Ep.1 Why Podcasting?

Create The Movement #1 Podcast

 

Brad Post - Welcome to Create The Movement Podcast. My name is Brad Post and I’m here with my co-host Liz Montgomery. Liz how are you doing today?

Liz Montgomery - Hello. I’m doing excellent thank you.

 

BP - Good. Well this is our first podcast. What do you want to talk about today, Liz?

LM - I would like to talk about, why...why podcasting Brad Post?

BP - OK. Well let’s talk about that Liz. Just to kind of give you a little history of the process that we went through on podcasting was about a year to a year and a half ago, we are an online marketing company, Create The Movement. We work with attorneys nationwide, a lot of small businesses, non-profits and about a year to a year and a half ago...no, probably two years ago I started looking at a new way to market clients. We were doing SEO work and social media and we still do but I started diving into some inbound marketing, HUBSpot, infusionsoft, email drip campaigns and those types of things. I started doing a lot of research on that, then at the same time I was looking at podcasting. So that’s when I started diving into podcasting. I kinda landed more on that. We are still planning on implementing some inbound marketing in the future but podcasting is where I landed.

LM - So the next step for your attorneys and small businesses.

BP - Right.

LM - Tell us a little bit about the history of podcasting and how did it even come about?

BP - With podcasting, back when apple released the ability to have podcasting back in 2005 I think it was. Itunes 4.9 according to wikipedia. Technology hasn't really caught up to it yet. You really had to have a computer, you had to go to itunes, then you had to go and download the podcast onto your computer, then you had to push play and make sure you had speakers on your computer in 2005. So podcasting really didn't catch on. A lot of people weren't doing it yet. Well now, today technology has really caught up to itself. Everyone has a smart phone, right Liz? Everyone has the ability to listen to podcasts on their phone. While they are mowing the yard or while they are cleaning the dishes or doing laundry. Right, Liz? Didn’t you say that your husband listens to podcasts?

LM - Yes, he wonders around the house with an earbud in his ear. Which is great because if he doesn't respond to you can’t take it personally because he just can’t hear you, he is listening to a podcast.  It can make for an eventful afternoon. Hopefully there are no emergencies happening.

BP - But it’s great because you can listen to it wherever you go. On your drive, your commute to work. Most all 2015 vehicles now have wifi so they have the ability to have podcasting in it.

LM - Excellent. So you can be driving and instead of a whole audio book or something to that nature you are getting these tidbits of information, maybe entertainment while you’re moving from one place to another. So that’s kinda what’s happening with podcast today, right? Is there more to that?

BP - Right, so with podcasting today. There was a very popular podcast and a lot of people know caled This American Life by a guy named of Alex Blumberg. He was the executive producer if that. In August 2014 he started a company called Gimlet Media and so Alex was very good at storytelling so he started a podcast called Start Up. Somewhat being a startup company I started listening to it. Listening to him telling a story, him being a good storyteller it was intriguing. And the podcasts weren’t very long, like twenty to thirty minutes. I figured, eh, I can give him twenty minutes. So I started listening and got really inspired because he is kinda building a network of podcasts. In season two episode one Ford Motor Company started advertising on it. You and I listened to it and it was not your typical advertisement or a motor company. I’ll have you talk about it here in a bit.

LM - Right. That’s the biggest difference that I notice is that advertisements can be an interruption. Commercial being shouted at you. But, for this it was like, folded into an article or a news piece. It was informational about Ford Motor Company and it even pulled on the heartstrings a little bit. It talked about parents, the older generation riding in their Ford Motor car and how they are testing to make sure that this generation is safe. It was an interesting story. You felt like you were listening to a story. From a marketing standpoint, we go “wait, you're hearing the word FORD, over and over”. Now you are becoming emotionally connected to Ford. So that was brilliant. It was a commercial placed in there that didn’t even sound like a commercial.

BP - You couldn’t even tell. You just thought it was part of the actual show itself.

LM - So, what are some of the benefits of podcasting for attorneys and small businesses with Create The Movement.

BP - We, here at Create The Movement are just now starting a podcast. There are certain benefits that we look at. With a podcast you're reaching a new audience, a new following of people that may not be aware of your business or your brand. You know, what you bring to the table. Also, having a podcast establishes credibility. One thing that we have done, we are an SEO company and we are always trying to ask our clients to supply us with content or a blog post and it is sometimes like pulling teeth to get a 350 word blog post and we work with a lot of attorneys and I’m not giving them a hard time, they would agree with me that it is hard to get that to us.

LM - Well, they’re busy. They have cases to win and files to close.

BP - Right. But if they did write a 350 word blog post, they are very well educated so it would be full of a lot of legalese so it might not be the best for search engine optimization. But I could have a fifteen minute conversation with them, record that conversation with an attorney and say “let’s talk about a specific area of practice and you take that audio content, transcribe it into words and a fifteen minute conversation gives us 2500 to 3000 words. So we post that into a blog with that audio file and there you have it.

LM - So it’s engaging and it’s a time saver. It’s efficient because attorneys are used to talking so no problem for them to just have a fifteen minute conversation and let it turn into a positive marketing experience for their online presence.

BP- That’s right. It’s also innovative. I know a lot more people are doing podcasts. You can see in itunes and noteworthy that a lot of people are adding podcasts. Also, there is an element of legacy. We are working with an attorney that has a mentor who is older and he is not going to be around much longer and he has a lot of knowledge. So getting his content out of him, all of his knowledge that is in his head from all of his multiple years of experience is a legacy to leave behind for other attorneys, his kids and his grandkids. But also training. I was kind of joking around this morning when we were talking to a company, I don’t really like to repeat myself but of course with kids you have to, right.  But if you are training a new employee to come in you could pre-record a podcast and say “hey Bob, go listen to these five podcasts about our company and come back and let’s talk about it.”

LM - And they get a sense of the company, a feel for the people they are going to be doing business with. Now the question is...can I record a podcast to remind my kids to brush their teeth?

BP - You could, yes!

LM - And just play it for them all day. ha ha. To make sure they go to bed with clean teeth.

BP - That might work.  

LM - So what are some of the topics now with the podcasts that Create The Movement is currently producing?

BP - So something kinda neat when we first started we had guinea pigs. We had a list of twenty clients that we were working with, some of our low hanging fruit. I didn’t have a track record at all. I didn’t  have any podcast examples to show them. I just explained the idea. Out of all the people, they all loved the idea but only one went with us. Because I didn’t have a track record. And now we are currently producing three different ones. One is a criminal defense attorney, it’s very topic related, very keyword sensitive. But it is also neat because the main attorney that is doing it was a public defender and now he is working the other side of the bench. Another one is also a criminal defense attorney. She is very well connected in her area so we do topical podcasts but she also does some interviews with different people in her area.

LM - Now do you always pick the topics for the podcasts or does your client?

BP - We discuss them back and forth. A lot of it is SEO related so one of the things is to get them new clients and to rank better in the search engines for certain keywords. So I will make some suggestions saying this is how many searches there are a month and we are not ranking very well so we need more content of this specific topic. But sometimes it’s a give and pull. Like, hey, this is fresh on my mind and I’ll look at it and say yes, that would be a great topic, let’s record that. Because you don’t want them to have a lot of preparation time before hand because they are preparing for cases.

LM - Any ideas to be a bit of a time saver as well. It’s kinda like you are narrowing down the punch as far as you’re getting great information from that attorney that you can translate into something for their website but it is not going to take them two hours to think of a topic, to type it up, to edit it and then to send it to someone to approve. It’s just a conversation.

BP - Just like you and I are having now.

LM - That’s right.

BP - and then the last one we have launched recently is about women inspiring women. It is kind of an interview based. Thy pick different women to interview. They have two co-hosts who interview another woman who has been successful in business or in social media so that has really been fun.

LM - So even inspirational podcasts?

BP - Absolutely! So this is neat. We are starting to get a bit of a track record. I was thinking that we really need to do a podcast for Create The Movement and I was wanting a female to host it with me and then you appeared.

LM - That’s right, you snapped your fingers and here is Liz Montgomery.