Stock photo
When thinking about thought leadership, you will need some of the tools and techniques that you can use to get your messages out there. One of the tools that I use is my podcast. Now, podcasting is not for everybody, just like a video is not for everybody and maybe writing a blog isn’t for everybody. However, I find it to be an incredible tool for getting your messages out to the right audience.
So, there are a lot of things about podcasting that kind of scare some people away. Hopefully, today I’ll be able to break it down so it’s not as scary, but there are some technical things required to do it. And if you want to be a thought leader, you really do have to go the extra mile to make sure that you’re doing it in a way that’s in line with what other thought leaders are doing.
Benefits Of Podcasting
Stock photo
So, let’s start off with the benefits and then the not-so-beneficial parts of it. The benefits of podcasting are that it’s evergreen, which means that after you record a podcast, as long as your website is up and it’s feeding that feed (for example, iTunes, Stitcher or iHeart Radio), people can go back and find exactly what it is that you talked about. And if you do it right, it can be searchable. They can’t search the actual audio, but they can search the posts and the topics that you’re talking about. So, I find it to be better than Facebook video because when people come on and do all these Facebook lives, yeah it’s in their stream but a lot of times it’s like Twitter. It’s there and then it goes away and people don’t have an easy way to find the topics that you’re talking about.
The other benefit about doing a podcast is that you can have that podcast sent off to rev.com and have it transcribed, which means that you can easily turn a podcast into a blog, which is exactly what I do every single week. Some people love to consume it by listening to it in their car, on a treadmill, whatever. Other people just want to read it. So, that way I give people any opportunity they want to be able to consume that thought leader information.
Drawbacks
Shutterstock
Now, what are some of the negatives to podcasts? Well, the biggest negative is the number of podcasts that are out there. There are over a quarter million live streams going on in audio at any given time. Some of them are podcasts, some of them are radio stations, some are TV shows converted to podcasts, but there’s a TON of information out there. The other hard thing about it is getting an audience to actually pay attention to it, which means that you’ve gotta promote it. It’s not a “build it and they will come” situation, you’ve gotta actually have an audience and let your audience know that podcast information is there. The third drawback is consistency. I just aired episode 330 this week. I’ve been doing this for over three years and it’s hard to do it every single week. To come up with new information. To come up with new concepts and to consistently be unique every single time and not regurgitate the same information.
Shutterstock
5 Easy Pieces
Next, I want to talk about the steps necessary to a successful podcast. Now, you can do a podcast really easily. You can do it for free. You can use something called BlogTalkRadio, and last I checked it’s free. Now, part of the problem with it is that all of the benefits go to BlogTalkRadio, which means you can share a link to it but they’re getting all the Google juice. They’re getting all of the traffic and sometimes people can go down a different rabbit hole. Having your own podcast on your own website is by far the best way to do it.
Stand Alone Website
If you’re gonna do a podcast, I strongly suggest that you create a separate website specifically for the podcast. So, that means getting a URL like I did, baconpodcast.com and then actually creating a website to go along with that. So, the first thing is getting the domain name. The second thing is to get the web hosting and set up a WordPress website. Now, each one of these different podcasts are the same as if it was a blog. It’s used similarly to a blog, but the feed is then sent to iTunes, Google Play, etc., and so instead of a blog feed it is now a podcast feed.
Software
Stock photo
In order to make that work the correct way, you’re going to need a WordPress plugin. I recommend Blubrry. It has two main components to it. The first one is the software that actually delivers the podcast to iTunes and sets it up so that you can have that RSS feed in compliance with what’s necessary for it to be “a true podcast.” The second piece is the statistics. So, you can actually know how many downloads are happening, how long people are spending on it, which episodes they’re listening to, which countries they’re coming from. If you guys have listened to this show at any given time, you know that I’m an analytics numbers junkie. So, it’s super, super important to know that you are reaching enough people, and that you are reaching the right people.
Another piece to the puzzle is that Blubrry will actually host the audio files for you. So, that means a separate account. I pay a whopping twenty bucks a month. I don’t know if the numbers have changed or not but it’s $20 a month and I can upload just about all the podcasts that I need.
Record & Edit
Pixabay
Now comes the next piece. You have to record and you have to edit. Now, I’m using a Mac with a USB microphone and a set of headphones. You can use a live mic, you can do it on your iPad, with your iPhone, whatever, but the key thing is you don’t wanna do it via the telephone. You want to record it with a mic. Now, when I’m interviewing guests I make sure that they’re on a mic and a headset, and I use something like GoToMeeting. You can also use Zoom or Skype or whatever to record that interview, but make sure everybody’s on a mic because you can definitely tell the difference between a microphone and a headset, versus a phone call which is very low-resolution audio.
So, once you have the equipment, you have to be able to record it. After you record it, you have to be able to edit it. If you want to edit it the free, cheap way, there is a free software called Audacity that will allow you to take that audio and edit it down. Now, the next piece of the puzzle after you’ve got this recorded podcast is that maybe you have a bumper done on Fiver or some other program. A bumper is the opening and the closing. So, you have the intro music, you have the outro music, and generally, it helps to have somebody else record that narration so it’s not 100% you.
Recommended for You
Webcast, February 13th: Creating a Complete Sales Funnel from Facebook Ads
Post It
iStock
Now you take that final podcast recording and you’ve got to post it to the website. So, you set it up with show notes. Some people get really detailed into their show notes, where they’ll actually put in the entire interview, a whole bunch of links. I do things a little bit simpler. I just put in what the podcast is about, a link to if the person has a special offer, so that way it has just enough information for me to be able to make sure that people, if they’re listening to it on my website, that they get additional information but frankly most people are listening to it on their iPhone or iPad, in their car, or what have you.
Promote
The last piece is that you have to promote it. It’s no different than writing a blog. It’s no different than having a book. It’s up to you to get out there and promote this podcast so that more people listen to it. Doing a podcast is not necessarily for the faint of heart, but its a great tool to get your information out to a large audience, to make it evergreen and to give yourself a chance to become a thought leader in your industry.
Final Thoughts
Although a podcast is not for everyone, it’s not as hard as you may think. I set up a very successful podcast for a 70-year-old woman client and she has seen a ton of success with it. Sometimes you just need a little help getting it off the ground.
I would love to hear your thoughts and comments on your challenges with communicating about your business in this new online environment. Comment below and share your thoughts, ideas or questions about showing the concepts presented. Have you had to overcome any of the presented concepts? What worked and what did not live up to expectations? Do you have any ideas or advice you could share?
