podcast, it could bring a wealth of new blood to your community. Although you may feel a little funny about emailing the presenters out of the blue, go ahead! If you don’t ask, you don’t get. When pitching to a podcast, the most important tip is that your tone should match that of the podcast. When we were doing LugRadio, we would often get offers for interviews and features, but often the tone would be right out of a Marketing 101 textbook. This not only demonstrated that the person making the offer had not listened to the show, but it was a red flag for boring, emotionless content that had no place on LugRadio. On the other hand, we also got offers of content that was fun, loose, and insightful, and these were snapped up instantly. If you get accepted for an interview or to have your community featured, listen to a number of episodes of the podcast to get a feel for the tone. Use it as a guide, but don’t be afraid to share your own personality: you have the opportunity to inspire people to join your community, so just be yourself within the context of the podcast. Finally, always ensure you have a web address to point the listeners to. This will provide an option to feed them more information, and the link can be listed in the podcast’s show notes. Ensure the website that the link points to is packed with content that’s ready when the episode of the podcast is published.
NOTE As a gesture to the makers of the podcast, it is highly recommended that you spread the word about the podcast episode that your community is featured in. You could do this on your website, in your community’s communication channels, and on blogs. This will help build a strong relationship with the podcast, leaving the door open for future content and interviews.
Videos Online video has become increasingly popular as the Internet has become faster and more accessible. Although a hefty Internet connection is required to suck said videos down onto your computer for viewing, the sheer popularity of services such as YouTube (http://www .youtube.com) and blip.tv (http://blip.tv/ ) has demonstrated that many do indulge in such audiovisual delights on the Internet. While some of us may reminisce about the dark days of dial-up Internet access, it is important to remember that many parts of the world still rely on slower dial-up connections. For these folks, videos are simply not an option. As such, before you get too excited to step into the shoes of Steven Spielberg, you should consider how accessible videos are for your community. As an example, if you are reaching out to a community in a remote part of Africa, you may want to rely on another lower-bandwidth medium. In general, my recommendation is to make use of video, but not as a primary medium. Instead, use it to complement your other, more widely accessible resources.
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