Corporate Podcasting Expressway

I came acrosss: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/1348871.stm.
Although dated: Thursday, 24 May, 2001, there are some interesting points.
On a different point, in terms of web-site/blog site designs, there are certainly issues surrounding what is appealing to both the writer and potential reader. At this point we are talking about style and not substance!
Interestingly, I remember reading about how some historians were examing original manuscripts of authors before the days of wordprocessors to reveal the mood the writer was in. For example, suggesting that if a particular typewriter key had been hit harder than others the displayed font would reveal something!?Back to the point (pardon the pun) on font styles. Apparently size matters too!
The article mentioned above suggests:
The Psychology of Fonts, written by psychologist Dr Aric Sigman explains how a typeface will significantly influence what the reader thinks about you.
Courier is seen as the choice of “sensible shoes” type of people or “anoraks”…
Dr Sigman said: “Using the wrong font may give people the wrong impression about you and could affect decisions that will shape your future.”

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It has been a bit of a learning curve to get www.drsavi.com Googled?
I thought it was anyway? It was an interesting challenge.
Here is the issue. I recently upgraded my server as the bills for bandwidth charges were going over my monthly limit. It may have something to do with the numerous audio and video podcasts that I am involved with!
The issue of not being spidered may have had something to do with the way my domain was set-up. In addition, issues with the blog site set-up or something called ‘Robots.txt’ (NB a Robot checker can help). This file has a specific syntax and if upon Google spidering you it encounters issues, the whole inclusion mechanism grinds to a halt. Luckily having a Google account helps as their webmaster tools can assist in locating potential issues.
The good news is that typing dr savi into Google will bring you here (no ego here, honest!). I hope the rest of my contributions to the Internet will work too?
PS I’m also now on Twitter so communicating updates can be easier.

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The latest Know-wow show is now available through i-tunes and VideoPodcast.TV.
In Episode 11 of the Know-Wow Best Practice Project and Management Consultancy Show, we consider core business coaching skills and draw parallels from traditional sports coaching techniques. With the help of Colin Streets of Fitness Handled Intelligently (FHI) the similarities are both interesting and applicable.Please watch the video podcast to learn more about the key elements of coaching skills and its associated processes, for example:
The importance of pre-assessment meetings Setting measurable and achievable goals
Planning Strategies to stay on course by recognising real-world challenges Developing a good Mentor-Mentee relationship building with agreed development boundaries Respecting your coach and allowing the coach to ‘gel’ / ‘bed-in’ with for example, a team dynamic
Our Thanks to Colin Streets of for all his time and advice. You can download a full version of the videopodcast or watch it through VideoPodcast.TV Alternatively, to watch an reduced version of the Best Practice Project and Management Consultancy Videopodcast (Ep11), please use the YouTube play screen below:

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Recently I was taking to a director of a major division of a communications organisation. The director was interested in deveoping Knowledge Management approaches for staff that did not involve the use of systems to store essential tactical data. Effectively, he was talking about the neural nature of knowledge or corporate knowledge stores. Maybe he was looking for complementary methods to traditional system based approaches?

I believe that inherent organisational knowledge can be defined as knowlege not written down but based on experience. It can also become established over years and not from one person. From a business risk perspective, the implication is huge if key members of this undocumented knowledge environment depart.

I remember 3 years ago we were working on a large public sector organisation that were keen to outsource a large part of their Information Systems division. However, years of experience and procedures needed to be formalised first! I suggested the using the UK Underground map (seriously!) as a way of initial identification of key decision points. This map was brainchild of Harry Beck and can be adapted for process design.

Here is my reply to the director…

Dear….

An article I wrote for a Knowledge Management Wiki on defining tactical Knowledge Management for organisations can be found at:
http://kh-2.com/mediawiki-1.5.8/index.php?title=Defining_Knowledge_Management

A recent videopodcast that I performed to explore the power of knowledge management based wiki’s, especially for projects performed by commercical organisations can be found at:

http://kh-2.com/khliptv-Know-wow-ep1.mp4

Although these examples refer to the use of systems, specially retaining and imparting knowledge held in neural networks (knowledge inside people’s heads) can be a different matter. A traditional non-systems approach can involve implementing…

1. Paper based procedures
2. Technical walk-throughs and a ’show-me’ approach

If non-technical areas is also an initial requirement, I suggest a good place to start is by implementing:

1. Effective induction methods
2. Development of core-competency frameworks but with team based bench marking of standards (both positive and negative behaviours)
3. Building a manual resource centre (centralising a list of critical ‘to do’ items.)
4. Brown bag lunches ! - These are typically lunch period sessions with no agenda but a debating shop on a specific issue. Similar to the ‘old style’ quality circles, the difference being that tactical data is discussed around a given business problem.
5. Business games to expose and record knowledge gaps.

I hope this helps.
Best Regards

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It was recently suggested that the number of active Blogs maybe shrinking. Actually Gartner Research group did not suggest this in such a graphical way. They (Gartner research) suggested the reduction in number of Bloggers will persist and a peak related to numbers and time does exist.

NB If we analyse my post’s question a little more deeply, the question I’m asking is not only about the number of Blogs available in terms of growing or declining but the ability of the Blogosphere to work effectively or with any real worth. Better still, to ‘act’ as a collective mechanism to share thoughts and make change happen.

The epitaphs about Blogging appear to have started in the US at the end of Feb�07, i.e: Suggestions were being made in the US press about the decline in the Blogging phenomena. Last Sunday a UK national paper also suggested that Blogging could be in decline for a number of reasons:

1. Bloggers / writers block
2. No time to write an online diary

I wonder if the suggested decline may also be due to other reasons:

* Not enough ghost writers!
* Nothing to say
* Bloggers wondering if anyone is reading
* Bloggers unaware of the power of connecting and shared thought
* Loss of faith by PR agencies of the value of Blogs
* Celebrity Bloggers discarding the fad ownership of a Blog
* The cost of running and interlinking as part of a webstrategy
* Too much hassle to keep it up-to-date
* Other forms of self expression appearing to be more tempting, for example, using some other mode but one that is more disturbingly open, revealing and sometimes explicit!
* People have �run out of steam� with this fad.
* Media moguls in fear of the power of personal view-points

When surfing the Internet, yes there are trails and ghost blogs from yesteryear.

There is one grave danger. If the rumours of the increasing number of ghost Blogs is to be believed then I hope that we do not end-up with an environment of A, B and C list of Bloggers. I�ve even read about the suggestion that there are some Bloggers (ace writers) who no matter how hard they try, simply cannot get enough traffic or visitors? Conversely, I�ve heard of some political Bloggers yielding handsome / healthy monthly earnings through Google Adsense click-through�s?

Returning to the key question, Blogging needs to not be considered as a singularity. Instead, as connected thought streams/ developing social thought. Therefore, the less brain cells, the less the power to drive change or suggested action.

The bottom-line is that keeping a Blog is a form of self-expression � a way of hopefully declaring an opinion, encouraging debate in a �free world�. The question is who makes it free? Is it the mechanics of the Internet or the natural laws of chaos that attract and bring about a connected world?

Blogging will never die but it may never be the same…

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I mentioned it yesterday but to save anyone looking it up, here they are.
My problem with them all is that they appear so ‘old school’. Remember the 4D’s of Project Management - Discover, Design, Develop and Deploy. Did some one forget about ‘Divulge’ - i.e before deploy we need a testing phase so that pilot users can divulge if they have changed their minds on their original requirement - you know that they always do!

OK, back to the 4P’s. The common opinion for corporate podcasting appears to be …

Plan, Produce, Publish and Promote.

My view on why this maybe slighly limited:

1. Plan - Did someone forget P for with People and P for defining Performance criteria?
2. Produce - Did someone forget P for Purchase the right items / kit and P for Performance?
3. Publish - Did someone forget P for Projection to the right channels (internal / external)?
4. Promote - Did someone forget P for Pitch with management or team support?

I’m not sure if these 4P’s are enough unless they can incorporate the following essential elements?

Portable applications
Cost of ownership and Return on Investment
Leadership support
Creativity from within the organisation or external links to clients
In-house Liasons and Podcast Producers, i.e: linking-up internally
Production Mistakes and archiving strategies
The impact of good and bad shows together with establishing improvement (feedback) strategies.
Getting the right content
Pre-Production Steps
Scripting, off-the-record management and interviewing skills
Litigation possibilities
Post-Production techniques
Pitch and tone
Audio standards
Video standards
Prioritisation mechanisms
Listening online
Who’s listening / stats et al

I’ve recently seen a training course from a PR company that positions the 5 P’s of Corporate Podcasting (training) as follows:

� Preparation
� Performance
� Post production
� Posting
� Promotion

Somebody seems to have missed out P for Piloting!
In addition, there might need to be a separate internal pricing model for production houses themselves, i.e: P for Profit (how much are we going to charge and where are most of our cost being consumed?).

Interestingly, they must be managing their Search Engine Optimisation really well as they appear on the first page of google upon the associated search for Corporate Podcasting. I feel another post coming on about this!

Misinformation on the simplicity of corporate podcasting by some vendors may create a P for Panic from potential clients, scared off by bad P for press and F for, it was just a fad!

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Here is a a great post by Nick Saalfield

and here is my response…

Hi Nick,
Good to see you back.
I was communicating with Matt O’Neil, re: whether I was going to make it. I would value an off-line chat with you about my experiences with the whole show - let us put it this way - it was ‘pitched’ to me as a great place to debate and meet. I guess it was, with selected presenters and ‘possible’ clients.

With regard to your point on ‘too much focus on production’. I agree, as I have scoured the internet to find out distinctions between emerging players. I can put most of the new insurgence into 4 main categories:

1. Pure production (ex Audio recording mix houses)
2. Voice-over fill ins (ex Presenters that can help with scripting and recording)
3. PR houss (ex PR houses hoping to combine social media discussions with the remote possibility of using the potential of RSS)
4. Mobilcasters (ex Telephone service companies, hoping to use global voicemai).

Podcasting is not about the ‘4Ps’ - You must have seen that circulating around the net.

Ending on a positive, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Podcasting is about:

* Integration with corporate initiatives and
* Linkage to a corporate comms strategy
* Yes, it is about feedback loops but ones that yield a change in an organisation - for example, communicating best customer service practice.
* Niche markets have niche needs.

With regard to the latter, the podcast must have meaning - Working with a dealer channel and their extranet.

Just returning to your initial point, there appears to be too much intellectualising around the old audio publishing arena rather than discovering immediate value add usage for clients and then really pushing this as central to the education that our clients need to realise our business possibilities…

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