What Do Podcasters Have To Learn From Periscope, Meerkat and Blab? - The Podcast Report Episode #62

Okay, Paul, what do podcasters have to learn from Periscope Meerkat Blab? It's the Podcast report. Episode number 62, show notes, links, conversation and more@thepodcastreport.com 6 2. It's the podcast report with Paul Colligan. And here's Paul. It starts with a big idea that's going to make a lot of people who are selling $7 reports upset. If you think your audience is moving to Periscope, Meerkat or Blab, you don't understand the power of podcasting. Hey, this is Paul. Paul Calligan, podcaster, author. I got a bunch of books out. The most popular one right now is how to podcast 2015. But this isn't about the book. This is about podcasting. And this is the podcast report. I've been podcasting since the very beginning. I love this industry. I love you, the podcaster. Since day one, you are a podcaster looking to make your podcast real business or do real business because of your podcast. The show has never been a massive play, but it's a deep one. It allows you, the podcaster, to figure out how to take this powerful medium, take this powerful technology, take these amazing opportunities and do great things with it. Now I got to start this episode, episode 62, with my first errata, my first problem, my first mistake that we have to fix. In episode 60, I gave you the wrong phone number to text in for the report. It should be 503-342-7922. So if you're wondering where that report was that I promised you a couple episodes, I am sorry, you somebody, I have no idea who it is. I feel bad for that person. But just text your Email address to 503-342-7922 if you're still looking for that report from a couple of episodes ago and we will get that fixed. And yes, before I get the email, I get the humor of doing an episode about having to change an episode because I got the number wrong and then getting the number wrong and it absolutely hilarious. But the great thing is is we can go back, we can fix, and as long as we're honest with ourselves that we're not human, it's all becomes okay. So why this topic? Why is the podcaster, who's pretty well known online for not being a big fan of these things, chatting about Periscope, Meerkat and blab? Well, I'll tell you this. First of all, they're huge. I mean, they're doing well. Huge is probably the wrong term. The buzz about these things is huge. There's a lot of hysteria, there's a lot of excitements. And it's funny because I'm watching podcasters, I'm watching media producers who have audiences in the thousands get all excited when 60, 70, 80 people show up for a live. First of all, personally, I find it to be the whole concept of these things, I find them to be a little bit rude because this whole idea, this whole concept that you have to drop everything right now because I'm broadcasting right now and consume what it is that I have for you right now on your phone, you can't watch on your tv, you can't do anything else, I find it to be a little rude. That's me. I know some of you have a different feeling, but regardless, we need to think a little bit logically about it. What do we do? How do we respond? So that's why I called this episode. What do podcasters have to learn from these things? Because there is some stuff that we can learn. There are some things we can do. I'm starting to take a look at some of them. You are welcome to come with me down this trip. You're welcome to do whatever it is yourself, and you're certainly welcome to dialogue with me about my thoughts on this. The notes and comments can be@the podcastreport.com 6:2 or any of the social options we'll chat about at the end of this. Now, what's funny is, and I have a link to this in the podcastreport.com62. I chatted. You know, I can't believe this. I looked it up just before I recorded this, the recordings from, you know, 2009. So this is a six year old concept for me, but I've been speaking for a long time about something called the new media content creation model. And what's interesting is this is a recording from an event I did back in San Diego back in 2009. Hey, Mike Stelzner. Yes. You'll remember this one. You might even be able to find yourself in one of the audience spans pans, whatever the right term is. Anyway, the idea of the new media content creation model. And I've got a link to the entire video presentation. It's. It's not in. Yeah, it's not in fourth. It's not in 16, 9. It's 4, 3. It's standard definition content. That's what we were doing back then. But basically with this new media content creation model, my suggestion was back then for podcasters. And the funny thing is it hasn't really changed. You gotta create. You might as well create live, and then once you create live, take that content and then produce the podcast from it. And I think the new media content creation model is exactly how we can respond to things like Periscope, Meerkat, and Lab. Yes, the numbers might not be there, but there might be some people really excited. Discoverability. I'm still not convinced is anything really. But the fact of the matter is, you might as well create live. Well, you are going to create live. I mean, really, if you think about it, all content creation is done live. So put yourself in front of Meerkat, put yourself in front of Blab, or do something like that and create it. So if you want to see what I said about this, you know, seven years ago, six years ago, whatever the math is, you can go ahead and take a look at that. But what do we learn? What do we do with this? Well, here's what's interesting. Here's the thing I love, or here's the thing I find fascinating. A number of podcasters who sweat for 200 hours about the audio buzz for their podcast or line noise or that type of thing suddenly find that it's complet completely okay to sit in front of a, you know, telephone with a telephone microphone and broadcast live to the world with video that is bad, with audio that is bad and still create content. And the fact of the matter is, you know, content, it does not have an immediate direct association with the quality of the media, you know, produced, or at least the sound quality of the media produced. So what do we do with that? We can take what we've learned from Periscope and Meerkat and Blab and realize that maybe we don't have to worry as much about the quality. And I always got to be careful when I say this, because produce the best audio that you can. I mean, I'm talking to a microphone in a soundproof box, but I'm not talking to a microphone in a $5,000 studio. Do the best audio you can. Do the best content you can, but don't sweat about that. Don't worry about that. And what's interesting is we've learned that from these guys. People are more interested in the. People are more interested in the stories. Our audience is more interested in getting information out and receiving information than they are making sure that everything was absolutely studio quality. And I know I'll get some funny comments on this, but that's the way it is, and we're seeing that. I've watched you, and I know you listen to this show, and I've watched you obsess about studio quality. And now while driving in the car with the hum in the background, broadcast live to the world, they're still watching. Nobody's left because the audio is bad. And I think that's a lesson for all of us. The first thing is content production just doesn't have to be hard. The second thing that's really important, and this is one of the things that podcasters can really take from this, is the simple fact that people love to consume on mobile devices. Many of us are still obsessed with the come by my blog and drop a comment and click the play button there. And then spending more money on the Flash application that makes it possible to play at the website than they spend on the microphone that they record their audio on. You know, because we're so obsessed about the desktop experience. Well, it's not about the desktop experience, it's about the mobile experience. Production is becoming a mobile experience. Consumption is becoming a mobile experience. And that's the thing we're seeing from these guys. So if anything, take from Periscope, Meerkat, Blab, quite simply that you're doing the right thing, just realize that these don't have the extended shelf life that some of the people who are selling the $7 reports claim that it has. So those are the two big things to learn. Content production doesn't need to be hard, and people love to consume on mobile devices. So how do we react to this? What do we do with this? Well, first of all, consider the new media content creation model as a possible production model. And consider maybe next time you record an episode, do it in front of Meerkat or Periscope or Blab or whatever the next one is. And believe me, there will be others. I know you think to yourself, paul, how come you didn't do that? Well, you know, really setting up the lights and whatnot for the camera as I close out the week and recording this stuff. I don't have this, but I'm going to experiment with it. I'll play with it. We'll see what happens. But I'll tell you, only a tiny percentage of the people who watch it on, you know, live on their phone, watching me talk into a microphone in a box, only a small percentage of them compared to how many of you will consume it via the podcast. So think of it as a production model, not a distribution model, but a production model. Number two, remember the quality issues. One of the things I was thinking about, if I start doing this live is I might have the camera, the. The phone pointed at me and then have a different microphone that I'm actually recording into. I know people have set up fancy recording gigs for their phones and that kind of thing, and maybe that's it. But regardless, you know, think about it as a production model. Remember the quality issues. Next thing is just remember, oh, for goodness sakes, remember the number issues. Only a tiny amount of anybody's audience is streaming this stuff live. About 45 minutes before I recorded this, I watched a true guru, a true leader in the industry who can drop an email, get a thousand people to webcast, put something on periscope and have 22 people attend. And that's fine and dandy and still impressive that 22 people will drop anything and go watch. But it was funny because the guy who was moderating the event at the end said, how many people are watching? And the guy goes, well, 22. And the guy was like, really? That's the excitement, you know, and they were live. And so they didn't want to say that, but, you know, you could tell it in the eyes. And that's the big thing. You got to remember the number issues here. I'm only a small percentage of the people, no matter how good you are, are going to consume, you know, live Tuesday at 2:25 because you got the inspiration to record something. So remember the number issues and then finally realize that YouTube is coming with a solution that is going to solve many of these issues. YouTube is coming up a solution that is going to kill many of these things. I've got a link in the show notes. We've already got a phone from Samsung that you click a button and you can stream live to YouTube. And if you think YouTube's got that software only for Samsung, and that's not coming other places, trust me, guys, this is coming fast. Apple's got, you know, a presentation happening next week. Rumor is front camera. You know, the quality is going to go up a lot higher. If you think that the future of this is a company called Blab, you know, or something like that, that's not it. The big players are going to come in and so realize that, you know, we're at the beginning of this stuff, but still, you know, think about it as a production model. Think about the quality issues. Think about the numbers of people who are going to attend live. Even if the distribution model is great, realize that, you know, a good chunk of your audience would be scared to go to something called Blab. A good chunk of Your audience would be scared to go something called periscope, but not YouTube and not your website and not itunes. So here's what I'm doing. Number one, as I record this, we're in the middle of Podcast month. Last episode, I chatted about Podcast Month and you are welcome to join. Like I said, last episode, you know, head out to podcast month.com if it's still open. You got in. I honestly, truly don't know what the future of it is once the month completes. I honestly, truly. This is a big, grand experiment that I promised to report back to. But if you're listening the archive of this, you might not have access. If you're listening to this during Podcast month, which is September 2015, go ahead and sign up. I've got a video in there. One of the days. Here's a sneak peek called From Periscope to Podcast. And it's. It's the idea of how do you take this stuff and how do you make a podcast out of it? I'm going to walk everybody through that process and that's going to be part of Podcast month. And that's free. So just head over there. We're going to bring back Today in Podcasting as a Blab experiment, but we're going to take that recording definitely using the new media content creation model and, you know, going to distribute that as a podcast as well. That's coming soon. I got a link to that as the website as well. I'm working on a couple of hacks at Blab that I think will change the experiment a little bit. You might see those on Today in podcasting. You might see that some stuff I'm doing. But remember, all of this will be stuff that will be recorded for distribution, otherware. So all the production stuff, you know, we're looking at, I'm going to ride the excitement for as long as it lasts. But I'm going to realize it's not a strategy, or at least the strategy is only to ride the current exciting thing. My podcast is going nowhere. My website is going nowhere. My YouTube strategies are going nowhere. And I mean that in the best way possible. Whereas, you know, what I do with Blab this week, what I do with Periscope next week is experimental. And I recommend you do the same thing. I'm examining recording episodes live. Obviously, this week in podcasting will be recorded live, and that should be fun. And then, of course, I'm waiting around to see what Apple says. The big announcement next week could be interesting. There's a lot of speculation There's a lot of ideas. It'll be interesting to see what happens, what you can do. Take what I said to heart. Certainly, you know, if you're building a podcast strategy, do not drop it, do not kill it for a Blab strategy or a Periscope strategy. It's just the most ridiculous thing I've heard. Continue to focus on your, your media strategy of which podcasting is a great option. If you want to use these guys as one of the distribution models, that's great. But it's not the technology that the world's going to embrace. And the other thing you can do simply is if you're, you know, tripodcastmonth.com if you want to take a look at how to use this production, make a video from it, you can do that. So there we go. That's what I think we have to learn from Periscope, Meerkat and Blab. The blog is up. Comment away. The podcastreport.com 62 the links. I have the how to podcast book, podcast cart, SMS to opt in, all the tools I've used there, the Patreon thing, the the today in podcasting. I'll have a link out to that at Blab, the way Blab does. It's really weird. So we'll have a link there. Link to Podcast month as well. I've got a link to you for the new media content creation model way back from 2009 in all of its standard definition glory. And then I've got a link to that article about the Samsung phones who are going live next week when we do this after the Apple announcement. Who knows, I might, you know, rescind all of episode 62 and find out what happens. But that's my thoughts today. Would love to hear your thoughts on it. Now the podcast report.com forward/62 we got comments, but you can also go to the podcast report.com/forward/twitter, the podcast report.com forward/Facebook or any of the, you know, usual suspects to make a comment. If this is your first episode because the whole Periscope thing intrigued you or whatnot, for goodness sakes, do something here that you can't do on Periscope or those things. Subscribe. Go out to the podcastreport.com iTunes if you have an iPhone, if you're using that world or Stitcher or Pocketcast or Tunein or Spreaker or iHeartradio or EvenOvercast. All those options are there for you. That'll give you the ability to subscribe to the show so that when the next episode comes out, so that when I've got some ideas on what Apple says in this comment and other things, you'll get that automatically and you don't have to worry about these things. If you want to drop me an email, it's the podcastreportoutlook.com and if you'd like a review, I love reviews at itunes and I love reviews at Stitcher, so there we go. That's what I think. Would love to hear what you think. If you subscribe, next week comes automatically, and that's better than anything these other guys can offer you. Chat with you then. Bye.