Telling a good yarn

Ira Glass is a 30 year public radio broadcaster in the United States. In this four part YouTube series he explains the essence of a good story, what makes it good and what keeps people listening.

He makes an excellent comment on taste - that as podcasters we should be prepared to put out a whole heap of crap, until we are able to meet our own excellent taste. In other words, don't give up before you actually meet your own high standards. It's a good lesson.

Enjoy these clips of Ira Glass.

What makes a good podcast promo?

I have been trawling through the likes of Kiptronic recently listening to some of the worst promos ever created for podcasters, and it got me fired up to talk about my thoughts on what makes a good podcast promo - so here goes!

Be informative - If you're are interrupting someones listening time, given them good quality information to help them decide whether to choose your show. Asking a leading question can help like: "Have you ever wondered what it would be like to podcast?" Make sure you clearly give the name of your show and your website address. Encourage people to subscribe as well as listen.

Be a personality - make it personal and speak in language that listeners will understand. Too often I hear promos that try to be fancy and somehow completely miss the point. People don't listen to a show because of fancy sound effects, they want to hear from a person and information that meets their needs. Introduce yourself, keep a smile in your voice and be the personality that people want to hear more from.

Be timeless - Promos can be played anytime by anyone. A timeless promo means that it will be relevant to listeners regardless of whether it's played in June, November or next January. General information rather than the specifics of a particular show is what's called for.

Keep your production quality high - By all means use music if it adds to a listeners' understanding of what your show is about. Make sure your music sits underneath your voice. Use a good quality microphone and make sure your voice is recorded well at a decent level.

Use music well - Music has the ability to lift or lower the impression of your promo, so it's worth doing right.

The start of your promo should either be voice or music. To start a music track after your opening statement or question will give impact to your words.

If you start your music at the beginning leave one or two seconds before you 'duck' your music and start talking. Programs like Audacity have neat "Auto Duck" features, which will automatically drop the music under your voice track.

Music with a definite end (e.g. a 30 second sting) will end naturally. Keep your voice track within the 30 seconds and allow the music to finish with impact. If fading a continuing track, fade in the last second of the track.

Give a call to action - People are used to screening out information, so make sure you give a good call to action, and a reason to listen. What is a call to action? It's a statement which tells a user exactly what they have to do next. "Subscribing is easy. Go straight to our website at podcastersemporium.com and click the subscribe button"

Negotiating placement - Placement is all about anticipating what other shows your listeners might be tuning into. Normally podcasters will be happy to play a well produced promo on their show, in return for reciprocal airplay on someone else's show. Talk, forge an agreement and then make sure you stick to your agreement.

Most promos will either be placed pre-roll or post-roll. Some may choose interstitial placement. Let me explain how this works:

A pre-roll promo is one that is played ahead of the podcast. The advantage to you is that your podcast promo is likely to get heard. The disadvantage for the host is that he risks people leaving his show to listen to another one.

A post-roll promo is played after the podcast has finished. This is the most advantageous for the podcast host because it doesn't interrupt their podcast to get your message across. In the post-roll, an audience may miss your message because they have 'tuned-out' before your promo got played.

Interstitial placement is like a tv or radio commercial. This is the least favourite for audiences though. Audience survey data points to audiences not liking being interrupted by ads in the middle of a podcast.

Have you got a question about promos? Leave a comment and let's start a discussion going!

Not the end for the Global Geek Podcast team

In this weeks' episode of Global Geek Podcast the hosts Dave, Cait and Keith announced a departure from The Podcast Network, but were quick to announce that the show will go on.

The hosts created 90 episodes of Global Geek Podcast under The Podcast Network banner and have built a strong and loyal following, so why move?

According to the hosts, it was to take control of the programming and do some independent branding of the new show.

Over the last six months there have been ongoing server issues, which may have contributed to the hosts' unanimous decision to go it alone.

Former host of the Global Geek Podcast, Dave Gray, announced the move and was quick to add that there is no animosity between the show hosts and The Podcast Network.

The new show will be called the Aussie Geek Podcast and can be found at http://www.aussiegeekpodcast.com/

Insights from the Queue

It's not everyday that a huge marketing machine like Apple has a big event in the Southern Hemisphere, and this week it was one of those 'special' moments. Apple was opening the second biggest Apple Store in the world - Apple Store Sydney.

Two years in the plan and build, a big dose of interwebs hype and media attention for the people camped out on the door step two days prior resulting in about 4,000 people queuing for hours, some in the rain, just to be some of the first people in the door.

I was within the first 500 in the queue, biding my time with many other enthusiasts from around the globe. Just in front a group of school kids, excited to be part of an Apple event for the first time, recounting stories about the time when they got their first ipod and their first iBook.

It got me thinking about when I first started using the Apple Macintosh, over twenty years ago, before these school kids were even born! I remember getting goose-pimples down my arms when I first saw a Macintosh on the television thinking "this is nothing like the Apple IIe, it's going to change the world". For a 14 year old, that was a big thought, not so grand in the big scheme of things. My school got a Mac only a few weeks later and my world changed forever.

A lot of people ask what is it that draws these people, sometimes from the other side of the world, to an opening of a store. There's no new products on offer, and there were no secret announcements. Just a cheap - but effective - limited edition t-shirt give away at the door.

Did I queue for the t-shirt - well yes, and no. Did I queue to buy some product - not today. Did I go in the hope that there would be some secret announcement - not really. So why did I go? I went to experience how Apple markets something like the Apple store. Unlike most in that queue I went to experience the queue, just as much as the store.

Most sane people would not queue for street blocks, waiting sometimes hours in the rain just to see a new store. But this is no ordinary store. It's an Apple Store. It's somehow more special, more attractive and more deserving of the wait. Perhaps it was how long we've had to wait for a store like this in Australia, perhaps it was the build up and plans under wraps, but never before have I witnessed this type of cult-like following for the opening of a store. It was all quite remarkable.

So what did the queue teach me? It taught me that strong brands can get people to do things out of the ordinary and it showed me that smart marketers can tap otherwise hidden opportunities when these extraordinary events happen.

Today I want to share with you three marketing observations and a missed opportunity.

While I waited in a queue I witnessed music stores, sports stores and even recruitment agents handing out flyers to the sitting ducks waiting patiently behind carefully constructed barricades. No message, no shared enthusiasm, simply an opportunity to hand out pieces of paper to people with no attempt to connect.

I saw others who served the crowd coffee from mobile vans - definitely meeting a need on a cold winter day. There were friendly smiles and interactions and people were getting some needs met. There was no sell, these people were offering free coffee in the hope that it might bring them business somewhere down the track.

The best marketing I witnessed was from Nudie a niche crushed fruit juice maker - a quality product with quirky branding that always makes me smile. They were handing out product by the handful to the waiting crowd. A small juice to take away the thirst, but what made it special was the extra step. They connected with the crowd. As they were handing over the bottled drinks they were smiling and sharing the enthusiasm. Their message was creative and hit the spot with the people who were waiting:

"Nudie loves Apples too!"

What wonderful brand alignment. They met my need, and with a simple message aligned their brand of juice with the buzz, excitement and brand of Apple.

And the juice didn't taste too bad either!

Now, it rained on the opening night and what happens next is the missed opportunity.

Apple had umbrellas but were only giving them to people queuing and then recycling them back out into the crowd once safely inside. But what about on the way out? You guessed it, no umbrellas. For me it was a bit like the caring, the cheering and the love stopped when you walked out the door.

There was a huge missed opportunity for Apple. They missed a huge opportunity to send a very powerful message that they care as much about their customers as their customers care about them

What you may not have realised is that Telstra have their flagship mobile phone concept store right across the road from Apple.

Now imagine if Telstra turned up on the footpath to meet exiting customers with an umbrella. What message would that send? What huge marketing inroads were lost through a lack of agility and insight?

It just gets you thinking...

Ping.fm

If you're into social networks and have a few accounts on the boil, you'll know how difficult it can be to keep them all updated. You have followers all over the place, each with their own favourite service. So how do you keep in touch with them all? Ping.fm is the answer.

This service allows you to update all your services at once, many of the commonly used social networks can be updated by giving your message to ping.fm and letting this nifty site do the work for you.

Email your message to a designated account, from any email address and very shortly after your message will appear on all your sites. It's really easy to use.

Ping.fm is currently in testing, but if you would like to get in on the action you can use this special invite code 'letmeping' when you register.

To register for the ping.fm service follow this link.

Episode 7: Networks Plurks and Sweet Giveaways from Apple Store Sydney

This is a short episode of the Podcasters' Emporium, reporting back after the opening of Sydney's brand new Apple Store today. It's been a fun, and manic day, as I bring you this episode before the morning newspapers!

Download

Here's a link to the clips from Sydney's Apple Store opening, on Flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/7721169@N07/sets/72157605694402694/




















Now, if you want to join me on plurk, then follow this link. Once you've joined you'll automatically be included on my friends list. If you're already on plurk, here's my profile page.

Here's a link to the music we played on today's show:
The Pinker Tones
"Karma Hunters" (mp3)
from "Karma Hunters"
(Outstanding Records)

Buy at iTunes Music Store
Buy at Napster
Buy at Pure Tracks
More On This Album

Qik

The new mobile streaming service Qik is great fun. I got an invitation to do some testing a little while back and I've been having some fun making home-grown videos on my Nokia, watching them stream live to the qik website and then out to youtube and beyond!

Qik works through an application downloaded to your mobile phone, which streams content from your phone's built-in camera directly up to the website using your carrier's mobile internet service.

While mid stream you can select options to automatically notify twitter followers that you are live streaming with a link to your stream.

Here's an example of the output from Qik:



Good to hear that there will be support for Apple iPhone very soon. I will be migrating over to the iPhone when it is released in Australia on July 11.

If you want to check out Qik, you can do that at qik.com