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Podcast Blogging

Why this blogger has finally caught the podcasting bug – and you should too

Author

By Dom Burch, managing director

December 9, 2015 | 4 min read

I'm thinking of starting a podcast.

Dom Burch has caught the podcasting bug

As ever I'm a fairly late adopter to the medium.

Old hands like Neville Hobson have already retired from the scene having spent ten years creating more than 800 shows.

But the time feels right.

I've dabbled with radio interviews over the years, representing various brands on issues including child labour, road safety, and the best Christmas cracker jokes.

What do you call a boat with blue hair? Barge Simpson.

I thank you. I'm here all week.

I also get to play out my boyhood fantasy (not that one) every other Friday afternoon by co-hosting Drive on BCB 106.6FM, a community radio station in Bradford.

I'm fascinated by audio and how it can add a different dimension to my daily blog. Each day I grab something that catches my eye, do a little research, and then pen my point of view. Taking care, albeit not much time, to strike the right balance between insight and opinion.

But I wonder how much gets lost in translation.

Do you detect the sarcasm in my tone, or the self deprecating humour, or does it pass you by?

I fancy dwelling longer on each of the five topics I pluck from the air each week, and look back on what they have in common, as well as what they say about the marketing world I inhabit, or inhibit depending on your point of view.

Take the last few weeks as an example. I've considered whether enterprise social networks can save us from email hell, if micro payments are the answer to ad blocking, admitted I don't get Snapchat and fessed up to the biggest failure in viral marketing of my career.

Podcasts are increasingly becoming a thing.

Russell Goldsmith created a great podcast on podcasting recently as part of his C-suite series on behalf of the CIPR social media panel (of which I too am a member).

It is well worth a listen right to the end, if only to hear him muck up the 38th minute of a 38 minute one take recording. Let's just say the bleep got used repeatedly.

The aforementioned Neville Hobson is featured throughout and makes the point that listening to a podcast is the only thing you can do while doing something else. You can't easily watch a video or read a blog while doing another task.

He also bemoans the innovation, pointing out MP3 audio files have not kept up with the demand to search content easily and effectively.

Neville says podcasts must be mobile first. Searchable. Break content into chapters. Giving listeners an easy way to get to the bit they want.

The risk for content creators is similar to that of the music industry, users could opt out of listening to albums and want to listen to single chapters instead.

But that romantic view of content misses the point. Make a story with 10 great chapters and I'll read them all.

Puff it out with rubbish and I'll flick through until I find the bit I like, or simply put the book down.

Anyway, watch this space. Or should I say tune in, podcast coming.

Follow Dom on Twitter @domburch

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