Trafcom News

Do you know the difference between plain audio and a podcast?

This is one of the most frequent questions I hear in workshops and seminars: “What’s the difference between a podcast and any old audio on the web?” Very often we see the words “audio” and “podcast” used interchangeably. Someone may put an audio clip on their site and call it a podcast.

Technically, they’re wrong.

Hey, I’m in favour of employing the power of the human voice to communicate wherever possible, but I think it’s important to understand the terminology we’re using, right?

Here’s the way I like to define a podcast:

An audio podcast is a sound file that is published online as part of a series, and has a feed that listeners can subscribe to.

The key words are:

• part  of a series (not just one sound clip)
• feed

Many podcasters offer an RSS feed, a link to their podcast on iTunes, a direct download of an MP3 file, and a player so people can listen now or listen later. Here's an example from my Trafcom News Podcast:

Click on the image to enlarge it.

(Of course video podcasts also exist, but I’m talking about audio here.)

 

What do you think? How would you define a podcast?

Speakers: Don't try to be Steve Jobs

 

For years, we've heard "experts" advising us to be more like Apple CEO Steve Jobs when we take the stage.

In this interview for the Trafcom News Podcast, Shel Israel explains why you should not don a black mock turtleneck and try to emulate Jobs as a speaker.

Shel, the author of the new book Stellar Presentations, shares more insights about speaking and storytelling in this 26-minute podcast. Hop over to the Trafcom News Podcast site to hear the audio and read the show notes. And please feel free to leave a comment here!

The Podcaster's Checklist - updated

 

Yesterday at Podcamp Toronto someone asked me if I'd published my Podcaster's Checklist. Of course the answer is YES. And I've updated it again, so feel free to take a look.

 

If you click through you'll see the Checklist and also a link to download a PDF version of it.

Happy podcasting!

Content marketing: Think like a publisher

Sixth in a series of posts on content marketing

 

Often when I meet with clients who want to use social networks and content marketing to expand their business, there’s a point where the penny drops and they say: “Wait a minute. We’re not a publisher. We’re a consulting firm” or “We’re recruiters” or “We’re technical experts in XYZ.”

That’s when I must gently break the news: If you want to do content marketing, you must be a publisher. And this means figuring out:

• who you want to reach (your audience)
• what you want to share with them (your message)
• what you want them to do (your call to action)
• how you’ll know when you’ve succeeded (measurement)

To accomplish all of this, you have to have content. If you’ve been in business a while you do have content. Trust me. It may not be in great shape, but it’s a starting point. Comb through your physical and electronic files and look for:

• articles
• ebooks
• newsletters
• podcasts
• presentations
• reports and studies
• tutorials
• videos
• website content
• white papers

Organize these into categories. What’s up to date, what’s ancient, and what’s relevant to your clients’ needs today? Can you update the old stuff or should you toss it? Do you have the bench strength to edit and rewrite this material or should you outsource?

Next make a list of the new content required to fill the gaps. This content can be originated by you, or by others (curated content; more on this soon).

Remember to focus on the customers’ needs, not yours. In the end, you’ll fulfill your own goals if you start with those of the customer.

To give some structure to this effort, you can build an editorial calendar, which lists the material you’re going to publish, the format in which it will appear (text, audio, video, etc.), and who is responsible for creating it.

Be sure you’re publishing material that matters. Please don’t push out self-serving stuff. Your clients already know where to find sales materials on your website. With content marketing, you want to be helpful. You want to share materials that will enable them to solve their problems.

Once you have your editorial calendar in hand, plus a revived “back catalogue” of material, along with fresh content in the pipeline, you’ll feel more comfortable in the role of publisher. You can then start publishing, and using your social networking channels to amplify your content.

And, yes, you may have to start a blog. If you don't want to call it a blog (and some people don't), that's OK. But you need a space online to publish content longer than a 140-character tweet.

Coming soon: Posts on using social media for content marketing, plus content curation for your marketing program.

Related posts

Content marketing for your small business

Content marketing defined

Getting started with content marketing

Breathing new life into old content

Top 5 ways to alienate readers of your content

 

For more content like this, follow me on Twitter or GooglePlus.

Visit the Trafalgar Communications website for information about how we can help your organization to tell its story through traditional and new media.

 

Communicating food recalls to consumers

I dashed out this afternoon to pick up a few groceries, and found myself wandering the aisles because I could not find a product that I buy regularly: PC Brand Organics Quinoa. (Readers in certain parts of Canada know the President’s Choice or PC brand well. For the rest of you, it’s a very popular in-house brand sold by several retailers within a chain.)

I found a clerk who had no idea what quinoa was, but who was willing to find out where it was now located in the store. The good news: She quickly found the answer. The bad news: The product had been recalled. There was a sign on the shelf, but it was oriented toward store clerks, not customers. It said: “Recall. Do not restock,” with the product name in tiny letters.

Back home, I phoned Loblaw’s and got through to the customer service department right away (kudos to Loblaw’s for not putting me on hold). A cheery woman named Jennifer investigated the matter and let me know that sand had been found in the product, hence the recall. The box I already had at home was included in the recall, according to the bar code.

I asked: How would I as a customer find out about a recall like this? Other than happening to see a sign in the store, how would I know? In this case, I missed the sign entirely on several forays down the aisle because not only had the product been recalled, but its regular shelf spot had been moved to a different aisle.

I shudder to think of people consuming sand – or worse – in recalled products.

Is there an email notification list that customers could sign up for? No. But Jennifer agreed it was a good idea.

Why not a mailing list to let me know of new products, recipes and so on, in addition to recalls?

Looks like a great opportunity for a grocery chain.

By the way, I checked online and found a website for the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, but the quinoa product was not listed anywhere. I suspect the problem was not found by the feds. However, you can sign up for email or RSS or Twitter alerts on this site so that you can be notified of recalls.

Top 5 ways to alienate readers of your content

Part of a series of posts about content marketing

If you want to create compelling content, I suggest that you focus on the reader, drop the big words and remember to tell stories. But if you’d rather alienate people and drive them away from your site, here are some tips for you.

1. Use big words. Never say use or start. Cart out the heavy hitters: utilize and commence. You wouldn’t want to sound human, after all.
2. Pack as much industry jargon into your prose as possible. You can really impress people with your stellar vocabulary.
3. Don’t share stories about people. Stick to publishing dry messages about technology and its myriad features.
4. Write all about you, you, you and not your customers and their needs. Be sure to tell us repeatedly that your company is the “world-class leading provider of single-source solutions of…”
5. Jealously guard your turf. Never link to anyone who could be construed as a competitor in your space. You want to keep all the attention on yourself, right? You wouldn’t want to build a network, would you?

What other tips can you share?

By the way, if you want to get better at creating content, check out this book: Write Like You Talk, Only Better, by my friend Barb Sawyers. Barb can help you write in a natural, flowing way.

Related posts

Copyblogger’s infographic on 22 ways to create compelling content when you don’t have a clue
Content marketing defined
Content marketing for your small business
How to get started with content marketing
Breathing new life into old content

For more content like this, follow me on Twitter or GooglePlus.

Visit the Trafalgar Communications website for information about how we can help your organization to tell its story through traditional and new media.

 

Breathing new life into old content

Since I started blogging in 2004, I’ve recognized that certain topics are perennially popular among the people who read my blog. And after I began podcasting in 2005, and creating written content about the topic of podcasting, I’ve certainly noticed that about a dozen search terms drive the vast majority of traffic to my site.

What’s hot?
For your own marketing and content creation efforts to succeed, you need to know what your audience’s hot topics are. What search terms are they using to find your content?

You can use Google Analytics or other web analytics tools to get this important information. Although I have Google Analytics running on my various websites and blogs, I really like Statcounter for its simple interface; it also serves up the information I need without a lot of extraneous data.

For example, today I could see that some of the most popular keywords driving traffic to my Trafcom News blog are:

Why? Well, I’ve written on these topics several times. And every so often, I revisit an old post, update it, and post it again. This meets the needs of my readers, who want this information, and it also serves me by lifting my site up in the search-engine rankings.  You’ll notice that I’m on page one for most of the query terms shown in the graphic from Statcounter.

Look around for content you already have
Your own old blog posts are not the only source of “recyclable” content. Look in your outbox. Have you written up any advice to clients lately? (Today I’ve answered three client questions that could be spun into short blog posts.) Of course you don’t want to blog about proprietary information, but I’ll bet that if two or three clients are asking similar questions, other people are clamoring for the same information.

Have you crafted any studies or reports for your clients recently? You don’t want to republish them verbatim, but can you take any of the insights from them and craft them into a series of blog posts?

If you’re a podcaster or video producer, there may be some topics that you’ve covered in your multimedia content that could also be suited to textual treatment, perhaps with graphics.

Don’t forget your client newsletter. (You are producing one, right?) I try to remind myself that some people read both my blog and my newsletters, but they don’t see every piece of content, as much as I would like to believe they do. So if you have something important to share, don’t be shy about publishing it in more than one place.

What other ideas do you have for repackaging content?

Related posts

Copyblogger’s infographic on 22 ways to create compelling content when you don’t have a clue
Content marketing for small business
Content marketing defined
How to get started with content marketing

For more content like this, follow me on Twitter or GooglePlus.

Visit the Trafalgar Communications website for information about how we can help your organization to tell its story through traditional and new media.

 

How to come up with content when you’re out of ideas

I love this infographic from Brian Clark, aka Copyblogger, on how to come up with fresh content for your blog. Many of the tips could also be applied to podcasts and other multimedia.

 

Like this infographic? Get more content marketing tips from Copyblogger.

What do you think? Have you tried some of these tactics for your own blog or podcast?

Interactive marketing with audio and video

Have you thought about using multimedia on your website or blog but don’t know where to start? Then come to this Freelancers’ Forum workshop on March 24, 2012, sponsored by the Professional Writers Association of Canada (PWAC) Toronto chapter.

The morning session, which I’m excited about leading, focuses on audio and podcasting, specifically:

• How to record, edit and produce audio clips and podcasts
• How to write a script
• When NOT to use a script
• Where to find inexpensive audio gear and software
• How to use your smart phone to record audio

In the afternoon, Jim Unsworth will walk you through:

• Producing video clips
• Digital video recording devices and tips
• YouTube uploading and web sharing

Here’s a quick audio promo for this event:

For more information and to register, just click.

I hope to see you on March 24!

Secrets of successful independents

Last year, a colleague of mine who is an independent PR practitioner was lamenting the state of his business. “I’m not making enough money,” he said, “and my spouse wants me to contribute more to our family.” I could understand his concern. He felt he wasn’t pulling in enough revenue. Where he lost me was his next statement: “I think I am going to give up my independent practice and get a ‘regular’ job.”

If this person had asked me for advice, here’s what I would have said:

• Before deciding to give up your own business and abandon your existing clients and future prospects, have you tried to build up your business and expand your revenue?
• Do you have a viable marketing plan?
• Do you know your target market well, or are you trying to be all things to all people?
• Have you increased your rates in the last two years?
• Do you charge by the hour or by the project?
• Does the marketplace view your service as a commodity or as a valuable offering?
• What steps have you taken to put yourself in front of clients and prospects?
• Are you exploiting the benefits of content marketing for your business?
• Have you been sending out a regular newsletter, filled with useful information that people enjoy sharing?
• Have you been blogging? Tweeting? Perhaps podcasting?
• Is your LinkedIn profile up to date, with strong key words?
• Do you use LinkedIn to connect with potential clients in your network?
• Do you post helpful updates to LinkedIn?
• How many networking events have you attended in the past year? How many meaningful connections did you forge at these meetings?
• Are you known as a leader in your field?
• Have you spoken at any industry events lately?
• How many articles have you written for trade publications this year?
• Do you ask your current clients for referrals and recommendations, including referrals within a client organization?
• Have you made alliances with other practitioners, and outsourced where it makes sense?
• Have you joined your local board of trade or chamber of commerce, or a relevant professional association? In my case that's IABC and the Halton Peel Communications Association, as well as the Oakville Chamber of Commerce. Don't just join; get active and volunteer.
• Is your website optimized for search?
• Have you created information products that can generate passive income for you?
• Are you constantly learning new things about your field, by attending seminars, reading blogs and listening to podcasts?
• Have you considered that an employer can cut your “regular” job without much notice?
• Have you calculated the genuine cost of being on salary, keeping in mind the tax breaks for independents, and the cost of suits and lunches out for employees, among other things?

Of course no one can do everything on my list. And I’m not saying that there is never an occasion where it’s wise to shut down your own business and join someone else’s. However, I do believe that insufficient revenue is not reason enough to jump ship. It’s important to look at the big picture and the long term.

What do you think? What would you add to this list?

UPDATE: I added the point about joining associations, which I had inadvertently left out of the post.

Network and learn from other indies in Toronto
If you’re looking for inspiration and practical advice on being more successful as an independent, come to our IABC/Toronto Professional Independent Communicators meeting on Wednesday evening, March 7, 2012. For details and registration, visit the IABC/Toronto website.

In the meantime, you can listen to a short podcast with our guest speakers Dawn Boshcoff, principal and trainer, BOSHnewmedia Communications; Cathy Ledden, R.G.D., chief designer, Ledden Design; and Paul Lima, freelance writer and business writing trainer.