The Case for Technology in Schools
June 28, 2023
Solving Problems with Innovation and Flexibility
June 28, 2023
Bob Snyder
As a leader, you know all about the importance of communication. One could contend that leadership is all about communication – the ability to relay your message to a targeted community. How that message best gets relayed, in a way that evokes the passion you’ve intended, is where the medium of podcasting has made staggering inroads – inroads with business, academics, and non-profits. For this group, podcasting provides a conduit between leader and community that is long-form, first-hand, intimate, and now wildly popular.
If you have thought about podcasting as a personality-driven entertainment vehicle, you would not be wrong. Since its infancy in 2005, the bulk of attention on podcasting has centered around high-profile celebrities flocking to an unregulated, relatively inexpensive pipeline to the world. And while a bulk of the five million podcasts that are available on Apple Podcasts are entertainment driven covid brought about a rush by enterprises looking to find new methods of communicating with a narrowcast audience. Today, a scan of Apple Podcasts will convey a wide range of podcasts used specifically by leaders promoting resources and sharing messages of brand, mission, and hope.
Mass media technology has grown as fast as any other notable technology sector. YouTube videos, Facebook posts, digital magazines, streaming networks, and on-demand audio (podcasting) have taken over as dominating influential vehicles for content providers to reach content consumers. Often, the type of content being disseminated dictates the best outlet to use, and of late, podcasting has won the hearts, minds, and wallets of those looking to inform or entertain. While video and print are for the eyes, podcasting is exclusively for the ears with the added unique benefit of being a multitasking friendly medium – you can always be doing something else when you listen to a podcast. As an on-demand medium, podcasting happens where the user wants, when the user wants, and on whatever device the user wants.
From archives and oral histories to employee relations and consumer education, from event promotion to membership engagement, podcasting is at its core communication of information you want to be shared with a targeted audience with benefits that can match or exceed many of the virtues of a website. In the same way a website is meant to attract, inform, and in some cases entertain, podcasts are websites for the ears, with the information converted to long-form audio.
In the non-profit and academic sectors, using podcasting to create a digital library in the sky can be invaluable. The oral history of an organization often then leads to a series of episodes on specific subject matter that can be retrieved and resourced at any time.
One example that might resonate in the non-profit and academic sectors is the passionate use of podcasting by Paul Penna Downtown Jewish Day School. The Toronto-based organization promotes history and exceptional academics in a unique downtown setting. In this case, Paul Penna DJDS publishes two to three episodes per month talking with the people who make the school stand out. To hear more and to see how podcasts are displayed in a podcast directory, search Apple, Spotify, or Google Podcasts for Paul Penna Downtown Jewish Day School and take a listen to one or more episodes to stir up your own ideas.
This all brings us back to being a good leader and one who is looking to effectively communicate with a constituency. Podcasting, as a contemporary form of communication and public relations, is becoming a solution to a common problem – how, as a contemporary administrator, can I more effectively inform and engage the school community? If you’ve considered the benefits of podcasting, you may well be on your way to a purposeful solution.
Michelle and Bob Snyder run PERENNIAL PODCASTING PARTNERS (formerly Hometown Podcasts, LLC.) Bob has led radio and media organizations for three decades, including ESPN Radio in Chicago. Michelle previously served as Director of Communications at Maimonides School in Brookline, MA. The company focuses on creating branded digital content for businesses and organizations of all sizes by incorporating podcasts into their outreach and communications strategy to inform, educate, hire, motivate, and serve as an overall perennial resource for a community of like-minded people. Bob can be reached at rmsnyder@perennialpodcasting.com.