Virtual Events Vs Podcasting during a Pandemic.

Power of Podcasting to keep connected to your audience and why it's better than virtual events - 

I had the great privilege to be interviewed by Adam Parry of Event Industry News on Podcasting Versus Virtual Events in this time when "offline" events are outlawed and everyone is jumping online to stay connected and to keep customers, clients and partners engaged.

I will share when the interview when it goes live but wanted to quickly jot down some of the points we talked about here to help you.

1. Soap Operas: The Great Depression was exceptionally difficult for most consumer product companies, but Procter and Gamble came out of the entire meltdown a whole lot stronger than it was in 1929. How did the soap giant beat the Great Depression? Things were rough at first when most of their mainstay grocery customers started cutting their orders and P&G’s resulting inventories piled up. P&G’s leadership determined that even in a depression people would still need soap, why wouldn’t they buy it from Procter and Gamble?

Thus, instead of cutting back their advertising efforts to cut costs (as many of its competitors did), the company actively pursued new marketing channels, which at the time included the then rising commercial radio broadcasts. It was able to maintain and increase sales while other companies folded. One of these campaigns involved becoming the chief sponsor of daytime serial dramas aimed at housewives, the company’s primary market.

P&G was one of the first companies to sponsor daytime serial dramas on the radio in the 1930s to advertise their products to housewives. The shows were associated with sponsors such as P&G’s Oxydol, Duz, and Ivory soaps and were dubbed “soap operas.”

In 1933 P&G debuted its first serial, Oxydol’s Own Ma Perkins, and housewives around the country quickly fell in love with the daily stories. The program was so successful that P&G started actively creating similar daily serial dramas to bolster its other brands, and by 1939, the company was producing 21 of these so-called “soap operas.”

P&G sponsored numerous other radio shows, including Perry Mason, The Red Skelton Show, Truth or Consequences, The Road of Life, Dreft Star Playhouse and Against the Storm, the only radio drama to win a Peabody Award.

Their most successful production was The Guiding Light, a soap opera created by Irna Phillips in 1937, and sponsored by P&G White Naphtha Soap. The series transitioned to television in 1952 and continued to also be broadcast on radio until 1956.

What began as a small family-run candle and soap business, grew through innovation, creative marketing, and partnerships to become the largest consumer goods company in the world.

Today, we are setting the stones for a recession, one that if not corrected quickly will become another Depression, why not invest in audio too?

2. DISTRACTIONS:

The issue is that most virtual conferences are like physical conferences, and the term “death by PowerPoint” comes to mind.

Now in a physical conference, you have a captured audience that, even if they are bored to tears, generally stays seated throughout the event. I’ve advised over the years that people putting on those conferences put a camera on the audience. This camera is to see how many are paying attention and how many are instead doing their office work, playing with social media, or browsing the web instead. Now you do the same thing to someone at home, and they are likely to minimize the window, turn down the volume, and tune out.

With all the distractions in today’s world, podcasts are a great way to provide your audience with an “ears only medium”. People often don’t have the time to be sitting in front of a screen to consume content via video or blog post, and having an audio content format allows your audience to easily listen while they are on the go. This builds a stronger, firmer relationship with your listeners more quickly because they are listening to your voice directly in their ears.

This is also a great way for you, as a brand or expert in your field, to easily develop your unique voice within the industry. You are able to authentically inject your personality right into your business. With the great value, you provide with your personality and unique voice being familiarized with your audience, they will have no problem listening to you when the time comes that you have something to offer.

2. On-Demand Content

In today’s fast-paced world, everyone likes to listen to or consume content on their own time. A podcast allows your audience to have on-demand, 24-hour access to listen to you when they want to, and not when someone else says they have to. They can tune in when it is most convenient to them, when they’re in the car on a commute, out for a run, or just looking for something to relax to in their downtime.

The fact that listeners have chosen to listen to your podcast makes it very effective for marketing and quickly growing a focused audience. The audience’s freedom to listen removes the barrier or stigma of feeling like something is being forced on them. This again allows for a much quicker relationship and trust to be built between you and your listeners.

3. Grow a Very Engaged Audience

With valuable content directed at the right audience, you can get listeners fast. Value is key! Podcasting gives you a worldwide audience, with no limitations of location, or face-to-face proximity. You can use the show to grow your customer base by offering high-quality content and by keeping in touch with your customers. This allows them to keep your business in front of their minds. Their engagement will also pay off in the future when you have products or services to offer.

Targeting a specific audience can help you cut through the clutter of today’s social media noise. A targeted audience will give you much higher engagement and interaction than just shooting your arrow out there and hoping that you hit something. Building a relationship with an engaged audience allows you to tailor your content specifically to their needs.

This gives you the opportunity to ask your audience for reviews in return, boosting your podcast to the top of the ranks.

4. Spread Your Message Authentically

When it comes to starting a podcast, there is definitely an initial setup cost. However, once you’ve set up and invested the initial costs, the costs remain low and the process can become quick and efficient. The key is putting in the work upfront, and reaping the rewards in the long-term. Building an engaged audience gives you the platform to really make an impact and share your message across the world. Ultimately, the Internet allows for an inexpensive method to get your content out to your audience. Your message automatically reaches your listeners without any barriers, which increases the efficiency and ease with which your message is delivered. Your listeners make the choice to tune in to your show, really getting an authentic connection to your message, and your true voice is kept intact.

5. Promote Your Business to a Focused Audience

The key to effectively promoting your brand is to get your message out to an audience who is actually interested in what you have to say. A podcast creates exactly such an audience, listeners who are interested in what you have to say. When you are providing valuable information to an engaged audience, they will pay money for the specific information that your podcast offers. Stay dedicated to providing your listeners with audience-centered content, and they will stay committed to you when your product launches roll around.

Give, give, give, and your audience will be there for you when you make the ask.

6. You're supporting your partners.

The most common format for a podcast is an interview. As the host of your own show, bringing guests on to interview allows you not only to expand the information you're providing to your audience by tapping into your guest's expertise but also to support industry partners. By asking someone to be a guest on your show, you're giving them access to your audience, potentially helping your guest grow their reach. Likewise, if your guests promote the episode to their followers, you also tap into their audience. Both you and your guests can benefit from the added exposure, and by thinking of them as a guest you may also deepen your professional relationship with them as well.

7. It provides a repeat touchpoint for your audience.

Similar to a newsletter, when listeners subscribe to your podcast, they are opting in to hearing from you on a regular basis. The key here is to stay consistent with how often you post and the kind of content you share. By doing so, you'll be able to stay at the top of their minds and continue to develop trust and personal connection toward an even deeper level of brand loyalty.

There are many benefits to starting a podcast. If you have the content to support it and some time to dedicate toward recording and promoting your content, a podcast can go a long way toward growing your brand and keeping you relevant.

7. COST

The core issue that makes virtual conferences bad is that they tend to be cheap. I don’t mean frugal, I mean they aren’t funded to a level where they can be successful. 

Think about a play; if you were to do a movie that cost less to produce than a play, it would probably look a lot like a daily soap opera, and while we have had low-budget movies do well, they tend to be the exception, not the rule. They use the lack of budget to create (thinking of the “Blair Witch Project”) a sense of reality.

But have you ever seen a movie or a play use PowerPoint?

You could put the scripts up in the abbreviated form on a screen behind the actors, and the actors wouldn’t have to learn their lines (kind of like using a TelePrompter). But the result would be pretty stiff and likely not hold interest.

You’ll be surprised by how little you need to begin a Podcast however and the cost of the show is not directly proportionate to the success.

All you need is…

• Computer.
• Microphone.
• Podcasting Software (Mac comes with Garageband already built into its applications).
• A good topic to discuss.

VIRTUAL EVENTS 

8. Staff Correctly

This isn't a one-person show. Virtual events are a team sport. If you have breakout rooms, you need a room administrator in each room. You need a host/emcee to welcome everyone, and you need a host/administrator to "personably" manage the technical aspects of the experience for the attendees (this is a combination of customer support and technical administration). And have an extra room administrator in case one of the primary folks lose internet connection; ditto if you have notetakers in the rooms. Have a few extra people!

9. Vary the Presentation Formats

Include slides, conversation, and chat. A meeting that is exclusive "Brady Bunch" view is great for conversation, but not for delivering actual content. Participants need someplace for their eyes to go. An event that is all presentation, on the other hand, provides no eye contact or ability to feel humanity through the screen. 

The Cons of Webinars or Virtual Events.

10. Increased distractions.

Presenting the same thing you might have done in person, in the same way, doesn’t work in a virtual session. There are too many distractions and other things people may be doing at the same time.

11. – Lack of audience.

The entire idea of a laugh track for television sitcoms was created because the lack of an audience made creators worry that people wouldn’t know when to laugh. In a live meeting, we can look to the people around us for a cue as to how we might react. A virtual setting lacks this and so we feel isolated in our reactions and it’s harder to engage.

12 – Intrusive malfunctioning tech.

If you have ever started a conference call with ten minutes of participants asking if you can hear them, you’ve already experienced this. The fact is, much of the technology used for virtual sessions creates a lot of friction. People have to download something, microphones don’t work and Internet connections fail.

13 – No accountability.

When you are sitting in a live meeting or you show up late, there is a reputational and social cost to being tardy or being on your phone or checking out. Everyone else can see what you’re doing. In a virtual session, there isn’t any social pressure to keep you engaged or to prevent you from multitasking.

The main differences between a virtual event and a podcast are:

• Webinars and the like are multimedia, meaning they contain both audio and video, while podcasts are only audio
• Webinars are mostly held in real-time, while podcasts are usually pre-recorded
• The majority of podcasts are free, as per iTunes and Google Play requirements, while webinars tend to impose a registration fee of some kind. 

14: Webinars are not as perfect

It is obvious that an online performance cannot be as polished as a pre-recorded speech. Even if you do not lose your train of thought or get flabbergasted by your audience’s questions, technical issues may arise and cause interruptions, latency and even blackouts.

15: Webinars have a smaller audience

Not everyone will be able to show up at the exact time you specified. What is more, webinar platforms set a limited number of attendees, so you cannot invite the entire internet to your event. To crown it all, not everybody has sufficient disposable income, were you to decide upon a paid webinar. 

16. The Pros of Podcasts Over Webinars

Here are some notable benefits of Podcasts:

Podcasts generate leads constantly

Of course, not all webinars are one-time events. It is possible to create automated webinars that generate leads just as well as any podcast would. However, webinars are expected to be interactive, as this is one of their main benefits. Many people feel left out when they are forced to watch a webinar recording instead of participating in a live event.

Podcasts draw in the biggest audience

Most podcasts can be downloaded for free on Google Play or iTunes – programs that come pre-installed on almost all phones and tablets.

Your listeners do not need to tune in at a specific time. They can listen to your podcast anytime and at any place: while jogging, commuting or even doing household chores. This makes podcasts extremely convenient, so more people can find time to listen to them. Thus, you get a bigger audience than if you were to hold a webinar.

Podcasts don’t require immediate marketing

If you don’t market your webinar and people don’t show up, it will a disaster, since now you lose a chance to interact with your audience face-to-face. If you don’t market your podcast and people don’t tune in when it premieres, it’s fine since you can go back to marketing it at any time (unless it’s a time-sensitive podcast, such as a discussion of the latest political events).

If I have convinced you here to give podcasts a try over yet another webinar or virtual event then please pop over to www.apodcastcompany.com as we are offering a PANDEMIC SIZE PROMOTION to try and help as many people as we can during this CRISIS!!!