Great Intro to Podcasting from Marketing Sherpa

Count on Marketing Sherpa to publish a succinct guide to podcasting. It's a great place to start for every nonprofit. But grab it today, as it's free only until September 1, 2006.

Here's what's crucial for your nonprofit podcasting agenda according to Marketing Sherpa:

• Podcasts reach way beyond the early adopters at this point, and have hit mainstream.This is great news for your volunteer retention and donor communications podcast initiatives. Or even for internal communications in large nonprofits with staff in multiple sites.
  
  • Users extend beyond those typical early adopters, young men ages 18-34 in tech fields.
  • Podcast usage is split across the sexes. At 45%, the biggest slice of listeners is 35 or older.
• Format your podcast to play on a computer, as well as a iPod or other portable listening devised.
  
  • Some listeners use an iPod, but 56% listen via their computers.
• If you're going to podcast, commit to doing so over a period of time.
  • One-off tests, all too common, won't enable your nonprofit to build brand impact from developing listener relationships over time.
  • If you create only one podcast, your nonprofit may never get the audience it deserves. Or, that single podcast may be insanely successful (let me caution you, this is not the norm the first time out)
• Develop podcast content specifically for the medium.
  • Avoid "shoveling up" your Web site content or email articles by reading them into a microphone.
  • On the other hand, podcasts are a perfect way to extend the audience for a donor-oriented conference call with experts in the field, or a volunteer training. You have to excerpt, of course.
• Outline a calendar of podcasts, much like your editorial calendar.
  • Weekly release is ideal, but if that seems like too much of a burden right now, start with a slower calendar or an emailed "e-course" based on audio chapters.
  • Your nonprofit could even deliver programs this way.
  • A monthly podcast is a great way to communicate with donors on an ongoing basis assuming your donors are podcast users. You have to know before you podcast. Ask them.
• Craft your podcast titles with care.
  • Remember, your nonprofit is competing with tens of thousands of other podcasts producers.
  • Choose a name for your podcast that matches your topic, not your organization's name.
  • When a user is listening to a podcast, she sees a 255-character title tag scrolling across the screen, 17-32 characters at a time.
  • Include your nonprofit's name, URL and phone number, after the topic title.
  • Don't forget to include the date if the content will be dated in the future.

Nonprofit podcasters-to-be, follow these guidelines along with those I've outlined in the following posts, and you'll have a strong foundation for a powerful podcasting series.

9 Steps to Great Nonprofit Podcasting
Nature Conservancy Podcasts Build Conservation Ethic

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