Three Things I've Learned About Podcasting

A couple of months ago, my client, Dr. Helaine Smith, asked me to put together some podcasts for her.

I didn’t have a clue about podcasts but since I like to get in under the hood, so to speak, thought it would be fun to learn.

You can view the final results at Dr. Smith’s blog : http://helainesmithdmd.blogspot.com

What did I learn by putting these podcasts together?

1. Podcasting isn’t hard, but there’s definitely a learning curve.

The biggest hurdle was learning how to use audio recording software (I ended up with Audacity, mostly because it’s free). It took me awhile to figure out how to edit tracks and insert music. Once I got the first podcast down, the rest were easy.

Time saving trick: Type any question you have into Google. Someone has posted an answer somewhere.

2. You can’t simply read existing content.

Because this medium is still new for me and for Dr. Smith, we decided to take existing e-newsletters and turn them into podcasts. I’ve seen other newsletter publishers do this, plus KnowledgeStorm offers a service where they’ll turn white papers into podcasts.

I learned, through lots of trial and error, that you can’t just take content and read it. Hard copy content is meant to be read. Audio content is meant to be heard — and as such, you have to compose things a little differently.

For example, bulleted phrases have to be changed to something like, “The top three results are, number 1: blah, blah, blah. Number 2, blah, blah, blah” etc.

Tip I learned from a MarketingSherpa report: Stand up while you’re talking/recording. And, write the full script unless you’re really, really good at ad libbing. I’m not.

3. Don’t be afraid to experiment.

To be honest, I have no clue if or how these podcasts will help drive traffic to Dr. Smith’s site or result in new patients. But, I do know that hundreds of people are online searching for cosmetic dentistry services in the Boston area — and some of them might want to learn more about their oral health options via podcast.

While putting together these podcasts I read Paul Gillin’s book, The New Influencers, David Scott’s book, The New Rules of Marketing and PR, and Ted Demopoulos‘ book, What No One Ever Tells You About Blogging and Podcasting.

All three books convinced me that experimenting with new tactics such as podcasting can’t hurt — and who knows, as David Scott says, maybe a Wall Street Journal reporter will call Dr. Smith.

Because let’s face it, how many podcasting dentists do you know?

(A HUGE thank you to Jessica Albon who put together the podcast and iTune feeds and generally held my hand throughout the entire process.)