Over the past few weeks, I have been listening to the podcast of a woman who bills herself as a business coach and internet marketing pro. I kept listening to her show, hoping that it wouldn’t be the same train wreck week after week. Hoping that someone who calls herself an internet marketing expert would consult with someone for an hour or two on how to deliver a top-notch podcast. Good thing I didn’t hold my breath.
She violated the following five cardinal rules of podcasting…
1) Don’t be chatty Cathy (or Carl). If you have this tendency…curb it. The ideal length for a podcast is 12 to 15 minutes. If you are using the podcast format for an internet radio show, you can go as long as 50 minutes. But whatever you do, don’t call it a podcast and offer 50 minutes of content. That’s a tell-tale sign of an amateur!
2) Be relevant. This is BUSINESS! It’s OK to interject with a personal note or two, if that’s your style, but resist the temptation to share your personal business with your audience…unless, of course, that’s the theme of your show. In short: Keep it professional.
3) Bookend the podcast audio with a male (or female) voice. There’s a reason that the nightly news is one male and one female anchor (usually). I cannot tell you how absolutely boring it is to listen to one person’s voice for 15 to 50 minutes straight. Have a male/female introduce your podcast (the intro), its “segments” and the closing (the outro). And, for goodness sakes, pay the $40/hour and get voice-over talent.
4) Let guests be guests. Don’t have the guest segment take up the entire podcast. Don’t have a guest on more than once per month. That’s not a guest, that’s a co-host! People tune in to hear YOU: YOUR opinions and YOUR recommendations. If they wanted to hear someone else, they’d tune in to a different show. Now, if the format of your show is guest interviews, that’s great, but if you started the podcast to build your platform or to showcase your expertise, you’re certainly not achieving those goals by having guests on every week! Ya think?
5) Drop the expense excuse. A good podcast doesn’t have to be professionally mixed and remastered. This is not Michael Jackson’s “Thriller”–just make it professional. As my Aunt Lucy used to say, “You might not have a lot of dresses, but if the ones you have are cleaned and pressed, no one will notice.”
And, don’t worry…I’ve already contacted Ms. Biz Coach to give her some feedback.
