As a new partner to Sherwood Communications I have a lot to share! Let’s begin with the subject of podcasts, which are commonly overlooked by communications professionals.
Podcasts are most akin to TV series or Talk Radio series and have these commonalities:
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Access: Podcasts are almost always free for anyone to access via any number of free audio platforms including iTunes, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and TuneIn Radio. Podcasts may or may not be offered with or without static images or video clips. Podcast content with streaming video clips are referred to as ‘videocasts’.
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Listening: People listen to podcasts via that podcast’s website or by downloading it onto their phone or onto their podcast player. For example, I subscribe to podcasts that appear onto iTunes, then download podcast episodes and sync them to my iPhone or iPod Touch device to play when I am ready to take in the content.
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Frequency: Podcasts can be offered as often as single episodes daily, weekly, bi-weekly or less frequently.
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Episode Durations may be as brief as 15-20 minutes or long as 2 hours.
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Topics: Appeal to a wide and/or very specific variety of topics, EX: USAToday has a daily news podcast intended to appeal to a general audience, just as USAToday.com and USAToday newspaper does. By contrast there are zillions of podcasts that appeal to very specific audiences, such as new mothers, cryptocurrency traders, or doctors, scientists and researchers who follow new biomedical innovations or environmental changes.
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Operating Platforms: Podcasts may be operated by a larger media conglomerate – such as print newspapers like The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USAToday or broadcast conglomerates such as Fox News and CNN. Therefore an appearance on a CNN TV show may also pave the way for a correlated but separate appearance on a CNN podcast, or may the broadcast unit may be operated entirely separate from the audio or podcast unit.
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Guests: Podcasts channels are hosted and guided by 1-2 people who are typically prominent in their industry, and operate much like a radio show in that they feature interesting, provocative, expert guests directly and pointedly promoting a specific position and/or launching a product (oftentimes a book or other consumer product). The slight advantage of podcasts over a radio interview is that the host is less interested in provoking the guest and more interested in getting a good interview. So we can typically specify topics for discussion — even propose the flow of questions — resulting in positive outcomes.
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Asks: We can make simple “asks” at the end of each interview such “Follow me on Twitter at XX” or “Check out my books X, Y and Z now available on Amazon, or hint that you are seeking an Agent.
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Reach: Podcasts invariably maintain social media channels thru which they symbiotically promote their podcast and its guests. The producers and hosts make the listening reach known on their websites.
There is more to say, of course. This is the type of top-line advice we like to give. Enjoy.
Jean
After her career in the publishing industry at book publisher Little, Brown & Company, Jean moved into public relations but has been influenced by her career in publishing. She also has more than 15 years of experience in medical device promotion.
Jean Lombard’s success is built on her track record of experience driving integrated marketing campaigns for Silicon Valley startups, med-tech and for mature companies seeking to launch new, critically important divisions.
Jean is adept at identifying and assessing how to introduce and differentiate clients’ products and platforms — and how to identify and optimize target audiences — to cost-effectively gain brand awareness and coverage for competitive advantage and Influencer status.
Jean’s hands-on strength is creating core marketing messages based on trending phrases and important terms, then infusing these elements into compelling and resonant marketing channels including website copy, social media posts, email digital marketing campaigns, press releases and pitch letters.
As a certified Project Manager and Digital Marketing professional, Jean is accustomed to aligning teams in disparate time zones to identify immediate priorities and then teaming up to tackle and efficiently resolve the most important and time-sensitive deliverables.
She is truly excited to begin working with you.