Let’s face it: Internal marketing and communications can be a bit stale. “Corporate-speak” is mocked and satirized for a reason: It’s usually annoying (at best) and meaningless at worst. And in an age of distributed teams, constant connectivity, and multichannel media, virtually everyone can see right through the messaging — if they don’t tune it out entirely.
How can we cut through the noise? As we look forward in 2022, I believe the answer is podcasting.
Sure, a lot of podcasts are out there — over two million (and more than 48 million podcast episodes) according to Podcast Insights. Compare that to 2018, when there were just over 500,000 active podcasts.
Today, 56% of all Americans aged 12-34 listen to at least one podcast per month, compared to 49% in 2020. That’s massive growth. But we haven’t reached peak pod yet.
If your company doesn’t have a podcast, chances are you’ve thought about it. Most organizations do — and either fail to launch or fade out (pun intended) after just a few episodes. Why? I think it’s because they’re not approaching podcasting as they would any other business initiative: with a clear objective, a dedicated team, a commitment to consistency, a budget, infrastructure, and a timeline.
Since I launched the Gravitas podcast in January 2020, I’ve published over 60 episodes. Along the way, I’ve learned more than I ever imagined — including how it can, when done well, be the perfect vehicle to express authentic leadership and engage the audiences you care about most — especially your own people. Here’s my take on why and how audio is the medium for your message right now.
Authentic leadership requires communicating with vision, transparency, and an accessible approach. Podcasting as a medium excels at all three.
Those of us who love podcasts tend to listen to them a lot. And they’re so easy to consume. Your audience can listen on their commute, at the gym, while taking a walk, while doing housework — literally anywhere and everywhere they carry a device.
Podcasts are time efficient. Listeners can consume them at their own pace, pause and return later, or replay something they want to hear again. They can always find a way to fit it into their own schedules.
Compared to much of the media we take in every day, podcasts are a relatively intimate experience. We listen to people talking directly to us (and each other), sometimes right in our ears. We’re engaging in human-to-human interaction, not being spoken to in a sanitized, overly massaged corporate message. That’s why a podcast can be a great way to express yourself as a relatable, approachable leader.
Audio is uniquely powerful. It stimulates mental imagery in our brains and activates dopamine — the “feel-good” chemical that helps us focus.
That dopamine spike happens in the “reward system” of our brains. As human beings, we’re wired to tell stories, learn from them and imagine ourselves in them. It’s the oldest form of communication. Modern science backs it up: Learning via pure audio leads to a 500% increase in comprehension over reading text. I had to check that number a couple of times, but it makes sense. We speed-read emails all the time, but we rarely cut off the middle of a conversation.
Podcasts engender meaningful engagement metrics. You can tell how many people have downloaded any given episode — even who has downloaded it, how long they listened to it and whether they shared it.
Compared to video content, creating podcasts is a highly cost-effective option. They’re cheaper to produce and have the potential for a wider reach. Think about it: People are burned out on Zoom meetings and endless scrolling through social media. So while video does have its place, I think podcasts are the best way to supercharge engagement right now.
Podcasting can be quite simple, budget-friendly, and fun — but to do it well, you do need to invest time and money. So before you begin, I recommend answering some fundamental questions and putting a few key pieces in place.
Your podcast should have a clear purpose.
For ideas, look at your latest employee engagement surveys. (I hope you poll them with “pulse,” rather than long-form, surveys every six months.) What are the pain points on your team? What are you trying to achieve with your workplace culture? Where are the communication gaps? What are the objectives of your business that require increased employee engagement (and can be addressed with regular audio communication)?
Aim for a cohesive, overarching concept, central question or thesis for your podcast (individual episodes explore facets of it). One idea: “Meet the Team.”
Every podcast episode needs a theme.
If we’re working with the idea above, each episode might introduce the audience to a new leader or department within your organization: Perhaps they’re something like “meet the sales squad,” “Q&A with the engineering department,” and “a day in the life of Susie, who heads up our project in China.”
Podcasts are useful not only to enhance engagement. They’re also great ways to recognize the accomplishments of the people in your organization. You might have a podcast that's totally focused on their latest innovations, honors, compelling projects or service initiatives.
Strategically plan the frequency and duration of your podcast. Although Gravitas podcast episodes typically run about 45 minutes, I suggest you begin with episodes about 15 or 20 minutes long, released every other week, until you build an engaged audience.
When you realize how much work is involved to produce a quality episode of that length, you’ll probably agree: Shorter is better, especially because cadence and consistency are crucial. Did you know that most podcasts fizzle out after seven episodes? It’s usually because they’re not staying fresh in listeners’ minds (and feeds).
I don’t want to scare you. But if you want to do it right, you’ve got to commit. That’s another reason why having a clear business imperative is just as important, whether it’s employee engagement, retention, attraction or all of the above.
You can launch a podcast right now — yes, now — with little or no budget. You don’t need a lot of equipment. You can record it using a platform like Anchor for free. But for professional purposes, I caution you against that approach. Why? Because another reason podcasts fail is poor audio quality. Without top-notch sound, people will turn it off.
So if you’re going to spend the time and effort on a podcast, a bit of money can go a long way toward ensuring it’s actually listened to.
I had no idea what audio quality really meant until I entered the world of podcasting. Now I understand more about it than I ever imagined — including the fact that you need a budget. The size of yours will depend on what you're trying to accomplish and how much bandwidth you have within your company to produce your podcast. You may need to work with contractors or outsource some of these tasks.
Here’s another podcasting truth I know for sure: If you don't have a launch date, it won't happen. Treat your podcast just like any other business initiative, with milestones, a dedicated team and a strategic plan.
As I outlined above, you can measure podcast engagement in a variety of ways. Once you take a look at your numbers, you can decide which metrics are the most important to you. Then you can adjust your approach to producing (or promoting) future episodes accordingly.
Once again, your podcast needs a business imperative. Make sure you bring any relevant stakeholders into the mix. Typically, I see organizations tap their HR or marketing and communications teams to lead the charge.
Just as a podcast doesn’t start the minute you hit “record,” it’s not done when you drop the mic. Here’s how to create your podcast and distribute it to the audience you seek.
A plug-in USB microphone is a must, and here’s why: When you record a conversation, you need to create two (or more) separate audio files (“tracks”), one for the host and one for every person being interviewed.
The audio engineer (which I also recommend you get) will pull all of those tracks together into one file, “mastering” the audio to produce an end result that’s pleasing to the listener. There’s a science behind this.
If they don’t already have one, I recommend my podcast guests get an affordable, widely available $99 podcast mic that ensures clean, quality audio. I use a Shure SM7B, which is a high-end option (about $400) favored by big-name podcasters and musicians, including Michael Jackson, who recorded “Thriller” on an SM7B.
Another must-have: Closed-back headphones, which are vital for creating audio tracks with a minimum of background noise. If you don’t have noise-canceling headphones on, the sound coming out of your computer will feed back into your microphone. If you’ve ever cringed on a Zoom call where someone dials in and an echoing, screeching sound ensues, you know what I’m warning against.
Whatever you do, don’t record in a room with a hard floor and hard walls. It’s a recipe for echo and distortion. You need soft furnishings that absorb the “room tone” (and muffle any background sounds that might arise). I once recorded a client in her bedroom closet — which, by the way, is what a lot of professionals did when lockdown meant they couldn’t get to a studio. Clothes closets are great for audio quality: You’re isolated and surrounded by fabric.
Just like any other business project, you'll need someone to “own” the podcast — a designated team member who’s responsible for managing the many moving parts.
You’ll need to decide who hosts the podcast and/or does the interviews. It could be one person (maybe you!) or several. Then, choose your guests. I recommend you get at least seven or eight episodes in the pipeline before you start releasing them. Once you start, you need to keep it up or risk losing your listenership.
You can, but you shouldn’t, produce podcasts with Zoom. Even though you can separate audio files, the quality isn’t up to par. Use recording software meant for recording audio, not just transmitting it. At the Finding Gravitas podcast, we use Zencastr, which I like because we can see our guests on video while we record the audio. Other platforms with free or low-cost options include SquadCast and Audacity.
You can’t just record a conversation and upload it as-is. Well, you can — but chances are, it will be a mistake.
Have you ever listened to a podcast where a speaker’s p, b, s and other consonant sounds are staticky and jarring? In the audio biz, they’re called “plosives.” A good audio editor can smooth those out, along with any distracting background noises, coughs, sneezes and the like. They can also edit out speakers’ filler words like “um,” “uh” and “you know.” (Once, my audio editor made 1300 cuts to a single interview).
An editor will also balance tracks (or portions of them) that are louder than others. Consistent volume is essential to a smooth, seamless audio experience. So it should come as no surprise: Don’t skimp on audio editing. You want the best quality you can possibly get.
In order to distribute your podcast (read: get it into the ears of your intended audience), you need to put it on a hosting platform. Some of the most popular are Libsyn, Captivate, Buzzsprout and Transistor — but there are dozens out there. We recently switched the Finding Gravitas podcast to Captivate. Once you upload your file to a hosting platform, you can push it out to popular directories like Apple Podcasts (formerly iTunes), Spotify and Stitcher.
If you’re producing a podcast for internal purposes only, you won’t want to put it on Apple’s directory and share it with the world. But — you guessed it — there’s an app for that. Captivate as well as a number of other hosting platforms provide you with the ability to push your pod to a private audience only, with varying levels of security. Do note that private podcast hosting platforms vary widely in price. I’ve seen plans that range from $2,000 to $80,000 annually.
It’s understandable if you don’t want to publish your podcast far and wide, but I caution against spending too much effort (and money) on locking your audio content down. If you’re really worried about somebody sharing an internal podcast, I wouldn't bother making one at all. Authentic leadership is all about transparency. If you don’t want something to be leaked outside your organization, it probably will be. No amount of security in the world can stop someone from using an external device to record the audio if they really want to. My advice? Don’t upload anything you’d be embarrassed (or legally exposed) if the whole internet heard.
One of the best benefits of a podcast is that it’s a content creation machine. There are dozens of ways to repurpose every episode.
Transcripts: The first one is a no-brainer: Make a transcript, which you can generate using AI-enabled software like Otter or Temi — or hire a transcription service to type up with more accuracy.
Social media posts: Choose a quote (or several) from the transcript and tweet them out (with a link to the episode, of course). Post them on LinkedIn, tagging your guests. You can also use a platform like Canva to make eye-catching visual backdrops for your words of wisdom — perfect for Facebook and Instagram.
Blog posts: Use your transcripts to create blog posts that summarize the main ideas from your episodes (or expand on them), which you can publish on Medium if you don’t have a blog of your own. I’ve done this and published a few on Thrive Global.
Audiograms: Cut out a compelling snippet from an episode to create a 60-second “audiogram” to share on social media. It’s essentially a shareable soundbite that links back to your podcast.
Video: Consider recording video along with audio, which is possible on Zencastr as well as a number of other platforms. As with audiograms, bite-size videos are a great way to grow your audience.
I am a firm believer in podcasting as the best medium to drive employee engagement right now. And it’s an investment in your brand: Voice search is the next evolution of SEO, so the more content you create today, the more you’ll build a reputation as a thought leader — an authentic leader — with gravitas.
Interested in an internal podcast? Jan Griffiths can help.
