PlusOne - Musings of a marketer

Before you say it, yes I know I fearured a video on this blog a couple of days ago. In fact it is partly because of this that I have been prompted to make this post.

Basically I reckon podcasts of audio and video are pretty-much a big waste of time. Why? Well here are a few reasons (I use AV as an abbreviation for audio and visual to cover audio podcasts and video):

1. On a bandwidth to information comparison - AV is a resource hog - There is a whole lot of data that is not needed to get the message across. Think of video in particular…if someone walks past in the background, that is a whole lot of data needed to show that which adds nothing to the information.

2. Home grown AV is like an amature with Publisher trying to do a magazine (part 1) - On the most part, people doing AV are not trained. This means poor production quality both in terms of the actual source material and with the final edit - if they edit at all. It means often poor data compression and even worse visual or audio quality.

3. Home grown AV is like an amature with Publisher trying to do a magazine (part 2) - If you don’t know how to write for speaking then your material is going to be really bad. If you don’t know how to interview properly, your material is going to be really, really bad. Writing for reading aloud is a special skill. Not only the writing but also the reading. Poor stuff includes long-winded intros, poor attempts at humour etc.

4. There is no way for the listener/viewer to fast track to what they want to hear - unlike printed material - which downloads fast - AV takes such a long time. And so you have to download the whole podcast before you can start listening/viewing and there is nothing worse than finding there was nothing useful or the topic you thought was going to be covered was either skipped or brushed over. A printed version means you can skim through and co to the material you want, fast and quickly.

5. Inequality - if you don’t have broadband then you are pretty much excluded. Today broadband itself means different things and can be a typical 512 download speed seen in Australia, to a 8mbps which is available in England (and maybe other places). In this regard it is elitist.

SOLUTIONS

1. Work on compression - make it small. Size does matter!

2. Get trained in technical and writing/reading skills. If you umm, err, stumble etc, get trained. Otherwise you will remain sounding/looking like a foolish amateur, regardless of your content.
3. Provide a summary in text form - make it comprehensive - tell us what is included. This could be a transcript or an edited form. But please give us a detailed rundown before we commit only to find we have wasted our time.

IN CLOSING

Sure podcasts can be great, allowing you to listen to material on your MP3 player on the train or while walking - but give people good, concise content that is high quality technical production (no music intros PLEASE).

Lifting the bar will benefit you and win repeat listeners…

Disclaimer - I have been so appalled by EVERY podcast and video I have seen (including the one from several days ago) that I will continue my utter resistance to even download them (unless a clear and detailed summary allows me to know exactly what I will be getting or I am tricked by the promise of great useful content)

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