Should I add podcasts to my law blog?
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I'm getting a lot of questions from reporters, prospective clients, and new clients about podcasts. A few things come to my mind when you’re thinking about adding podcasts to your law blog.
I used to think a podcast was a way to sex up your blog: if you’ve got more frills, you’re going to draw more attention. But different people want to receive information in different ways. Some folks want text, others audio.
Some people want to be able to just have their iPod plugged into their computer, and whenever a podcast comes out, it’s automatically fed through iTunes or comparable audio player and onto their iPod. When they’re riding in the subway, they can just go and look and see what’s there. So you’re making your content available to more people. Some clients will do the same thing when on a long plane flight - I do that with audio and video I subscribe to via RSS feeds.
I do think, though, that it’s important how you’re presenting yourself. People are used to listening to Larry King or radio announcers, they’re listening to musical intros, maybe a deep voice that is introducing the host. Those things are worth spending a few bucks on.
There’s one LexBlog client, Stark & Stark at the New Jersey Law Blog, for whom we had somebody prepare what are called bumpers for their podcasts. Like on a radio show, where there’s some intro music with a deep voice DJ introducing “Stark & Stark presenting New Jersey updates on the law.” The lawyer then talks, and on the conclusion of the lawyer talking, there’s the music and the closing by the DJ going out. It’s very effective.
The thing you have to be careful for: it may sound great going in, but then you have a lawyer who is better equipped to write than to be on a podcast. Some lawyers are better conversationalists than writers. Maybe they're better for podcasts. Some lawyers are better writers than conversationalsists. They should stick to writting.
It's the same thing as some folks having a face made for radio. They'll stay away from television.
You also need to be cognizant of the fact it’s not just the recording that’s sitting there at your blog or your website that’s critically important. It’s setting up the RSS feed, because for the person that comes to your blog and says, “This is interesting, I think I may listen to these podcasts in the future”…they’re not going to remember to come back.
You want to have that RSS feed so they can click the link and then be automatically subscribed. They may be on a subway, they may be on an airplane. They’ll go in and look at their iPod or MP3 player just to see what’s automatically been downloaded every time their computer has been hooked up to the Internet. Your podcasts are there.
It’s very, very powerful to set things up that way. But I’ve seen some very large firms that have gone to the expense of setting up some elaborate podcasts that didn’t even go to the extent of setting up a RSS subscribe feature. Dumb.
The other thing you’ll want to do is put your podcasts over on the iTunes Music Store, which stores business podcasts and is fully searchable. You may not have many people browsing for law podcasts there, but it’s nice to be able to say on your blog, “You can subscribe here or go to the iTunes music store where our podcasts are stored.” It almost makes it look like you’ve cut a deal with Apple, even though it’s free.
Podcasts can work. But make sure they're appropriate for you, and if so, set things up the right way.
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