{!date dayname+0}, {!date long+0} Dear {!firstname_fix} This week was my son's 11th Birthday and as you read this we are on a special day out in London with his best buddy. It's going to be a packed day, thanks to the itinerary he has given me. Ambitious is one word I'd use to describe it - oh, and expensive...! When I was 11, I just had a friend round for tea. Times have changed. So too have expectations. What 11-year-olds expected when I was a lad was, if you were lucky, a Monopoly set. Now, if it isn't electronic, or if it can't be connected to a PC it's "nothing". Of course, my parents would have said the same. Looking back at their 11th birthday, they might have said "Goodness, the kids of today; if it's not made by Waddingtons Games they don't want to know. When I was 11 all I wanted was a comic and an orange." Every generation sees differences over the decades - the question is does your web presence reflect your own generational position, or that of your main group of customers?
YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED: Is podcasting worth the effort? Podcasting is the production of audio content which people can download from a web page, or listen to on an MP3 player or an iPod, for instance. It is a great way of communicating because people can listen to it in the car, for example, or when they are out jogging. A friend of mine saves up a load of podcasts and listens to them on international flights, instead of having to read a boring in-flight magazine...! However, podcasts take time and a little expertise. You need good quality recording equipment for a start (see below) and you need some software to edit what you record - Audacity is zero cost...! You also need a bit of expertise in editing and audio production. It's not the same as just writing an article...! So, it is more time-consuming. But the power of podcasts lies in their engagement with your audience. When people listen to audio - assuming it is done well - people really engage and connect well. After all, if that were not the case radio stations would not exist...! Radio gets millions of listeners indicating audio content really works. However, there are some key differences between professionally produced radio and the vast majority of podcasts. For a start, radio has different sound "architecture". Most podcasts are one or sometimes two voices. Radio is rarely that. Most radio programs are several voices, lots of different kinds of sounds - one voice, a jingle, another voice, a promo, some music, back to the first voice and so on. If you wondered why radio programs require producers, now you know - it is about getting an array of voices and sounds in order to keep the audience engaged. If your podcast is just you, then you are not in the same territory as professional audio. Similarly, radio capitalises on a psychological feature - urgency. We tend to be attracted to things if we "must" do them now - before they disappear. Radio programmes are broadcast at specific times of the day - tune in NOW or you won't hear it unless you can arrange to record it. Even on the BBC's "Listen Again" feature, programmes are only available for a short space of time. Catch them this week, or they are gone forever. Most podcasts, however, are there in perpetuity providing no urgency factor for potential listeners. So, podcasting is worth the effort if you do what successful radio broadcasters do. Produce professional audio with various sound inputs and make your programs only available for a short period of time to create that sense of urgency in the audience. Those are the two basic components of successful radio - yet these are the elements missing in the majority of podcasts. Put them into practice and you could clean up. Remember, you can always ask your question and get it answered in this newsletter by going to: http://www.grahamjones.co.uk/questions
WHAT I LEARNED THIS WEEK: People are better than computers Earlier this week I had to get to a hotel I'd never been to before. I was arriving there relatively late in the day in the hope I could go straight to bed and then get up for the workshop the next day. I punched the Post Code into my Sat Nav and headed off for the two hour drive. I'd also printed out the map from the hotel's website - just in case my Sat Nav had a funny five minutes...! Luckily the hotel's own map from their own website agreed with my Sat Nav, so I assured myself all would be well. You guessed it; it wasn't. It took two hours to get to the town and my trusty Sat Nav announced "You have arrived at your destination". And yes, I was in the exact spot on the printed map which the hotel provided pointing out where the hotel was. Except it wasn't. I was outside a Chinese restaurant. Opposite was a car park and next to that was an unoccupied office block. No hotel to be seen. So I went around the one-way system again - and again - and again. Half an hour later of driving around and I still hadn't found the hotel. In the end I parked the car, went into the restaurant and asked them where the hotel was. They pointed me in the right direction - about three quarters of a mile away, on the other side of the road to the arrow on the hotel's own map and that on my Sat Nav. When I mentioned it to the hotel, I was merely told, "oh yeah, people are always getting lost" - as though it was our fault as guests, rather than their fault for posting an incorrect map..! But the hotel had relied on the same technology as my Sat Nav - postal code mapping. It isn't accurate. It's fine for postal workers, trudging the streets delivering letters who know the area - but for the rest of us it is rather poor. The hotel just used a mapping service and copied the map to their website without checking, it seems. They had merely made the assumption it was right - just like my Sat Nav. In the end, asking a person (not even a local...!) I was able to find the hotel within moments. Relying on computer-based technology, I'd been lost. There's a lesson there...! If you want to check out what else I've been doing for the past week, you can always look at: http://www.grahamjones.co.uk/week
THIS WEEK'S "MUST BUY": The Zoom H2 Audio Recorder is a brilliant little device. It enables you to record interviews easily, for instance. All you do is stand the H2 up on the desk between you and your interviewee. The machine has four little microphones ensuring 360 degree sound capture. Just press "record" then upload the sound files to your computer using the USB interface or the memory card. The machine produces very high quality audio and has several sophisticated controls available too. Plus it works using ordinary AA batteries. Bonus..! To find out more about this deal visit: http://GJurl.com/zoomh2 So, that's it for this week - see you in seven days...! Kind Regards
Graham Jones Web: grahamjones.co.uk Tel: +44 118 336 9710 If you no longer wish to receive this newsletter than you can delete your name from the mailing list by clicking this link: {!remove_web} Affiliate Links: Some of the links in this newsletter are affiliate links providing me with a small commission when you purchase the item. However, I only use affiliate links for products which I personally value. |
