Introduction to Business Podcasting

What is a "Podcast"?

A podcast is defined as a "Personal, On-Demand broadcast". That means it is able to be played when and how the listener chooses. Contrary to its name, a podcast does not require an iPod device to be listened to.

Podcast Distribution

A podcaster can distribute, or "syndicate", a podcast in many different ways. For instance, a company may choose to keep a proprietary podcast private, or it might be appropriate to syndicate a non-proprietary podcast to a wide public audience.

A listener can usually choose to hear a podcast (or view, in the case of a video podcast) via their web browser by simply visiting a podcaster's website and clicking on the appropriate button. However, it might be more convenient to listen to the podcast on a device other than his or her computer — in which case the listener can download the podcast file to a device, such as an iPod, and listen to it whenever and wherever they choose.

To make the process of staying current on multiple podcasts simple, there is a subscription mechanism called RSS (Really Simple Syndication), that allows listeners (subscribers) to receive podcast episodes through a central application on their computer, such as Apple's iTunes. With RSS, instead of visiting each show's host website individually, the listener simply subscribes once to a podcaster, and then each episode is downloaded automatically for them by the software application.

How Companies Use Podcasting

Businesses are discovering new and innovative ways of leveraging audio on demand to address many areas, such as:

• Marketing
• Communications
• Training

For example, a podcast could be used to:

• Provide on-demand training and development
• Distribute new product or service information to customers
• Educate customers and partners on domain-specific information
• Provide financial performance and earnings data to investors

As you can see, podcasting has the ability to touch many aspects of a business.

The Growth of Podcasting

Feedburner, one of the industry's largest trackers of podcast feeds, has grown from 85,000 podcast feeds under management in 2007 (Feedburner statistics - January, 2007) to over 240,000 feeds under management in 2008 (Feedburner statistics - September, 2008), a growth of more than 280%. Those numbers represent consumer and business related podcasts aggregately.

Nielsen/NetRatings announced in July, 2006 that 6.6 percent of the U.S. adult online population, or 9.2 million Web users, have recently downloaded an audio podcast; 4.0 percent, or 5.6 million Web users, have recently downloaded a video podcast (Nielsen/NetRatings - July 12, 2006).

Another promising indicator of the success of podcasting is its comparison to another media technology shift that received a lot of hype in its early days: The DVD. Back in 2000, the DVD format, just 3 years old at the time, was declared the most successful product launch in consumer electronics history, outselling the VCR five to one. Using these statistics as a benchmark, in less than two years, the number of podcasts available online is tenfold that of DVD titles in nearly half the time. In fact, at the 18-month mark for DVDs, there were fewer than 3,000 DVD titles available, and an install base of under 1.5M. (Feedburner statistics - April 8, 2006).

Businesses are also beginning to see the importance of leveraging this new medium to reach their target customer segments. Brands like Volvo, Toyota, Honda, Georgia Pacific, Cisco Systems, Disney and Universal Studios are currently sponsoring podcasts.

Next Step

You can find more information about PeachPodStudios podcast productions in the Podcast Services section of this website. If you would like to speak with a PeachPodStudios representative who can answer your questions, feel free to contact us telephone toll-free at 1-888-808-3330 x1 or by email.

• See Podcast Services
• Request a Quote
• Contact a PeachPodStudios Representative