Ready to provide customers with an opportunity to have constant updates on your products and ideas? Podcasts are exactly what you need! 

 

What: Create a series of audio or video files which, by subscription, can be accessed for viewing as they are uploaded. Podcasts allow subscribers to view your updates as often as they want and on their own time. For some example--and inspiration, too--check out the podcasts of two Berrett-Koehler authors: 

(1) Debbe Kennedy, author of upcoming BK book, Putting our Differences to Work, features other BK authors at her Global Dialogue Center website:  http://www.globaldialoguecenter.com/events/bk-currents.shtml 

 

(2) The newly launched podcast of Jared Bernstein, author of upcoming BK book, Crunch:  http://www.econocorner.org 

 

Why: The podcast audience is constantly growing and the use of podcasts by everyone, from corporate manager to amateur, is becoming more common everyday. When subscribed to your podcast, customers can access your podcasts from their computer and then can place those files on many web-connected devices, such as MP3 players, for later viewing. Online podcast directories are also available, for those who are searching for a podcast like yours. The iTunes directory is popular, allowing for easy and organized podcast searches. Podcasts deliver because they simply allow a convenient simple way for you to build an audience and keep them informed of new thoughts, books or services.

 

How: Setting up your own podcast for iTunes is relatively easy and anyone with a web-connected computer, microphone and audio software can successful make a podcast. Thus, you have quite a large number of podcasters already on the web simply because podcasts can entail any topic at all.

-You must determine how long you would like your show to be, what topics it will cover, and how often you would like to create new episodes.

-The layout and flow of your episodes is entirely subject to your creativity, but it would be wise to create interesting bits on the short side rather than long shows that drag and may tempt the listener skip around the file instead listening all the way through.

-Creating audio podcasts will best utilize its applicability, especially if you have already created author videos elsewhere on the internet.

-Leading and closing with music can add a nice personal flare to your shows, so creating music solely for this purpose is an option that can take time or money, but can also be free with free copyright-cleared music services like PodSafe Music.

-After you have finished recording, you must encode your audio file to MP3 with a program like Audacity, which is available as freeware. MIT recommends these guidelines for bitrates when recording:

      -48 to 56k Mono: lectures, audio books, talk radio

      -64k+ Stereo: music, music and talk combinations

      -128k Stereo: good quality music 

-Now that you have your .mp3 file, you can link it with an RSS feed. Your RSS feed is written in XML. On the MIT how-to podcast page http://web.mit.edu/ist/podcasts/makepodcast.html, the code for the RSS feed you would use is provided, leaving the things you need to change in bold lettering. Use this code, add in your information, save it as a .xml file in a text editor like Window's Notepad. This is the file that you will update when you have a new episode, and you can do so by changing only the <item> section of the feed code.

-Save your RSS feed on your web server and submit its URL to a feed validator like www.feedvalidator.org to make sure it works correctly.

-After you know your code is correct, open the iTunes Podcast Directory to submit your feed. You have to install iTunes, which is free, and you can just click on the link to run the directory submission program: 

      -iTunes Podcast Directory
       https://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZFinance.woa/wa/publishPodcast>

-On the Apple's iTunes podcasting site, more technical information regarding submission errors, troubleshooting, upkeep, etc. is available, and should be reviewed if you find yourself lacking an explanation.

 

How Much: The best part of podcasting is that it is free! ...for the most part. You need the ability to record, so depending on the quality of your computer's built-in microphone or the one you will purchase, you make have to spend a bit of cash. A recorder (hand held or software based) and headphones are also needed. The code is already provided online, and iTunes does not charge for submission or posting. Freeware is the best way to go as far as sound editing software and as long as you have internet service, you can upload your RSS feed to the net for free. Your listeners don't have to pay for the service either, so promote your podcast on everything you can: your social profiles, personal and business emails, purchase sites, etc. Joe Rizzo's How-To in the section below includes a detailed description of the equipment you may encounter in you search (Joe helped BK author Jared Bernstein get up and running with EconoCorner). 

 

Help: Guidance on this type of project is crucial, especially if you are new to the programming world. This should not be a tiring task, but small mistakes are tedious to fix if you don't have the right instructions. Here's some good sites, all of different detail level, which should make your experience flow easily:

(1) How-to, BK-sponsored document on producing a podcast and putting it up on iTunes, written by Joe Rizzo of Cosmic Circuit Studio in Berkeley, CA (click here).

(2) http://howtomakepodcasts.com/ - a nice, segmented site to guide the technical process.

(3) http://www.apple.com/itunes/store/podcaststechspecs.html - apple's very techy guide which helps for specific questions and guidelines.

(4) http://web.mit.edu/ist/podcasts/makepodcast.html - MIT's short and sweet podcast guide.

(5) http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2007/02/digging_deeperyour_guide_to_po.html - a good resource for why to start a podcast

(6) http://www.engadget.com/2004/10/05/engadget-podcast-001-10-05-2004-how-to-podcasting-get/ - a good site to follow if you have a Mac.

Finally, I plan to put a special podcast page on bkconnection.com next quarter, featuring our more prolific BK author podcasters.  We'll direct traffic to your podcast from our site using automated RSS feeds.  Let me know if you podcast regularly and want to be included on this page.