Podcasting to improve the Influence

I've been planning on writing a blog post on podcasting for a while. This has grown in its consideration far more after my company Ideal Interface has starting working recently with a start-up who is using both audio and video as their main product and therefore their delivery mechanism.

Podcasting is just one of the many channels that companies have available for distributing content, and is the primany way of delivering audio (and increasingly video) to time-shifted listeners. Whilst a lot of podcasts are 'homegrown' operations done with a mic and some free software, quite a few companies are using this medium to get their message across.

This has been particularly adopted by media companies that already produce high-quality content. Obvious examples are:

The BBC:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/podcasts/directory/


The Guardian Newpaper:
http://www.riverisland.com/gfw/?_ctId=j6i2fUdEqsi9BTk5pz6ugGvEq4eznMpgEzs7w/K08us=

There have been stories recently that raise the question of whether Podcasting is failing? However, these reports are a little premature and do not really understand how the 'Long Tail' can be leveraged successfully by podcasting. The "Power to the People: Social Media Tracker" study in April 2008 estimated that just over 14% of US Internet users downloaded podcasts in 2007. eMarketer also predicts in a recent article that US podcast ad spending will grow to $435 million by 2012 from $165 million in 2007

It should also be noted that Podcasting has additonal benefits such as Search Engine Optimisation, if done correctly:
http://advertising-for-success.blogspot.com/2008/04/optimizing-podcasts-for-seo.html

Social Media, Shopping and Trust

So who do customers actually trust these days?

Well according the “Trust Barometer”* for 2008 from Edelman, the world's largest independent PR firm, consumers feel the most credible source for information about a company is a....

.... “person like themselves.”

*Is this a box with two doors, out of which comes either a little man with a stick or a lady holding a carrot?

Theoretically we should then also should assume that the trust for a company carries over into product/brand trust and hopefully sales.

Of particular interest over the last 2 years is:

In 2007 businesses were more trusted than Governments, with the UK population having the lowest trust in Government (and in media companies).

In 2008 young opinion elites have higher general levels of trust than their older counterparts. They also apparently rely on multiple sources of information to form opinions of companies.

According to Jeff Grau, Senior Analyst at eMarketer:

“While blogs and customer ratings and reviews have long been a familiar
part of the Internet commercial landscape, over the past two years social
shopping sites have emerged as another way for customers to share product
experiences and opinions.”
“The sites typically provide tools for users to download photos of
interesting products found on retail Web sites to their profile page or blog.
Users then share and discuss their findings with the community,”

His article also goes into more detail about the social aspects of shopping, particularly the users need to feel part of a community and their recognition from peers.