast doesn’t mean better
The fast-turn-around perception of podcasting appeals to a lot of people.
But this also feeds into the myth that it’s easy to make a good podcast. And depending on the kind of content you want to make, ‘quick and dirty’ might not be the best option for you, especially if you have a brand or run a business and the messaging and stories need to align with the overarching vision.
Podcasting can be fun. It’s definitely much cheaper and less time consuming than making videos. But if you want to make sure your podcast cuts through the noise, a run-of-the-mill, single interview style podcast isn’t going to get you, or your content, noticed.
By all means go ahead and make a podcast from the comfort of your bedroom wardrobe. But if the content hasn’t been well-executed or well thought out, you’re not likely to gain any traction from listeners.
And that’s the whole point of making one in the first place, right?
Take it slowly
Baby steps first! Just because you have a pair of trainers, it doesn’t mean you’re ready to run a marathon or compete at the Olympic Games. Everything starts with an idea or a desire, but bringing a podcast to fruition needs to start with a plan.
Making great audio, regardless of whether it’s a simple podcast or something more complex , requires a process.
For those starting out, that won’t necessarily be obvious or anywhere near second nature. And while you think that it’s going to slow everything down, it will make your content stronger in the long run.
The best podcasts have been well-researched and the content will be focused, with an aim behind it.
You also need to consider how you want your podcast to ‘sound’ and what will make it unique when its competing alongside millions of other podcasts already in the same genre or niche.
If you love content made by NPR, for instance, there are different layers of skills and expertise that a ‘professional podcast producer’ has that have been learnt, tested and executed over time.
In saying that, not all producers come with the same set of skills. It all depends on their background, the types of content they’ve worked with before; their affinity with specific kinds of audio storytelling and their ability to execute their ideas, that make a podcast shine.
You’ll also find that many of these podcasts from media organisations have a team behind them. Not always, but in most cases that’s true. They might have a separate script writer, an editor, someone different to present the content.
Consider what you need to succeed
Think about the ‘who’ and the ‘what’ and that includes whether you want to invest money to make a quality podcast versus something that will be ‘just okay.’ Simple can be great, but if you don’t have a journalism background or you’re shy behind the mic then it’ll be more challenging to give your interviews the spark they need to lift your podcast and make it as dynamic as it could be.
Before you get going it is important to listen, learn and plan. Then you can head off into the podcasting wilderness and fend for yourself. If you encounter a tiger, you’ll have a strategy in place to sneak away undetected. And by tiger, I mean those unexpected problems and challenges that pop up through the production or planning process.
Not to deter you from making one, but it’s important to be equipped with some foundational knowledge, a great idea or reason to make one in the first place. Doing your research to figure out all of the above will also help you to get the ball rolling and let your content shine!
More coming up in the next article.