Podonomics

I love basketball, I played the game competitively right up until my 2nd year in university and if you’ve been to any of my speeches, I use my basketball as part of presentation.

So, when Toronto was awarded an National Basketball Association (NBA) franchise back in the mid-1990s, I was estactic.

Because the Toronto Raptors is in a Canadian city, they’ve had problems getting the best players to cross the border. Some think that we have 12-months of cold and refuse to come (like Steve Francis). Others say they want to win a championship and immediately want to be traded (like Alonzo Mourning). Others think they’ll be payed in Canadian dollars and cite taxes as their main concern. And on and on it goes.

However, the new general manager, Bryan Colangelo, is doing something I think is very smart. Instead of chasing American-born players, he’s going after International players. In the world of branding, he “gets it.”

Colangelo recently drafted Andrea Bargnani from Italy as his #1 pick in the NBA Draft earlier this spring. Along with 2 players from Spain and 1 from Slovenia, the Raptors are beginning to look a bit like the United Nations.

In turn, having these International players on the roster means that more Canadians who identify themselves as decendents from these countries will start to fill the seats. Which means a packed stadium. Which means more revenue. Which means Colangelo is just so damn smart.

Toronto is a multicultural city. While we say we’re Canadian, many will claim another country as their roots. Even those who were born in Canada will claim their parents or grandparents land as their source of pride. It’s not to say that we don’t love Canada. On the contrary, Canadians will fiercely defend their adoptive or native land. However, because many of us are influenced by the customs of other countries while being raised, it’s way more fun to have both feet firmly planted in 2 countries.

When Yao Ming was drafted by the Houston Rockets, people were shocked. Why bring in a Chinese player who can’t even speak English, some said. However, when the Houston Rockets made their way to Toronto for a game, the Air Canada Centre (ACC) where the Raptors play their home games was packed with Chinese Canadians.

Colangelo is on to something. By bringing in International players, he’s building a team that directly reflects the very city the Raptors play in.

Just brilliant.

Now, what does this have to do with podcasting? Well, you’ve got to know your brand before you can craft your podcasting strategy. But knowing your brand is the first step. You also need to provide information in your podcast that directly influences a particular niche. That way, you will gain new subscribers who will stay with you for the long haul.

Pull a Colangelo with your podcast.

Technorati Tags: raptors, toronto, Basketball, canada, podcasting, Business

Becky Rynor, a writer who attended the Podcasters Across Borders conference a couple weekends back, had an article published today on podcasting. The lousy thing is that you need a subscription in order to read the article. So un-podcast-like. I mean, the purchasing part.

In any case, I went to my closest Internationale Presse store and purchased a copy of the Ottawa Citizen. I was rather pleased with the article. I was happy to see Rynor clear up some misconceptions (”No, you don’t need an iPod to listen to a podcast”) and she included many female voices, including yours truly.

She included a quote from me at the end of the article that seemed to sum up the mood of the conference and podcasting in general. What was my winning quote?

“That’s what I love about podcasting. The community of podcasters is so open, even though we are all here as competitors. No other industry does this. We share ideas. We give. And we give back.”

Blah. I’ve got to come up with some better quotes. Here are some quotes from the article that I wish I had said.

Bob Goyetche, organizer of PAB and host of Canadian Podcast Buffet:

“With podcasting, I’m as powerful as ABC.”

Julien Smith, host of In Over Your Head:

“I would rather listen to a 15-year old who is having trouble at school, than a mainstream radio host who has nothing to say.”

Cathi Bond, host of The Sniffer:

“Podcasting is about doing every single thing the CBC won’t let me do.”

Neil Gorman, host of Comicology:

“[Podcasting] is out Speaker’s Corner. It’s so cool.”

Grab a copy online or go to one of those stores that sell international magazines and newspapers to pick up your copy of this article.

Technorati Tags: pab2006, ottawa citizen,

I was listening to Global National the other night and they did a story on the top rated Canadian podcast in iTunes being that of our Prime Minister.

They went on to say that the only Liberal leadership candidate who’s podcasting is Michael Ignatieff, the chap that many believe will eventually become leader of the federal Liberal Party (doesn’t he resemble John Kerry?).

So, I went on a mission. I visited the websites of his competitors, including the mothership, the Liberal Party. Here’s what I found:

• The Liberal Party is podcasting (although you can download instructions on how to listen through iTunes via a PDF).

• Liberal leadership candidate #2, Bob Rae is NOT podcasting (although you can get his news, event and media information in RSS feeds).

• Liberal leadership candidate #3, Joe Volpe, is NOT podcasting (although you can read his extremely lengthy What I Believe section).

• Liberal leadership candidate #4, Gerrard Kennedy, is NOT podcasting (although he provides graphics for bloggers).

• Liberal leadership candidate #5, Stéphane Dion, is NOT podcasting, however, he has forums and he has an online video welcoming people to his website. So, he’s almost there.

• Liberal leadership candidate #6, Martha Hall Findlay is NOT podcasting (although there’s a page under Engage the Issues that lists podcasts & blogs, but when you go to that page, all that’s there is are 2 fan blogs and a streaming video file where you need Real Player to view).

• Liberal leadership candidate #7, Scott Brison is NOT podcasting (although he has something called a Scott-cast, but it’s in a WMA format so at the end of the day, it’s simply audio on a website, but it’s a start).

• Liberal leadership candidate #8, Ken Dryden, former hockey player is NOT podcasting (however, he seems to support blogosphere with his BlogBuzz page).

• Liberal leadership candidate #9, Carolyn Bennett, is NOT podcasting (although she has a most interesting image that acts as a blog - her “blog” turns out to be text on her blackberry).

• Liberal leadership candidate #10, Maurizio Bevilacqua, is NOT podcasting (although he has a “blog” which turns out to be simply text on a webpage).

• Liberal leadership candidate #11, Hedy Fry, is NOT podcasting (although she has streaming video played through QuickTime and she too has a blog, but it’s being updated by someone on her campaign).

No wonder the Liberal party is in trouble and won’t win any federal election in the foreseeable future. The candidates for the leadership of the federal party is embracing social media tools in a wishy washy way.

Some have blogs, but they’re either just slapped on a webpage (instead of using a real blogging tool), or it’s being updated by a campaign manager. Some are using what they think is podcasting, but it isn’t since you need to download a player to view or listen to it, plus you can’t find it in iTunes. Some have forums that don’t even include real debate since someone is probably deleting any dissenting comments.

Social media in the form of podcasting, blogging, discussion boards, etc. could help these candidates form real relationships with the very people who are eventually going to vote for them at the leadership conference in November.

Not just that, but for those who truly embrace social media, not just treat it as a casual afterthought, could really set them themselves apart from their competitors and connect with Liberal party members in a way that seems real and not contrived.

No wonder innovation is lost is this country. How many small, innovative Canadian tech companies are now just a division of a American company because they’ve been acquired? How many brilliant Canadian minds are we losing to lucrative scholarships and job offers in other countries?

It all starts with our leaders. If our politicians are not willing - or don’t care to - embrace the technological tools that the common Canadian person is using, then it’s comes as no surprise that once they get into office, we feel the effects of their techno-ignorance through archaic policies.

Being a candidate is the perfect time to really understand how social media can help your campaign. Don’t leave it to your campaign manager or someone else on your staff. Really take an interest, understand it, then farm it out to someone else.

Out of all the candidates, Michael Ignatieff and Ken Dryden pass my social media test. I highly recommend that if the other candidates want to make an impact in November at the leadership conference, develop a social media campaign that will turn heads, get blogosphere talking and podosphere buzzing.

Your time is right now.

Technorati Tags: Canada, liberal party, social media, Blogging, podcasting

Just a quick note to let you know that we’re getting close to our Ipsos-Reid-like numbers for the Canadian Podcast Listeners Survey.

After asking everyone and their mama to blog or podcast about this survey, we jumped from 350 to 770 in just 7-days. Now that’s the power of blogosphere and podosphere. What an incredibly wonderful story. I can’t wait to share the results with you all in July.

BTW, the survey is open until June 30th. Click here to fill it out.

If you’ve been reading my blog for some time, you know how much I love numbers. You also know how I’ve been bellyaching about people making sweeping generalizations about podcasting based on small sample sizes.

Well, now I understand why. Unless you have a mailing list the size of a small town, it’s difficult to get anyone to fill in anything.

A few weeks ago, I announced a survey that my company and another company put together to get a picture on how much Canadians are embracing podcasting. After 6-weeks, we still only have a few hundred responses. We’re looking for at least a couple thousand.

So, we’ve done a number of things to get the responses we’re looking for.

1. We’ve extended the deadline.
2. We’ve offered a prize.
3. We’ve bribed asked Canadians in blogosphere to help out. All who do will be mentioned in the acknowledgements of a report that will go out to a few dozen media outlets and marketing execs. So thanks to Kate, Bob & Mark, Jon, The Mose, Sebastien, Master Maq, Podcheck Review, Kim, Alex.

I really, really, really want to prove that word of mouth and blogosphere are all a person needs to get the buzz going. If I have to buy advertising, then I’d feel like I’m cheating in some way.

So, if you haven’t filled out the survey, I urge you to do so. Then forward it off to your network of friends, family and colleagues. Click here to access it. And if you have a blog, trackback to this post or blog about the survey.

Technorati Tags: canada, podcasting survey, survey