It goes without saying that in the next few years podcasts are going to be a very common way for an association to communicate with both its membership and the public. Podcasting literally goes straight into your members’ ears.
Here are five things podcasts can do for you:
- Expanding on and working together with your newsletter. Say you have some really complex data that shows some interesting things. The written word, pie charts, and graphs can only tell so much. Having an expert explain what those figures mean for your industry can be a powerful thing and show members the real value of the work your association is accomplishing.
- Showing the human side of an organization. Many large associations are often referred to as an acronym. But there are actually really hard working human beings behind those abbreviated letters. Podcasts can help to highlight those people and put an actual voice with the message.
- Offering continuing education without the “education.” I am not sure who gets excited at the idea of continuing education. But Big Bird, Mike Rowe, Bill Nye, and the Discovery channel have all shown us that education doesn’t have to be boring and can actually be fun. And you don’t necessarily need to know that you are being educated.
- Reaching the next generation of members. It’s no secret that Generation Z is used to listing to podcasts. As great multi-taskers, it is one of the ways they demand to be reached. A quality podcast will demonstrate not only that you are in touch with the type of content they are used to hearing but will also give them a great sense as to why the association is relevant to their careers or industry.
- Affordability. Even as low-cost as video equipment has become, you still need many people and a good amount of money to make any kind of impact consistently. However, you can make a weekly podcast for a fraction of the cost of just a handful of videos.
With all these advantages, it is not surprising why associations are adding podcasts to their content strategy to convey thought leadership, member engagement, and education. It shows that sometimes audio can have better pictures than video.
