• How to Start and Grow a Think Tank
• Grassroots Leadership Guide to K-12 Education Reform
  • Prologue
  • Decide What Type of Organization You Want to Become
  • Building and Maintaining an Effective Board
  • Get Things Up and Running
    • Overview
    • Defining Your Organization: Vision, Mission, Purpose
    • Increasing your Social Return on Investment through Technology
    • Harnessing Technology to Advance Our Ideas: Doing More With Less - The Bluegrass Story
    • Measure Success, Not Just Output
    • Web Design: Planning and Best Practices
    • Integrating Podcasting Into Your Organization
    • Communicating Success: The Value of a Strategic Communications Plan
    • Great Books on Leadership and Non-Profit Management
  • Legal Reference Material
  • Organize Your Staff and Volunteers
  • Examples of Programs and Operational Materials
  • Building Coalitions
  • Getting Your Message Out/Media Relations
  • Talking with Legislators
  • Raising Money
  • History of School Choice
  • Education Reform Research and Resources
  • Resources
• Taking Donors Seriously
• Fundraising Fundamentals

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Integrating Podcasting Into Your Organization

by Michael Quinn Sullivan, Texas Public Policy Foundation

The primary purpose of a podcast should be to offer existing information in a format that is more readily accessible to modern users. One should not try to think of it as creating a new information program, or an in-house radio show. Instead, think of it as an audio version of your latest research, commentaries or other communication outreach efforts. This allows us to maximize our existing efforts in a convenient format for both primary and secondary audiences.

Like most communications tools, podcasts need to be offered on a regular basis. Irregularity makes it extremely difficult for users to know when something new is available. If they check back once or twice and nothing new is posted, they are likely to forget about checking back again. Setting a regular update schedule and sticking with it is critical.

Hardware Needs

• Mixing Board: EuroRack UB502, $30
• Two microphones and a splitter (leading into the mixer). It is important to get decent quality microphones. Radio Shack specials will not give the same quality as a Sure microphone or an EV. $100 - $200
• "InPort" USB audio connection: takes the RCA-style output from the mixer into your computer's USB port. $30
• Any modern laptop computer (hopefully already part of your budget)
  Optional hardware
• Olympus DS-330 digital recorder (Allows you to record to a separate device from your latop and well worth the cost)
• Radio shack phone-line recorder (Allows you to record phone conversations, into your mixer.)
  

Software Needs

WavePad. (www.nch.com.au/wavepad/masters.html) A superior "audio capture" program, for recording purposes. A free version exists, but the "master" costs only $50. This software allows for easy graphical editing of sound files, pasting in corrections, etc. It can also remove annoying clicks and pops that tend to plague audio recordings, as well as reduce distracting "white noise" background sounds (like the constant hum of an air conditioning unit).

Propaganda. (http://www.makepropaganda.com/) The software bills itself as a way to seamlessly record and post podcasts. It doesn't entirely deliver on that, but for the money the program does an excellent job of turning wav-format files created with WavePad (or any other sound file) into a solid mp3. You can mix "channels" of audio for back ground music, introductions, exits, and other cues. Propaganda allows you to easily implement fades and other fancy audio stuff. Cost? $50.

WS-FTP. (http://www.ipswitch.com/) I use this free file transfer program to upload my files (XML and MP3) to the web server. FileZilla is another free option.

Schedules

I set our podcast (www.texaspolicy.com/policycast/) schedule and time based on these factors:

• Weekly, fitting into our existing communications time schedule
• Research indicates 16 minutes is the outside limit for listening online
• We had an existing Thursday-delivery (and were not wanting to add an additional e-mail)
• Wanted to give "advance notice" to radio show producers, and Wednesday tends to be a good day for radio pitches

I typically set our podcast subjects based on our upcoming research. We publish a new policy brief, perspective or report every week, and schedule those at least a month in advance. That allows me to select podcasts built around the release of those items, often creating a "storehouse" of editions, maximizing recording and editing times.

Additionally, I try to be sensitive to what's currently in the news or happening in the legislature. While a report may not be scheduled for release for another couple weeks, we'll do the podcast as a teaser. Also, I sometimes preempt our "issue-based" podcasts for specialty items, such as our September 2006 gubernatorial candidate series. Mixing in conversations with elected officials and outside experts to supplement standard issue-based interviews with your policy analysts adds variety and keeps your audience interested.

Audience

Know who you're trying to reach. It's rather doubtful your largest donors are also going to be your primary podcast audience. More than likely the most consistent, immediate listeners will be legislative staffers - along with news reporters, talk-show producers and possibly lobbyists.

(Note: We do compile our podcasts every two months into a compact disc that we send to our large donors.)

Tone

You need to establish the tone for the podcast. As the "host," are you offering monologues? Are you the moderator? Is this Q&A or discussion?

Pre-Production

Even though I worked in the news business at one point, I try not to confuse my podcast with actual journalism. The format lends itself better to advertisement or education efforts than to straight "reporting."

I also make a practice of providing questions to "guests" in advance (although we discourage them from simply reading prepared statements in response). The discussion tends to be smoother and more productive if guests have an idea where the conversation is leading. We, at TPPF, are promoting ideas, not trying to be 60 Minutes!

Production

The recording process should be one-on-one and in person. Using the right recording/editing software, it is very easy to stop and start a question over, and then erase your flubs with a click.

Telephone recording adds a great deal of complexity that tends to eat away as much time as it seemingly saves. That said, phone interviews are sometimes easier to arrange with politicians, business executives and others working on tight schedules.

Post-Production

If you want to use intro and exit music, make sure you secure the proper copyrights! We had music available from a previous project, which greatly reduced our costs. Having intro music is a very nice way to add professionalism to your product, but you need to make sure it matches your tone and organizational goals.

Also, at TPPF, I use a standing intro script, that I record each time to ensure the voice quality is consistent with the interview itself. We then use a standing, pre-recorded exit, done by one of the women in the office. Friends in radio suggested using a contrasting voice to my own (in this case, Shari's), to grab the attention of listeners and pull them through the exit.

All of these things make the podcasting process as simple as laying down the tracks:

• your opening music
• your interview/speech
• your exit with music

And then you're done...

Well, almost.

Posting Online

In order for a podcast to be a podcast, you need to utilize a file that looks a lot like old HTML code. Samples abound online, and there are numerous tutorials, such as http://feedvalidator.org/.

Don't get bogged down by jargon. It might seem difficult, but it is VERY easy.

1. Just use a text editor (Notepad on PCs) to add in a new edition.
2. Instead of saving the file as "txt" you save it as either "rss" or "xml."
3. The XML file then can be parsed out in any number of ways to display the podcast on your website -- or just have it sitting there for users to "point" to.

Again, this is all MUCH easier than it sounds. I'm happy to provide you a template to get this technology up and running at your organization.

You do need to be careful about bandwidth charges from your web-hosting provider. We ended up using a separate service (namesecure.com) to host our audio and video files. They are much cheaper than our primary hosting service, and the users don't realize the data is flowing from a no-frills server service. Again, this might sound more complicated than it really is.

Promoting

We promote our podcasts in four ways:

1. On our front page. I simply made code on our front page to show the newest edition to the XML file.
2. In our e-newsletter.
3. On iTunes. Apple's iTune's service is a great tool. It is also free. They have lots of helpful tips. Remember, they benefit from having us use their free service as much as we benefit from using it. And it is a benefit: Lots of iPod users.
4. We cross-promote in our hard-copy quarterly newsletter.

Who Can Listen?

Anyone! You don't need an iPod or other portable mp3 player. Just a computer with speakers.

Michael Quinn Sullivan is vice president of the Texas Public Policy Foundation.