Want to stand out from your competition?
Podcasting is the answer.
You want to get your message out. You want to be heard.
We know that video would be one way to go but it’s so time consuming.
(or perhaps you have a face for radio like me) 😉
TL:DR: Here’s a podcast of this post
Podcasting is one of those super secret tools. It will help differentiate you from the others, allows you to voice your opinion, and is super easy to do. I’m going to detail everything out that you need to know and what you need get started.
Before we get to the equipment we need to decide what kind of a podcast you plan on doing. Something to think about is Guests. Are you going to have others as guests? Are they with you at the same mic or calling in? How many guests?
Types of Podcasts:
We’ll start with the simplest and move up to the style that requires the most amount of work.
Raw, Raw, Raw!
This would be hitting Record, doing your session and then pushing it out to the world just as it happened. This would be the easiest to manage as there’s little to no edit work. We do exactly this every Tuesday at Social Media Edge.
We don’t have a lot of free time so we use Blog Talk Radio. We’ve uploaded an intro, outro and a few dozen sound effects.Prior to the show we usually tweet and FB, Linkedin, and even Google + the permalink to the show. That’s get’s people into the show as we are doing it. We have a chatroom that sometimes becomes very lively. Sometimes the best part of the show is what happens inside the chatroom. Ken starts the show and mans the dashboard, I call in (as do our guests) and at the end of 30 minutes we’re done and moved on to our real work. Meanwhile the show is produced, sent to iTunes automatically.
Our biggest show? Guy Kawasaki!
Blast from the Past! We had @GuyKawasaki on as a guest. #SMEDGE https://t.co/KBDAFvxyQh 6 Years ago today! cc: @thekencook
— Mike Mueller (@MikeMueller) June 7, 2017
Pros: Easy Peasy. What you see is what you get. Minimal time involvement. Audience involvement (chatroom)
Cons: What you see is what you get. Make a mistake and there’s no chance to fix it.
Somewhat Raw, yet Slightly Edited
Bill Risser started interviewing and recording podcasts a while ago. I was lucky to have been a guest on his “Real Estate Sessions“. Being a guest (and a friend) I was able to ask him about his process.
Take a listen at : http://tresonline.com/episode-28-mike-mueller-areweconnected-com/
Here’s what happened. We setup a time to record. At the appointed time I called in. We talked briefly about what was going to happen, he said if you mess up during the recording don’t worry we’ll cut it out. I also found out he spent a bunch of time researching me and had jotted down a list of bullet points he wanted to touch on with me. Once the recording was done, he edits the sound files, adds the intro and outro and then uploads the file to Libsyn. Lybsyn hosts the file and helps stream it. It also pushes it to iTunes.
Pros: Easy to do, people are interesting (except maybe my session).
Cons: Finding guests, doing the homework, and of course the editing. No live audience (chatroom).
Stream of Consciousness
My friend Carole does a slightly edited style but it’s much more a stream of consciousness. What’s going on your life today? What would you like to talk about? Start the record and go!
Take a listen: http://www.thecrazymarketingladiesshow.com/?p=2193
She has a great FM styled voice doesn’t she? To be fair, part of that is the microphone. She has a really good mic and a really quiet space to record in.
Pros: No script, just an idea for the day and go!
Cons: Audience retention, do this daily and you might not keep an audience involved.
The Big Production
You can bet your bippy that if you’re Spencer Rascoff (the CEO of Zillow Group) you’re going to produce a professional styled podcast. Nothing less will do.
The typical podcast starts with Spencer talking about his guest and why they interesting. Behind his well written intro you may notice there’s background music. In the instance I have below he actually apologizes about the sound quality in the beginning.
When he starts the actual interview and no matter what the guest, both voices are high quality. They stick to a point by point bulleted list of items to talk about. It’s not scripted but it does have a specific flow to it.
Check out Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg. It was done face to face with pro production sound engineers but what I also like is that the page has a transcript of the entire interview, links to items she mentions as well as a great intro to the guest!
https://www.zillow.com/office-hours/sheryl-sandberg/
When he starts the actual interview and no matter what the guest, both voices are high quality. They stick to a point by point bulleted list of items to talk about. It’s not scripted but it does have a specific flow to it.
Check out Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg. It was done face to face with pro production sound engineers (who still had issues with equipment) but what I also like is that the page has a transcript of the entire interview, links to items she mentions as well as a great intro to the guest!
Equipment Needed:
The Mic (s)
At the very least you’ll need to record your voice. I say that but what I mean is that you’ll want to record your voice WELL. If you have guests face to face you’ll need to be able to record their voice WELL as well. This is the Yeti Mic that I use.
It would also work in a quiet room with a couple of different people. It’s super simple, connects to your laptop via a single USB and works well. https://www.amazon.com/Blue-Yeti-USB-Microphone-Silver/dp/B002VA464S.
But what happens when your guest isn’t with you? That’s always going to be a problem. No matter what you are recording them with, the quality is all on their end. Test out what works best for you (with them). Are they calling in over a landline or cell phone? Have you tried to record from Skype? How about a Google Hangout? That might give your caller a better sound than just over the phone.
Sound Editing
Rule #1 of podcasting: You should always edit. Whether that’s just clipping the ends or adding your intro and outro – always edit.
No matter if you are a PC or a Apple, I really like the FREE program called Audacity . It’s like photoshop for audio.
With Audacity you can record directly into it or upload a file. You can then cut out the stuff you don’t need, split tracks and then insert the intro and outro.
Hosting
I’m going to split hosting into two here. You can self host or you can push the hosting out to somewhere else.
Self Hosting: WordPress does a really good job now in hosting sound files. Simply upload the finished sound file just as you would a picture and insert it into your post. That’s exactly what I did here.
Pros: Easy to upload and easy to embed.
Cons: Doesn’t automatically go to iTunes. Too big of a file and you can’t upload to WordPress as I found out after doing this podcast (17.9 MB)
Hosting Services:
There are many podcasting services out there to choose from. Blog Talk Radio and Lybsyn will be the two I share here. I’ll start off in saying that BTR is heavily laden with ads. Lybsyn has a more professional way about it. For $5 / moth I’d go with Lybsyn. Check it out at https://www.libsyn.com/plans-pricing/
Pros: Easy to upload and easy to embed. Some will give you a website (of sorts) but most all allow easy embedding so you can put it on your site.
Cons: Some have ads depending on what you are paying. BTR has become rife with popups – UGH! If you are one of those that wants to own your content, you are uploading it to a site that is not your own. If they go out of business overnight where did all your content go?
Conclusion:
Podcasting will help you get your message out. It helps clarify your voice. It can be as easy or as hard as you want to make it. It can be as organic or professional as well. Done right, it adds valuable content to your site. No matter what you think about podcasts personally, you should look into doing them for your business.
ProTip: “Time on Site” matters. It’s a play on SEO. If someone spends time on your site listening to a podcast they are increasing your SEO in Google’s eyes.
Want help setting up or editing your podcast? I can help! Hire me!
Photos by Elliot Sloman , Kelly Sikkema , James Baldwin and by Jan Gonzo on Unsplash
(BTW: This is 1,500 words to help you with the spoken word, that’s kind of weird, eh?)
- The Ultimate Guide to Writing the Perfect Blog Post - March 14, 2023
- 8 Questions Your Web Developer Should Have Asked - April 27, 2021
- Slack, Chat or Discord? - April 6, 2021