Podcasting Trends

Video webcasting communicates well with many people. Podcasting can be simpler than videowebcasting. When considering the best mode of projecting yourself or your company, you would be sadly mistaken to overlook the idea of using podcasts. Podcasts have grown increasinglig popular as the ipod and iphone fenzy has continued to grow.

Podcasts are a fairly cheap, effective way to reach a large audience. To create a podcast really requires no initial investment beyond the purchase of an ipod, itunes and or iphone. The only tools necessary for the successful creation of a podcast is a decent computer, itunes and of course and internet connection. Due to the amazing accessibility of podcasts a growing number of members of the ipod cult are logging on and sharing their message with the world.

A great benefit of the podcast is that it is an on demand broad cast. Once your podcast has been uploaded to itunes to be shared anyone and everyone can subscribe. Also it is not necessary to be virtually present when the podcast is initially added. The podcast can be pulled up at anytime whenever it is convenient for the subscriber.

A subscription to podcast is beneficial to not only those with a subscription but also to the party issuing the podcast. A subscription allows the member to receive the newest version of the podcast immediately after it is broadcasted. This ensures that everyone who subscribes to your podcast receives updates without any added effort.

As a member of the ipod cult myself the idea of podcasts really excites me. It is a very affordable, its basically free, way to broadcast myself to others. I receive instantaneous downloads of the podcasts I hae subscribed to daily and have them automatically added to my ipod. I am already out the door and commuting before I am even aware of my daily updates. It is so nice to have a basically self designed broadcast that I can take with me wherever I go. The uses for podcasts are extremely diverse. I have seen this technology use for lectures at large universities as well as five minute yoga lessons. Whatever your interest you can find a podcast to address it, and if not you can create one for others like yourself.

I can really see families starting to use podcasts in the future to keep in touch with loved ones and possibly even send Christmas cards or multimedia messages that can be watched whenever the subscriber desires. A practical way for companies to plug into the podcast trend would be to put trainings onto podcast. What better way to allow your employees to catch up with what happened at the meeting or the training that they missed then to allow an automatic download to upload onto their personal ipod.

This is a Guest Post by Beth Barnes, student in a nearby college. She was asked: if you wanted to roll out a video clip introducing your product, which service should you use?

Beth said:
With so many web 2.0 Video Services available now, how do you choose the right one? I think that the decision really should be based on what is must important to your specific situation. I looked at three of the video broadcasting, pod casting and social networking sites in an attempt to see which were the most versatile and user friendly. The sites that I looked at were

• bliptv
• bolt and of course
• You Tube.

All three sites offer seemingly the same services free of charge but to an audience are quite different. During my first examination of Bolt.com I felt that it was easy to navigate and the videos were clear and easy to search. I was irritated however that the videos were not able to be enlarged to full screen. When viewing videos claiming to be news clippings they seemed short, choppy and sloppily edited. I also noticed that there was no advertising on this site which made me wonder what their source of revenue was due to the fact that the membership for positing videos and blogging on this site were free.
Despite its good first appearance I was discouraged by the blogging when I tried to gain user feedback on bolt.com. Under the informational bolt.com blog the conversations had shifted from informational to highly personal and had almost nothing to do with the site itself. While reading the postings I felt more like I was on a dating and love site then a video broadcasting site. If I was ever to post a video for work or other professionals this site would be one of my last choices.
I got a very different impression from bliptv.com. Blip TV was refreshing, clean and easy to navigate. The site boasts it’s built in syndication to AOL video, yahoo video, myspace, facebook, twitter, flickr, MSN video, google video, itunes and many more. The compatibility of this site is astonishing! I loved it. The main premise of this site was to be able to download and organize all of your videos in one place but yet still be able to promote yourself practically anywhere else. What could be better? I was also excited that Blip TV will promote your video for you on their homepage if it becomes popular. Blip TV is a great site for anyone looking to seamlessly set up pod casts or video clips for their homepage. It is a great media organization site.
One of my old favorites is still You Tube. Any company that Google is interested in buying out is definitely worth your time. You Tube enables any visitor to search and view videos. You tube now has relationships with many news stations and it is possible to watch news clippings from anywhere that you can browse You Tube. I am not only impressed with You Tubes clear home page when viewing on my pc but I have become more and more excited with the fact that I can upload videos to You Tube from my blackberry and also watch videos, wherever I am. You Tube contains such a wide variety of videos which makes the possible audience that much greater. For anyone who wants to broadcast themselves or their business to a large and easily accessible audience I would definitely recommend You Tube. It is a social video sharing community that really puts the power in the hands of the video creator.
[When not reviewing video sites, Beth Barnes studies graphic design and art history.]

The latest great idea is to use your iPhone for a quick video conference. The camera points out the back, so a couple of mirrors are used to get your face into the system, and a video un-mirror program is necessary, but it is doable. See this great post from MacDaddyWorld. The new iPhone will be out in a few days, so many are hoping that this will be easier. No rumors yet that the camera will point both ways, we will see.

For Tele-Conferences many well informed lecturers are using the free service at FreeConference.com. Your call-in guests will have to pay the long distance charges, but there is no additional charge for the call itself.

However, you will want the service to make a recording. It is available, for $9 per month. The service outputs an MP3 file that can be downloaded within 30 days after the recording. A CD made from this MP3 would be an appropriate gift to mail to the participants.

When you make some visuals available from your website, for example as a pdf file, this will increase the learning accomplished. You can just create the pdf file, with words and pictures, from Microsoft Word or Powerpoint, and upload the file to your website. Then, during the call, tell the listeners to point their web browser to www.yoursite.com/picturesforthetalk.pdf.