Podcasting Goes Corporate

Two signs point to rising corporate interest in podcasting. First, Frederik Wacka points to the American Association of Petroleum Geologists' first official corporate podcast. Meanwhile down under, Cameron Reilly says that over the last couple of days he has been having a very interesting conversation with a senior manager from a tier one US company who is interested in engaging his services to help produce an internal podcast for a certain segment of their staff around the world. Anecdotally, I have heard about other companies looking at podcasting. This year not only will podcasting increasingly become a popular tool for corporations, but also for celebrities and musicians who want to stay in regular touch with their fans.

Comments

[Gerald Buckley]

Steve -

Thanks for picking up on our venture into podcasting. I honestly don't know if this will turn out to be a corporate trend or yet another "push technology" that didn't pan out. At the AAPG we're anxious to prove it out either way. I firmly believe that the opportunities to make real money on Podcasts are few and the window will close fairly quickly. The people ideally suited to making a profit are the solutions providers (the producers) or those selling advertising/sponsorship.

The AAPG hopes it will be perceived by it's audience as offering an interesting new way to stay up to date with the goings on (whether they avail themselves of the service or not). We currently provide the info via email blasts (some think it's spam and opt out), web site and RSS. ALL not for profit associations are facing a common problem - retention of both aging members AND student members. We're giving it our best shot to serve the entire spectrum in ways they appreciate. Early coverage in the blogoshpere of what we're doing suggests we might just be onto something good.

GB

[Nicole Simon (useful sounds)]

I do see a good opportunity for podcasting from a PR point of view; of course not for every but for some.

If you have a good working community around your products, the customers tend to want more from you. Most of the time just the information, but infotainment works better. Why not take this to a higher level to increase customer bonding with audio and video.

As for the more "serious" companies - if you have a steady stream of press realeases why not hire someone who also picks up snippets of audio which can be distributed along with the press releases through rss?

Celebrities? Of course, even better. Most celebrities (especially actors) have good trained voices and this makes it the perfect system to have fans even more engaged. Which reminded me that I wanted to look up if there is a audio version of Just a Geek from Wil Wheaton available - they guy I did not like but who got me absolutly fascinated through a podcast, the gnomedex appearance distributed through IT Conversations ...

[Michael Specht]

Steve while the use of podcadsts in PR has some interesting potential, as part of an eLearning (or knowledge management) framework is where I feel the real potential exists. Coupled with RSS, and other personal publishing tools (blogs, wikis etc) organisations can begin to effectively manage the delivery of clear and consistent information to their knowledge workers.

[Nicole Simon (useful sounds)]

Michael, I consider my complete expenses in podcasting technology as producer (mic, interfaces, software, mobile recorder) and a listener (new mp3 player etc) as efficient one time investments into learning english. :)

[Glenn N. McBride]

STEVE -
This technology will zip around the clock! What a way to beam new vital information to 24/7 shift workers in POLICE, MILITARY, MANUFACTURING!!! E-learning and E-working with better updates.