Podcasting to Your Niche

Next installment of "Learning about Social Media from Your Desk."

Last time we covered a bit about the narrowness of podcast audiences. It is in fact this narrowness that appeals to PR folk. Let’s look at a traditional method and a new method of communicating.

Let’s say you want to promote a festival in Texas. At that festival, there will be a barbequing contest. The proceeds will support your non-profit. In the old days (last month), you might send out a news release, make your director available for interviews, and get a famous barbeque expert on a morning television show. For each newspaper story, you’ll report the circulation knowing that only a fraction of the subscribers actually looked at the paper that day, a fraction of those saw the story that mentioned your event, a fraction of those remembered the story five minutes later, and an even smaller fraction entertained the idea of attending.

And, in today’s world, you may still use these tactics. But you could add a podcast series leading up to the event. It could include interviews with expert barbequers. And you could promote your podcast on other popular barbeque podcasts, like Barbeque Secrets.

In this scenario, you’ll be reaching one of your target audiences directly. And they will be people who asked to receive your message. Imagine.

So your homework today is to find a podcast about a topic that interests you. One that is not work related. To do this, go to a podcast directory and do some topical searches. You can usually listen to an excerpt before you decide to subscribe. Some places to look include: iTunes podcast search, Google (type in a topic with the word podcast after it), and Yahoo podcast search. There are hundreds of directories. These will be enough to get started.

You will probably find many that don’t scratch your itch. But keep looking. Let us know what you find.