Well, here’s one way to do it: Just say watching or listening to a podcast is like watching Oprah.

Confused? Allow Leesa Barnes to explain in her “What is podcasting?” video:

Note: I tried embedding the video directly to this post, but doing so kept throwing my blog layout out of whack. What’s up, WordPress?

Technorati Tags: Leesa Barnes, podcasting

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It’s an issue that’s been on my mind recently. Here’s the introduction to my podcast, New Comm Road:

The intro has served the show well since my former co-host Mike Bellina produced it last summer, but the time has definitely come to cut it down.

Here’s why:

• The 60-second intro is simply too long, particularly when you consider that there are a full 20 seconds of music before voice man Lee Hopkins — if I were still working in radio, he’d be referred to as the “God” voice — checks in with a description of the podcast and a thunderous delivery of “Bryyyyyan Person.”
• Much as I like what Lee has to say in the intro — I wrote the script for him, after all — I wind up restating both what the podcast is about and my own name as soon as I start talking. So, either his description or mine should go. Sorry, Lee, but you’re about to be “made redundant.”
• Similarly, at the end of the podcast, I find myself giving out all forms of contacting me with comments and questions — only to have Lee recite them again in the musical outro. More unnecessary duplication of content.

So long, Lee Hopkins

So what is my proposed solution?

• Kill the voice guy
• Play a brief musical transition (read: 10 seconds) into and out from my voice.

That will give my listeners at least another 90 seconds to put to better use — unless, of course, they’re already fast-forwarding past my bloated intro and outro. I’ll confess to doing the same for many of my favorite shows.

Now, how will you trim the fat on your podcast?

Technorati Tags: Trafcom News Podcast, Donna Papacosta, New Comm Road, Mike Bellina, Lee Hopkins

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Hosted by Bryan Person. Recorded from Boston, Massachusetts, USA and published for Thursday, August 9, 2007.

Subscribe to the New Comm Road podcast. It’s free, and it ensures you won’t miss a single episode! Click on the iTunes image above, or paste this feed into iTunes or your podcatching software of choice: http://feeds.feedburner.com/NewCommRoad

MEDIA MONITORING MINUTE

• A word from Chip Griffin, CEO of Custom Scoop, New Comm Road’s sponsor.
• For a free trial of Custom Scoop’s ClipIQ Service, visit http://www.customscoop.com/NewCommRoad

INTERVIEW

I sit down for a conversation with Scott Monty to talk about the early success of his new podcast, I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere, as well as best practices for planning, producing, and promoting a podcast.

Resources to reach Scott:

• I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere
• The Baker Street Blog
• THE Social Media Marketing Blog

E-mail Scott: wsmonty-AT-gmail-com

NEW COMM ROAD MAP
Best practices for planning, producing, and promoting a podcast. We use Scott’s extensive blog post as a guide: “Starting a Podcast? Start here.”

1. Patience and preparation
2. Editorial plan
3. Format
4. Branding
5. Promoting through people
6. Not just RSS
7. Audience feedback
8. Show notes
9. Finishing touches

NOTES

• Visit the New Comm Road Travelers group in Facebook.
• This show can also be found on Blubrry.

MUSIC

• From GarageBand.com: Still Holding On, by Rantings of Eva

CONTACT US

• Leave your text and audio comments below this post
• Send us audio files or text e-mails to comments-AT-NewCommRoad.com
• Call us on our comment line: (206) 222-9130

Technorati Tags: Bryan Person, New Comm Road, George W. Bush, Scott Monty, I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere, The Social Media Marketing Blog, Sherlock Holmes, Baker Street Blog, Chip Griffin, CustomScoop

LISTEN
Running time: 33:57

Direct download this episode, or listen using the player above!

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• How do I persuade my boss that our company should be podcasting?
• What’s better: video or audio?
• What if I start to podcast and then fall victim to podfading?
• Are corporations now more receptive to podcasting?

Popular questions, yes, and also important ones. If you’re thinking about starting a podcast for your business, you should be asking these questions, too.

So what are the answers? Hear Donna’s take in episode 58 of the Trafcom News Podcast.

Technorati Tags: Donna Pappacosta, Trafcom News Podcast, podcasting, business podcasts

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This morning, after a note from Doug Haslam — who is obviously paying better attention to his Technorati tags than I am to mine — I discovered that I have a new listener from Mumbai, India.

She is Priya, the Mesmerized blogger, and she recently stumbled across the episode on blogger relations that I recorded with Doug last month.

In a nice post, Priya lays out the lessons on blogger relations that she took away from that podcast:

1. Do your research.
2. Map your influencers.
3. Know what the bloggers you are pitching actually write about, and read them before you pitch them.
4. “Blogger may pick up the phone and email back but they may not cover.”
5. Attend *Camps such as PodCamp to connect to the online community.
6. Pitching a blogger is not always the same as pitching a journalist.
7. Have a personalized pitch.
8. Don’t do a “mail merge and send a press release to bloggers.”
9. Don’t just pitch the A-listers.

Thanks for the excellent summary, Priya, and thanks for listening!

Technorati Tags: Mesmerized, blogger relations, Doug Haslam

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Back in January, as part of Episode 23 of the New Comm Road podcast, I published an interview with Mignon Fogarty, better known in the podcasting world as Grammar Girl.

Wonder what she’s been up to since? Well, no thanks to me, of course, Mignon has been busy building a veritable podcasting empire through her QDNow.com network.

Take note of some of these current rankings in the iTunes Store:

• Grammar Girl is 8th overall and 1st in the Education category
• Money Girl is 33rd overall
• Mr. Manners is 69th overall
• Legal Lad is 7th in the Education category
• Mighty Mommy is 4th in the Kids & Family category
• The Traveling Avatar is 46th in the Games & Hobbies category

But wait; there’s more.

Late last week, Mignon published her first audiobook, Grammar Girl’s Quick and Dirty Tips to Clean Up Your Writing.

Then, ho-hum, she appeared on the “Oprah Winfrey Show” on Monday.

And today, her audiobook sits at the No. 1 position in the iTunes Store.

Talk about one hell of a week.

I don’t think it’s overstatement to say that in just eight months’ time, Mignon Fogarty has become one of podcasting’s biggest and best success stories. And she hasn’t needed the name recognition of mainstream media to get there. No, what’s she’s done is develop a format — all shows in the network last about three to five minutes and include “quick and dirty” takeaway tips in each episode — that simply resonates with listeners and that can be replicated across multiple genres.

You can bet on Mignon & Co. continuing to grow this network. And why not — no reason to quit while she’s ahead!

Technorati Tags: Mignon Fogarty, QDNow.com, Grammar Girl, Legal Lad, Mighty Mommy, Mister Manners, Money Girl

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I don’t like doing the dishes. Do you? Somehow, I’m just so darn slow at it, to the extent that washing up after a simple meal can take me as much as 30 minutes. But one of the best ways I have found to make this task a little less painful is to listen to a podcast while I’m scrubbing away. In fact, Mitch Joel might be pleased to know that I’ve taken in portions of his last three episodes of Six Pixels of Separation while standing at the sink on a Sunday afternoon.

Elsewhere around the house:

* Music shows such as Accident Hash or Student Loan Radio seem to work well for me when folding laundry.

* A few months ago, before outdoor temps here in Boston had turned frigid, I remember listening to a Robert French interview with Ted Demopoulos all about Ted’s new book, What No One Ever Tells You About … Blogging and Podcasting (full disclosure: I’m quoted in the book), while raking the leaves in the backyard.

So if you’re trying to find creative ways to keep up with your favorite podcasts without having to skip an episode, pop in those earbuds as you make your way through those mind-numbing household duties.

Technorati Tags: listening to podcasts

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My advice to him? Make your pitch by advertising on a podcast, particularly one where the show’s audience is tuned into both social media and PR.

I’m not sure if the HR manager ever followed through on my recommendation, but someone who did employ that tactic earlier this week was Andrew Findlater, who is seeking to hire a social-media-savvy PR pro for NATIONAL Public Relations in Canada.

Andrew talks all about the candidate he is looking for in an audio comment to Terry Fallis and David Jones for Episode 44 of the Inside PR podcast. This is a smart move by Andrew, as he knows that that Inside PR 1) focuses on the nuts and bolts of public relations and 2) clearly attracts a listenership of social-media participants and advocates.

To boot, Andrew didn’t have to pay a dime this time around — Terry and David played the comment as a form of experimentation, it seems — and I’m betting his effort will be successful.

When you’re searching for new-media talent, advertise to them in the places that those talented people are listening — on podcasts.

Technorati Tags: podcasting, podcast advertising, Inside PR, NATIONAL Public Relations

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Donna Papacosta and Jason Van Orden have both been giving out some excellent advice on how to create outstanding podcasts, and how to promote them.

I’m trying something different. Today, I start a series of tips aimed squarely at the podcast listener — how to find interesting podcasts, how to listen to them, and even how not to listen to them. In fact, it’s that third topic area where I’ll launch this series.

Imagine you’re like Lee Hopkins, a blog and podcast consultant from Adelaide, Australia who’s always on the go. You have clients to meet, new proposals to research, weekly podcast correspondent reports to prepare, your own podcast and blog to produce, PhD research to begin, somewhat-funny jokes to think up, and a family (including teenage kids) to love.

And in your iPod, you have 127 unlistened to podcdasts and videopodcasts — all of which you must to watch and listen to.

The reasonable question to ask is “How the bloody hell do you cope?”

The solution, believe it or not, is breathtakingly simple: delete most or all of the shows in the queue and move on. Indeed, I am advocating that you, gasp, SKIP AN EPISODE! of your favorite podcast. Your overwhelmed self depends on it.

Hey, I feel your pain. I have a good half-dozen podcasts that I don’t want to miss. Ever. Monday and Thursday are FIR days. The weekend means a new episode of Six Pixels of Separation. Tuesdays bring the fresh wit and humor of Terry Fallis and David Jones on Inside PR. Christopher Penn delivers helpful advice and on financial aid and general thought-provoking wisdom five or six ways a week!. The ever-popular Grammar Girl gives me a weekly reminder that being picky about grammar is OK.

But you know what I’m learning? If I skip one of their episodes every once in a while, I’ll survive — and so will they. To be sure, the aforementioned podcasters will all come back the next day or the next week with a new action-packed show, and I can listen to that one.

Technorati Tags: listening to podcasts

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Hosted by Bryan Person. Recorded from historic Boston, Massachusetts, USA and published for Wednesday, January 24, 2007.

Subscribe to the New Comm Road podcast. It’s free, and it ensures you won’t miss a single episode! Find us in the iTunes store or paste this feed into iTunes or your podcatching software of choice: http://feeds.feedburner.com/NewCommRoad

IN TODAY’S SHOW:

Latest News:
+ PodCamp Second Life taking place from Friday, January 26 – Sunday, January 28 and is being organized by Lynette Young and Jay Moonah.
+ Bryper Bits podcast for your mobile phone being trialled at Bryper.com, using service from FoneShow.com
+ Bryper.com blog named to Todd Andrlik’s Power 150 list for top U.S. marketing blogs.

Comments:
+ Donna Papacosta comments on Episode 23 and my interview with Grammar Girl
+ Jason Van Orden and Christopher Penn comment on Episode 22 and whether people will be willing to pay for content that could be available elsewhere for free
+ Anna Farmery has also sent in an audio comment, but I’m holding it for a future episode.
+ Audio promo from Terry Fallis, who’s podcasting his new book, The Best Laid Plans.

New Comm Road Map:

+ Question from Marko Kulik from Pets.ca and the Photography.ca Podcast originally played on Six Pixels of Separation, The Twist Image Podcast.

Six ways to make Technorati work for you, which will be simulcasted on Six Pixels:

0. Create an account in Technorati

1. Claim your blog(s) in Technorati.

2. Use the Technorati tools and widgets.

3. Set up Technorati watch lists for hot topics that you want to follow.

4. Use all of the various Technorati tag searches to research a topic. Make sure that in the Technorati search box, your drop-down menu shows “in tags” Then, when you do a search, you’ll also see options to search your tags by blog post, photos, video, music, etc. Photo tags pull from Flickr. Video tags pull from YouTube.

5. Understand the difference between a Technorati tag using “in blog posts” and “in tags.” The first includes any mention of your search term in a blog, which is sometimes what you want. However, the “in tags” option will specifically give you results in which someone has taken the active step of categorizing that blog post, photo, or video about the topic your looking for.

6. Use RSS to subscribe to searches — about you (ego surfing), about your clients, about industry topics, or particular tags. This option works specifically for searches of blog posts — in both the “in blog posts” and “in tags” modes. At the top of the search results page, you’ll see the orange RSS logo and the word subscribe. Add that RSS link into your RSS reader!

New Comm Road Citation:

The citation is being given to … me. Podcaster and blogger Dan York has been on a crusade lately asking bloggers and podcasters to include a logo/badge somewhere on their site that he and others can use when blogging about those sites. This badge can help him to promote our blogs and podcasters and offers a good visual identity for our content.

I don’t have one of these badges on the NewCommRoad.com blog or the Bryper.com blog. That will change.

MUSIC:
+ From GarageBand.com: Still Holding On, by Rantings of Eva

* This show can also be found on Blubrry.

YOUR FEEDBACK:

• Leave your text and audio comments below this post
• Send us audio files or text e-mails to comments-AT-NewCommRoad.com
• Leave an audio comment to this blog post
• Call us on our comment line: (206) 202-3996

Technorati Tags: New Comm Road, Bryper, Bryan Person, PodCamp Second Life, Todd Andrlik’s Power 150 List, FoneShow, Bryper Bits, Donna Papacosta, Jason Van Orden, Christopher Penn, Anna Farmery, Terry Fallis, The Best Laid Plans, Technorati, Lee Hopkins, Mitch Joel, Twist Image, Six Pixels of Separation, Marko Kulik, Lynette Young, Jay Moonah, Dan York

LISTEN:

Running time: 00:26:59

Direct download this episode, or listen using the player below!

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