It seems that after decades of consuming visual content, we’re slowly getting tired and starting to switch to the audio format. For many, it is way preferable to listen to a story than to watch or read it.
And that’s exactly why, today podcasting is at its peak. It is considered one of the fastest-growing mediums of 2021 and is here to stay for a while.
Although many people associate podcasts with entertainment, they also can be a very helpful tool for businesses. Podcasts allow organizations to unlock opportunities for reaching a wider audience and improving their online presence.
There is no doubt that podcasts help businesses to grow. While entering the fascinating world of podcasting, organizations unlock opportunities to reach more audiences and improve their online presence.
Meanwhile, podcasts can also support businesses internally by supporting better employee communication, corporate culture, and more.These are the corporate podcasts, which many companies already use.
What is a corporate podcast: does it refer to recording podcast episodes for your employees or for your customers?
The answer is simple:
Both.
Corporate podcasts can be about your company and the people standing behind it. They are meant to introduce your business to an audience, translating your organization’s atmosphere and corporate culture. Further, depending on which audience you want to target with your podcasts, you can slightly adjust the content and communication style.
Corporate podcasts can also be for internal purposes, which means you record episodes for the company employees only. In this case, you will have a permanently assigned spokesperson (usually the company CEO or someone else from the higher management). The distribution channels, in this case, are internal communication platforms.
Some organizations have private corporate podcasting, which means the episodes are available in the password-protected RSS feed. Only the company’s employees have the password.
Also, corporate podcasts can be for external use. In this case, your target audience is end consumers, and the goal is to promote your company’s image. For many organizations, corporate podcasting is a powerful tool for employee branding. If you want to make your company podcasting accessible for external audiences, you can select any platform for podcast publishing.
How to create a corporate podcast? What should be done differently compared to ordinary podcasts?
The main distinguishing factor of corporate podcasts is that their topic should be tightly related to the organization it is created for. Corporate podcasts usually have the following functions:
1) make corporate announcements
2) invite employees to the corporate events
3) encourage experience sharing between employees to increase productivity
4) encourage sharing of employee’s personal stories to make better personal connections
5) provide updates on the company’s completion of strategic goals
6) complete the onboarding for the new members of the organization
7) follow-up employees for achieving their milestones according to deadlines, etc.
Therefore, while planning your podcast’s script, make sure it aligns with the organization’s corporate culture. There might be a need to discuss corporate podcast’s topics and communication style with higher management staff, HR, Business Development, PR & Marketing, and other relevant departments.
Especially, if you are going to distribute it through external podcasting platforms, podcasts should be carefully planned to support the company’s overall image.
Examples of corporate podcasts to inspire from
The below episode of the Tell Me Why show explains why people make certain decisions for the employees of American Airlines. The host is Vice President of Global Engagement for Americans.
Another American company, General Electric, has the podcast show LifeAfter/The Message. The eight episodes of the podcast of science fiction format introduce the idea behind GE to broad audiences. The message is not for internal use only. It was released on public podcasting platforms and even was leading the American iTunes chart for some period.
Policy Currents episodes refer to the new findings, events, and commentary from the RAND Corporation. From the podcasts, you can learn that the RAND researchers help defend against ransomware attacks, teach media literacy skills, discuss barriers to Covid-19 vaccination, and much more.
What are some ideas for recording corporate podcasts?
There are plenty of corporate podcast formats. No matter which of them you choose for your company, we can help you with the tools.
Individual podcasts
The main speaker for the individual corporate podcast can be one of the company members, a field specialist or even an enthusiastic podcaster that’s willing to dive into your company’s field. Through this format, you can work on the company leader’s personal branding by weaving your own product or service into the monologues led by your industry expert host.
It’s one of the most accessible ways of podcasting since it depends only on one person, thus requiring less resources.Thanks to special audio recording software, it’s possible to record the audio without any equipment.
Panel discussions
If simplified, panel discussions are a chat between a podcaster and their guests. The listeners ask questions or express their opinions over the topics that the host speaks on. This is an excellent opportunity to organize brainstormings and make everyone aware of the procedures that are happening in other departments.
This type of podcas is suitable for discussing specific topics relevant to your company. It’s best if such discussions are led by a dedicated specialist. For example, the marketing department manager can host one of the episodes and discuss the general marketing strategy and branding of the whole company. Podcasts can also be useful for educating the bulk of your employees when you onboard essential business software like employee time tracking apps, expense management software, project management tools, etc. which they will need to use on a daily basis.
Interview podcasts
Will interviews ever become outdated? We don’t think so. A compelling conversation between a good host and an interesting guest is always going to attract audiences.
For the corporate atmosphere, you might consider interviewing the managers of the current month’s projects to motivate your employees and encourage them to share their experiences. You can also invite guests outside of your company, who will add a fresh perspective to your podcasts.
With Podcastle’s interview feature you do not need to have your guests in the same office for that. Record remotely and thanks to the multitrack recording feature, you’ll be able to edit the audio tracks individually. After removing the background noise and adjusting the voices in the recording, you’re left with a studio-quality podcast.
Informative podcasts
There is always plenty of news coming your company’s way: changes happen either within the company or in the industry that the company operates in. Your employees will love to be up-to-date with everything that happens in the community, so you might consider distributing the fresh news to the company staff from time to time.
If you do not have the time, the resources or an employee who’d want to host the podcast episodes, you can develop the script out of the latest updates and make the podcasting software revoice it within minutes. With so many solutions and tools, there is no reason to not start your corporate podcast now!