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Thanks!

– Scott

Huh, that’s a good question.

Here’s what I wrote:

A great podcast, when done well, will drive traffic to your website (and vice-versa). But what happens if your website isn’t ready for that additional traffic? What happens if the search engine juice a podcast provides is wasted on a corporate website whose search engine strength is weak?

Furthermore, what happens if your website’s old, static design fails to match the more connected vibe created by a well produced podcast/live streaming video production?

What happens?  A disconnect–that’s what happens.  If you’re going to spend the time developing a great show, it stands to reason that you’d like your call-to-action to point to an online presence for which you can be proud.  If you fail to do so, the success rate of your efforts are certainly at risk.  (Trust me when I say this. . .I have seen “social-based” content that was very compelling, but that drove me to a website that made me want to put toothpicks in my eyes.  As a result, I didn’t return.)

To date, PodWorx has designed, developed and deployed two new blog-based websites for customers that plan to do much more with their website than just throw up a bunch of static electronic-brochure pages.

And, I’m happy to report, it goes beyond the design of the website.

Both QBS Research and LASIK of Nevada have committed to communicating with their website visitors more often via their blog.  Additionally, each has a very unique card up their sleeve that will radically differentiate themselves from their competitors.

(Truth is, I’ve seen their competitor’s websites. . .they’re already way ahead. . .but what we’ve got in store for their customers and prospects (or patients in the case of Dr. Rothman) will change the way folks look at how to break down the barriers every website creates.

Fun stuff, this is!

Stay tuned for more on each of these customers.  We’re in pre-production for both companies. . .and from what we’ve developed so far, it’s going to be outstanding.

How about you?  What are you doing today to improve the approachability of your company via your website?

p.s. I’m an eat-your-own-dog food kind of guy.  This means that if it’s good enough for our customers, it’s good enough for us.  As I type this, a brand new podworx.com is in development.

Having spend the last three months researching, testing, implementing and documenting what works and doesn’t work in the Live Streaming Video Productions space, I have developed a Live Streaming Video “Business Brief” that will bring you up to speed on the do’s and don’ts of this exciting new sales, marketing and ultimately organizational-enhancing technique.

For the details, visit the brand new Ask Scott Whitney microsite.  Depending on the response, I may limit participation to ensure I’m able to answer each person’s questions.  And because this is an invitation-only event, you’ll need to follow the easy instructions found in the video to receive the URL and password required for participation.

I look forward to presenting you with this fascinating content.  See you at the session!

2009 marks the year of business-based online video. There is no question about this trend.

Because the time a visitor spends on your website is usually measured in tens of seconds versus tens of minutes, you’ll find that online video, with its ability to capture a person’s attention quickly using both sight and sound, is becoming a top five imperative to those who expect their online presence to do more than act as an e-brochure.

Not surprisingly, the power and immediacy of live television has made its way into the online video world as well. Say what you will about the “old media” of television, millions more people seek it for entertainment and education than do those online. This has lead many companies to begin putting into place Live Streaming Video as part of their marketing/branding/online revenue-generating practices.

For quite some time now, I have been working out the details of a professional-level Live Streaming Video concept that, according to the feedback we’ve received so far, is right on the mark.  In the next week or so, I will announce a free training event that will walk the participant through each of the areas to consider when preparing to launch your own Live Streaming Video event.  (Not surprisingly, the free training will be. . .wait for it. . .via our own Live Video Stream.)

Keep an eye on this space.  I will announce the registration for the free training on this blog.  Hope you’ll join us.

How do you know if your corporate podcast is really connecting with your listening/viewing audience?

That’s a tough question, to be sure.

Along with an analysis of your episode’s month-to-month growth (if you’re growing, things are moving in the right direction), certainly one of the most fulfilling types of acknowledgement is through feedback from the very listeners you’re hoping to entertain and/or educate.  Email and comments on your blog-based podcast website are two of the most common feedback channels, but another channel has begun to pop up as well.

Jeff Westover, the senior director of field marketing for Interwoven received the feedback seen below on Twitter.  Interwoven has had several employees using the micro-blogging service for a while now and have recently created an official @interwoven_inc account to reach out to their customers and prospects.

The Tweets (a term which is impossible for an adult to say without sounding like an idiot) reflect our desire not to SELL but to education:

Intersections podcast series don’t shove the products into the listener’s eye in an annoying fashion.

Intersections podcast series brings real world perspectives from actual users of your product.

By focusing on the problems Interwoven sets out to solve, we ensure that we are always thinking about what the customer is dealing with. . .and how their concerns and goals can be helped.

Here’s your question of the day – Are you receiving this type of feedback as well?  If so, CONGRATULATIONS!  If not, go back and review your shows.  Are you spending all your time trying to convince the listener how great your products and services are, or are you taking the time to teach people how stuff works, taking into account that your solution isn’t the only game in town?  Most corporate podcasts fail because they spend too much time selling and not enough time helping.

How about you?

The session went beyond the 45 minutes I had planned. . .which is great.  For those who were unable to join us, I’ve embedded a video to give you a glimpse into what took place.

For those who joined us (I’m not sure how many came from my announcement to our email subscribers and those who I reached out to in other online areas), what did you think?  For those who’ve just reviewed the video, what did you think?  To both groups, would you like me to broadcast another live Q & A session?  Let me know.

This THURSDAY (1/29/09) at 9:00AM PST, I will be testing our new multi-camera, multi-input live video streaming capabilities by offering 45 minutes of interactive podcast questions and answers to any participant joining us during this live session.  This will be a first-in, first-served arrangement where I’ll do my best to answer as many of your podcasting questions as possible during our time together.  I think it’ll be pretty cool.

Here’s the scoop:

Date: January 29, 2009
Time: 9:00AM PST
URL: http://www.podworx.com/LivePodcastAnswers

See you on Thursday!

More information (date/time) to follow.

Is podcasting dead?

I think not.  Of course, you could argue that I’m a biased, what with my company being in the podcasting business.  Fair enough.  But my answer is not motivated by keeping my company alive and viable.  I’ve been an entrepreneur for over 10 years, and during that time, I’ve never been emotionally connected to what products and services I provide just because it’s what I do for a living.  If podcasting wasn’t a viable play, I’d find something else to do.  However, I am excited about what we do for our customers because I found a problem that needed solving and than solved it.  (By the way, wanting to do corporate podcast because it’s the in thing isn’t the “problem” we solve.)  My reasoning behind the ongoing belief in podcasts has less to do with “rah rah” and more to do with analytics.

Podcasting: Trends Matter

When we start working with a new customer, one of the services we provide is analytics.  That is, we count every podcast that is downloaded every month and report that information back to the customer.   And every month, when we gather these numbers, it is an “open the kimono” moment.  That is, numbers don’t lie.  If a customer’s traffic is trending down, that’s not a feature.  On the other hand, if the number of podcasts being downloaded trend upwards, that’s a good news story.

In reviewing each and every monthly report we’ve written, EVERY podcast we’ve produced has grown new listeners and additional downloads month-over-month.  There has never been an exception.  If podcasting was dead, I’d think the trend would have spiked in the mid to late 2006 period (when corporate podcast started being “in”) and drop off shortly thereafter.

That never happened.

Over the course of the last six months alone, on average, our customers are seeing the number of podcasts being downloaded growing at 16% month-to-month.  Our smallest client, Acutrack, has been seeing a late 2008 surge with growth of 21%, 19% and 20% over the last three months.  If that kind of growth is “dead”, color me dead.

Now, these numbers are for ongoing shows.  But we’re also seeing steady growth for shows that have stopped production.  My Podcasting for Business podcast was delivered as a series of ten episodes.  The last episode went live on May 7th, 2007.  That’s over a year ago.  In the last six months, that show has seen month-to-month downloads grow at a rate of 13%.  The last two months have seen 12,319 downloads.  Not too shabby for a podcast that hasn’t produced a new episode for 19 months.

Now, not every corporate podcast is a good podcast.  And as a result, there are many shows that are likely struggling to find an audience.  This is because many of these shows continue to fail to recognize that if you do not either entertain or education, nobody will listen.  But the failure of these podcasts has nothing to do with the technology itself—it has to do with delivering good content.

To those out there calling for the death of podcasting, I’d suggest you ask yourself why you think it’s important to do so.  While I understand the “if it bleeds it leads” mentality (especially it seems for many bloggers), what are you doing to move your audience forward by stating something that, more times than not, you have no personal experience with?

The reality is, if podcasting works, it works.  In reading posts from people in the podcasting business, things seem to be moving along quite nicely.  We like where podcast is heading for 2009 and expect to hear more podcast-positive stories as folks doing good work continue to spread the word (and their talent).

But here’s my question to you.  Has this podcasting is dead nonsense hurt your attempts at starting a podcast at your company?  Let me know.  I’d be interested in hearing what your dealing with.