Here are some very important questions to ask a podcasting consultant before you hire him or her.
- Do I even need to hire one? Assess your needs and figure out if you can produce a podcast in house. No need to hire on a podcasting consultant if you have the staff to do it. The big question is can you manage a podcasting strategy in addition to your full-time duties at your company? If the answer is no, get a podcasting consultant on board.
- Can you show me yours? Find out if the podcasting consultant is podcasting, how long he or she has been producing his or her own podcast and when’s the last time it’s been updated. This is important because in order to hire someone to produce your podcasting strategy, you want to know that they’ve done all the mistakes and gone through the headaches themselves.
- Have you done this before for a business that’s similar to mine? Producing a podcast for an entrepreneur is different from producing one for a non-profit organization. Both have different goals. Compare apples to apples by asking the consultant whether or not they have developed a podcasting strategy for a company similar to yours in sales volume, in number of employees or industry.
- Is podcasting your main focus? Your business can’t afford to hire a consultant who also does technical writing and graphic design, all while holding down a full-time job as an insurance agent. You have the right to inquire about their other interests. If anything, use Google to find out more about the consultant you want to hire.
- Who owns what is created? Even though the podcasting consultant is producing your podcasting strategy, you must own the creative pieces. If a podcast cover is designed for your podcast or if a script is written for your podcast, your company owns it, not the consultant. If your files are being hosted on the consultant’s servers, don’t ask for the passwords though. Just remember that you own the creative and the consultant owns the technical pieces in your podcasting strategy.
Any others?
Technorati: podcasting, corporate podcasting, sales, consultants, Business
Leesa, in some cases a business will use a consultant just to get a podcast off the ground. I’ve trained people how to podcast on their own (with a little hand-holding now and then). Of course this requires a commitment on the part of the podcaster.
More often, I’m seeing organizations who want a consultant to run the whole thing — to plan the content, do some scripting, interview their people, create the cast, do the editing, and so on.
One more thing — I would look for business experience, particularly communications experience. This comes back to the idea of content as all-important in a podcast. Yes, the podcast consultant has to know about bit rates and other technical details, but he or she also must also be an expert in communicating with an audience — whether internal or external. If it’s an external podcast, the consultant needs a background in marketing communications too.
Just as we saw a proliferation of “desktop publishers” years ago when PageMaker etc. came on the scene, we’re witnessing people popping up as “podcast consultants” because they have a mic and a copy of Audacity.