You've come to the right place if you're interested in communicating better with employees, customers and prospects. In this audio podcast, you'll hear interviews and discussions about topics that are important to people in the business of communicating. It might be writing, speaking, marketing, social media or something interesting in the news.
Within this site, you can download each audio file directly by clicking on the link that says "download here" or you can listen with the Flash player. If you want to be sure to catch every edition of the Trafcom News Podcast, you can subscribe through iTunes or email using the links on the right of this screen.
In edition 108 of the Trafcom News Podcast, you’ll hear an interview with Sue Johnston of Waterloo-based It’s Understood, who explains how she categorizes communication styles into four personas: artisan, guardian, idealist and rational. Both in the workplace and in your personal life, it pays to know your type!
03:00 Sue Johnston’s explanations of the four communication style personas: artisan, guardian, idealist, rational; see her website for more information and tools
09:55 After you’ve discovered your own style, how can you determine someone else’s style?
Why is content curation a hot topic, and why should you care? This 19-minute podcast explores what curation is, how individuals and brands can use it, which tools make it easy, and how to get started. Much of the content in this discussion originated with presentations in November 2011 to the IABC Western Region conference in Whistler, British Columbia, and the IABC/Toronto west end group.
Listen now or listen later. You can download the MP3 file here, subscribe through iTunes, or listen right now with the player below.
01:36 What comes to mind when you hear the word curation? Museums? Good analogy! Curation defined: finding, organizing, categorizing, describing and sharing content
02:22 Why is curation a hot topic? Fast Company says so.
03:00 Information overload or filter failure? Clay Shirky says it’s filter failure.
04:00 Finding, grouping and sharing the best of relevant content
04:20 Why curate? As an individual, you can be seen as an important industry resource. Example of Dave Williams in e-publishing with his nascent site, Ebooksdecoded.com
06:10 Use of social bookmarking tool Delicious in content curation. Donna’s video about how to use Delicious; slightly out of date but still relevant; benefit of adding multiple tags; easy to share bookmarks
07:45 Brands and curation: especially important in the B2B sector with its long sales cycle; essential to be seen often in front of your prospects as a trusted source of information.
08:20 Examples of businesses using curation in this way: CMO.com from Adobe; Intel Free Press; these are not marketing or advertising sites. They are vendor-neutral.
09:30 What’s the difference between aggregation and curation? The human factor.
10:02 Select the best of relevant content, add own opinion and then share.
10:21 Fire hose of information: Lots of tools available to help you. Storify.com makes it easy to collect tweets and other information, particularly from events, and tell a story with them, adding your own thoughts. Scoop.it lets you put stories together easily.
11:30 Example of Smartbrief.com, curating content in hundreds of topics.
13:10 Other ways to share curated content: blog, enewsletter, widget, microsite. Example of Donna’s blog post on GooglePlus.
14:05 Curata example: Green Data Center News from Verne Global.
15:25 More on curation tools: Curation Station, Diigo, Pealtrees, Storify, Paper.li, Scoop.it, Mangify.net and more.
15:55 Developing a curation strategy: what role does content play in your overall strategy?
16:12 Industry news, expert tips and advice, presentations, case studies, event and book reviews, infographics, photos, podcasts, videos, etc. Anything that can be communicated can be curated.
16:30 Important to be discerning, discriminating
16:40 Company news, industry news, competitor news, etc. – curation in internal communications.
17:02 Curation best practices: understand your market and your place in it; what are you trying to achieve? What does your audience care about? Pick a curation platform or a curation tool. Keep your information organized; use tags. Add your own flavour; tell a story with your content. Share content and make it easy for others to share.
17:45 Always link to the original source!
18:00 Think like a curator and you’ll be a curator; be consistently helpful.
18:21 Please send your curation stories or other comments to donna AT trafcom DOT com. Visit the Trafcom News Podcast blog.
Look for the Trafcom News Podcast on Blubrry.com. Theme music is "Beneath Your Surface" by the Elisabeth Lohninger Quartet from the Podsafe Music Network
In this conversation with Barb Sawyers, we explore some of the ways in which organizations can use storytelling to engage employees and communicate important messages.
Apologies for the audio issues during part of the conversation.
00:01 Intro; about Barb
01:23 People remember stories; in organizations, you particularly need stories for the tough sell
02:20 Recap of Barb’s blog post; keep the story concise; don’t bore people
03:44 Keep it real, admit to conflict (stories need conflict); identify heroes and villains
05:22 In some organizations, leaders fear conflict; maybe the villain is a problem solved, not a villain in the traditional sense of the word
06:40 You can’t engage employees if you’re not being real; use real language
07:02 We are emotional beings; people are naturally afraid of new things at work, such as change
07:33 Develop your characters; they should be likable
09:45 It’s important to warm people up before you interview them
10:44 Make sure your story has a point, just like fables always have a moral
12:00 Role of emotion in corporate storytelling; story without emotion does not resonate with people. People won’t relate to “just the facts”
14:02 Remind people that they can review the story before publication, to ease their mind and get better stories
16:20 Be sure you share with transparency and respect; find common ground
18:00 What to do when they say: “We have no stories!”
21:00 Put on storytelling hat to uncover employee stories; employees appreciate hearing stories about themselves
22:44 Classic storytelling establishes characters, builds toward a climax, then resolves; must have a conflict or challenge to be overcome
23:30 Pitfalls of corporate storytelling: thinking you have no stories; wanting to gloss over negatives; talking only about the CEO and other senior leaders; standing in the way of truth
29:00 Fear of the very word “story”
30:20 Day-in-the-life stories can be effective if it’s not a boring day; look for conflict or challenge to be surmounted
NOTE: Next Trafcom News Podcast will feature an interview with Steve Clayton, senior director of storytelling at Microsoft
36:00 Your comments are welcome; where to send comments.
Look for the Trafcom News Podcast on Blubrry.com. Theme music is "Beneath Your Surface" by the Elisabeth Lohninger Quartet from the Podsafe Music Network
If you’ve been within shouting distance of me within the last six months or so, you’ll know that my hot topic is storytelling in organizations, for both internal and external communications. In this quick 10-minute podcast, I talk about why storytelling matters.
04:27 Storytelling is one of the best ways for organizational communicators to actually reach people and get their point across
05:09 The human brain is hard-wired for stories
05:55 Stories must have a point, but you don’t have to start at the beginning
06:15 For storytelling to be successful, your organization and its products don’t have to be fun or sexy
06:40 Future episodes of Trafcom News Podcast will talk about the HOW of organizational storytelling
06:48 There is no excuse for not sharing stories. In Social Marketing to the Business Customer, Eric Schwartzman and Paul Gillin tell us about Indium Corporation, a company that makes solder paste, successfully using stories to talk to customers and to generate leads and sales.
09:18 Your comments are welcome; where to send comments. Email: donna AT trafcom DOT com; show blog: http://trafcomnewspodcast.com
Look for the Trafcom News Podcast on Blubrry.com. Theme music is "Beneath Your Surface" by the Elisabeth Lohninger Quartet from the Podsafe Music Network
I’m delighted to bring you these insights from renowned storyteller P.W. Fenton. He publishes the award-winning Digital Flotsam podcast, among others, and has a long history as a broadcast engineer, actor, photographer, musician, songwriter and video producer. I’ve learned a lot about telling stories from listening to P.W., and I hope you will too.
05:05 Early influences on P.W., including radio, particularly Jean Shepherd
07:05 Keys to a good story: beginning, middle, end; start by doing something to get the listener interested; narrate in a way that keeps the interest going and that anticipates the ending and supports your conclusion; need to experience your own story as a listener.
08:44 P.W. has lived all of his stories; the best stories come from our own experiences.
09:58 How P.W. produces Digital Flotsam; the importance of editing.
12:07 P.W. has to enjoy his own stories.
12:35 P.W. shares advice about the art and craft of storytelling; the importance of reading and listening to stories and finding your own voice.
13:40 Advantages of audio storytelling vs. written storytelling; much easier to convey intent with spoken words; must write for your own voice and work to your strengths; difficulty of attempting to put P.W.’s own stories into a book.
16:37 My insights about relevance of P.W.’s comments to storytelling in a business context: Enjoy your own stories; listen to others’ stories; structure counts; best stories come from your everyday experiences.
18:35 Your comments are welcome; where to send comments: Email: donna AT trafcom DOT com, or comment on the show blog: Trafcom News Podcast
Look for the Trafcom News Podcast on Blubrry.com. Theme music is "Beneath Your Surface" by the Elisabeth Lohninger Quartet from the Podsafe Music Network
People in the business-to-business (B2B) world finally have a book about social media marketing just for them. In this 26-minute podcast, I interview Eric Schwartzman, co-author (with Paul Gillin) of Social Marketing to the Business Customer. My favourite sound bite from this chat? “B2B buyers want steak; B2C buyers will settle for sizzle."
Listen to Eric explain how to grow that steak. You can download the MP3 audio file for this podcast if you wish. Or you can subscribe to the Trafcom News Podcast in iTunes. Or you can listen with the player below.
00:01 Intro and welcome; about Eric Schwartzman 01:30 Eric cites B2B social media statistics, and says that B2B social marketing is where the action is; greater opportunities abound for B2B vs. B2C in marketing today 04:00 Book includes many social media tools, not just Facebook and Twitter; it is the first book devoted to B2B social media 05:00 Rational approach to social marketing; need management buy-in; steps to success include socializing the organization, building strategies based on where the action already is taking place; the social media monitoring dashboard 06:46 Blog is the Swiss army knife of social media; allows you to include text, photo, audio, video. Fact that many marketers have switched to Twitter is a good thing for bloggers! 08:12 86% of business interactions begin with Google; importance of search 08:30 How Eric and Paul picked examples for the book; difference between B2B and B2C case studies 09:20 B2B buyers want steak; B2C buyers will settle for sizzle 10:20 B2B decisions are often made by committees 11:13 In B2B market, it’s not about making a splash; you have to swim a marathon because of the longer buying cycles 11:43 Relationships more important in B2B buying decisions 12:40 Podcasting can generate remarkable success in B2B; Eric explains why and how 14:15 News-oriented podcasts vs. feature-oriented; features have a longer shelf life 15:40 His favourite case study from the book: SAP Communities Network; they built a white-label social network with 2 million members, mostly system integrators; helping people in full public view 17:50 Counter-intuitive star ratings demonstrate confidence 20:00 Case studies in the book are NOT all technology oriented 21:22 How to be successful today in B2B social marketing – humanize your business, experiment openly, be tolerant to risk END of interview 25:22 Listen to this interview with Donna by Jennifer Tribe on “How authors and other experts can use audio products” (links to blog post, which links to MP3 and PDF transcript) 26:01 Where to send comments: Email donna AT trafcom DOT com or comment on the Trafcom News Podcast blog Look for the Trafcom News Podcast on Blubrry.com. Theme music is "Beneath Your Surface" by the Elisabeth Lohninger Quartet from the Podsafe Music Network (Music Alley)
I’ve been having fun answering questions about podcasting posed by students in my friend Joan Vinall-Cox’s Documentary Scripting class at the University of Toronto (Mississauga). In this 21-minute podcast, I answer some of those questions. Around the 14-minute mark, you will also hear some interesting comments about Trafcom News Podcast 101: How to be a terrific podcast guest.
As for this latest edition, you can download the MP3 audio file for this podcast if you wish by clicking here. Or you can subscribe to the Trafcom News Podcast in iTunes. Or you can listen by clicking below.
01:35 Question: What should we do when we are stuck and not able to think of a podcast topic? How will we know if a topic will be of interest to an audience?
03:53 Question: How do you pick a topic that’s interesting and that others will find interesting too? I’m scared it’s all been done.
04:38 Question: How many podcasts should someone dedicate to the same topic in a sequence (series)?
06:02 Question: Can you discuss the idea of having resolve and dedication while creating a podcast? Should you schedule podcast recordings? LINK: WordPress Editorial Calendar plug-in
14:21 Interesting comments on Trafcom News Podcast 101: How to be a terrific podcast guest. Listen to commenters Petya Georgieva, Darren Clements, Will Norman, Melitsa LINK: Three-part guide to podcasting from Telesperience (from Darren)
20:01 Where to send comments: Email donna AT trafcom DOT com or comment on the Trafcom News Podcast blog
Happy New Year! I hope you had a wonderful holiday season. I did, until I came down with the flu. I’m grateful my voice is back; I’m sure my energy level can’t be too far behind.
Many of you enoyed the interview on show 100, with Ann Handley and CC Chapman, authors of Content Rules. If you’re looking to publish content for your marketing efforts this year, I highly recommend their book.
I’ve been doing lots of podcast interviews for clients recently, which led to the topic of today’s podcast: being a terrific podcast guest.
You can download the MP3 audio file for this podcast if you wish by clicking here. Or you can subscribe to the Trafcom News Podcast in iTunes. Or you can listen by clicking below.
Here are the shownotes:
00:01 Intro and welcome
01:32 If you've written a book or ebook or you are a consultant or speaker, chances are you'll be a podcast guest. Here are some tips to make the experience worthwhile.
02:00 Do your research. Is the podcast a good fit for you? Ask what the angle is. Don't expect all questions in advance. Do not write out and read your answers.
03:45 Sounding great: Don't talk too fast. Get the technology out of the way early. If you need to learn to use Skype, do so well before the interview.
05:24 Get the gear you need. Buy a microphone and headphones. Learn to use them.
06:55 Remove ambient noise, including pets.
07:56 Tell stories, but be sure they're not too long.
08:24 Don't worry about pauses. Breaks between questions and answers will help the podcaster to edit the file.
08:45 Follow up with the podcaster. Link to the finished podcast.
Comments are welcome! Email donna AT trafcom DOT com.
Here's something special for the 100th edition of this podcast: an interview with Ann Handley and CC Chapman, authors of the newly released book, Content Rules.
You can download the MP3 file for this podcast directly by clicking here, or you can subscribe through iTunes. Or you can listen with this player below:
02:55 The content rules are actually guidelines; you need content to differentiate yourself online; WHY and HOW to develop compelling content – that’s what the book is about
04:00 The 11 rules are a great starting point for understanding content
04:44 Book also features a how-to section and case studies (or ideas to steal)
04:55 What about people in organizations who say that have no interesting or sharable content?
06:10 Content curation; find content you think your customers will like; you become the filter; add your own insights; ask questions of your customers
06:42 Ask customer service; talk to your customer-facing people to get content within your organization
07:00 You have to get out of your office; show, don’t tell
07:50 Your customer’s story is your story
08:01Content Rules devotes a separate chapter to B2B; everyone always asks about B2B
10:00 Case studies in book are pulled from all walks of life; you can make content on any budget
10:40 More about curation within the organization
13:25 About the book tour; check the Content Rules site for details
14:42 Let the authors know if you want them to come to your city
16:42 In their book, CC and Ann point readers to other resources, such as Steve Garfield’s Get Seen, etc.
18:00 Donna asks you a favour: What topics would you like to hear on the next few editions of the Trafcom News Podcast?
18:27 Comments are always welcome! Where to send comments: email to Donna AT Trafcom DOT com or post a message to the Trafcom News Podcast blog
Look for the Trafcom News Podcast on Blubrry.com. Theme music is "Beneath Your Surface" by the Elisabeth Lohninger Quartet from the Podsafe Music Network
Do you struggle with writing? Do you find it hard to get your thoughts on paper? Or are your readers struggling with your writing? In either case, you’ll want to hear this conversation with Barb Sawyers of Sticky Communication, author of Write Like you Talk , Only Better.
You can download the MP3 file for this podcast directly by clicking here, or you can subscribe through iTunes. Or you can listen with the player right here:
Here are the show notes:
00:01 Intro and welcome; what would you like to hear in Trafcom News Podcast 100?
01:58 Why do we complicate our writing with dense jargon? It starts in public school.
03:00 What is the solution? Write like you talk.
04:58 Barb reminds people to think through what they’re going to say; be sure to appeal to your audience; make your writing interesting, short. Look for your common errors.
06:08 The value of simple, clear writing.
06:48 If you write like you talk, your job will be easier and more fun.
07:08 Bonding with your reader.
08:00 Some people insist on indulging in corporate-speak.
08:45 Is it possible to go too far and be too casual? Yes. It depends on the audience.
10:00 Barb’s book is an invaluable tool for bloggers, who really need to show their personality in their writing.
