CorpComms Magazine

If you had asked a corporate communicator about podcasts five years ago, you might as well have been speaking a different language. Today, more than 100 mn Apple iPods have been sold and the number of people downloading podcasts is predicted to rise almost tenfold from 4.8 mn in 2005 to 45 mn by 2010, according to London-based production firm Podcast Voices.

The dilemma for communicators, however, is whether podcasting is simply the latest internet fad. They are wondering whether podcasting is merely a social networking phenomenon that will be usurped by the next one, or whether it is the new radio: a vital new communications channel that cannot be ignored.

In truth, it may be too early to tell. Even so, no fewer than 1,550 podcasts are listed under 'business and money' at podcasting directory Podcast.net, and 140 delegates from firms ranging from internet bank First Direct to accountants New communications Podcasting has also been used by charities, government bodies and regulators. Jerry Cahill's cystic fibrosis podcast, for example, is presented by the Boomer Esiason Foundation, a non-profit organisation dedicated to funding research into this medical condition. Cahill, 49, gives his views on living with cystic fibrosis in his podcasts.

At the Food Standards Agency, podcasts are recorded to keep members of the public up to date with what happens at its board meetings. David Payne, who is in charge of e-communications at the agency, says the podcasts developed from webcasts of the meetings, which are open to the public. A webcast of one meeting, where the issue of food advertising and children was on the agenda, attracted 1,000 visitors. Others averaged about 300, encouraging the organisation to experiment with podcasts.

'It was clear there was a demand for information from people who could not always get to meetings,' explains Payne. 'We have always tried to look at new ways of communicating and this has been a pilot scheme. The highest number of listeners to one of our podcasts was 350 people. It's another way for us to engage the public. We have an openness remit here so it's important for us to find new ways of communicating.'

Joel Cere, head of Hill & Knowlton's networked communication practice for Europe, Middle East and Africa, says podcasting is a medium that has to be utilised carefully and within certain limits. 'Would an analyst get a kick hearing a company results announcement read in a solemn and monotonous tone by the chief executive?' he asks. 'What is the user value, compared with scanning it on a website, a blog or an email?

'For a podcast to be successful there must be some value for the listeners above and beyond the information. Often that 'extra' would be entertainment. Ricky Gervais' podcast was the most popular podcast in the world last year because it is more fun to hear his jokes than to read them.

'The best podcasts I've heard are those where there is ' live' coverage of events, capturing the mood of the moment, or debates where one can feel the tension - which is not easily conveyed in written words,' says Cere. 'They have to engage the listener.'

share me: del.icio.us | digg | reddit | Tweet