One of the things that Dr. Kathy King mentioned at the International Podcasting Expo in her presentation on Podcasting in Education is that if the audio you create doesn’t need to be heard by strangers, then don’t podcast.
I echo this point.
At WebProWorld, they have a very vibrant discussion forum. On one of the topics, someone asks if it would be a good idea to podcast their product descriptions and provide a link to the audio beside every product in their shopping cart.
It wouldn’t work for one main reason:
- Podcast aren’t infomercials. If as the poster said he wants to provide additional information about his products, this would make more content for a podcast.
Instead, this website owner should just plug some audio on his website. Since this type of content doesn’t need to be broadcast to the world, there’s no need to wrap the audio in a RSS cocoon and release it as a podcast.
Remember, podcasts are lead generating tools that are infotainment based. Just rattling off the features of your products in a 3-minute podcast isn’t good enough. No one would listen anyways.
My point exactly. Why go through the hassle of making it a podcast? Of installing a blog, finding that RSS feed, plugging it into Feedburner, entering your podcast into the various podcatchers, unnecessary.
Just record some audio, upload it to a page, share the URL with frieds, call it a day. Some get so excited by a podcast when really, it’d be easier just to slap the audio on a website.
Unless of course you just want to podcast for yourself … just because. Or for your family. Or for your group of friends. I could create a podcast about the sleeping and feeding habits of my newborn son, and I might not care whether a single other person was interested in it. Does that mean I shouldn’t do it? I don’t think so. Personal podcasts are done for any number of reasons.
Now on the corporate side, I’d agree with you wholeheartedly. The proposed podcast of product descriptions would undoubtedly be a complete flop!