Review: Podcasting, RSS and Blogging

18-04-2007

by Ralph Averbuch

Recently the Irish Internet Association has been far more active in hosting events. Their seminars, which are not just aimed at the hardened web professional, cover a range of internet topics.

Sitting at the back of the room in the Digital Exchange in Dublin on Wednesday morning I'm struck by the filled seats as the first speaker, Joe Conway from Digicast, launches into his presentation on an 'idiot's guide to blogging, podcasting and RSS'. Of course it's not actually called that, but the sentiment's the same. This isn't a room full of web veterans but rather people keen to understand what this stuff is all about and how, just possibly, they might be able to use these technologies in the promotion and marketing of their own businesses.

It's just one of a rapidly developing portfolio of events that forms part of a programme that, under the leadership of CEO Fergal O'Byrne, has helped this non-profit professional body make a much greater impact. A quick peek at the IIA website at www.iia.ie shows eight events in the pipeline, run in partnership with a range of third parties.

In this instance "Podcasting, RSS and Blogging: How to make new media work for your business", is being presented in conjunction with the Marketing Institute of Ireland. It seeks to explore how these new media buzzwords can be practically applied as part of an organisation's business model and marketing mix.

The event is all fairly informal with the regulation PowerPoint presentations, bullet points and practical examples. But where it gets genuinely interesting is when attendees get a chance to interrogate the speaker in a Q&A session. It's here that we can understand the reality gap that needs to be bridged by such presentations. When you are dealing with an audience of non-web professionals it's not necessarily easy for them to grasp everything on the first pass.

Next up is Brendan Hughes, the eBusiness Strategy Manager for Vhi Healthcare. After the inevitable technical glitches, he launches with an excerpt from a recent Vhi podcast www.vhi.ie/podcast/ before explaining the thinking behind the group's decision to launch a podcast in July 2006, initially as a 15 minute health programme. Nowadays Vhi broadcasts a weekly 10-minute show.

Hughes manages to put a real world face on all the acronyms and industry terminology, to actually give the audience a practical sense of how podcasting could be used in a marketing context. Using his own site he shows how podcasting creates value by extending the Vhi brand to new audiences. As part of the group's overall web strategy Hughes highlights the fact that 45 percent of the company's new business is done via the web. "The web has proved to be a cost effective way for us to reach our customers whilst reinforcing our brand values."

The Vhi podcast is also a vehicle to cross-promote elements of its website. Ultimately it's given Vhi access to new audiences, particularly young males. It's achieved a top ten position for Irish podcasts in iTunes with 45,000 podcast downloads so far, and provided incremental media coverage as other media outlets report on Vhi and the content of their regular podcast. It manages to generate as Hughes explains, "positive influence on brand perceptions."

The other presenters were Brian Greene from Talking Voices who covered Podcasting, Blogging and Social Media; Marcus O'Doherty, Technology Manager with RTE Publishing who discussed RSS and Podcasting: Meeting Changing Audience Needs; and, lastly, Shauneen Armstrong from Labour Party Press Office and an award winning blogger who covered New Media, New Communications: A Blogging Case Study.

It was both a well presented and well attended event that, despite the odd sound or PowerPoint issue, left those present with a much clearer sense of how they might be able to exploit the latest technologies in the promotion of their own businesses.

You can listen to this event via the IIA's blog page. Or access the MP3 file directly here. If you are interested in finding out more about other courses run by the IIA visit their website.