According to Stephen Malaster from StreetIQ.com, “The listening audience for Podcasting is not the 18-year-olds with their iPods so much as it is people a little bit older. They’re finding demographics in the mid-30s. Your typical, well-educated MAC user. My mother, who is in her late 60s likes to listen to Podcasts on cooking and travel."
Malaster says there are three good reasons why businesses should consider this new form of marketing:
1. The ability to target an audience or customer
2. It’s a low-cost message delivery platform
3. The ability to send out different messges: audio and video
Malaster says it is especially important for businesses to make sure their Podcasts are “tagged” correctly so search engines will index them properly.
What is tagging? Tagging is part of the XML code that is used in RSS - Real Simple Syndication - which is the heart of Podcasting.
More simply, according to Technorati.com, “Think of a tag as a simple category name. People can categorize their posts, photos, and links with any tag that makes sense.” Linda Zimmer writes at her blog, ZnetLady, “Tagging, at its core, is a super-simple keyword filing system.”
As far as content for business Podcasts, Malaster says what it shouldn’t be is “banter, dribble or anything off-topic”. Although a “casual feel” for your Podcast is acceptable, he says “you should have a plan a be a little prepared.”
When deciding on the length of a business Podcast, Malaster advises, “Listeners seem to hit a wall at about 15 minutes. Make it easy for people to subscribe and listen to your Podcasts.”
Two ways to do that are by also providing a listen link at your website for those who want to listen right away or by providing subscription buttons (like “My Yahoo”) which allow potential listeners to subscribe easily.
StreetIQ.com specializes in helping business to Podcast. “We’re pulling together a very finite, clean directory of the best business Podcasts as possible,” says Malaster.
For more tips on business and Podcasting, visit the StreetIQ.com website.
(An expanded version of this interview is available for listening or download at: RadioRadioShow.com)
