Your Message Is Bigger Than iTunes (Another Look At Multicasting) - The Podcast Industry Report With Paul Colligan Episode #105

Your message is bigger than itunes. It's the Podcast industry report episode 105 show notes, links, conversation and more@thepodcastreport.com 105 if you are a longtime listener, you'll enjoy this. This is me getting ready for the big presentation at VidSummit this week. If you are a first time listener, if this is your first episode of the podcast report, the content's great and it will help take you in some really good directions. But it's not how I traditionally do the show. If you head out to the podcastreport.com iTunes. If you're an itunes user, Google Slash, Stitch or whatever platform it is that you use, go ahead and subscribe to the show. Get other episodes. We do tell a story here. There is a big arc here, but today this is a standalone episode. What I'm doing is I'm getting ready for VidSummit. I get on a plane tomorrow, I head down to LA doing VidSummit. It is a big event for video creators. And the cool thing is I was not asked to speak about the YouTube book, although I would have loved to. I wasn't asked to come down and speak to the live book, although that's always fun. I was actually asked to speak about a topic near and dear to my heart, that of multicasting. Taking the content that you've got and putting it on other platforms to reach more people. If you do listen to past episodes of the podcast report, my big mission is to help you reach more people. And you do that by multicasting. You see, your message is bigger than itunes. Yes, but that's not the only riff I came up with for this show. A couple other riffs I came up with was start with the podcast, but don't end with the podcast or maybe even this one. It's more than a podcast, it's a connection. This idea that we're going to create some content and we're going to get it out in the way that makes sense. So when I think about la, what I think about, I think about Mexican food. I went to school, UC Santa Barbara. Now there's a great stand here in town, but gosh darn it, the best Mexican food's down in California. And I think about those awesome, crazy, amazing taco stands. That guy who, that gal, that family, that group of friends, whatever it is, who, who have put together the perfect recipe for the perfect taco. I enjoy them. But you know what's interesting about the taco stand is somebody's going to walk by that stand. And maybe they can't do the gluten thing. And maybe the tortilla has some gluten in it and they need a carb. I'm sorry, they need a gluten free tortilla. So they ask the taco guy, hey, do you have a gluten free tortilla? Now, he has two options. He can say yes, she can say no. If he or she, the owner says yes, bam. New audience. This is key. Yes, maybe. Ideally, in a perfect world, you get that perfect tortilla. But you know what? If somebody wants it and they can't do it a certain way, Give them the gluten free tortilla. Gosh darn it. If somebody is doing the whole, you know, no carb thing, which is big down in la, and they want the carb free version, they just want the taco kind of on a bed of lettuce. Go ahead and give that to them. Maybe onions make them a little, you know, gassy. Can you take out the onions? Although onions might make the taco perfect, taking that out will bring you a whole new audience. See, a smart taco stand is going to make a few changes that are logical to reach more people with their tacos. And who doesn't love tacos? But what's funny is many times podcasters, we do things to limit ourselves. We do things to not increase our reach, but actually limit our reach. We don't offer the podcasting version of the gluten free tortilla or the podcasting version of the no onions or the podcasting version of the salad. What we do is we go, nope, it's our way or the highway. And that's doing a lot of damage. So I'm going to vidsummit. And what's funny is at Vidsummit, there are going to be a lot of people with the exact same approach to life. There are going to be those who are like, hey, it's YouTube or it's nothing. We've met those types. There's also going to be those ones who go, YouTube looks silly. I put all my stuff on Vimeo and I know there's more people on YouTube, but Vimeo is where I want to be. Those people are silly. What you want to do is you want to build a multicasting empire where your content is available everywhere. That makes sense. I have a sign here at the office. I haven't chatted about it. I've got to sign up at the office. It says they come for the thing, they stay for the multicast, they come for the thing, they stay for the multicast. Now, most people, they come for the podcast. And I love podcasts. Podcasts for many. For me, probably 85, 90% of the week is that original taco. It's how a lot of this started. But they stay for the multicast. They stay for the options, they stay for what's out there. So let's chat about that. What is a multicast? What is multicasting? Multicasting is strategically leveraging every content distribution channel in the smartest way possible. Strategically leveraging every content distribution channel in the smartest way possible. You have content, you have a taco, and you want to put that out there on every channel. So yes, you go to the big channel, you go to itunes, you optimize for that, you set up for that, you do everything you can for itunes. But then you know what, you also put it at Stitcher. And yes, there's all these arguments about what Stitcher used to do to the audio quality or that kind of stuff. But if there are people who want your content, there are people who want the dock out, give it to them. Put it on Stitcher, put it on Google, put it on Spreaker, put it on any place that the customer wants to consume it. See, the more channels, the more money, the more reach. Let's chat about two channel opportunities right now that are kind of interesting. I'm certainly going to bring up with the presentation, number one, Netflix. Why is Netflix doing so well? Netflix is doing so well because it is almost damn near impossible to find a connected screen that doesn't have an opportunity for Netflix. My parents, God bless them, they have problems with the tech, but they always go, mom will text. I'm having a problem with this or this or this. And between now and when you come on over, I will be on Netflix often watching MacGyver. Netflix is there because Netflix is easy. Netflix has won because Netflix is easy. If you look at the stats, you look at the recent numbers, Netflix is doing well because they've made themselves available on pretty much every single channel out there. That's an example of a smart move. An example of a really bad move is Star Trek. We got this 50 year old industry that has always done well, always done well on television. CBS is bringing back Star Trek. They're doing a new show and they're going to do the Star Trek TV show. They're going to do it only well, I guess. Episode one is going to air on television and then the subsequent episodes, the rest of the episodes are going to go on to CBS All Access, which is their version of Netflix, or HBO Go or Showtime now or whatever the different options are. But here's the thing. Netflix, all the choices, all the options, all the everything is going to be about the same price as CBS All Access. And I don't see a lot of people, even the fans. And by the way, I consider myself a Star Trek fan. I don't know if I'm going to shell out 8, 9, 10 bucks a month just to get a couple episodes of Star Trek. See cbs one place not attractive. Netflix. Every place extremely attractive. You want to put your content on every single channel. Now, you do want to do it, however, in the smartest way possible. There are times when putting yourself somewhere might not make sense. In past episodes, we've looked at the idea of putting an audio version of your podcast up at YouTube with a, with a static image. Is that a good idea? Is that a bad idea? You want, you want to be smart, you want to think it through, but you want to, you want to do it and you want to be smart. And here's the deal. I would suggest that if you can't launch to every channel, I would really suggest checking your strategy. Well, Paul, I can't launch to video. Well, actually you can if it's an audio podcast. We've seen great success with audio podcasters. Putting a camera, just a simple webcam, putting in front, recording live to an audience. We've chatted about that in different industries. You got to record at some point. Might as well take a shower, record live to your audience and go from there. And if you can't launch to every channel, check your strategy. Think about it when you go live. Think about it when you archive. Strategically leverage every content distribution channel in the smartest way possible. Let's look at some options. YouTube. YouTube's huge. YouTube is everywhere. Just like it's. You know, actually I've seen devices that have Netflix but no YouTube, but just a few. YouTube's also pretty much everywhere. And it is where people are going. And these stats are amazing. And you know you want to be on YouTube. Now there are other video sites, but YouTube is the 800 pound gorilla, just like there are other podcasting sites, but itunes is the 800 pound gorilla. You definitely want to be on YouTube. Now there's some I call it Vimeo snobbery. My video looks better at site X. Sure it does. Great. Fine. Still, people want to consume your content. They don't know about site X. Definitely think about YouTube. Some other options in the multicasting space is obviously podcasting. But in podcasting you've even got some other options. You've got audio podcasting. You could actually do that, which pretty much everybody else is doing. But consider video podcasting. Consider Apple tv. Consider what's happening there. Consider Siri. Consider tablets. Consider the ability for somebody to pick up and call you up and ask for what it is that you have. I've told the story a zillion times before, but Mignonne Fogarty, her first audiobook was just selections of her podcast edited for her appearance on Oprah. Why isn't your stuff out there on an audiobook? Why isn't your stuff out there by live casting shouted to that earlier, you got to record at some point. Might as well record of an audience who wants to watch you live. There are people who like that. I've been teaching the new media content creation model for quite some time and originally when I suggested it live was maybe recording on a teleconference or through some live audio streaming. Now we can video stream. If you're going to live cast, be smart about the live casting channel. Don't pick the technology that is the most frequent or don't pick the knowledge that the channels that the nerdiest pick the channel that most people know about. I'll give you a clue. That's Facebook people. Physical meeting, physical media, print your podcast content. People like that. You can go into Amazon right now and you can get. I can't remember how many episodes it is. It's the first batch of episodes of the podcast Report is a Kindle book. As a physical book that comes out on a regular basis, why not take your content and do physical media in the book? Maybe physical media in the CD, maybe physical media in the DVD. It's funny. My podcast book, how to podcast 2016, we're sharing. We're selling about five times as many copies of the physical book as we are the audio. I'm sorry, the Kindle version of the book. I don't know why I don't get it. But the fact of the matter is some people go into the taco stand. I want it this way and I need to provide it to them. What about apps? You know, I've got my how to podcast app. A lot of people are downloading it. A lot of people are learning how to podcast from it. You could put your content there. Roku right now, Roku just announced a small channel. Nothing you're getting rich on, but it's an interesting channel. Most recently bought a television set for my parents and it had Roku built in. Roku just announced how to build your own channel on Roku. There's more and more of this coming. And put your stuff on an app and then finally any place that might take it, including a place that you might not know about right now. In past episodes, I chatted about how Seinfeld on Hulu is a great hit, making Jerry a tremendous amount of money when Hulu wasn't even a thing. You couldn't even have imagined that in the early 90s. I've got a client right now that I'm taking on who is in her fifth decade of content production. Started in the 70s. Fifth decade. The stuff in the 70s that you can dream. We didn't know CDs were coming, let alone the Internet, let alone audiobooks, let alone apps, let alone these things. The fact of the matter is, if you create good content, see, because your message is bigger than itunes, if you create the content, you archive it right, and you get ready for what's next, do that now. Am I saying podcasting is dying? No, podcasting is a channel. It's a legit channel. It's a wonderful channel. We're having a ton of fun. Just don't minimize yourself to that. Actually. Multicast. Now, I've got seven strategies for multicasting that I want to share with you. These are the same seven I'm going to share with the audience at VidCon. But here's. I'm sorry, VidSummit. VidCon is a great event too, but this particular one is vidsummit. What I want to do though, is I want to put together a package for everybody. If you go to the podcastreport.com105, give me your name and email address. I will give you the slides for the presentation at VidSummit. Obviously, if you're getting this the day this is released, I haven't done it yet. I'll get you the slides, I'll get you the recording, I'll get you the additional content. And when the presentation is given to me as a video broadcast, I will get that to you as well and I'll email you. So as a podcaster, if you want to know, as this goes further, this podcast, of course, is going to be within the 15 to 20 minute range. My presentation is going to be considerably larger than that. If you want to get the entire video presentation again once it's released, head out to thepodcastreport.com105 so let's talk about our seven multicasting strategies. These are huge. Okay, number one, design your content for all platforms. Just a little bit of thought, just a little bit of change. You want to think this through for all platforms. And I think a great way, I think a great analogy for this is 3D films. If you've ever seen 3D films from the old days of 3D films, there were always these moments where they would poke something into the audience or a rock would be thrown or something that would happen, that the only purpose was to get people to dock or to scream or whatnot in 3D. Now you look at more modern films that have been created. Sometimes they weren't even created in 3D. 3D came later. Or maybe something like. Of course, I can't think of the name of that movie. But there are movies that have been done in 3D that thought through the two dimensional audience and provided a better concept. The 3D was still great. But the fact of the matter is, if you think through the 2D audience, you're going to be at a better place. If you're doing video, think through what the audio looks like. If it slides, just give them a chance to get the slides someplace else. Just like I did earlier. ThePodcastReport.com 105 if it's something that everybody's looking at, well, think a chance to describe it. Tell the audience at home, hey, for those of you who are listening to the audio version, we're all looking at X. Give them a chance to look at it, the show notes or something like that. Think delivery, think design for all platforms. And remember, if you do audio only, you have this wonderful, wonderful, wonderful option to get the opt in. See, those of you listening to the podcast, right now, you're heading out to the podcastreport.com1:05 I'm getting names and email addresses now. I follow all the spam rules and if you want to go away, you can go away. Not a problem. After you get the stuff. But the fact of the matter is, audio is a wonderful, wonderful opt in opportunity. So number one, designed for all the platforms. Number two, this is huge. Leverage the metrics. You know, I've heard people poo poo different platforms. Tell me they don't like different platforms. But I'll tell you, one of the things these platforms do is they give you some interesting metrics. Stitcher is one that a lot of podcasters like to make fun of. Well, the metrics that I get from Stitcher are really interesting as to how long people are listening, what they're listening to that kind of thing. My podcasts on YouTube are giving me some really interesting metrics of what's going on the podcast at Spreaker. Really, really interesting metrics. When you put your stuff at these other places, yes, it's not going to be your entire audience. Yes, it's not going to be a completely scientific sampling, but leverage the metrics. Do something smart. Multicasting strategy. Number three, deeply question platform elimination. If you decide we are not going to use this platform, ask yourself why. Now, step seven, automating distribution, which I'll get to in a second, is maybe one of the reasons. Maybe one of the reasons was just it was too much work, it was too complicated. Fine, automate distribution, you go from there. But deeply question platform elimination. If you don't want to be on a certain platform, ask yourself why and have a really, really good answer. Because the future for all of us, the future for getting our message out, is being everywhere. And if we make a conscientious decision not to be somewhere, especially after you've heard this, that's kind of silly. Number four, this is massive. This is huge. Promote your content, not your platform. Promote your content, not your platform. It's not that you have a podcast. It's not that you have a YouTube show. It's not that you have a series of scopes using Periscope Live. You have a show, you have content. That is what you promote, not the platform. Recently, not so recently. Now, I guess we're in season four here. House of Cards by Netflix. You know, yes, Netflix was smart. Put it on there. Got a bunch of subscribers, a bunch of people loved it. But Netflix realized that their content is actually even bigger than Netflix. And now you can go to Redbox and you can rent the House of Cards DVDs. You can go to Amazon, you can buy the House of Cards DVDs. See, it's not about Netflix's House of Cards. It's about House of Cards, that amazing show. Promote your content, not your platform. And then what you do is you promote consumption, not events. Yes. If you're live and you have the live option, which I recommend, promote live consumption, not necessarily the live event. See, it isn't important that you're live every Thursday at 8. What's important is that Thursday at 8, you're going to talk about this topic. Promote consumption, not events. And I think one of the best examples of that right now is you look at McDonald's recent change. McDonald's now is doing breakfast whenever you want. Why? Because McDonald's is in the business of selling you food. And if you want an egg McMuffin at 4 o' clock in the afternoon, McDonald's is there to give you an egg McMuffin at 4:00 clock in the afternoon. Their job is not to. Well, you can only eat this during breakfast. Their job is to promote consumption, not events. Then finally, number seven, let's hit the first six. You design for all the platforms. You leverage the metrics. You deeply question platform elimination. You promote content, not platform. You promote consumption, not events. And then finally, you automate distribution. Obviously, if your $300 an hour video editor is spending their time uploading things to obscure video sites, that's not worth your cash. But there are systems, there are services, there are people that will help you automate the distribution. Your job is content, not the distribution of the content. So automate the distribution, outsource it, use a service, whatever it is that you want to do. I had a client who had a video show, and as an example, we quickly put the thing. Itunes wasn't necessarily designed to be a podcast. At one time, they weren't even thinking about putting it as a podcast. But we put the content on itunes. Why? Because it made sense. It was another place for people to have them. It was a multicasting opportunity. Well, here's the thing, here's what's funny. Because it was a video podcast in a category that didn't have a lot of video podcasts, it quickly went up the charts, which is very cool, and the numbers were so low that it's amazing. That went up the charts. But the thing that was so interesting was because it was video content in this category that doesn't traditionally have video podcast content, itunes actually put it up and put it on the front page of itunes. And these are download numbers that anybody could get because they thought through the process, multicasting strategic. You definitely want to do it. So this is the heart of the presentation I'm giving at vidsummit in a couple of days. Again, if you head out to the podcastreport.com1:05 give me your name and email address. I will set you up with the slides for my presentation and the recording of it when they make it available to me. Also put the links up to the things that are important. If you have never subscribed to the podcast report, that is a travesty. That's a crime. I want you to head out to the podcastreport.com iTunes. If you're an itunes user, and most of you are, but I'M not worried about platforms. I don't care. If you're a stitcher user head out to the podcastreport.com stitcher if you are one of the Google users thepodcastreport.com Google I don't care. Go where it makes sense to you. Let's go to social as well. I don't need you to make comments on the website. If you want to thepodcastreport.com1:05 but if you want to make comments at Facebook go to thepodcastreport.com Facebook if you want to make comments at twitter go to thepodcastreport.com Twitter My concern is your consumption of my content so I can get my message out there to more people. I'm doing that with multicasting. It makes a lot of sense and I hope you the podcaster will think the same. If you're at VidSummit and you heard this, please come by say hi. I'll probably have some sort of prize for you. The rest of you head out to the podcastreport.com 105 to get the video when it's released and with that we'll chat next week. Bye.