It's okay to ask. Even with more than 16 million Americans professing to be avid podcast listeners, it's still easy to wonder, exactly what is that podcast is that your co-worker is getting so excited about.
Strictly speaking, a podcast is a continually updated audio series delivered to its listeners via RSS feed. Like most things, podcasts are a bit more complicated than their basic definition. Even their history.
No one can really agree on who produced the first podcast, or even who coined the term. A former MTV VJ, Adam Curry, and software developer, Dave Winer, both lay claim to the title. At first the format was audio only. The “Pod” part of podcast did indeed come from the delivery to Apple’s iPod. Today, though, a podcast can be any form of constantly delivered media to an audience. That will be the definition for the remainder of this post.
What kind of content is in podcasts?
- The content is regularly posted and updated. This can be daily, weekly, monthly, or some other time frame.
- Delivered dynamically. As a new episode is posted the content needs to be delivered to your audience. In that way they are made aware a new episode is available that they can consume.
- Similar subject matter. Sure, there are radio stations out there that play “whatever they want”. In the world of podcasts, though, that doesn’t help anyone. Pick a subject and stick to it. If you’d like to veer off into another area, start a new show.
Using this framework, we can begin to build your podcast and craft some engaging content. Notice that I did not list that a podcast is “audio only”. The idea of other formats being a podcast is a point of debate among some in the podcasting industry.
Typically a podcast would be delivered to your devices via an RSS feed and that would be an iPod or some other MP3 player. For a time that included video podcasts as well, though that trend has died out for the most part. I would argue that any form of dynamically delivered content that adheres to the format above should be considered a podcast, even if the delivery mechanism is YouTube. YouTube has a method where your audience can subscribe and be notified when new content is available.
How often should you publish a podcast?
However you get your content to an audience, consistency is the number one consideration. As you look into doing a podcast for fun, for your brand, or your company, make certain you have the content and discipline to continue once you’ve started. If you would like to learn more, you can always get in touch with us at AVNation.
