‘Infected’ is a weekly column by Venntertainment.com documenting Pop Culture in Viral Marketing. ‘Infected’ will also include sporadic ramblings on other random ‘viral’ topics…watch this space!

Last week, we talked about the top tools available to Marketers. On Darren’s recommendation, we’re discussing one of those tools this week.

Week 5

Idiots Zombie’s Guide to Podcasting

1. Get a quality Mic

So, so important. I recommend Studio Projects B1 and a preamp, going through a simple tool like Garageband on a Macbook. Alternatively, the Zoom H-4 is a very portable and affordable quality mp3/Wave recorder. You record directly onto the drive and then export to Garageband for editing. Listeners Zombies know quality when they hear it.

2. Pick a good space

If you don’t have a studio, make sure that you pick somewhere nice and quiet, with good absorption. You want rooms with carpets, curtains and soft furniture rather than echoey rooms with hard floors.

3. Plan accordingly

Make sure you’ve a fairly detailed plan and even a script drawn up before you head in to record. If you’re interviewing somebody, have intelligent questions planned, otherwise you will end up with very little engagement with the interviewee and your audience. Remember, listeners Zombies have flea like attention spans, so you’ve only got a small window of opportunity.

4. Original Content

Bud loves podcasts.

Plan engaging and original content for each podcast, focusing on theme of your project carefully. There’s not much point in setting up a podcast about cooking and then discussing your favorite flowers. Unless they’re flours. And self-raising ones at that.

5. Consistency

Listeners Zombies work on an accurate internal clock. If you’ve promised them a fortnightly podcast, then that’s what they’ll expect. Create a realistic expectation, and then stick to it. Simple as.

6. Timeless Content

Your podcast is going to hopefully be published on a blog, and will be there for some time. There is nothing worse than leaving out-of-date podcasts on sites. Listeners Zombies are not interested in listening to a podcast discussing month old topics. Try, where possible, to discuss issues that are relevant to your subject matter, and can stand the test of time. That way, people will keep downloading.

7. Speak Up

So you have your equipment. You’ve got a great plan in place. You’ve got a great show lined up. For God’s sake, speak directly into the microphone. Listeners Zombies are hard of hearing, don’t you know.

8. Compress, Normalize, Export to mp3

A few tips for the editing process. Edit your show to make it short and snappy. Less than an hour would be my recommendation, though other shows with excellent content will disregard this. When your editing is complete, compress the file, Normalize it to bring volumes up to industry standard and export as an mp3. Other file formats cause compatibility issues at times.

9. Don’t Forget to Tag it

If you want listeners Zombies to be able to find your podcast once it’s been downloaded, it would be wise to bag and tag the bleedin’ thing. Garageband allows you to digitally enter the title and author of the podcasts. Zombies have no memory, so this is an important part of the process.

10. How are people going to download it?

Last and not least, people need to be able to download your podcast from somewhere. My recommendation is to put it on your blog, and add it to iTunes. The RSS feed will update your blog’s subscribers and iTunes each time a new podcast is added to your blog.

Bonus: Archive

Finally, set up an area on your blog for your back catalogue. If Zombies like what they hear, they will come back for more and there’s nothing worse than an angry Zombie that hasn’t been given what it wants.

My favourite Podcast? The Midnight Podcast - Dedicated to everything Zombie. (It’s also Zombie Research Society approved, so it’s highly recommended.)

If you have topics that you want discussed in Infected, leave a comment below.