One of the most common mistakes marketers and web content publishers make when it comes to new a technology is by jumping head-first right into it without necessary consideration.

Perhaps, they want the first mover advantage. Or they are simply excited about new stuff. I don’t know but surely it sounds disjointed.

Is a podcast the right type of marketing and/or publishing channel for you?

I might be big in evangelizing podcast as a business and marketing tool, but still I am the first one to tell you that if you go ahead without proper planning, you are just wasting your precious time — and other resources.

Podcasting — or becoming a podcaster — is not a be-all and end-all solution to modern marketing and content publishing. While podcast is great, it does not suit every situation or business.

Only after analyzing where you are and where you want to go, you can choose the best medium to achieve it. Other factors might involve communication preference, hopes, personality and experiences.

For instance, podcasting doesn’t suit anyone who can’t commit to publishing regularly every day, every few weeks or every month. Having a podcast up once in six months and at the same time hoping to get overnight results is not going to happen. I hope that is clear.

Here is a list of questions you need to ask yourself before deciding if podcasting is for you. By no means this list is comprehensive, but in my opinion, it is a good tool to use as a personal assessment tool.

1. Do you prefer talking or writing? If you prefer to communicate by talking, if you are better in delivering your message verbally, then this might be for you. If you like writing and can get across your point quickly by writing, then perhaps other medium is more suitable, such as blogging.
2. Can you stick to a schedule? While podcasting is often promoted as an easy way to deliver information, it is far from instant. I mean, if you think you can produce one hour podcast show in exactly one hour, you would be disappointed. Even if you are excellent in public speaking without preparation, still you want to edit the recorded file, upload content, update site, and other tasks. For the rest of us, researching and coming up with an outline to follow take time.
3. Do you have the resources? If you work alone, do you have the time and resources to do this? Are your people too busy to add more tasks to their schedule? Can you hire and train new staffs to do this? Are you willing to learn to do this?
4. Do you enjoy networking with others? Sooner or later, if you are podcasting, people will in turn talk about you and you will have to network with other podasters or bloggers to extend your message.
5. Honesty and transparency. Do you have these traits in you? The new social media require you to speak transparently and with honesty. People spot lies quickly. It can do more harm than good if you do it wrong.
6. Goals and case studies. Can you clearly determine your goal you want to achieve with podcasting? Is it possibly done with this technology? Is there anyone who has done that? Due deligence is key.

There are only a few questions, but if you ponder a bit, it actually involves broad perspectives.

In summary, be clear about what you really want to achieve with podcasting, and then analyze if this is really the best tool to do it. Try to imagine what barriers you are going to encounter when implementing it.

How you do it is by reading and watching how people use the technology for different business, marketing and publishing applications.

Finally, if you feel like this is “the” tool for you, don’t hesitate to really get involved and test things out. Although we would like to prepare to getting the most out of it, you won’t know if it will work for you unless you really try.

See also: Podcast Business Case.

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