imageseven has celebrated over 150, award-winning school marketing and communications podcast. There is no getting around the fact that a lot of hard work went into getting us this far, but it may not be difficult as you think. Taking those first few steps towards starting a podcast is easily the most difficult aspect of the podcast creation process. Creating strict processes and sticking to them will allow you to effectively and consistently create influential audio content, week after week.
Here’s how to create an effective podcast for your school.
1. Planning
Before you start there are some important questions you need to ask yourself. What will the format of my podcast look like? Will it be a discussion or maybe an interview format? Do I have the time? Where will my content come from? Who can help me? What budget do we have for gear? These are all important questions to ask, but don’t let them scare you!
2. Recording
Now that you have planned your podcast you can start recording. Having a good quality microphone and recording gear is very important for the overall sound of your podcast. There are good quality microphones that can be plugged into phones or computers that will do the trick. Setting up a quality studio mic with a simple USB audio interface will more then suffice. There are a huge variety of options for recording so talk to an audio specialist and do some googling. Radio best practices are also worth following.
3. Editing
The next step is to edit your podcast. There are also many options out there for audio editing. We outsource our editing for efficiency as we record a lot, but there are many different audio editing software options available that are user-friendly. The purpose of this step is to cut out mistakes or gaps, add pre-recorded introductions or conclusions or even add audio effects and background music. You can really increase your production value with good editing.
4. Uploading
Now that your podcast sounds professional and polished you need to distribute it to your listeners. iTunes is one of the most used platforms for podcasting and there are multiple ways you can get your podcast included. Itunes offers a direct service (iTunes Podcast Connect) in which you upload straight to it but there are also many different mediators that can take care of this for you. These platforms can ensure your audio file is in the right format, has the correct tags and many other things iTunes requires. We use a great service called Libsyn, but platforms like Buzzsprout, Podbean and Soundcloud are also great options.
5. Analysing
Checking the metrics of your podcast is an important step in learning from your successes and failures. Unfortunately, iTunes offers very little in terms of analytics but the above mentioned uploading platforms often offer great analytics that you can use to improve your podcasting.
6. Repeat steps 1-5
Consistency is the key for any medium of content creation. You won’t build a big following overnight. Consistency not only means you are continually creating, but also shows dedication to you audience and your craft.
After following these points the greatest challenges you will face is finding time to create podcasts and discovering material. These are problems that are easily overcome with the help of good workflows and strategies put in place in the planning stage of the podcasting process.
