A short while back, I was lucky enough to be interviewed by the fine folks at Big Duck about the We Are Media project. I've never been interviewed for a podcast before, and I have to say, it was a lot of fun! Though I can't stand the sound of my own voice being played back -- which is funny given how much I talk! -- I am very much looking forward to hearing it, so I can compare the process of recording the podcast with the final product.
When it was all said and done, I asked Sarah Durham from Big Duck if she wouldn't mind sharing a little bit about her podcast and the process. She was kind enough to answer:
1. Why do you podcast?
We started the Nonprofit Jungle as a way to give nonprofit staffers a free, easy way to do a bit of professional development during their commute, gym time, or other 'found' moments. Because each podcast is typically about ten minutes long, our goal is to pack in useful content, tips and resources into a short period of time that offers something real without requiring a big effort or commitment on the part of the recipient. Since most people we know in the nonprofit sector are spread thin, we thought this might be more realistic than giving them more to read, for instance (although we do that too, through our monthly newsletter, the Duck Pond.)
There are lots of organizations out there Big Duck would love to work with, but only a handful that actually have projects, budgets and timelines that make sense for us- so this is one way we do pro bono- and try to help other, often smaller, nonprofits.
2. Is it working? How do you know?
We track the Nonprofit Jungle in a few different ways. First, subscribers via itunes or Feedburner, and downloads to the podcasts page on our website. There are a several hundred people who seem to be listening at this point, but it's hard to get an exact number since each source tracks subscribers differently, and we think there's some crossover. We also get great feedback from people who email us, or mention that they listen when they meet us. Lately, more and more people are subscribing to our newsletter and listing the Nonprofit Jungle as the way they heard about us- so they seem to be finding the podcast before they find Big Duck (probably on itunes).
3. How frequently do you podcast?
We record three or four podcasts at a time and release one every three weeks. The topics coordinate with other content we produce- for instance, a webinar or workshop on a related topic during the same month, or a Duck Pond (newsletter) on the same topic from a different point of view.
4. How much time and money for each episode?
Many people produce their own podcasts, but we opted to hire a pro- Emily Botein, who's a highly regarded NPR producer. She's worth every penny. We record for about 20-30 minutes, then Emily edits the recording down to make it sound clean and much tighter. If you listened to the 'befores' and the 'afters' you'd be amazed.
Our hard costs are the recording studio rental time and the producer's time to record and edit, and they total roughly $800 per episode, give or take. There's also the time I spend prepping, and administrative and technical time to post them to itunes, online, etc.
5. What equipment do you use?
You know, I'm not sure what Emily uses to edit. I hear that folks who are doing it themselves often use GarageBand (Mac), it seems.
More about the value of hiring a pro though: I often advocate that nonprofits consider the value of their own time when developing communications, and weigh that as part of the equation when determining whether to do something in-house or not. While we could produce our podcast internally, I'm sure the result would be much less professional, and the staff time invested would be much greater.
Before we started podcasting, I did some surveying of people (LInkedIn was helpful for this) about the 'casts they listen to, what they like, and what they don't like. Universally, the most successful ones seem to be professionally done- and those that are not professionally produced but still popular are usually noted with comments like, "it would be so much better if they just edited it down to be shorter', for instance.