Corporate Podcasting: Choosing a Podcast Format for Your Show
There are several benefits to creating a corporate podcast for your business.
However, with several podcast formats to choose from, picking the format most suited for your company can be challenging. That’s exactly what Connie Steele and Yann Ilunga recently sat down to discuss for Flywheel Associates.
A Case for Interview-Based Podcasts
If you were to browse through podcasting platforms such as Apple Podcasts and Spotify, you would notice that a wide variety of featured shows are interview-based podcasts.
Connie’s Strategic Momentum podcast and several of Yann’s shows fall in the interview style category too.
There are several benefits to hosting interviews:
Being able to, thanks to your guests, cover a variety of topics (even those you may not necessarily be an expert in)
Being able to build relationships with those you are going to interview (this is ideal if you are planning on leveraging your show as a networking asset for your company)
Covering a topic through a variety of viewpoints and stories (yours and your guests’)
Co-sharing the spotlight with a guest often leads to you feeling less pressure as the host because you aren’t on your own
It is important to note, however, that making your corporate podcasting show rely on interviews does come with challenges.
Being a skilled interviewer — one who can get guests to share stories and advice in a compelling way — is a skill that, like many others, requires time to develop.
Additionally, depending on where you are located and the time zone guests are based in, scheduling can be an impediment. Although there are plenty of tools for recording remote interviews — Zencastr, SquadCast and Riverside being some of them — and people are more comfortable using these services than they were before 2020.
Going solo
Depending on your goals, hosting a solo show may be an intriguing option.
This does mean that the host is the only person in the spotlight — but it also means that you can capture the listener’s undivided attention, and you’re able to record whenever it is convenient for you.
This is something you may want to consider if you are thinking about potentially leveraging your corporate show for internal communication, such as conveying key initiatives or sharing leadership’s perspective on something that is happening in the company.
Try to imagine the members of your company receiving important information delivered in audio form instead of through a standard email or memo. It can really leave a mark and add to the human connection between the employees and leadership.
That isn’t your only option for solo shows, though. Gimlet Media’s popular show StartUp is a great example of a podcast that achieved fame due to its storytelling-focused approach; sometimes, characters other than the host are featured throughout different episodes, but the podcast itself can be categorized as a solo storytelling podcast.
The more, the merrier?
If the idea of being in front of a microphone on your own doesn’t sound like the route for you, then you might want to recruit a co-host… or two or three!
Think of a panel discussion or roundtable conversation type of format, for instance.
The idea is simple: a moderator moderates a conversation between multiple participants/experts/guests.
This can make for an interesting format as it can lead to very diverse and insightful conversations between people who may have similar, different, or even completely polarized points of view.
A co-hosted show goes in a similar direction, in the sense that it sees two hosts share their thoughts and opinions in a format that may include other people (in the form of guests or special co-hosts that change each season) or simply the co-hosts by themselves.
Marketing School, Waves of Tech (hosted by International Podcast Day founders, father and son duo Steve and Dave Lee) and our very own corporate podcasting video series hosted by Connie and Yann are examples of what co-hosted shows can be all about.
The best of both worlds?
Are you having trouble picking between going solo, bringing in guests, or finding co-hosts? What if we told you that you could go for a podcast format that takes what you like the most from all the others?
Introducing the hybrid podcast.
A hybrid podcast is a show that features elements that are typical of other podcast formats and combines them into a unique “collage.”
Yann produced a hybrid podcast called The Podcaster Lab, a show that includes solo episodes, episodes with storytelling elements, expert contributions presented in the form of a roundtable, and more — and all these creative elements have made The Podcaster Lab unique in its genre.
One of the important aspects to ponder in your consideration of a hybrid podcast is making sure that, despite the combination of several different elements, the show has its own consistency so that listeners know what to expect from it.
There are different pieces that make up the corporate podcasting puzzle and the podcast format is just one of them. If you need help navigating the corporate podcasting waters, we are here to help.
About the Authors:
Connie Steele is the Co-Founder of Flywheel Associates, Business & Career Strategist, Executive Consultant, Host of the Strategic Momentum Podcast and Author of the new book Building the Business of You. Connect with Connie on LinkedIn.
Yann Ilunga is a Podcasting and Lead Generation Consultant, and International Speaker. Dubbed ‘Podcasting Advocate’ by Forbes, he has produced over 400 podcast episodes since 2014. Connect with Yann on LinkedIn.