Friday’s Podstorming
session will explore ideas for the Interactive Media Team podcast. As mentioned in my previous post I’ll be blogging the actual steps we take in creating the podcast, from
determining business objectives and understanding our audience through to final
production and hearing our voices resonate across the airwaves.
The Podstorming session
will kick off with a demonstration of the Podcasting gear. For those of you not attending the session I’ve
listed the gear we’re using below.
Headphones:
Sennheiser (I can’t remember which model off the top of my head)
Computer: Dell
Latitude D610 laptop.
Audio
recording & editing software: Audacity
The mic is the
most important bit of kit so we considered a number of different mics. For
podcasting you’re best off with a directional mic. An omnidirectional mic
is a good general purpose mic and picks up sound from all directions. The
downside of omni mics is that they can pick up unwanted room noise.
Unidirectional mics are more sensitive to what they’re pointing at and give
more of a studio sound. So we went for a diaphragm unidirectional (cardoid)
condenser microphone – Samson CO1U.
Microphone:
Samson CO1U (with USB cable)
Pop filter: Not picked one up yet but looking to purchase the Rode RPS1000 (it's either that or back to the old days of a wire clothes hanger and the girlfriends tights!)
Aside from
the podcasting gear we’ve got we’re working off a blank canvas so this is your
platform to get involved and shape the Conchango podcast. The Podstorming session will focus on a gamut
of issues. Below is a list of issues
which we’ll try to cover in our 90 minute session.
- Benefits of producing a podcast
as part of our overall marketing mix
- Who is the audience?
- What is the subject matter?
- What podcasts on this subject
matter are currently out there? Both good and bad.
- Is there enough demand for this
topic?
- What makes an effective &
engaging podcast?
- Possible impact of the podcast
on Conchango brand
- Format of the podshow?
- Duration and frequency of
episode
- Who will host the podcast -
co-host vs single host
- Presentation style
- Structure of the podcast i.e. what
are the segments in each episode (weekly review, guest interview,
jingle etc)
- Outline vs script i.e. level of
detail in planning
- How much time needs to be
committed by the team to plan, prepare and produce the show?
- Strategy for post-production?
- Promoting the podcast?
- How to get the podcast listed
in directories and which directories to get listed with?
- Where will the podcast be
recorded? i.e. our makeshift studio
- Where to publish the podcast
We’ll
probably cover the basic principles of podcasting during the session but if not
then I’ll cover these topics at the end of the session: -
- Subscribing
- Really Simple Syndication (RSS)
- RSS Aggregators (Podcatchers)
- Editing ID3 tags
- Naming conventions for the podcast
file
- Creating an RSS feed
- Audio quality
- Channels, bit rates &
sample rates
- Chapters
- Hosting
If you want to add anything then the Podstorming session is the place to thow up any ideas, or add a comment to this post.