Heidi's Five Golden Rules of Podcasting

It's been a while since I've done an overview podcasting class; everything has been more in-depth lately. So I'm excited to be teaching a new class at the local adult education center. It's a fantastic podcasting boot camp idea; we're starting from "what is a podcast?" and ending with recording a 10-minute podcast in the class!

And in the process, I've been finding it difficult to summarize the myriad tips and tricks I've learned over the years (mostly by doing things wrong and/or the hard way a few times before figuring out the best or easy way). Perhaps it was sheer exhaustion or just the fervent desire that no student of mine was going to podfade or have a crappy podcast, goshdarnit!

So a quick summary of my five top Golden Rules of podcasting. And by "Golden Rule" I mean a really good premise to live by, BTW.

1. Have something to say. If you can't shut up about something, that would be the thing you should podcast about. If your friends are sick of hearing about it, that is the thing you should podcast about. If you already belong to several forums, mailing lists and professional or social groups discussing it, that is the thing you should podcast about. Do it for love, not for money.
2. Don't "fill time." Your podcast is as long as you decide it should be, but your subscribers will let you know if it's too long, rambling or boring--by unsubscribing. If your podcast is usually 20 minutes but you only have seven minutes of material this week, do a fabulous seven-minute podcast. Don't put it off for another week, and don't "come up" with filler content. It will sound like filler content, and our time is too valuable to listen to filler.
3. Speak in a real human voice. For more on finding your voice, see my earlier post on a good process to follow. But a lot of beginning podcasters think they need to sound like Wolfman Jack. They try to lower and slow their voices, and they sound ridiculous and fake. Podcasting is a social medium; just talk to us like you talk to your friends. Be real, be enthusiastic, be sarcastic, be annoyed, be honest. We'll like you for who you are. If we don't, you probably didn't want us to listen to you, anyway.
4. Audio is as audio does. That is, your audio only needs to be good enough for your podcast to be basically  listenable. You can upgrade your $100 rig to a $1,000 rig, but do you really need to? Unless you just want to play with new toys from Guitar Center, you probably don't have to. If your listeners complain about audio quality, you might want to look into a better mic or figure out how to do some basic noise reduction. Otherwise, let your content speak for you.
5. Make it social. This is probably the concept that is hardest to get across in a Podcasting 101 seminar in which we're also going through all the technical aspects of creating a podcast. My big fear is that folks will walk away with the knowledge of how to create a podcast but not of how to expand and become part of a larger community, which in my mind is the whole point of becoming a podcaster. So start by listening to other podcasts in your field. Go listen to podcasts not in your field. Call in to the comment lines of your favorite podcasts. Respond on the podcast blogs or forums. Try out the plethora of social networking sites and tools available--Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Jaiku--and invite your listeners to participate there as well. Get into it and get social.

Those are my five golden rules--what are yours? If you could only give five bits of advice to a novice podcaster, what would they be?

Comments

[Rob Usdin]

Once thing I want to say about speaking in a real human voice is this: sometime you may need to emote just a bit more. While you don't want to sound like a puking Top 40 DJ it's true - actually smiling when you are talking can make you sound more friendly. You can be yourself, but be the "best version" of yourself, because audio is not forgiving of less emotion.

When I listen to CC Chapman - I hear enthusiasm, enjoyment, and I know when he is talking he is smiling. There are many podcasters I have heard that I know could be better if they would just smile to show their excitement.

People want to listen to people they can relate to - but they also want to listen to people who sound genuinely excited and enthused by their material. There's a reason we gravitate towards "personalities".

--*Rob

[Heidi Miller]

Rob, this is so true! When I first started acting, the coaches always said, "Just be yourself." Well, "myself" was kinda dull on camera. What they did in fact mean was to be honest but energized--still me, just the best party version of me.

Thanks for pointing that out!

[Pete Smith]

I am currently formulating ideas for my own podcast, Heidi has put forward some good advice for newbies like me.

Podcasting does work I can't tell you how many times my music has been played on podcasts around the world, it's great publicity and what's more it's free publicity.

A polite email asking for a podcasters help can be very effective and really helps to get the word out.