Heather Gorringe of Wiggly Wigglers in a comment to one on my recent post summed up the power of podcasts for her:

"Apart from our listeners it has enabled us to get valuable pr and we are just partnering with a couple of major organisations to make a section of our podcast relevant for them. This will mean that once again podcasting allows a small business to pack a really big clout!"

Those major organisations have seen the power that social media tools - blogging and podcasting - can bring to highly targeted marketing or 'narrowcasting'. Why spend a fortune 'broadcast' advertising to large sections of the population who could not care less? Target an already an engaged audience who are well qualified and likely to be receptive to your message. 

Hugh McLeod talks about the global micro-brand. In effect the ability of small local businesses to 'punch above their weight', to make an impact globally for a fraction of the budget used by big corporations to do the same. But with one important difference. Heather is an authentic voice. She has not been 'filtered' by a Corporate Marketing or the PR agency. Her personal passion for her subject and enthusism shine through. She does actually 'narrowcast' from her sofa on her farm. It works for her because of the product and service she is promoting. Others may choose to take a different approach to having a conversation.

At the recent European Podcasting Summit a number of speakers stressed the importance of engaging the audience in active conversations. This can be done by via e-mail, comments on a blog, podcast dial-in and even User Generated Content (UGC). If you check out Wiggly Wigglers you will see just how interactive Heather and her team is being. A model for us all I think....

Transparency statement: Whilst I have worms in my garden none have been supplied by Wiggly Wigglers.

Just spent the last days two at the European Podcasting Summit in London (19th and 20th March) organised by Anita Yaa Agyeman and her team.

It was a well organised event (by First Conferences) with a great mix of new and traditional media types plus independent podcasters and corporate marketing people. With such a mix you get a variety of views but what I love about the industry is that it is still so new and exciting that everyone is happy to help everyone else. A passion for the subject that transcends potential business rivalry.

It reminds me of the early days of the PC industry. It was full of people who had a vision of a different way to use computers. The energy and enthusiasm was infectious. We were all sharing a vision and a mission. Even those of us working for Lotus (1-2-3 and Notes) actually spoke to the guys from Microsoft. We even worked on of a couple collaborative projects together. As it became big business it maybe lost a lot of that raw passion and energy. That will happen with podcasting some time in the future but in the meantime it will be great fun.

What I did hear and see were end users keen to start to experiment but keep it internal first rather than learn in public. Large companies have the brand to worry about. Risk avoidance is important so would involved Corporate and Legal oversight. What they wanted to hear were ‘authentic’ case studies presented by real people and not agencies. One of the most fun contributions was from Heather Gorringe of Wiggly Wrigglers. She was wonderful. Full of energy and passion. She has a great website, blogs regularly and within days of hearing her first podcast in 2005 started her own. Almost 2 years down the line she attracts 20k people to her weekly podcast and has successfully taken her company international – all the way from her farm in rural Herefordshire.  

One other thing that did strike me was just how hard traditional media agencies who spoke at the conference are at understanding what podcasting and social media is all about and what they have to do to completely adapt. They have invested massively in infrastructure and processes to support communication via traditional print and broadcast media. Social media – blogging, audio and video podcasting - does not need so many multiple levels. Even if traditional agencies can learn to work creatively in the new medium (they are smart people so they will either buy-in specialist agencies or talent) the current cost structures just do not work. The traditional agencies are used to working on large budgets. Social media uses the internet, WOM and viral to deliver. There are no commissions and rebates available on something that is free.  

Last week I had the pleasure of interviewing two organisations who podcast regularly. One was a top UK financial institution and the other a small business in rural England. A great variation between them on resource and budget available but both equally passionate about what they were doing and why.

They are both presenting at the European Podcasting Summit in London next month. We have been asked by the organisers to interview some of the speakers at the event for podcasting to visitors before the event (I will provide links in a future blog).

Both had fascinating stories to tell on the success of their podcasting programmes. The critically important thing for both of them was to create programmes that their audience would become engaged with. For the Financial Institution it was advice and managing money and investments. For the small business it was sharing their passion for natural gardening and farming. Both had used feedback and comments to refine and improve the content and hence sense of community. Both were getting audiences of many thousands.

As 'soaps' on radio and TV have shown - audiences care (often passionately) about what happens. They feel a special relationship with the 'characters' and the programme itself - a sort of 'ownership'. Many companies spend large amounts of money of branding, Customer Relationship Management tools and 'loyalty' programmes. Whilst these marketing tools certainly have their place, the early pioneers of podcasting are finding that their audience engagement ROI is massive.

A busy day in the studios.

We had almost 1 hour of video from the shoot last week to edit into 3 videocasts of 5 minutes each. All of them have different target audiences so the story boards and style is different.

One is for an internal audience only. The members of the Company of Information Technologists although working in IT in the City of London are based around a wide geographic area. The Company has the equivalent of a Chairman. They are called a Master and serve a 12 month term. Usually they update the members of progress during their term in office via a letter in the in-house magazine. This is published 4 or so times per year. Why did they want to do a videocast? Speed, authenticity and cost effectiveness.

• Speed – a videocast takes less than an hour to make, a couple of hours to edit and could be ready in less than 24 hours.
• Authenticity – even using a Q&A format a letter in a newsletter or even an interview is not 100% authentic. During reporting some things will get edited. An audio podcast or videocast is 100% real. It is the person speaking their own words.
• Cost effectiveness – there is no print, handling and distribution cost apart from storage of audio or video files on server space.

Another videocast will be used as a ‘virtual’ presentation at the European Podcasting Summit. The client was asked about their interest and uses of podcasts to help their communication strategy. The replies have been recorded and will be used to help explain the application and benefits to an audience of other organisations.

The 3rd vide shoot will be used as a webvideo to be used on the Company of Information Technologists web site so site visitors can get a 'presentation' on the company. This online presentation is a powerful tool.

Finally we were able to film in the oldest surviving church in London - the Priory Church of Saint Batholomew the Great. Started in 1123 it serves the local parishioners of Smithfield’s and the surrounding areas as well as being Church to a number of local Companies. We were given an excellent tour by the Reverend, Dr Martin Dudley. It is a wonderful Church and due to its age it has been used as a location shoot for many TV programmes as well as major movies.

Two of the three will be available to the public. The other one – aimed at members – will be used on the Companies Intranet.

Finally we recorded a podcast with Heather Gorringe of Wiggly Wigglers. They are podcasting and blogging veterans. They are a mail order business that has actively adopted e-commerce and web sites plus e-mails and newsletters. They started podcasting in mid 2005 and now have a word wide audience. Heathers answer to my question about the benefits and reaction to podcasting was that the community they had built up previously just loved them. For the audience it was the authenticity and directness of actually hearing the person speaking. It humanised the company and the individual. A lot can be conveyed by a companies web site and the way it does business. A blog can give you more of an insight. But actually hearing them speak puts 'flesh on the bones' so to speak.

Some of the studio engineers were off today from the studio on location filming the MSC Napoli and the resultant polution for one of our clients the Maritime and Coastguard Agency. I am not sure if they made it as the police were closing roads due to the number of people attempting to salvage things!

I have been preparing to record two podcasts this week. One is for the European Podcast Summit which is happening 19th/20th March in London. The other for a project I am working on that is in its early stages but will be real fun if it comes off.

One of the big frustrations in the media production world is the number of great ideas (not always mine I hasten to add) that go nowhere. It is usually a problem with diaries and availability. Sometimes it feels like 'herding cats'. I have been working on one concept for almost 6 months now. Everyone agrees it is a good idea but trying to get everyone free and available to start the production is a real pain. I worry constantly that someone else is just about to beat me by getting exactly the same idea podcast before I do.

Later this week I am coaching a senior executive of one of the top European Management Consultancies in presentation and influencing skills. We use video and audio as part of the evaluation and feedback loop. It is very powerful as many have never seen themselves.

In his most recent 'Sales Caffeine' newsletter Jeffrey Gitomer said:

"Presentation skills are one of the least taught areas of selling, and one of the most critical. Your ability to present in front of a group, and be compelling, will make your one-on-one presentations seem like a piece of cake. Obviously, it will take more than one week to get good at presentation skills. I recommend that you take a class for an hour or two a week, and stay in that class for years. Presentation skills evolve over time, and they require self-evaluation in order to give you the real-world jolt to get to the next level.

One of the frustrations of using PC based software rather than dedicated kit in an edit suite is the loss of really fine tuning.

The other day that was brought home. I had recorded a contribution for the European Podcast Summit of one of their guest speakers - Dr Jo Wills of EUFIC. I used Audacity on my laptop to edit out the start and end comments and tighten one or two bits. But either my fingers or lack of skill (I prefer to believe the former but to be honest it was the later) meant I had made a 'botch' of one part.

The great news was the team in the studio were able to fix it before it was due to go live. However it did highlight again the importance of a process for quality control. I know in some parts of the blogosphere any 'editing' is frowned on as not being 'authentic' but if you care about your audience you want them to have the best experience possible.

Make a date in your diaries - March 19th and 20th 2007, Copethorne Tara Hotel, Kensington.

This will be the first European Podcasting Summit from First Conferences. They organised the Summit in the US earlier this year.

We spoke to Anita Yaa Agyeman, the summit organiser and manager about her experiences of running the US event and planning for the European version. In the podcast she shares with us her findings on the differences between the US and European markets. She also tells us how important case studies from organisations who are already doing podcasts will be.

We will attending the Summit with two of our clients - the Company of Information Technologists and the European Food Information Council.