The consensus here is that the interesting action is in the exposition hall where the vendors are showing their new stuff.

Yesterday I got a demo of Audible's new Wordcast Enterprise which I'm very excited about. Essentially it is iTunes for the enterprise–a digital rights management system that allows you to manage content and track users for your enterprise. We will be setting up a demo version of this for our upcoming Expert Learning Network.

I also stopped by the Gigavox Booth. Gigavox also has a new content management system that enables ad insertion into your podcasts without requiring that you host on Gigavox's servers. It looks like a powerful tool.

And I played with some very cool phones from Nokia that enabled podcast subscriptions on the phone–both audio and video.

My talk here is today on podcasting as a driver of innovation. You can see my slides on Flickr here.

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Here are my notes from Michael W. Geoghegan's presentation:

The dilemma for corporations interested in podcasting: Should you produce your own content or align with someone who has content?

Michael has experience on both sides. His resume includes:

Reel reviews: free movies

Grape Radio: wine reviews

Author: Podcast solutions.

Disneyland Resort Podcasts

Gigavox Media: a holder of all of the technology behind IT Conversations.

Right Look Radio: Audio reconditioning equipment and training. Ways to increase margins. How to get accounts. How to increase your business.

Disney Resort Podcasts: Someone high up got behind it.

Why? It was a priority. Exclusive Content. Podcast Specific. Podcaster's Made It.

French Maid TV: Teach young men how to do things like make a bed….

Grape Radio:

Put together a media kit. Demographics from surveys. Income level. How often they are listening. Quotes from the press and users in the media. Most important page in the media kit. Why do you hid your rates? Show sponsorship: one week $1,400. Four show sponsorship: $4,000. quiz sponsorship: $500. Give-way sponsorship: $500. Quarterly newsletter sponsorship (3,000 circ.) $350.

What are you getting when you align with podcasts? Aligning with good will. Buying the demographic. Podcaster has a personal relationship–more alignment with the listener. A lot of good will between the listener and the content. It is a valuable relationship.

Ad Sales Network.

Podtrac. Kiptronic. Blast Podcast. These guys group together groups of podcasts and let you do a larger buy. If you want to spend $100,000 on podcasting, you go to a network. Podcaster doesn't need to sell the ads.

Going Direct. You get the best value. You get buy in from the podcaster.

Not selling CPM. We are selling allegiance with our audience. Don't buy numbers. Buy relationships.

Commitments. Let the host read the spot. Clear definition of spot life. That means that you can get the back inventory. Are you buying a placement for ever?

Jump in. You will get more value now. Find a budget that isn't going to break the bank. Get a podcaster involved so it sounds like a podcast.

There are no established rules.

Grape Radio. 12,000 downloads per episode for $1,000.

Metrics: Google Rank. Inbound links. Remember you are buying a relationship.

Calls to action in the podcasts.

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I'm here at Podcast expo in Ontario, CA–Ontario is a way out city flush against the San Bernadino mountains about 90 minutes south of LAX.

I'll be posting regular notes on what I am learning here. Here's what I've learned so far:

There is a new service called Gigavox that allows you to insert ads into your podcasts without having to repost them to a new hosting service. I think this is a great tool for sponsoring our popular Tip-of-the-Week podcast series. More on how it works and pricing as I work it all out…..

The same folks who developed Gigavox, have a new service called PrivaCast. It is a secure podcast platform that includes a downloadable client. We are looking at hosting our Expert Learning Network on PrivateCast so that companies can tap into our growing library and put their own private, custom podcast content on top of it. We should have a prototype up and running soon.

OK, the opening keynotes are starting. Stay tuned.

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Today's WSJ has an article on how small businesses are using new web 2.0 tools to gain advantages (subscription required).

Covering some of the terrain that we are offering in our Web 2.0 for Business Advantage Boot Camp, the article says:

When it comes to generating goodwill between a company, its customers and prospects — the very essence of public relations — it's a buyer's market for small businesses. In the case of Hollywould and many others, the Internet more than anything has altered the dynamic. Much as the Web has enabled entrepreneurs to sell products independent of bricks-and-mortar retailers and their limited shelf space, so too is it letting them engage the public without the mainstream press or the spinners who court it.

Weblogs, or “blogs,” a form of frequent online journal postings like Ms. Dunlap's, are just the beginning. Companies including Google Inc., Yahoo Inc. and Microsoft Corp. are investing tremendous resources into localized search tools that enable vendors to reach customers without ever getting exposure on radio, TV or a newspaper page. What's more, the advent of podcasts and Web sites such as Flickr and YouTube has made it possible to deliver unedited messages in your own voice and image instead of leaving it to journalists to pick the quotes or shots. The trick is learning to use these avenues without offending the online community, which tends to dismiss overt or underhanded commercial pitches in these newer forums.

Still, new media options can actually help reach and pique the interest of the mainstream press, and the combined push on both fronts can garner a small business unprecedented levels of attention. From a PR standpoint, here's a look at some basic strategies small businesses can use right now to maximize exposure:

BLOGGING FOR BUZZ

For small-business owners, blogs can serve multiple purposes, from doing damage control when a product is attacked to simply giving the public reason to pay attention to your product and message. The blogosphere works in a kind of you-scratch-my-back fashion, with bloggers linking back and forth among one another with musings, applause and criticism.

HELP YOUR PUBLIC FIND YOU

Mr. Kormendy was decent on computers, he says, and so he built a rough Web site for his company, Gopher State Taxi, figuring travelers coming to town might locate him when searching for transportation. But he never popped up front and center in search-engine results until he stumbled upon Google's AdWords service, a cost-per-click advertising program that rotates advertisements on the right side of Google's search page based on the specific keywords a user types. He decided to give it a shot.

It paid off. In recent months, Gopher State Taxi has routinely popped first on Google's sponsored link for core keywords, including: “Minneapolis, airport, taxi.” Mr. Kormendy says his business has grown to a network of nearly three dozen cabs and he is off welfare. He estimates his total payout to Google is about $175 to $205 monthly, based on how many clicks his ads get. “People with cellphones on planes can find me,” he says. “Almost every time I ask someone, they tell me it was on the Internet. And nine times out of 10 it's from Google. I don't have $50,000 to compete with [bigger taxi companies]. But with what I create off the Internet, I can blow them away.”

WRITE YOUR OWN SCRIPT

If you can't beat 'em, become one of them. New online technology lets small-business owners produce the equivalent of their own radio shows, stories and even TV hits with audio- and video-streaming technology. Podcasting, for starters, is a way of posting audio content on the Web that consumers can then download and listen to.

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The Otter Group received some coverage of our small business blogging program in today's Boston Herald. Jennifer Heldt Powell's small business column says that

Blogs offer big bang to small biz

Powell writes:

“But more importantly to small business owners, they offer a whole new way to reach out to existing customers and find new ones.

A blog generally has some fixed components, such as a page header and list of entries. It then has a running list of posts with the last one at the top. There is usually a place for blog readers to make public comments about the posts.

For Steve Johnson, owner of the Rendezvous restaurant in Cambridge’s Central Square, it’s a cheaper, easier option than a traditional Web site.

Johnson hired the Otter Group to set up the blog, but maintains it on his own. That way he saves the expense and time of working with a Web designer.

“Inevitably, even if things went well, there was a lot of back and forth and it was really time-consuming,” he said.

Like a regular Web page, there are buttons that take the user to places on the site such as how to get to the restaurant and how to make a reservation. There are also lots of pictures of the restaurant.

“The beauty of a blog is that it’s built on a template and it’s designed for people with very little computer skills,” said Otter Group chief Kathleen Gilroy. ”

You can read about our business blog solutions here and check out the blog site we developed for Rendezvous Central Square here.

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I'll be speaking at the upcoming Podcast Expo in LA on September 29th and 30th.

My session, organized and moderated by Shwen Gwee, is on the topic of Driving Innovation with Podcasting.

Description: Developing innovative ideas for new products or services within an organization is a complex task when your team is already inundated with information and day-to-day operations. Podcasting–with it's ease of distribution and updates, portability, “time-shifting” capabilities, and copious amounts of content–can ease the burden of the daily grind and directly or indirectly facilitate creative thinking and drive innovation. In this session, you'll hear from experts in e-learning and corporate training who will discuss using new media to spur innovation and “thinking out of the box” in any organization.

I'll be joined by Shwen and Ross Ozer, who runs a Podcast for Fidelity.

If you are planning to be at Podcast Expo, please try to attend our panel on Saturday from 3:15 to 4:15. We'll be wrapping up the Expo with a bit of ukulele.

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NYTimes has a great review of three new flash recording devices, The Edirol by Roland R-09 ($399), the M-Audio MicroTrack 24/96 ($350) and the Marantz PMD 660 ($499). While they are a bit pricey (you'd still need a computer to do editing and posting to your podcast feed or site), their portability is a huge selling point for on-the-go podcasters. Also, while these flash recorders have a built-in stereo mic, I'd still recommend using a decent external mic to reduce ambient noise.

You can read the full article here.

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About Otter Services : Otter Group Business Blogs
 

Benefits of a Business Blog

For the past three years, we have been helping businesses use blogging to improve their marketing, communications and sales.  Through this work we have discovered that blogs can be a very powerful business tool. Here's why:

The Blogs: Extreme Do-it-Yourself Sites

The typical small business may have a website but it probably has been months - or longer - since the site has been updated.  A blog is the perfect solution for this all too common problem.  A blog requires no special skills to maintain it.  Anyone can update, modify, or change a blog.  It is as simple as sending an email.  Using a blog instead of a web site, you will no longer need the services of designers and programmers to make changes.  You just do it yourself.

Blogs: The best way to improve search results

Blogs are built on links.  Web sites are built on pages.  Blogging software organizes things into clean, crisp chunks known as items.  Each item has its own link and has vital metadata associated with it, like the date of publication, authorship, categories and tags.  This linking structure works well with search engines like Google, which ranks results based on the number of inbound links.  With a blog, you can use some simple things like keywords and categories to dramatically improve your search results.

Blogs: Easy integration with Google's Small Business Services

By integrating some of Google's free business services into your blog, you will gain valuable insight into how people are using your site, enabling you to more effectively target and close prospects. Google Analytics allows you to access the traffic on your site–who's going where, how long they stay there, and where they come from. Once you sign up for this free service, Google sends you a code you imbed into your blog. It's that simple! With a small business blog from the Otter Group combined with Google Analytics, you can track:

Visits and Pageviews by new and returning visitors.

Top sources of traffic: who is referring traffic to your site.

Top keyword search results: what are the key words people are using to find you.

Top content:  which pages are getting the most traffic and how much time people are spending on each page of your site.

Site Navigation: how people are entering your site and how they are exiting.

All of this information will help you refine how you present information on your site for better performance.

Case Study: Advertising your Small Business with Google Ad Words:

Small
business owner Donna Jasper was winning championships with her
wonderful English Cocker Spaniels. But she was not selling any puppies,
and her boarding and grooming business at her kennel in Lake Geneva,
Wisconsin had fallen off. In February 2006, Donna set up a weblog to
present her dogs and services. She put together a simple Google Ad
Sense Campaign with a dollar a day advertising limit. In six months,
Donna has spent $180 on Google Ads that link to her blog site. She has
sold $7,000 worth of dogs to owners who found her blog through search.
She has also gained two new regular boarding and grooming customers. 
And she gets inquiries about dogs from prospective buyers almost
daily. 

”By
setting up my blog site and making a small investment in a Google Ad
campaign, my business has been transformed. I am now reaching a
national audience of dog lovers who refer their friends to us. My
computer skills are very basic but I can post new entries and photos to
my blog so I can keep people up to date on shows, litters, and our
services.”
                                      — Donna Jasper, Owner, Nitewinds Kennels

Otter Group Business Blog Pricing

Offer	Basic	Ultra
Annual Hosting	$89.00	$149.00
Setup	$250.00	Ask for a Quote
Bandwidth	5GB	40GB
Storage	2GB	10GB
Includes:
Custom Site Architecture
Custom Site Design
Custom Banner Design
Standard Blog Design Themes
Google Analytics
Getting Started Guide and Blogging Tutorials
FAQ's
Email Support
Sample Blogs	Sudan: The Land and the People	Rendezvous Central Square

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I have been using Flickr for a couple of years now and I think it is terrific. We have a Pro account at the Otter Group which allows me to upload all of our graphics onto Flickr and use it as a storage library for anyone in the company to access a graphics library.

Here is our collection of podcasting images. These are graphics and photos that relate to podcasting that I have tagged and uploaded to Flickr. If I need one of these images for a presentation, I just grab it from the Flickr account and add it to my slides.

Today I tried out Flickr's new printing service called Moo. You can use images in your Flickr account to make business cards. As a Pro user, I got a free ten pack. I'll let you know how they turn out.

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