Featured Client: Negotiating Tip of the Week
Our first foray into podcasting has become successful beyond our
wildest expectations. It really is a model for how to use podcasting
for learning. Here's a snapshot of how it works:
Each week Josh Weiss, Associate Director of the
Global Program on Negotiation at Harvard's Program on Negotiation,
posts a 3 to 5 minute podcast about some aspect of negotiation. Josh
has analyzed some negotiation tactics like “first offers,” and “split
the differences,” and has covered topics like negotiating styles and
fairness. He has included a couple of interactive scenarios where he
explains a negotiation scenario to his audience and solicits ideas for
how to resolve the situation. In subsequent podcasts, he then follows
up and shares these solutions.
Since its inception in early April, this series has had over 45,000
downloads. It is popular and successful for a very simple reason: it is
really useful and very well done. Josh Weiss is great and worth
listening to and revisiting. We find ourselves listening to the
podcasts on airplane trips. We negotiate all the time and know these
tactics well, but we always find something new and interesting in the
podcasts — even those we have heard
before.
Description. Always include a brief description and a title for your
podcast so people can find it in the podcast directories and scan for
relevant content. Here are some tips on good podcasting from our paper,
“Podcasting for Learning.”
Keep it brief. Podcasts work best when
they are short and to the point. We recommend limiting the length of a
podcast to two to four minutes. Or, create a shorter and longer version
of the same topic.
Publish only high quality audio. Podcast
listeners expect clear, semi-professional audio. With many inexpensive
or free audio editing and recording tools, high quality audio recording
is within reach of even the smallest budget.
Publish regularly. Weekly or
bi-monthly– be consistent and let
listeners know when you will be away. Josh advises: “if you are going
to do a weekly podcast, you should have a lot of material in 'mental
storage.' When you get people to tune in regularly, you create an
expectation that something will be coming each and every week.”
Keep it free and open. Keep some or all of
your podcast open to the general public. Sharing knowledge with the
public can help raise your company's
profile as a leader and innovator in your industry.
Hit the directories. Make sure your
podcast is easy to find. People should be able to easily access your
podcast, either through your company portal, website, RSS, or desktop
program. iPodder and iTunes are free podcast aggregators that can be
downloaded on a work or home computer. E-mailing a link to the podcast
(or the podcast itself) is also a great way to deliver podcasts.
Use consistent/persistent notifications.
Use a combination of technologies to inform your listeners about your
podcast. Introduce the podcast on your company portal, weblog, and
through email.
For further reading, please see “Podcasting for Learning.”
Explore posts in the same categories: Podcasting, Clients