This week on WPblab we’re at a new time 7-8pm Pacific and will be talking with David Blackmon about his Divi Chat podcast and how he used his show to build community around Divi page builder and Elegant Themes.
David Blackmon – Divi Chat http://divi.chat/
How to start a WordPress podcast
Started in a Facebook group, many folks helping one another in there talking about WordPress and Divi
Decided to have a meetup and 15-20 people showed up from around the world! Nick – founder of ElegantThemes – came down with his team and hung out as well.
David had a great love for podcasts and saw the potential in it – great medium, easily consumable, a great marketing vehicle to get a message out
Was originally going to start his own podcast, but when he met up with a bunch of his online WordPress and Divi friends in person, he decided to start a show similar to WP Watercooler, but about the Divi platform (Using YouTube Live – also uploads the audio to iTunes)
Google Spreadsheet with topics listed for upcoming episodes – 30 to 90 days out
Getting guests can be tricky, especially if you like to plan ahead – be prepared for cancellations
http://roadtreking.com/category/podcasts/ – Mike Wendland (great example of a well put together podcast)
His new show: wpthepodcast.com
Podcasts are a great way to meet and get connected with the larger community, make new friends and network – often get recognized by your voice in a crowd!
MacCast – Adam Christianson – has a very distinctive voice! Met many people because they recognized his voice from his podcast.
Soundcloud is another good site to upload your podcast audio to and get greater reach
Some very ‘Festive’ episodes with Google’s effects, ie. Party Hats etc. Had lots of laughs, but probably lost some of the audience in the audio version because they couldn’t see what was happening on screen – have to remember the audio audience when doing your podcast
YouTube is great because it shows you the exact viewcount of who saw the video when it aired. You can also see comments, interactions, and how much they saw of each episode
If you aren’t doing closed captioning, you may miss out on some of the people trying to watch the podcast video www.Rev.com – transcription, captions and translations
Facebook live is useful because it will alert people when something goes Live … people may not be looking for it, but it pops up and they go “Hey, I’m gonna watch this!”
Know where your ‘community’ watches you from … if most of your people find you and watch you via facebook, focus your efforts there …. If most follow you and interact via YouTube, focus there instead
Facebook – comments matter – make sure you are engaging. Not just liking. “You have to use words to build relationships” – Bridget … Sharing is important and helpful too, but it’s still not engagement – you still need to comment to build those relationships.
If you genuinely want to build engagement on Facebook, you need to spend at least an hour a day commenting and replying to comments – furthering the conversation & relationship!
www.yt2fb.com “Make your YouTube Video look BIG and AWESOME on Facebook” -makes YouTube videos look semi-native when posted to Facebook
When you are starting a podcast, people are expecting perfection from the get-go … you should take some time to record “Episode Zero” – you know you are going to throw it away, but it gives you a chance to do a run through and feel out what works and what doesn’t and possibly shift direction if needed
http://wpmedia.pro/the-10-commandments-of-podcasting-that-work/
https://omnystudio.com/ On demand audio publishing platform – podcast hosting and tools
Enhanced podcasts – post-production is about 30 minutes on average
David – cofounder Aspen Grove Studios http://www.aspengrovestudios.com
Thank you for helping us with the show notes this week:
Cheryl LaPrade – @YayCheryl on Twitter
Sherie LaPrade – @HeySherie on Twitter
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