Its 1957 and the family are huddled around the wireless waiting for the start of their favourite show…………..
Fast forward 50 years and its 2007, the wireless has been replaced by the podcast. The family still get to hear their favourite show but now mom downloads it and listens to it on her iPod on the way to work, dad downloads it, burns it on to a CD and listens in the car. Sarah has a pda, downloads it and listens to it during her lunch hour at work and Mark downloads it to his mobile phone and listens to it during his high school math lesson.
And now the “family” of listeners has grown too. People from Japan, Australia, and Africa are all tuning in to the same show. A community is born out of their love for a weekly broadcasted podcast.
This is what makes podcasts so powerful. This is how podcasts have begun to shape a worldwide “family” or community of listeners.
So what is a podcast? Well for the uninitiated, a podcast is a radio show that is available on the internet for download by anyone interested in listening. The term (so I have read) comes from the amalgamation of the words iPod and broadcasting. Once downloaded the radio show can be enjoyed on your computer or using a portable media device such as a mobile or iPod.
Now, the range of communities being created is growing with each passing month. Not just listeners wanting to tune into their latest comedy show but also colleges wanting to pass on recorded lecturers to its students. Corporate companies wanting to broadcast the latest profit forecast and even local government, eager to keep their constituents happy by keeping them up to date.
But businesses are not the only ones jumping on the podcast community creation bandwagon! Unsigned bands generate interest in their music by making it available to the world wide web, unpublished books appear as podcasts allowing people to download and listen as the author brings her novel alive to new and possibly untapped readers.
And finally, even your average Joe is donning the headphones and recording their point of view for the world to listen to, and isn’t that just one of the benefits or perhaps disadvantages of podcasting. Anyone with a computer, headphones and recording equipment can add their dulcet tones to the range of podcasters eager to get their message out there. And they are, with added profanity and more besides because unlike internet radio no special licenses are needed (unless playing licensed music) to create and host podcasts.
In the world of podcasting community is king. It’s your audience that decides whether you are a hit or miss. No spin doctor can complete with the mighty force of public opinion. The numbers say it all, the votes speak for themselves. In the majority of cases, without vote fixing, the number of people who download and/or vote for your podcasts is what will bring more listeners into your community.
Whether that show is about the Battlestar Galactica television series or comments on the latest football game, whether that community is a group of exercise fanatics or techno geeks, if you are looking for a way to bring communities together then consider podcasts. Easy to create, simple to distribute and available to the world.
Diane Corriette is a Personal Growth Coach who works with podcasters looking to gain extra visibility by including their self-development podcasts on the Personal Growth Podcast Directory at http://www.personalgrowthpodcastdirectory.com. By including your podcasts on the site you are also able to submit 3 links to a product or special offer you provide. For "how to podcast" information visit her podcasting blog at http://passiveincome.typepad.com/personalgrowthpodcasting
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