At a key organisation I work with I’ve managed to persuade the powers that be to commit to a six month trial of podcasting and video podcasting. This is a real step forward in communications for this type of organisation.
This is a really exciting step for me, as I’ve watched social media and in particular these two communications tools evolve rapidly over the past two years. Running a strategic trial of these two tools will be a great experience professionally, and will be a great opportunity to learn new skills.
I’m realistic about my personal knowledge in this space. As a PR practictioner I reckon I have a pretty good understanding of what these tools can and can’t do, but I know very little about the actual process of developing audio and video content. I’ve done some basic home video and audio editing, but that’s about it.
The next couple of months are going to be a steep learning curve as I try to learn best practice and try out new ideas before the trial goes live. I’m going to do everything I can to find great online resources to help the organisation develop this trial and give it every chance of success.
I believe these tools are right for the audience and the organisation’s communications objectives – but the trial needs to measurably perform for these tools to become a permanent fixture.
I’m thinking about capturing my personal learning curve as a PR practictioner developing his skills in this space. What I have in mind is producing a podcast about my journey from now until the trial completes.
The podcast would capture my learning, successes and mistakes, and would hopefully be a useful resource for any other PR practitioners wanting to try podcasting. I would use tools like del.icio.us and flickr to share what I find and learn – ensuring the whole resource becomes as useful as possible in the future. I could also use a wiki if this was appropriate.
Personally the whole experience would help me learn vital skills and test out techniques and ideas with a friendly audience before the organisation’s trial goes live. There will be a limit what I can specifically say about the organisation and the reasons for the trial before it goes live, but there will be plenty of generic learning and resources in the journey to launching the trial.
So my question is should I produce a podcast about learning to podcast? I’d really value reader feedback on this, so please do leave me a comment or drop me an email.