Do you network? I do.
I like it. A lot. It’s a good chance to 1) practise your public speaking (another aspect of my business), 2) meet new people and, of course 3) do business. One of the unifying things about networking is that, at some point, you have to stand up and tell everyone just what your business is – and how it can help them.
So – when I stand up and say that one of things that my business does is make podcasts, I generally get two responses. The first is ‘What is a podcast?’. Thankfully, I’ve covered that in another article from a few weeks ago.
The second response, though, is something that I want to talk about here – and that’s ‘Could my business be a podcast?’
The short answer is ‘Yes’. Thanks for reading. Have a great day.
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Ah. I’m guessing that you were looking for something a little more in-depth than that? Okay then…
The long answer is also ‘Yes’ but with some more avenues to go down. Any legally operating business could have a podcast. The form, the use, the shape of that podcast is something that will be different from business to business.
There are various businesses that lend themselves to podcasts. From my experience, those that are referred to as PSF’s (Professional Services Firms), so accountancy and law firms, are perfect for podcasting. These are companies and individuals that have expertise that can only be acquired through a qualification – so their knowledge is much sought after. In the US you can’t throw a rock in the air without hitting an accountancy or legal podcast. Not so much in the UK, but that’s a discussion for another time.
But, what about businesses like Kitchen Design or Taxi Services – should they not think about podcasting? Of course they should, but just in different forms. There are some great podcasts by businesses that you wouldn’t automatically think of. There’s an excellent one made by wedding photographers. In it, they give tips and advice for other wedding photographers, but they also focus on one aspect of being a jobbing photographer that us laypersons might not think of. Like this…
So – whilst your business might not be something that you would automatically think of for podcasting – there are always things you can do.
For some companies, they use podcasts for their newsletters. Instead of people scrolling down through paragraphs of text, interspersed with a couple of photos, they click on an audio link and listen to the newsletter. Birmingham Children’s Hospital have an excellent newsletter podcast. I should know – I make it! So, would that work for you? Maybe not a downloadable podcast that people can subscribe to – but it’s still a podcast!
Okay – using one of my examples from above – what about Kitchen Design? Could a company that works in this arena have a podcast? Of course! Again, there’s a couple of options. One, they could use podcasts on their website to help talk people through their products. Two, they could join up with a flooring company, a window company and a white goods manufacturer and do something called a ClusterCast. That’s where several people who all work in the same area come together to talk about, say, kitchens. The design people talk about what’s new for this month, the white goods people can talk about the latest designs in their products, the flooring people could give advice on what you need to consider before buying flooring for your kitchen, and the window people can give tips about how different windows can give a different look to your kitchen.
There are a myriad ways for you and your business to get into podcasting – just because you don’t work in Daily News or Comedy or Films doesn’t mean that shouldn’t have a podcast, or that there isn’t an audience for it.
If I see you at a networking event, let’s speak about your business, and see if we can’t come up with a podcast.
In the meantime, if you want to find out more about podcasting with our FREE Essentials Podcasting Checklist, click here
Or, if you just want to talk about how we can help you with your podcasts, click here