Enough with the theory! Because even if foundation and reflection are important: You can only become smarter if you learn from practice. That's why we will share our experiences with podcast production in the fifth episode of the series. So that you can learn from our mistakes. And so you can copy the good parts.
The content work of Content Glory is like a cross-section of modern media production. Articles, videos, blog articles and social media contributions are part of a broad and colourful range of services. And recently, podcasts have also become part of the range. After all, podcasts offer a wide range of possibilities for creative and audience-oriented packaging of content, especially for Content and Inbound Marketing. Why publishing strategies can be perfectly embedded in the media mix is revealed in the fourth part.
For the Healthcare Marketing Changers Podcast, moderators René Neubach, Managing Partner and Content Strategist at Content Glory, and healthcare specialist Dominik Flener are looking for new ways to combine health topics and digital marketing. In episode 2 "What can the pharmaceutical industry learn from a visit to a museum" they were visited by former project manager Maren Waffenschmid from our editorial team. In post-production, Marketing Technologist Michael Schwinghammer supervised sound quality and sound editing. How René, Maren and Michael perceived their podcast experience, what conclusions they drew from it and what they usually think of podcasts, they have summarized in this small workshop report.
René Neubach: Moderation and Planning
"For me, the dialogue that arises in a podcast is simply perfect for gaining new insights. You always get new input, even personally, and the immediacy of the situation allows you to translate knowledge from other areas into new topics. This is a huge strength of the dialogue format in particular and of podcasts in general.
From my point of view our recording went well. Especially editorially we were well prepared, so we always had a good direction to move in during the interview. Especially when recording with three or more people, you have to pay attention to each other and keep passing the balls to each other. That worked out well. I also always try to listen to what was said again later. That's the only way to learn something from the whole thing, for example to be able to react more to each other when speaking.
Also generally I am a huge podcast fan. I listen to them mostly in a work context, i.e. on the subject of business or marketing, but in very different situations, for example on a bike or exercise bike. I can really focus on the content. But I prefer to listen to them while driving a car: When the landscape and the trees pass by, it's a real creative boost."
Maren Waffenschmid: Guest
"The podcast was about finding out how editorial work, or rather the roles in the editorial process, can be applied to the pharmaceutical context. I was invited as a guest. And that was also a basic question that I asked myself during the preparation and in the process: How do I link my CV to the topic? What can I contribute and when? So I already had a structure in my head, but when recording, things didn’t go as planned.
There was relatively little structure, throwing the thread into chaos. One must always try to find a logical thread in the conversation. We sometimes digressed too much, because there were very specific questions to me. It was really cool to talk about them in particular. But at that moment it was surprising because it wasn't agreed upon. I could answer the questions anyway, but it led far away from the actual topic.
That's definitely what's exhausting about podcasting: that you have to do your own editorial work and pay attention to the way the conversation is conducted, even during the recording. You also have to constantly reflect on your choice of words and try to speak chronologically, i.e. to put the most important content at the beginning of a sentence or speech block. This also makes things much easier for editing later. And the art of it is that everything then doesn't sound like scripted talk, but still sounds like a conversation. Well written notes definitely help!
So my quintessence: planning, planning, planning!
Privately I don’t find much time to listen to podcasts. For my dissertation I have heard a lot, but only as illustrative material. When running or other leisure activities I simply enjoy the silence. I just don't have the time and when I hear something, I immediately link it to my work. Which is a bit sad, if you think about it :)"
Michael Schwinghammer: Audio technology and editing
"I was responsible for sound editing and post-production. And of course you experience the podcast from a completely different perspective than the others. I also noticed the missing structure. It would be better to agree on a certain length in advance, because unfortunately I had to cut out a lot in the end. That’s additional work on the content level, which takes very long.
The better the structure in advance, the easier. You can see that very closely when you cut. For example, it's much easier to cut into blocks of content than to have to pick everything up from everywhere. With structured passages it is much easier to cut away from the back if necessary.
But what worked out really well was the way the conversation was conducted. Nobody got in the way of the conversation and there were no intermediate noises like coughing or whispering. It's almost impossible to cut that out later. But especially towards the end you notice that everyone got a little impatient, so they were talking faster. In my opinion, you just need more experience how to deal with the recording situation.
Funnily enough, I don't listen to podcasts at all. I just lose the thread very quickly. And in the meantime there is a lot of mainstream, it feels like the same thing is happening again and again. So I prefer to delve into specific topics like feminist and historical podcasts."
Bonus: Michi’s terrific techy-tips
There are numerous programs and options for editing podcasts. For a brief overview, however, Michi has exclusively shared his personal experience.
Sound editing programs
"Audition from Adobe is a really good program. It even has its own tool just for podcasts. And there are lots of helps and shortcuts that save a lot of time. But you can also do it with other programs, like GarageBand and Audacity. But often you reach your limits. And the editing process often takes much longer."
Recording technology
"Depending on the type and objective of the podcast, the technical set-up can be very different. But nobody needs a professional recording studio with intimidating knobs and buttons! An USB microphone is often sufficient for recording just one audio track (mono). You can connect it directly to your computer and immediately get a sound track as a file. This becomes more difficult if there are several conversation partners. A professional recording device or even a sound mixer becomes a worthwhile investment as soon as three or more people are involved. This additionally improves the recording quality and makes it possible, for example, to insert music during live broadcasts."
We have found a good overview with product recommendations here. If you are looking for speech and radio training, check out Radio Orange in Vienna!
Credit: ©Africa Studio/Adobe Stock
