Posted by gregbd at September 15th, 2006
I wanted to let you know that I have staryed a new podcast. It is called “Daily Thoughts for Business“. It is a daily podcast of short, inspirational, and thought provoking ideas to brighten your day and help you grow your business. I plan to keep the length to 5-10 minutes. Short, sweet and to the point.
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Posted by gregbd at July 31st, 2005
Podscope.com Search engine transcribes audio so you can search by text and listen to a 15 second portion.
Music: I Heard On a Podcast - By Cruisebox, From the www.podsafemusicnetwork.com
In One Stroke, Podcasting Hits Mainstream - The New York Times
Apple clearly considers podcasting an important new audio format - so important, in fact, that you can’t even hide the Podcasts icon in the iTunes music-source list (as you can the Music Store, Radio and Party Shuffle icons). Company executives must be ecstatic that the masses have adopted the term "podcasting" itself, evoking Apple’s most popular product name with every utterance. (Makers of rival players, on the other hand, must be gnashing their teeth and every other body part. According to an article in The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, in fact, Microsoft employees are pointedly using the unappetizing term "blogcast," just so they won’t have to say or type the word Pod.)
Nearly 9 out of 10 teens online
The number of teenagers using the Internet has grown 24% in the past four years and 87% of those between the ages of 12 and 17 are online. Compared to four years ago, teens’ use of the Internet has intensified and broadened as they log on more often and do more things when they are online, according to a research report from the Pew Internet & American Life Project. Email is seen as a tool for communicating with adults such as teachers, institutions like schools, and as a way to convey lengthy and detailed information to large groups, the researchers found. Meanwhile, instant messaging is used for everyday conversations with friends that range from casual to more serious and private exchanges. Pew said two-thirds of U.S. adults now use the Internet. The research was conducted in October and November of 2004. PDF of the report.
Table of Contents:
1. Podcasting Defined
2. The History of this New Media
3. Who is Listening
4. Market Overview
5. Marketing Benefits
6. Podcasting Trends
7. Podcasting Visibility
8. How To Create Podcasts
9. Podcasting Best Practices
10. Corporate Podcasting
11. Technical Overview
12. Podcasting Examples
13. Podcasting Tools
14. Podcasting Resources
15. Summary
1. An additional communication tool for your business.
2. Increased online visibility to your target market.
3. Increased internet visibility from the search engines.
4. Increased internet visibility & traffic from the RSS, Blog & podcasting directories.
5. Communication medium is more powerful than text. This means increased potential
results for your marketing message.
6. Improved level of perceived expertise from your target market.
7. Value added offerings to your target market that are only available in audio format.
8. Increased mind share from your target audience. People listen to podcasts while doing
other tasks online. They can also take you messaging with them on their portable media
player such as an iPod.
9. More frequent touch points and more frequent �top of mind� participation from your
target audience.
10. Increased perception of your product, service, brand or value in customers minds.
Chocolate company focused on a taste… Jerry Swain, Jer’s Handmade Chocolates… Chocolate Peanut Butter Ball
Posted by gregbd at July 23rd, 2005
In this show:
Adoption of Podcasting: what is the impact of technology adoption to podcasting? How should that impact promoting your business using podcasting?
Book: Crossing the Chasm by Moore.
Innovators (I): The enthusiasts who like technology for its own sake.
Early Adopters (EA): Those who have the vision to adopt an emerging technology to an opportunity that is important to them.
The Chasm (C): Time gap in technology adoption, which is between the early adoptors and the pragmatists.
Pragmatists (P) Early Majority: Early majority pragmatists are the solid citizens who do not like to take the risks of pioneering, but are ready to see the advantages of tested technologies. They are the begining of a mass market.
Pragmatists (P) Late Majority: Late majority pragmatists, who represent about one-third of available customers, disklike discontinuous innovations and believe in tradition rather than progress. They buy high-technology products reluctantly and do not expect to like them.
Traditionalists (T): Traditionalists (laggards) do not engage with high technology products - except to block them. They perform the valuable service of pointing out regularly the discrepancies between the day-to-day reality of the product and the claims made for it.
Where we are Right Now in Podcasting
Early Adopter is the focus part of this market right now. Early adopters have the vision to adopt new technology and see that the opportunity is important to them.
Advertising and promoting to this audience right now is to deepen customer relationships and prospects that come to your web sites.
Music: Release Me by Groove Generator from the podsafemusicnetwork.com
Posted by gregbd at July 23rd, 2005
A new video and audio search engine: http://www.blinkx.tv
Growth of podcasting from 3,000 a litttle over amonthg ago, to 20,000 today according to Blinkx.tv
Podcatsing and Radio will remain alongside each other. Radio will not disappear and podcasting is not a fad.
Podcast audience is expected to grow from 840,000 today to 56 million by 2010 when 75% of people who own portable digital music players will llisten to podcasts according to Diffusion Group.
Podcasting is just an extention of the long term trend of disintermidation - where the middle man is eliminated.
It is all about adding value to your customers experience while doing or wanting to do business with you.
Posted by gregbd at July 16th, 2005
A podcast is time shifted. I record it, upload it and publish the RSS feed and then you get it when your podcatcher or iTunes is fired up.
It is not live like radio. You listen to it when you want, where you want and for how long you want.
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Therefore, it is not truly interactive, at least not in real time. Can I publish audio comments from listeners? Yes. It is published in the human voice by me on a topic of my choosing.
Unlike radio, it is a powerful tool to educate, inform and build relationships with clients and prospects alike. To do this requires investing my time upfront by producing podcasts. But so do writing articles on a web site. Whereas with radio all you have to do is turn it on.
From its inception the Internet was founded upon a set of community values and operating principles. One of those principles is sharing information and the second is let me look at your information without paying for it.
Over time people get to know you. They recognize your voice, get a sense of how you are, and become familiar with you.
Sounds a bit like advertising in way, doesn’t it? Does not a similar thing happen with repetitive advertising? Perhaps I am generalizing too much but with repetition there is a sense of familiarity.
The biggest difference between podcasting and media that is supported and paid for by the advertisers and someone else chooses what you will listen to whereas with podcasting you choose to subscribe and stay subscribed. You have to opt-in to be able to listen to me.
I guess you could make the argument that when you turn on the radio and choose a specific station, you are also making a choice, to opt-in. I agree. There is one major difference.
If traditional radio were like podcasting then you would be able to choose which shows you wanted to listen to and ignore all the rest. If a newspaper were like a podcast then you would get just the sections you wanted or better yet just the stories you want.
But with radio you have to sit there and endure all the advertising and commentary that may have nothing at all to do with the content that you really want to hear.
The other thing that I think is a major benefit to podcasting is that because you have to choose to continue to opt-in to hear what I have to say ‘
it overcomes a major hurdle, in that you can fit the content into your busy schedule as you see fit. Why is that so important? Someone once told me that 90% of the people who buy a book do not finish the book.
Can you relate? I have some books I have not finished and probably never will. Does that mean that the book is bad, the content irrelevant? No, I just could not find enough reasons to finish it.
Could that happen in podcasting? Absolutely, but I think it will take longer for people to opt-out because it is just so damn convenient. I can listen when and where I want. All I have to do is listen.
On Demand Content
Podcasting satisfies our need for on demand services and information. We get it when we want it on our own terms.
My vision is to use podcasting to deliver practical business information that can be used. Simple, ideas and concepts that you can immediately use.
It will be more coaching and thinking than specific processes and procedures. But I do have some ideas for combining PDF files and a podcast. Like a virtual classroom. I provide instructions by audio, you click a link on an enhanced podcast (in iTunes) which takes you too a members area, where you login and download the PDF file. Then I provide further coaching by audio.
Would that be helpful? Is that something you would want as a listener? If so, what topics would you want me to cover?
Remember, this is a democracy in that if you send an email to gregbd at gmail dot com and in the subject line write "podcast experiment" I will add your name to my list and let you know when I am ready. In the body of the email tell me the business topics that are of interest to you. Then I will review all the entries and let you know more about it in a podcast in the near future.
This is an opportunity to pick the brain of the business coach. Submit your idea and lets see what you, the community have on your mind. My audio feedback line is 1-866-281-8281 if that is easier.
Music in this show is titled ‘Family’ by Rob Costlow from the Pod Safe Music Network at http://music.podshow.com
Posted by gregbd at July 14th, 2005
This is part 2 of the 2 part series. Wow. I had no idea I there was so much to discuss. Whew!
1 Public Relations
2 Technology commentary
3 Education: classroom recordings to review classes
4 eLearning: recorded classroom,
5 Re-Purpose other Content
6 Audio FAQ
7 Announcements
8 Industry News
9 Event News
10 Tutorials
11 Web Site Tours
12 Travel & Vacation Reviews and commentary
13 Specials/Product Announcements
14 Personal Trainer by Podcast
15 Diet Coach
16 Medical, health and preventative health care
17 Pet care
18 Retirement, continuing care communities
19 Hotels, Bed & Breakfast Inns
20 Auto Repair & Maintenance Tips
21 Financial Planning News
22 Music/Artist Fan Clubs
23 Employee Newsletters
24 Restaurants, McCain: recipes
25 Wine Reviews
26 Book Reviews and Author Readings
27 How To…
28 Environmental Advocacy & Education
29 Business Reviews: commentary, beefs & bouquets
30 Audio Seminars for Customers
31 Movie Reviews
32 Restaurant reviews
Posted by gregbd at July 14th, 2005
This is Part 1 of a 2 part series. Oops. This went a lot longer than I thought. Well worth listening to both parts.
Helping Customers Before The Sale: educating them helping them solve problems related to your products and services.
Build and Maintain Relationships: with past customers, prospects.
Adding Value: the podcast is intangible which adds value.
iTunes 4.9 allows for enhanced podcasts using AAC (Apple only) changing images/covers with hyper links.
Real Estate Agents: educating customers about the real estate and home buying tips. Market Commentary
Consultants: observations and commentary on topics of interest to prospects and customers.
Purina Podcast rebroadcast of a radio show with a veterinarian taking calls.
Public Relations something large companies do all the time.
Posted by gregbd at July 13th, 2005
The latest thing I just heard about is an acronym CGM which stands for Consumer Generated Media
In a recent article at Clickz.com Pete Blackshaw said "ever-evolving marketing landscape, the things that have the least to do with marketing tell us the most about marketing." where he mentions the role of the Internet and the "speed, velocity, distribution, and outcome of consumer-generated media".
In the beginning were two tin cans with a string between them that we would play with as kids. When the string was tight enough it would carry the voice of your buddy on the other end and carry yours back.
I remember my first set of Walkie Talkie’s and how cool it was to be able to speak to someone on the other end. I wonder if that is how Alexander Graham Bell felt the first time he got the telephone to work?
Otherwise known as the grapevine or word of mouth the phenomena of human to human communication to discuss community issues is not new. People naturally share their experiences and stories with each other. Whether it’s discussing how your favorite sports team played or how much you loved or hated the restaurant you were at last night. Sharing information is well, natural and human.
Podcasting is just that sharing information, thoughts and emotion with people who are interested - it is just more organized.
I think that some of the media and big businesses are frightened of the power of the podcasting and the internet to speak to issues - because they cannot control it.
But that is what makes podcasting so great, the freedom to speak your mind. I think it is called free speech.
Business, media and marketing types love control. They cannot survive without control because control allows them to limit distribution, set the agenda, and tell us what they want us to know about - if they cannot make a profit doing it, then they want nothing to do with it.
Granted, my little podcast is an experiment. I have not made a dime off of it - yet. I started it to explore how business could use it - perhaps I am starting to sound like a hippocrit. But I really think that if what I do is valuable, you trust me and the products or services I promote makes good business sense then a way to make money using this podcast will appear. if I am open to seeing it and willing to be flexible.
Bottom line, a podcast could be about just about anything. You could use it to inform listeners about your services or products, a tutorial or tour of your web site, interview and record conversations with your customers (get permission first) - you name it, podcasting can help get the message out.
Business will adopt podcasting and put form and structure to it. Hopefully it will remain independent and open source.
Maybe we need our own association of podcasters that is a forum for discussion and sharing of information.
If you have not yet figured it out yet, this is what scares big business and the media - the speed and power of the internet to deliver content in almost real time is powerful and frightening. In this environment stories are fluid because when the blogsphere and podcasters get ahold of something it takes on a life of its own. It is the ultimate form of democracy in action.
Look at the proliferation of camera phones, and video cameras being able to capture live images like the 2004 Tsunami and the recent London bombings. Podcasting gives us the power to influence, shape opinions and spur discussion.
Podcasting is not a real-time media it is time shifted and there will always be a need for late breaking or live information. But hey maybe podcasters could cooperate to get information out.
Maybe a combination of using podcasting and Wikipedia.org we could dwarf the traditional media because we have millions potential eyes and ears with iPods and telephones. Hmmm…
That ClickZ article I mentioned at the beginning closes with the fundamentals of marketing:
Listen and Learn!
Observe and internalize!
Sense and respond!
Maybe podcasting is really a marketers dream? They can listen in on the conversations their customers are having. Maybe I should start a conference call that I record to podcast and have as it’s subject ‘Corporate Responsibility in an Era Open Source Marketing’
I can will arrange the free conference line. Is anyone interested? If so, email me at gregbd@businesscoachpodcast.com and if you act, I will arrange a date and time where we can have a ‘Town Hall’ meeting to discuss the issues. Lets get the word out!
Posted by gregbd at July 12th, 2005
In this show, how podcasting albeit intangible creates value.
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In our economy it is the intangibles that add value to the tangibles.
Intangibles have to be experienced and therein lies the value of podcasting. It is a social interaction that enhances the value of tangible goods and intangible services.
gregbd@sbishere.com
www.businesscoachpodcast.com
Posted by gregbd at July 11th, 2005
Open Source Programming and collaboration was the precursor to Open Source Marketing.
Cluetrain.com - read the Cluetrain Manifesto. Top 3 of 95 principles in the Cluetrain Manifesto
The Open Source Movement: started with geeks. Now going more mainstream.
Evolution of Copyright and Creative Commons licensing.
Wikipedia.org the open source encyclopedia.
Online tools i.e. iTines. iPod and now podcasting support in iTines 4.9 are huge leaps forward.
Consumers using technology to shelter themselves from brand bombardment.
Podcasting allows you to create your own content to entertain, inform and collaborate with your peers.