Category Archives: Podcasting

Picture the Ottawa Social Mediators, part 1

They turned out in force to this week’s Third Monday to hear Paul Wells, to meet one another, and to have some great conversations. The Ottawa social mediators. Bloggers. Podcasters.

So, who are we, sitting here in the Great White North? Let’s put a face on the Ottawa social media community.

Get the picture of Canadian social media

Michael O'Connor ClarkeI’m starting a new project this week: to capture pictures of the leading Canadian bloggers, podcasters and video bloggers.

I’ll be able to jump start this effort thanks to a heavy schedule of social media meetups in central Canada this week. The week will kick off with the Third Monday social media meetup in Ottawa featuring Maclean’s columnist and author Paul Wells. The action moves to Joscelyn SmithToronto the next day for the Third Tuesday gathering with Wikinomics co-author Anthony Williams. On Wednesday, Marc Snyder has organized a blogger dinner with Naked Conversations co-author Shel Israel. And on Saturday, it’s back to Toronto for Podcamp Toronto, which promises to bring together up to 200 podcasters and podcasting enthusiasts.

Tamera KremerAt each of these events, I’ll try to get as many people as possible to subject themselves to my amateur snapshot skills. I’ll save the pictures to my flickr account with the tags: socialmediator, socialmediatorOttawa, socialmediatorToronto, and socialmediatorMontreal.

So, by the end of the week I hope to have a snapshot profile of the Canadian social media scene.

Joseph ThornleyI hope that you will join me in this project. If you plan to attend a social media meetup, why not capture pictures of the bloggers, podcasters and video bloggers that you meet and save and tag them on flickr.

If you add photos, please let me know by a trackback to this post or a comment.

Mark Evans will kick off the 2007 Third Tuesday social meetups

Mark EvansWe have a great speaker – Mark Evans – to kick off Third Tuesday’s 2007 spring season.

Mark writes highly respected blogs on telecom and technology and web 2.0 in Canada. He also co-hosts a popular weekly podcast, Talking Tech with Kevin Restivo.

Mark’s day gig is Vice President of Operations at b5media. Before joining b5media, he was a newspaper reporter – most recently at the National Post where he wrote about the Internet and the telecom sector.

Mark also has earned his stripes as a technology entrepreneur. In 2001, Mark co-founded Blanketware Corp., which developed natural language navigation technology for online services.

Third TuesdayAt Third Tuesday Mark will draw on his experience as a journalist, tech entrepreneur and social media network executive to give us a unique perspective on social media and its evolving relationship with mainstream media, public relations and communities of interest.

If you are interested in being part of the discussion with Mark, we’d love to have you join us. Sign up for Third Tuesday on meetup.com and RSVP that you plan to attend. You’ll meet a great group of people who share a passion for social media.

Podcasting and Video Blogging Best Practices

An all star panel - Robert Scoble, Andru Edwards and Mary Hodder - promised to reveal Podcasting and Video Blogging Best Practices.

Robert Scoble: Start out by knowing the story that you want to tell. And edit it to tell the story from a distinctive perspective.

Expectations of production quality are going up. Rocketboom is using a $1,500 HD camera. While not everyone uses this quality of equipment, people expect better quality sound and images that don’t shake.

If you are using a cheap, on camera microphone, stay close to the subject to eliminate the ambient background noise.  A wireless microphone is a worthwhile investment.

Mary Hodder: People will engage more with quality video. So, if you want to reach your audience, it is important to improve the technical quality of the video you post.

Robert Scoble: It’s still early days for video on the web. So, you can experiment.

Andru: Edwards: You can even use a still camera to capture short web quality videos.

Mary Hodder: Freevlog offers good resources for people interested in video blogging.

Robert: It’s a fun community right now. Because people are experimenting and trying things out.

Video bloggers can obtain sponsorship revenues by hosting their video blogs on revver.

For casual video bloggers, Robert suggests they look at bliptv, YouTube, google video or similar services. However, when uploading video to a service like YouTube, read the EULA (licence agreement) closely. You may be giving up the rights to your content.

Libsyn is another affordable solution for hosting podcasts and videos.

Mary’s company, dabble, is a search and sharing site for video. (Robert asked, so it was OK for Mary to talk about it.)

Ragan Conference – Shel Holtz

Shel Holtz took us into the world of podcasting. His presentation was titled, Mix Podcasting and PR: How the audio revolution can support clients’ objectives.

Podcasting is essentially online downloadable audio which can be received by subscription to an RSS feed.

Although podcasts can be transferred to MP3 players, 56% of people listen at their computer. Recognizing this, an increasing number of podcasts provide their signal on a streaming flash player to enable listening right off the site.

There are a diverse range of podcast directories that can be used to find content. Podcast Alley. Yahoo. Podshow. However, the cast majority of people who subscribe do so through … iTunes.

Who listens to podcasts? According to Arbitron, 11% of adults have downlaoded a podcast. 45% of the listenership is aged 35 to 44. They are educated, affluent and trend leders

Podcasts appeal to people who are hungry for niche content.

Podcasting has many advantages:

  • It’s time shifted. You can listen when you want. Podcasting is like Tivo for audio.
  • It is niche-focused. You can find content that is relevant to your interests. Content that would never be on broadcast radio.
  • It is detachable. You can separate it from your computer and listen to it on a portable device (MP3 player).
  • Audio can be listened to while you are dong something else. To read a blog, you must be focused on the screen. You shouldn’t do this while driving. But you can listen to a podcast on the train, the plane, in a car, while running, while doing the wash….
  • It has low barriers to entry. The easy to use software provides enables anyone to podcast without requiring that they have specialized technical knowledge.

Podcasting tools are freely available:

Through podcasting, a small company can attach its brand to compelling, interesting content in a way that only large companies could achieve previously through broadcast advertising.

Podcasts should be incorporated into a comprehensive PR program. As part of a program, they can:

  • Build brand identity;
  • Heighten awareness
  • Bolster your reputation
  • Build community.
  • Educate to build brand affinity.

Shel also offered some secrets for successfulpodcasting

  • Unscripted and natural. Podcasts should sound like your authentic, human voice.
  • Regular. People like to get into the habit of listening. Reliability counts. Be there when you say you’ll be there.
  • No overt selling. Most podcasts do not have advertising. Don’t stand out in a negative way.
  • Housed on a blog. A blog provides a place for show notes for every episode, including links mentioned in the show and time codes so that people can find the place they are interested in. Enable comments on the podcast blog and watch the community talk back to you.
  • Listener feedback encouraged and incorporated. Incorporate the listener feedback into the show. They will identify even more closely with it.

Shel practises what he preaches. For an example of a successful communications podcast, look at For Immediate Release: The Hobson and Holtz Report, which Shel co-hosts with Neville Hobson.

Toronto and Ottawa PR meetups to discuss social media

Public relations practitioners in Toronto and Ottawa have a new monthly forum to discuss social media from a PR perspective.

Ottawa meetup The Ottawa meetup is called Third Monday. The Toronto group is called Third Tuesday. And, you guessed it, they’ll generally be held on Mondays or Tuesdays.

A great group of bloggers and social media enthusiasts have come together to get these meetups going. Joining me in organizing the groups are David Jones, Terry Fallis, Ed Lee and Chris Clarke in Toronto and Colin McKay, Brendan Hodgson and Ian Ketcheson in Ottawa.

Toronto MeetupWe believe that public relations practitioners have a unique perspective on social media.  We look at social media as an extension of the conversations we have always had with journalists and stakeholders to now include a much larger group of citizen journalists and interested people whose online conversations lead to the formation of communities of interest.

Others groups have different starting points and different perspectives on social media. Advertisers, for example, start from the perspective of disaggregating mass media and the need to find new advertising vehicles and strategies that will replace failing mass media campaigns.

Because we have this unique perspective, public relations folks have different conversations than do those people who are grounded in other disciplines. First Monday and First Tuesday will provide us with the opportunity to talk about social media framed as a public relations challenge. We will be able to focus on its potential for and impact on our profession. How we can extend our capablities by embracing social media. How we can enhance our careers. How we can better serve our clients. And how we can then take our best thoughts forward into the broader discussion with others. Ensuring that public relations is well represented. Ensuring that public relations is in a leadership position in exploring and applying social media.

Shel IsraelWe have a great first speaker to launch our meetups. Shel Israel, co-author of Naked Conversations, will kick off the gatherings with back to back sessions on September 25 in Ottawa and September 26 in Toronto. I can’t think of a better way to kick off the discussion than with a man who hails from PR and who wrote THE book on blogging.

So, if you are a public relations practitioner who wants to meet other PR folks to talk about practical applications of social media, join the conversation. Sign up for Third Monday (Ottawa) or Third Tuesday (Toronto).

And, for those who’ve spotted a similarity to the SF Bay Area Third Thursday group organized by Mike Manuel, Jeremy Pepper, Giovanni Rodriguez, and Phil Gomes, you’re right. In looking for a model, we thought that Third Thursday was exactly what we wanted to replicate in Canada. Mike gave us the go ahead to borrow from the Third Thursday and that’s what we’ve done. Thank you Mike!

 

Canada’s Prime Minister podcasts – kind of

Canada’s federal government is making some tentative moves into social media.

Prime Minister Stephen HarperLast night, the Prime Minister of Canada’s Podcast popped up on iTunes’ Canadian podcast page. The files can also be accessed through a streaming player on the Prime Minister’s website, as can video files. However, the files on the PM’s site cannot be downloaded.

Without doubt, this is a medium that will enable the Prime Minister and his government to reach past the Parliamentary Press Gallery and speak directly to the citizens of Canada. However, the current presentation is nothing more than the raw audio files of the PM’s speech. This is likely to appeal only to the committed partisan or policy wonk.

To attract a larger audience, the Prime Minister’s Office should enhance the production. Definite must dos: a musical intro;  an introduction by a host to estabish the context and provide a summary of the content and maybe even a brief interview with the Prime Minister after the sound clip to provide some content that is unique to the podcast.

Bottom line: a first step by Canada’s new Prime Minister. Hopefully, there will be more.