Podcasting is booming right now.
There are a number of signs. One of the big ones is that Spotify has been investing heavily in podcasting. They’ve been acquiring companies.
Spotify has an edge in the music streaming world right now because they help people discover new music to listen to. That’s an issue with podcasting, but something that should improve in the future.
Also, Google has been investing in their technology that can decipher audio and add audio results to their search results. Imagine searching for something like, “How do I cook a turkey?” and getting a link to a podcast interview with a great chef. But not just the link, but a link to the specific part of the podcast where the chef discussion turkey preparation.
Anyway, podcasting isn’t going anywhere. It’s important for content marketers to figure out a way to get involved. But obviously you’re busy with other things.
Here are a few ways to dip your toe into podcasting if you don’t really have time to dive fully in right now.
1. Repurpose
Let’s say that you’re investing heavily into blogging right now for your content marketing strategy. After each post is written, edited and published, have someone take five minutes to read the post into a microphone. Record it and then publish it. Use Anchor to publish and distribute the post. It’s free and does all the heavy lifting for you.
Anchor is one of the companies that Spotify has purchased in the podcasting world. They have been making consistent improvements to the platform so it seems it will only get better.
You can also repurpose other content to create podcasts. Past blog posts. Social media posts. Guest posts. Anything written that somebody can read.
2. Document
Think of documenting like reality television. Only you’re going to be documenting what you or someone at your company does in audio version, editing it and then publishing it as an ongoing podcast.
This is especially good if you struggle to come up with ideas.
For example, I used to work for a shoe company. The merchandisers always had great information about upcoming styles, trends, etc. I would interview them and publish the info as a blog post.
If I was still with that company I would do the same, but I would also record the conversation and edit it to create a podcast. Or I would take a few minutes after the meeting to record myself recapping the conversation.
3. Q&A
Finally, you can take questions from people on social media and record your answers in podcast form. It’s another great way to podcast if you struggle for ideas.
You can use your social accounts to ask questions, but you can also do some searching on social media to see what people are asking. You could even use Quora to find questions.
Find a question, think about the answer and then record yourself saying the answer. Publish it via Anchor and you’re done.
Final Thought
Obviously these take a little bit of time, but it’s much less time than finding people to interview and doing the traditional podcast. You can still have that as a long-term goal. Dip your toe into podcasting with one or more of the ideas here. See if you can build some traction after a year or so. Then see if it’s worth investing more time and energy. I’m thinking the answer to that last question will be yes.
