A while back I sent out a survey to the community to find out what podcast producers wanted to learn about most. I was intrigued by how things had changed since 2005 when I first started podcast consulting. The results also offer some very important insights for your own podcast.

In the survey I had podcast producers rate a number of topics on a scale of 1 (not at all interested) to 5 (extremely interested). The following is a list of the top three most highly rated topics followed by the percentage of respondents that indicated they were either extremely interested (rating of 5) or very interested (rating of 4) in the topic.

1. Keep the audience coming back again and again – 92.2%
2. Increase audience participation and build community – 88.4%
3. Promote their podcast – 84.4%

Changes Over the Last Three Years

In 2005, podcast promotion (#3) was at the top (#1) which is why I wrote the book, Promoting Your Podcast. This is still clearly of importance, but has since slipped to the #3 position. This shows an interesting trend.

Podcast producers have been releasing their shows and steadily growing their audiences, but now they realize that it’s just as (and really even more) important to keep their current listeners coming back again and again as it is to constantly find new listeners.

What About Making Money?

Making money with podcasts has been a hot topic for some time. Surprisingly “How to make money with your podcast” appears much farther down on the list of topics at 69.7%.

You could conclude that the people responding to the survey were not “business-minded.” However, 55.5% consider themselves entrepreneurs and the majority of the remaining respondents consider themselves self-employed or a professional (e.g. lawyer, CPA, etc.)

I would would venture to say that most of them podcast to establish their personal brand, attract new clients or accomplish other similar goals. So why does podcast monetization rank so much lower than expected?

This trend is actually why I’m so pleased with the outcome of the survey.

It would seem that podcast producers have realized (whether consciously or intuitively) that THE most important asset they can build no matter what their goals are is…

A loyal community of fans that come back again and again
and frequently interact with them

I hope you see your audience that was…as a community. I hope you interact with them in that way. If you can establish this kind of community, you’re only one step away from accomplishing whatever it is you want from your podcast (e.g. getting people to act, buy, vote, refer your business, etc.). If making more money is one of your goals, it will flow very easily and steadily from the relationship you have with your community of listeners/viewers/fans.

Giving Podcast Producers What They Want

As a result of this survey I’m adding a brand new module to the Professional Podcasting Course 2008 and significantly expanding other modules to include more information on building your audience, interacting with your them and getting your them to come back again and again.

I mentioned last week that I needed to postpone the start date of the course due to these changes.

Today I’m announcing that:

The Professional Podcasting Course will start on June 11

This is the official and final date. The course will start that week “rain or shine.”

Enrollment will open the week before that. More details are on the way. If you want to be on the “front of the line list” for enrollment, you can sign up here. That is also the email list where I send all the latest updates about the course.

I also announced last week that I was going to make the first module of the course from 2007 available for free. This module is titled Mastering Social Media: RSS, Blogging and Podcasting 101. I’ll be releasing this in parts to this blog and some other things to the “front of the line” email list.

What Do You Think?

What do you make from these survey results? Do they offer any insights for your own show? Please share in the comments below now.

1. Corporations with foresight are doing very interesting things with podcasting

Many large organizations are having great with podcasting success with applications ranging from customer relations to training to PR. I especially enjoyed the case studies presented by First Direct Bank (who’ve received great feedback from their , CSIRO podcast (who’ve had great PR success with their viral air guitar shirt scientist) and Alcatel-Lucent (who’ve had success with their internal podcasting initiatives)

2. However, corporations are still very hampered by bureaucracy and concerns inherent to big business
Corporations still have lots of questions and concerns about adopting podcasting including:

• Needing better proof of the ROI
• Internal bureaucracy slowing the integration of podcasting (or pulling the plug right before launch despite a lot of hard work and investment)
• The chance of hurting the brand
• A lack of control in communications
• Cost of getting started

3. Risk might be a little high, but the potential reward is great

Admittedly the risk could be high for some corporations who don’t take the time to do it right (Starbuck’s podcast flop was used as an example by Leesa Barnes), but the opportunity is huge for those willing to jump in and make it work.

4. Small businesses are more ready to podcastIf you are in a small business it’s easier to move quickly, take more risks, avoid bureaucracy and change your internal culture as needed in order to adopt podcasting. Most of my clients are small businesses and this is no surprise.

5. Podcasting is not for every corporation or large organization

I think I could find a useful application of podcasting for just about any small business. On the other hand, corporations need to take a look at their internal culture before diving into podcasting. It just might not be a good fit. The place to start is by asking the hard question: do we have a culture of listening…whether to our employees (internal podcasting) or our customers (external podcasting)? If the answer is no, work on that first then come back and consider podcasting.

6. Some corporations need to realize that just having a podcast is not the point

What’s needed is:

• More interaction with your customers/employees
• Providing portable, digital, on-demand content
• Listening to your customers/employees

Podcasting is a great way to do these things, but first of all realize the importance of the above points and that podcasting is just one subset of the bigger picture.

And on another note, you can see a couple photos here and here.

• Interviews will trump a “presidential address” any day. Interview the CEO rather than having him just speak into a mic.

• Don’t worry about professional spokespeople. Dig out the local talent in your organization. Customers want to scratch beneath the surface. It feels good to be “let in”.

• Everyone can relate to the human experience. Audio and video are about stories. Facts are for paper.

• Get your audience involved. Set up a toll-free number for call-in comments. You can get feedback right away. Take advantage of this. Include the feedback in the show.

• Answers comments and questions. Don’t let them just sit there.

• Execute once; repurpose many times. For example: a video can also become an audio podcast, which can made into a transcript in your newsletter, published as an article, converted into a set of top-ten tips and a press-release (if something really interested is said).

• The content AROUND the podcast is important. Sell it to the site visitor. A recent web re-design increased a client’s downloads by 20% suggesting that a lot of people were visiting the site to get the podcast and not subscribing.

• Offer a transcript of the podcast. Tell the user what to expect. Offer supporting material (bios, etc.) Sell the podcast.

Eric recorded the session on his iRiver and posted it to his blog/podcast where you can listen to it. If you’re into PR, Eric’s podcast provides very interesting content.

CBS attributes some of the recent upswing in viewership to the online media initiative. This is the kind of action that is going to payoff for companies willing to embrace online/on-demand/social media.

One suggestion for CBS: now make it portable by offering the clips as a video podcast as well. Not only will you cash in on the YouTube crowd, you’ll also claim a slice of those ipod/itunes users.

[via Techcrunch]

There’s an increase in the use of social media both by end consumers and the media for tracking information that interests them. This includes: blog and news search engines, social news, social bookmarks, podcasts and video.

I really like his push/pull PR model:

Push basically means the tactics used to distribute a company’s news including using press releases sent out via wire services, email or fax. It also includes pitching the media on story ideas and contributed articles.

Pull activities are based on the demand consumers have for online news as well as the search activities of people in the media looking for subject matter experts, researching past news coverage and looking for story ideas. Pull PR makes it easy for the media and your intended audience to find and pull themselves to your news.

Push PR is mostly comprised of the traditional methods (e.g. new releases, pitches to journalists and bloggers, etc.) Now you can amplify the usual strategies using pull techniques such as:

• Exposure in news search (Google News Alerts now includes blog posts)
• Organic search engine ranking/exposure
• Social news and bookmarking sites such as del.icio.us, Digg, Reddit, etc.
• Blog search engines
• Organic blog buzz
• etc.

Most of these things I talk about in my book, Promoting Your Podcast. Now I have a new way to frame my book in conversation: “Not only does it teach you how to promote your podcast, it’s a great primer for social media and pull PR.”

Picture this…

Your company is announcing a new product release. In addition to the usual press release to the major outlets (on and offline), you post an episode to your podcast feed with interviews of the key players behind the product. The consumers and the media get to hear the voices of the real people associated with the development and release of the product. This information supplements the salient (but less human) points featured in the press release. The podcast gives these things more life.

You accompany the podast release with a keyword rich show notes post on your blog. The blog gets indexed my Google for inclusion in regular and blog search as well as Google Alerts. You bookmark the post in del.icio.us and other interested consumers follow suit. A radio and/or TV outlet hears the podcast and decides they would like to interview the product developer on their show. An avid and excited consumer submits this “bonus” podcast information to social news site, Digg.

You get near-immediate feedback directly on the blog giving you a pulse of how your product release is being received. Other bloggers pick up on the buzz and join the conversation on each of their sites. The number of inbound links to your site continues to grow bolstering your search engine relevancy.

Your PR message can grow exponentially, driven by the online social media engine. Granted, the degree of success you’ll have goes back to PR 101…is your story interesting and newsworthy. I can see a time ahead where this kind of double punch PR won’t just be a way to gain an edge. Soon it will be mandatory or your message will drown in the noise.

Pull PR: just one more point on the list of reasons why your business should start a podcasting initiative.

1. It gives the consumer what they want: control & convenience (portable, on-demand, time-shifted, etc.)
2. It allows you to speak directly to the consumer without any filters, middlemen or other barriers
3. It creates a conversation
4. The consumer chooses to receive and listen to it (permission)
5. It gives you credibility (expert factor)
6. It starts/maintains a relationship
7. You don’t have to pitch the media…you are the media
8. You give (offer valuable content) before you get (pitch your product or service)
9. It keeps the consumer engaged on a regular ongoing basis
10. It brings your voice, your story, & your personality to the consumer
11. It is (or should be) honest and transparent
12. It’s conducive to receiving feedback (voice comments, blog comments, etc.)
13. It’s inexpensive
14. It’s new and interesting
15. Your competitor is probably not doing it….YET
16. It doesn’t just deliver a return on investment (ROI), it also gives you return on INFLUENCE
17. It’s fun

In the spirit of this, I’d love to hear examples of how you’ve used your podcast or blog for interactive marketing. Please feel free to share in the comments.