What is Podcasting?

Let’s begin this series of posts on podcasting by answering the question: “what is podcasting“?

In basic terms, a podcast is a broadcast designed for portable mp3 players. Podcasts are digital files that are distributed online for download to portable devices or personal computers and can come in the form of audio or video. These are syndicated using RSS feeds.

In even simpler terms, podcasts are like on-demand radio shows but tend to be more focussed in their content to a specific theme.

But for me, that doesn’t even begin to describe what podcasting is all about.

Podcasts can be:

• Any length (from a few minutes to an hour or more).
• On any topic (take a look at iTunes to find podcasts on sport, politics, comedy, business, hobies etc.)
• Speech, music, or a mixture of the two
• A single person presenting or a group of people
• Chat, personal commentary, interviews
• Tightly focused on a specific niche such as knitting, or on a broader topic such as politics

While podcasts, like blogs, are often expected to consist of personal opinion they can also be more factual and objective.

All in all, podcasting can be many things to different people and if you are thinking about creating your own podcast I would urge you to (a) take a listen to lots of different podcasts to hear how different they are from each other and (b) do your own thing – take onboard what you like about other podcasts but make sure your podcast has a personality that is uniquely your own.

In the next post, I’ll explain why podcasting can be an important addition to your business. In the meantime, please add your podcasting questions below…

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