Advice

Monday Memo: Your Podcast ‘Bones’

TALKERS magazine | Monday Memo: Your Podcast 'Bones'

By Holland Cooke
Consultant

 

BLOCK ISLAND, RI — Google “podcast tips” and you’ll find plenty, most for utter newbies (i.e., “State your name and the name of your podcast at the beginning”). Things that are second-nature to professional broadcasters.

Fundamental: Understand how-users-are-using, and package accordingly. 

  • Assume that your listener is busy, and visualize the listening context where you hope to be heard. In-car?  On the treadmill at the gym?  Accordingly…
  • Think X number of minutes, not half-hours. “Snack-size” episodes.
  • Segment the show so on-the-go users can pause and re-enter at logical break-points. Doing so won’t turn-off listeners sitting-stiller at computers.

Format your podcast.

  • Avoid “random thoughts.”
  • Plan each segment so it has a beginning, a middle, and an end; as successful NPR podcasts do.
  • Think about what to leave out, perhaps to create shows that are episodic, so users subscribe.

TALKERS magazine | Monday Memo: Your Podcast 'Bones'

Holland Cooke (HollandCooke.com) is the author of “Multiply Your Podcast Subscribers, Without Buying Clicks,” available from Talkers books; and “Spot-On: Commercial Copy Points That Earned The Benjamins,” a FREE download, and “Inflation Hacks: Save Those Benjamins,” the E-book and FREE on-air radio features“Inflation Hacks: Save Those Benjamins,” the E-book and FREE on-air features. HC is a consultant working at the intersection of broadcasting and the Internet. Follow him on Twitter @HollandCooke

TALKERS magazine | Monday Memo: Your Podcast 'Bones'