What is Podcasting?
If you have heard of RSS feeds, you are halfway to understanding podcasting. Think of podcasting as the more tech saavy version of books on tape, well now books on CD. RSS (really simple syndication) feeds is a technology that allows you to stream information from various websites and add them onto your own website. When these two technologies are merged, they create podcasting.
Originally used to aid in the spread of written files and information, RSS feeds now includes the syndication of audio files, which are called podcasts. These are named for the original medium used to play the files – iPods®. As technology has advanced in the past few years, there are more options than just iPods to play these files. Any MP3 player can be used to download these audio files and play them.
That said, how do you distribute podcasts? This is easier than you may think. Using the same technology to distribute written materials, such as news headlines, feed readers can send out podcasts. The difference between written and audio files is that the audio files need to be saved as a MPG (commonly seen at the end of a file as .mp3) format while the written ones are saved as XML. Additionally, these files may also be saved as .ogg and .wav.
Now that you know what podcasting is and how to distribute it, what kinds of information can be used in podcasts? There is almost an endless option of using audio files to enhance your website. Add a podcast on the benefits of using your product or even better, have one of your clients give an interview about his/her experiences with your product and publish it on your website. If you are in the news field, use a podcast to give a clip of an interview or an ongoing segment from your show. Use the audio file to drive interest and direct visitors to another place on your website or perhaps, even a television show if you are so inclined. Podcasts can also be used to give instructional tips on a variety of subjects, such as sports, craft projects, and more.
In addition to tying podcasts into your website, it can also be used outside of the Internet. Many museums and cities have podcasts distributed on mini-MP3 players to help give information at certain times during an exhibit or historic walks. This maximizes people’s time because they can move onto the next portion of an exhibit when they are done listening to the podcast, rather have to wait for other people to ask questions to the tour guide.
If you have a sales force that is spread over a large geographic area, it can be hard to get them all together for a meeting. An alternative way of distributing information on new products would be to upload a podcast from your sales trainers to your website for them to access. Not only is this less expensive than hosting a meeting and paying for the conference room, food, and travel, it also maximizes your sales forces’ time by allowing them to listen to it as they drive to their appointments.
As well, podcasts can be delivered to your website through RSS feeds. If you don’t have the resources to produce them yourself, there are plenty of other ways to provide them to your clients. Using the RSS feeds technology, you can pick podcasts from websites that are complimentary to your product or service, and ‘feed’ them onto your own website. Using audio files can enhance your site by adding another dimension to the information you provide, whether directly produced by you or another site. Keeping these files fresh will elicit new visitors and return visitors.
