Seven reasons your company should podcast

If you’re still not sure what a podcast is don’t feel bad. You are one of millions of intelligent,Seven reasons your company should podcast Articles informed people who are missing this piece of the New Media puzzle

Having excused you, now permit me to chastise you. All businesspeople should know what a podcast is, especially considering there are tens of thousands of them and their legions of listeners are growing. Podcasting can also be very beneficial to your company or you as a business professional.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. First, a few basics.

Podcasts are audio files, mostly composed of people talking and often including music and sound effects. They can be downloaded and listened to on a computer, or transferred to your iPod (hence the “pod”-cast name) or other MP3 player. The vast majority of podcasts are free of charge through iTunes, Podcast Alley and other outlets.

To give you some idea, I subscribe to more https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/opinioni-non-richieste/id1693069537?uo=4 than a dozen podcasts that range from audio versions of TV programs such as Meet the Press and Face the Nation, to National Public Radio interview programs Fresh Air and The Diane Rehm Show, to academic and business programming like the Harvard Business IdeaCast, the McKinsey Quarterly Podcasts and news summaries from The Economist magazine.

It’s great stuff.

Podcasts are convenient because they can be listened to while driving, pumping iron at the gym, hiking, zipping to the office on the train, sitting on your sofa or dozing in bed at night (one of my favorite ways to enter the Land of Nod).

That’s one of the big advantages audio podcasts have over video – they require one rather than two senses, meaning they don’t require your undivided attention. You can listen to audio while participating in any number of activities. It’s probably not a good idea to watch a video while you’re riding a horse or trying to stay balanced on a treadmill.

All one need do is check out some of the organizations that podcast to realize its value and implications. There’s the legendary consulting firm of McKinsey & Co, accounting giant PricewaterhouseCoopers and academic icon HarvardBusinessSchool. Why do these organizations podcast?

Here are just seven good reasons.

Display expertise. When McKinsey & Co. conducted its annual global survey of business spending on Web 2.0 technologies, it not only released a written report, it produced a podcast consisting of an interview with one of the research report’s authors. Another example is a podcast titled Connecting climate change and economic recovery, featuring an interview with economist Nicholas Stern.