Podonomics

Scott Bourne called me “smart as a whip” on his blog and I wear that honour with lots of pride. Plus, he has a soft spot for Canadians and anyone who loves us Crazy Canucks gets mucho points in my book.

If you don’t know who Scott is, he works closely with Leo Laporte - hailed as the Podcaster of the Year by the Podcast & Portable Media Expo - on a few podcasts in the TWIT network. According to respondents of the Canadian Podcast survey, TWIT was slated as the top viewed podcast in Canada, so you get an idea where TWIT stack up in the podcasting world. I mean, people were clamouring for Scott’s autograph at the Expo, so he packs alot of star power in podcasting.

I ended up chatting with Scott for about 2-hours on Saturday morning over really bad coffee in the speaker’s room (no Tim Horton’s in Ontario, CA). Our conversation was so engaging, I missed Andrew Baron’s keynote (Paul provides a nice summary). Sorry Drew.

Scott gave me some great advice on how to raise your profile and funny enough, it has nothing to do with podcasting. His tips:

• Network like crazy.
• Attend industry events.
• Ask for favours.
• Write a book.
• Be authentic.

You may be reading the tips above and saying to yourself, “Leesa, that’s obvious.” However, these no-brainer tips from an industry heavyweight such as Scott are easily forgotten.

He gave me very specific ideas that I can use for my own situation. I’m not in the habit of spilling the beans on private conversations on a public forum, however, I will announce some of my plans very soon.

In the meantime, take a look at your own situation and ask yourself if you can use Scott’s advice to raise your own profile. If so, put a plan in place and make it happen. Don’t just say it, write it down, committ your intention to dates, then follow through.

Now, where’s my pen & paper?

Technorati: scott bourne, podcasting, personal brand, perception, networking, Business

Jason Lee Miller over at WebProNews.com attended my session at the Podcast & Portable Media Expo and provided a very nice summary of the seven deadly sins of business podcasting.

He’s asking for more sins. Can you think of any?

Technorati: Podcast Expo 2006, podcasting, pme, portable media expo, Leesa Barnes, webpronews

I finally had a chance to sit in on the corporate podcasting track here at the Podcast Expo. I sat in on Peter Levitan’s presentation called Podcasting: Marketing’s New Change-Agent. Peter, who’s President of Ralston360, gave tips on how to integrate podcasting into a corporation’s current marketing strategy.

Peter talked about his Big 4.

1. Create a creative brief. Define the target market, the intended action item, the key message.
2. Determine a budget. How much are you willing to spend on a podcasting strategy.
3. Hire a pro. Listeners are now demanding that it sounds professional.
4. Integrate. Mention your podcast in your brochures, on your website and in other communication tools.

Peter also mentioned that if you’re trying to convince your peers or your CEO to podcast, don’t send them on a goose chase to download podcasts in iTunes. Instead:

1. Hand him or her a few podcasts on a CD.
2. Tell him or her to listen to it on the drive home.
3. Then, tell him or her that your company needs to offer this type of content for free online.

Some great points.

Technorati: pme, podcast expo 2006, podcasting, peter levitan

Sitting here listening to Paul Colligan, co-author of The Business Podcasting Bible and overall a pretty savvy marketing guy. Here are some points:

• Podcasts don’t make money, clicks on websites do. Use your podcast to lead people to your website (this is what I preach).
• CPMs on podcasts will go away very soon as soon as people figure out how to really make money from podcasts.
• The seven monetization strategies:

1. Benefactor - Sponsorships, tip jars, donations.
2. Newsletters - Give people a reason to subscribe, then send out your ezine weekly.
3. Merchandising - Sell items on your website or through cafepress.com. Mention these products in your podcast.
4. Premium Podcast Content - Have people pay to hear your podcast. Use audible.com.
5. Commissioned Sales - Otherwise known as affiliate marketing, mention products in your podcast, list the affiliate links in your show notes. When your listeners buy, you get a portion of the sales.
6. Web Clicks - Use adsense to drive people to your website, then offer a community complete with transcripts, boards and comments that listeners can participate in.
7. Sell Your Own Products - Digital is better as you keep more of the profits. Use PayPal.com or AutomateSales.com to do this. Mention your products in your podcast, then lead people to your website to purchase the download.

Technorati: pme, podcast expo 2006, podcasting, paul colligan

Scott Bourne, host of PodcastingTricks.com and a host over on the TWIT network, gave some tips on how to keep your sponsors and advertisers based on his many years in the broadcast field. Some points:

• When you make first contact, sell the appointment, not the sponsorship.
• Always keep in mind that you’re trying to help people.
• If you know what they want, you can help them with a solution.
• Handle objections with empathy, not with whining or additional objections.
• Feel - Felt - Found is a perfect formula in dealing with objections, for example:

Prospect says, “The price is too high.”

You say, “I understand how you feel. Many others felt that way, but I found that with the type of customer service I provide, my price is very competitive.”

• 90% of business is lost because we don’t close the sale, so just ask for it.
• Once you have the sale, develop an ad that focuses on the benefits and not hte features.
• Have a call to action in your ad by asking the audience to do something.
• Start your ad with headlines, such as, “Don’t you just hate it when…” or “If you do this right now…” or “Are you tired of…”

Technorati: scott bourne, pme, podcast expo 2006, podcasting, podcasting tricks

During his keynote, Ron Moore, the creator of the reimagined Battlestar Galactica series, spoke about his experience podcasting.

I’m a huge BG fan, so it was rewarding to hear from the person who prompts me to lock myself in a room and turn off the ringer on my phone for 60-minutes each week.

He talked about an episode that he felt took him to a low in his professional career. Black Market, Ron said, wasn’t well done. He thought it was filled with cliches and resembled a traditional way of producing a TV show.

In the podcast he released just after the show, instead of saying that the show was a success, he decided to “be real” and admit that he wasn’t happy with it. Ron said that many wondered why he would trash his own episode, but to Ron, he couldn’t pull the wool over the eyes of his audience since they would just read through it.

Ron loves podcasting because it gives him a direct line to his audience. He can invite them into his house, set the rules, decide the content and there’s no one to interrupt them.

How many corporations can say that they can “be real” through the message they send to the media, to their customers, to their prospects? There’s so much corporate spin on a message that it’s no wonder that people tune it out and don’t trust what executives have to say.

In this era of Enron, Worldcom and now HP, people are demanding honesty and will support the corporations that embrace the communications tools that give them a perception of honesty.
Technorati: ron moore, podcast expo 2006, pme, podcasting,

Leo Laporte, hailed as the Podcaster of the Year, gave a short keynote this morning. Some points he made:

• We should look at using another name besides podcast to call what we do. Tying our name with a brand has been one of the stumbling blocks for podcasting.
• We need to build a consortium that unites the podcasting community to address issues from a united front.
• Podcast monetization is decided not by audience size, but the relationship we have with that audience. We need to work with agencies and advertisers that understand this.

Most importantly, Leo reminded us that podcasting isn’t radio, it isn’t TV. We will only succeed if we treat the monetization of podcasting differently. We should be careful not to copy the mistakes of past media.

Technorati: pme, podcasting, podcast expo 2006, leo laporte

In the world of podcasting, there are bound to be some hissyfits. One has been brewing over the last couple of weeks between Joseph Jaffe and the Podfather himself, Adam Curry.

Jaffe, a new media specialist, recently interviewed Curry and Podshow CEO, Ron Bloom. The interview went 1-1/2 hours, so Jaffe split the interview in two.

Jaffe aired Part 1, but seeing that Curry didn’t promote the interview on his own blog, website or even on his own podcast show called Daily Source Code, Jaffe withheld airing Part 2 until Curry “showed him some love.” Well, that sent Curry off his rocker and Jaffe summed up the whole thing on his blog.

This misunderstanding provides some valuable lessons on how not to treat your guest once the interview is over:

• You can’t demand that your guest publicize the interview they did with you. You can only politely ask.
• Just because your guest doesn’t promote the interview to their own list doesn’t mean you can hold the MP3 of that interview hostage or use it as leverage to not deliver what you said you would.
• At the end of the day, no one really cares about promoting your podcast except you, so get over it.

Here’s Jon’s take.

Technorati: podcasting, adam curry, joseph jaffe

Here are some of my lessons learned from PodCamp:

• It’s all about the content. This is the general theme that came from just about every session I attended. No matter what you want to podcast about, it’s about the content. On top of that, be authentic. Don’t read from a script, don’t try to be what you’re not. Most memorable quote? It came from Mitch Joel: “Be you because someone else is already taken.”

• Always take a road map with you. Never rely solely on Google Maps, Yahoo Maps or handwritten notes. Otherwise, a 10-hour drive becomes a 14-hour trip through 7 states (New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Mass, New Hampshire, Maine, Vermont), and 2 provinces (Quebec & Ontario). Thankfully, Jay, Char & Tera kept me entertained with quotes from the Simpsons. They even put my name to song - I just wish I had my recorder turned on.

• Unconferences are great because you get to learn from those in the trenches - the actual people who are coding and making things happen. Most conferences invite people to speak who don’t even touch a lick of code and instead, give you their 5000-ft viewpoint. On the flip side, some of these very people at these unconferences are the ones that will never be invited to speak at conferences because they haven’t learned how to present in front of crowds. My suggestion? Join Toastmasters.

• Make a list of everyone you want to connect with before you get there. Check out the registrants’ list (if available), google their name, visit their website and make it a point to meet them. I listed all the people I wanted to meet and I can happily say that I did it.

• Find your country folk and make some noise. I immediately found Bob, Mark, Julien and Mitch, who staked their claim in 1 area of the conference room. It was nice to go to the same area and find them to complain about the lack of Tim Horton’s and end everything with “eh” without someone laughing and saying, “You ended your sentence with ‘eh’.” We ended up handing out honourary citizenships to C.C., Bryan and Chris.

• Focus less on the technology of podcasting and more on creating your platform. Suzanne Falter-Barns really drove this part home in her session on Sunday morning. Too many of us focus on the intricate details of our craft, instead of marketing our expertise to a wide audience. The Knitting Guy is a great example of someone who is using podcasting as a tool to market his expertise.

Here’s a summary by Beth of my session on Saturday and here’s a slide show of some pictures I took on Day 1. And here’s a picture of Julien, me and The Knitting Guy that Mark Blevis took.

Technorati Tags: podcasting, podcamp

Podcamp is 8 registrants away from hitting 300. I leave Friday afternoon with Jay and the rest of the Uncle Seth crew and I’m looking forward to finally putting voices to faces.

Here’s a list of individuals I’m looking forward to meeting or catching up with at Podcamp.

Mitch Joel - In an earlier post, I called Mitch the Canadian version of Seth Godin. I’ve never met Seth, but I’m guessing he’s just like Mitch - sarcastic, witty and has a mind that’s always working on the next big marketing idea. Mitch will be co-presenting with C.C. Chapman on how to extend your brand in your podcast. Thankfully, his session is the most interesting to me in that timeslot, so I’ll be attending.

Andrew Baron - The brains behind Rocketboom, I met Andrew at iSummit and at CaseCamp. He’s the most humble person I’ve ever met, so I’m anxious to catch up with him again. He will present a session on how to know your audience.
Joanne Colan - The new host of Rocketboom, she’s clearly shown that she can live up to the hype and skeptics.

Suzanne Falter-Barns - The Get Known Now coach, who recently had me on a teleclass on podcasting, will be there. She asked me to text her when I arrive. How cool is that? She’s presenting a session on how to attract the media to your blog or podcast.
John C. Havens - The About.com Guide for Podcasting, he and I have had a few chats over email about podcasting and why I didn’t like him at first. Now, he’s at the top of my “Really Very Likable Person” list. He’ll explore corporate podcasting in one of the Podcamp sessions.
Andrew Rosen - He interviewed me a while back for his podcast called The Working Podcast. He recently celebrated the 50th episode, so I shall catch up with him to find out how he keeps doing it.

C.C. Chapman - If Adam Curry is the sizzle in podcasting, C.C. is the steak. I’ve heard so much about him and I can’t wait to finally sit down for a chat. As I metioned earlier, he’s co-presenting a session with Mitch on how to extend your brand in your podcast.

Eric Olson - Feedburner’s techie guy, I chatted with him at the April International Podcasting Expo. I thought he was Canadian due to his accent, but he assured me that while he found my compliment a compliment, he was raised in the American north-east. I guess that’s Canadian enough. Of course, he’ll focus on how to use a feed to promote your podcast.
Jason Van Orden - Pretty smart guy when it comes to podcasting, he recently released a book called Promoting Your Podcast, a book I fully endorse and recommend to my clients.

Robert Allen - Someone I met at the April International Podcasting Expo, I distinctly remember that he has an awesome podcasting voice. I’m anxious to find out how his wedding podcasting strategy has panned out over the past several months.

Of course, this list doesn’t include Chris, Jay, Mark & Bob, Julien, Bryan, but I’ve mentioned them several times before. I’ll take lots of pictures and will update my blog throughout the weekend.