Podcasting
The new way to engage with your audiences?
What is Podcasting?
Podcasting has quickly become a buzz word amongst technical and marketing communities alike. So what is podcasting, anyway? At a basic level podcasting is online audio content that is delivered via an RSS feed.
Many people compare podcasting to radio on demand. However, in reality, podcasting gives far more options in terms of content and programming than radio does. In addition, with podcasting, listeners can determine the time and the place, meaning they decide what programming they want to receive and when they want to listen to it.
Listeners can retain audio archives to listen to at their leisure. As expected the Media and Entertainment industry has truly embraced podcasting and all the possibillities it presents but it's also opened up avenues of communication for B2C and B2B marketeers.
Some examples of how Podcasting can be used:
- Product, Service and Solution Tours - Informational content about a product or service can be delivered via a Podcast in a dynamic and immersive fashion at the convenience of the listener.
- Thought Leadership - Regular Podcasts discussing industry issues, news and topics can prove valuable content for your target audience as well as positioning you and your business as an industry evangelist and through leader.
- Talk Shows - Industry or organizational news, investor news, sportscasts, news coverage and commentaries.
- Training - Instructional informational materials.
- Story - Story telling and descriptive of your site services for the visually-impaired.
The Technology behind a Podcast
Podcasting is the syndication of audio files using RSS. Podcasting works the same as a standard RSS feed reader or news aggregator, the only difference is that the feed you subscribe to contains an audio file in it. Instead of reading content in your RSS feed reader or aggregator, you can listen to the contents of your feed using a reader or aggregator that supports podcasting, or you can listen to them on an iPod or similar device. While podcasting was named for the iPod, you do not have to have an iPod to listen to a podcast. Podcasts can be displayed on websites with clickable links to audio files and many of the standard RSS readers, like FeedDemon's latest beta, have begun supporting audio enclosures.
The audio file that makes the feed a podcast rather than a standard RSS feed is contained in the "enclosure" tag. The easiest way to think of this is as an e-mail attachment.
Although the "enclosure" tag is not new to RSS feeds and has been included in the RSS v2.0 specification for about four years, podcasting has only really been around since August 2004.
Webmasters are finding creative ways to provide media-rich content. The syndication aspect and potential increase in audience size are an attractive lure. Listeners benefit from podcasting because, like RSS, podcasting is a means to publish content that ultimately gives the recipient the control over the information they want to see or hear.
