Credit unions – build your audience with podcasts!

The fact is, podcasting is a less crowded space to jump into to get noticed by your audience. (I could end the article there, but I have more to tell you).

Podcasting has the free-form feel that resonates with an audience. And the stats show the upward trend of a growing listening audience. According to Statista, in 2008 nine percent of the U.S. population listened to a podcast every month. In 2014, it’s grown to 15 percent.

And get this, totalpicture.com reports that “two-thirds of podcast consumers have listened to digital audio files in their vehicles by connecting an iPod or other MP3 player to their car audio system.” Personally, I have my earbuds in about seven hours each day to catch up on podcasts or listening to streaming music. That’s how I function and I’m pretty sure I’m not alone.

So, what equipment to you need to record a podcast? Because I like to be mobile most of the time, I tend to record using my iPhone or iPad with an Apogee Mic attached and uploaded it straight into Soundcloud. Now if you’re looking for a bit better studio quality recording, this is where you’ll spend most of your budget:

Mic and mic stand, mixer, digital recorder, headphones, software (Final Cut ProX, Adobe Creative Studio, GarageBand, platform (Bossjock, Soundcloud) to upload to iTunes.

There are high-end and cheaper models of everything. In case you’re interested, I’ve only ever paid for a mic, mic stand, Bossjock, Soundcloud and GarageBand.

Podcasting should always feel like a regular conversation, but know that all of the best podcasts are either well outlined and/or partially scripted. It’s not all just improvised. Write up the key points you want to make and agree on how much time you’ll spend on each topic. Also, decide who’ll introduce everyone, who’ll bridge between topics and who’ll close the show.

Finally, when do you release your podcast to the public? There’s not really a great bit of data on when to release it because we all listen to podcasts when we want to. The key here is to release your podcast on the same day every week, two weeks, month – whenever. As long as you’re consistent about it, you’re audience will know what day to download it and they’ll listen later.

I thought the Social Media Examiner explained podcasting rather well by saying, “Podcasts are a multitask platform that allows people to give you 20 minutes or so of their time every day or week to listen to you. It’s very intimate and listeners get to know you at a deeper level.”

The personal connection of podcasting is amazingly simple, because your personality comes out when you talk – duh! And that can be branding gold for your credit union! Next time, we can talk about how to gain advertisers for your podcast.

Michael Ogden

Michael Ogden

Michael has been in the social media business for more than a decade inside the credit union, technology, financial and food industries. He’s the founder of For3, LLC, which ... Web: www.for3forgood.com Details