by Gerry Grant CEO Search-Optimization.com
www.search-optimization.comA Podcasting conference, it was free and not too far away, I had to go. I arrived early taking my time to scope out the venue and pick up the directory. I was told by Tim Bourquin, founder & CEO of TNC New Media the producers of the event this was their first Podcasting conference. Leo from KFI 640 was broadcasting live from the event and called it, “The Woodstock of Podcasting.” It had the feel of the first Internet conference I attended in San Jose, Spring Internet World. This is going to be big.
Putting audio files on a web site for people to listen to is not new. In 1995 I put music interviews on a music web site in Real Audio. What changes everything is the portability of devices they can now be played on, iPods, Mp3 players, phones, laptops and even PDAs. Now the time people would have spent listening to random programs on the radio can be much more targeted. Podcasting now allows listeners to select what they wish to listen to and the time and place they wish to do so. This includes the usual times and places that reading is not practical; the car, while exercising and a variety of other situations.
Podcasting will also be a major marketing tool. Podcasting is another way for a company to reach customers, educate users and improve the company image. The exhibitors at the Podcasting conference already included companies that will insert advertising into Podcasts and other that will help monetize downloads. We will soon see links on web sites to Podcasts like we do now for white papers and PDFs. Is this the next Google search category like image and video?
The first keynote speaker was Angel Gambino, VP Commercial Strategy & Digital Media, MTV. She talked about how MTV is creating portable Podcasting content targeting the typical MTV audience. Part of the strategy is to make it shareable allowing the users to distribute it. Of course the content is very edgy and new. After Angel Doug Kaye, from IT Conversation, spoke on creating value and how Podcasts should be free. Doug’s vision is to have a world of volunteer “Stringers” that will capture content at events. Additional volunteer engineers would edit the programs and convert them to the correct formats for download. Doug is setting this up as a nonprofit that will need sponsorships to pay the minimal costs incurred.
Some of the more interesting information on Podcasting was from those sitting next to me. Nora, no last name, from FetishFlame was bragging to Joe Carpenter and Lori Leahy from a guy, a girl and a bottle, a wine podcast from Silicon Valley about her traffic. Nora also thought wine clubs would be the next hot thing in San Francisco and that Podcasts would help this happen.
I had a nice conversation with three guys from AMP Association of Music Podcasting, one from Florida, one from Minneapolis and one in kilts, was from Scotland. They told me the AMP has 70 members and is growing fast.
A number of companies had products like Podcasting in a Box, software and payments systems just released or about to ship. Evo Terra, one of the three authors of books on Podcasting, had just released Podcasting for Dummies. When the Dummies series does a book you just know this is going to be big. The question is who are the leaders going to be?
www.search-optimization.com/podcasting/podcasting.htm
