Member Article

Why the podcast should be your new best friend

Over the last few months, I’ve discovered a tool that has really helped me build my business knowledge without too much time investment. I’m talking about podcasts and their popularity has grown exponentially in recent years, according to a report by Copyblogger in 2015 there were upwards of 60,000 active podcasts available on iTunes so there are certainly plenty to choose from!

If you didn’t already know podcasts are online audio programmes and provide a brilliant way of getting a good understanding on a new topic or even brushing up on an existing one at a time that suits you. They can help you in your day-to-day life and in business, so why should you be using them and where are the best ones? Read on and you’ll find out.

News There are podcasts about pretty much any news topic under the sun so whether you want to catch up with the latest on the US elections, the European Referendum or the Premiership title run in then you will be able to find one. The Guardian has some good ones which you will find here as does the BBC which you will find here.

Anything and everything Podcasts aren’t limited to news, you can learn about the latest book releases, travel, a new technique and many radio shows condense their best bits into a weekly podcast so the subject range is pretty diverse.

Manageable chunks Podcasts aren’t time hungry. The broadcasts are typically broken down into chunks of an hour or less so you can listen to them in the car, on the train, while you take the dog for a walk and pretty much anywhere else so long as you have your smartphone, tablet and of course you can even sit at your desktop!

Great tekkers YouTube is a great medium for understanding how you do something but podcasts differentiate by providing the why – by that I mean they tell you why you should do something and how it could benefit you. Often a podcast is an interview with an expert about their views and experience on a particular topic and you can quickly understand why it could be useful for your business so for example it could be why you should use Twitter or Is Instagram the right social media tool for you?

Sharing your skills I’ve talked about listening to podcasts but what about making your own? More and more businesses are using podcasts as a way to talk about a new offering or indeed an old one. Think about what you could do for your business here are some examples – a construction company could discuss new building techniques on a project they have just completed, a beauty salon could talk about a new product it’s using for treatments or you could be an accountant telling listeners about some new tax legislation and how it affects individuals or a business. Think about who you are targeting and what you are selling and how you can package it up into an interesting broadcast or better still a series of broadcasts.

Interesting content and great relationships Another bonus with podcasts is that they are valuable content which builds the visibility of your brand and Google loves them so they’ll help with SEO too. They also assist you in engaging with your audience helping you build a much stronger and more personal relationship.

So what’s not to love about podcasts and if you’re not already then get listening and maybe even start up your own?

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Louise Burke .