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Getting In On The Podcast Craze
podcast nonprofit

In case you haven’t noticed, everyone and their brother has a podcast these days, including nonprofits.

Podcasts are booming because they can be simple to produce while also a good way to build a loyal following through a unique format for telling your story, according to Beth Brodovsky, president of Iris Creative. She presented tips on how to record and manage a podcast during the session “Making, Managing and Marketing a Podcast” (#19NTCpodcast) at this year’s Nonprofit Technology Conference (NTC) in Portland, Ore.

She presented some statistics about just how popular podcasts have become. More than half of the U.S. population has listened to a podcast. Almost half of podcast listening is done at home and 22 percent is done in the car. Plus, podcast listeners are loyal, affluent and educated. Four out of five listen to all or most of each podcast episode and listens to an average of seven shows per week.

Podcasts don’t require a big investment. They can be produced via the computer in your office if you have the right equipment, which doesn’t have to be a huge expense. You’ll need a computer, microphone, headphones, recording software and hosting service.

    Beyond the hardware, think about the format of your nonprofit’s podcast:

  • What’s the theme?
  • How long will it be?
  • Will it feature guests or be solo? Or a mix of both?

Brodovsky suggested finding guests through conference, book authors, LinkedIn, and even referrals from other guests, podcasts and interviews. You could also find guests from blogs and publications and books. Manage the process of scheduling your podcasts and guests in a simple spreadsheet and remember to plan ahead so you can create content that can be re-purposed. For instance, a podcast episode could be summarized for a blog post, linking to your organization’s podcast.