Many of us may be listening to podcasts and many corporates may be using podcasts as an innovative medium to reach employees and other stakeholders. Perhaps, you have considered creating your own but are not quite sure how to get started. So, I thought it may be worth demystifying the basics and sharing some software you could use to create your own podcasts.
I recently attended a two-week podcasting course with Sonder Radio and learnt to create my very first podcast. So, I am sharing what I learnt with you here:
- Genre: A podcast can be of any genre (Interview, conversation, storytelling, theatrical, educational, monologue, conversational etc.) Choose what appeals to you and feel free to experiment till you find what your style is. I chose an interview-style podcast
- Concept: Next, brainstorm with a friend or on your own to narrow down the concept of your podcast. What would you like it to do? And who is your target audience? Once you have the podcast concept, you can start planning to create it.
- Guest(s): Depending on the concept of your podcast, you may or may not need to identify a guest. Schedule a preliminary informal chat with your guest if possible. Use this meeting to bounce off ideas and the questions you are planning to ask, check details of their story and finalise the final list of questions.
- Recording: Plan to meet in person or online to record the interview or conversation. You could use Zoom, your phone recorder or various apps based on what is your preference. I primarily used Zoom (https://zoom.us/) to record as I met my guest virtually. Podcasts can be of any duration but to make it easy to edit, try to keep your recording tight.
- Intro: An intro is a short introduction of your podcast concept and the specific episode, it is usually recorded in the podcaster’s voice.
- Outro: A short conclusion for your podcast – thanking your listeners, your guest, perhaps announcing your next episode. Again, this is usually recorded in the podcaster’s voice.
- Soundscapes: These are the background sounds that convey the mood and ambience of a podcast. You could choose forest or ocean sounds for a mindfulness podcast, or an office or pub sounds for one set in a city. Check out Epidemic Sounds (https://www.epidemicsound.com/) or BBC Sound Effects (https://sound-effects.bbcrewind.co.uk/) to choose from a variety of sounds.
- Bedmusic: This is the background music on your podcast. It can be used as a signature music in your intro and outro or you may choose to use it right through. A good site to create original music from combining existing instrument sounds is Soundtrap. (https://www.soundtrap.com/)
- Editing: I learnt to edit my podcast and combine the different elements (Intro, Outro, Interview, Bedmusic and Soundscape) together on a software called Reaper https://www.reaper.fm/). You may edit the same podcast into a shorter version for promotion or to play it on radio.
- Publishing: There are many podcast hubs. Software like Anchor (https://anchor.fm/) allow you to easily host & distribute your podcast to Spotify, Apple, Google and other popular sites.
- Promoting: Promote your podcasts to friends and family, on your social media, on your website etc. If you have an opportunity, radio is a great medium to publicise your podcast and there are many community radio stations looking for interesting content. You can create a promotion image on Canva (https://www.canva.com/)
Hope you found these tips useful if you are starting to create your own podcasts. As for me, I am hoping to record my second episode soon. I was thrilled to have the 4-minute edit of my pilot podcast episode play on Sonder Radio last week and am working on a 20 minute edit currently.