Best practices to follow before starting your own internal podcast

Podcasts have become a worldwide phenomenon. Everybody is rushing to join the bandwagon, considering the immense benefits it adds to prospective listeners.

Global corporations too have realized the importance of an internal podcast and have started to use them as a means to connect with their employees.

Companies have realized that with the pandemic, especially, a large part of their workforce working from home feels disconnected from their colleagues and the management team. This is resulting in the company culture getting impacted.

Internal podcasting has become one of the ways that companies are changing this dynamic and using the medium to rebuild connections with their teams.

As more and more companies start to develop their own internal podcasts, it’s become essential to understand some best practices when it comes to launching an internal podcast. There are a few questions that you need to ask to make sure that you’re on track to create a successful internal podcast project.

Planning the episodes in advance

One of the many pitfalls that organizations come across while starting an internal podcast is the lack of episode planning. They have intentions to get the podcast started, and they may even have a content strategy behind how the podcast is going to go, but often they’ll find themselves in a situation where they don’t have the guests, or the talent lined up for the podcast episodes that they’re planning.

Before venturing out, you would need to create an editorial calendar geared towards your objectives. Choose your guests wisely and make sure they speak to the point. 

Quite often, the biggest expert might not be the best speaker. You should have a clear roadmap regarding your first half dozen or so episodes. What’s the topic? Who are the guests? How will you publicize the episodes within the organization? You may also need to educate your employees about how they can access and listen to the show.

Start with a limited series

While starting new, this could be an option you could tinker around with, before going any further. If you are not ready to commit to a regular weekly or bi-weekly podcast, consider producing a limited series.

This is a relatively safer option because it’s a smaller commitment. You could consider it as a pilot project, but to the employees, it’s a limited series of six, eight, or maybe ten episodes on a particular topic. If everything goes according to plan, you can continue to produce further limited series, or decide to call it a weekly show and commit to that schedule.

Find your target audience

Who is the audience that you’re actually trying to serve? This might seem like a simple question to ask, but is an important point before you start your own internal podcast. 

For example, once the leadership team becomes involved, episodes that were just about one message can become a platform for the leaders to discuss whatever is important to them at the time, which is why defining the target audience and sticking to that audience is vital to the success of the podcast. A few questions to consider when developing your target audience demographic are the following:

• If the podcast is intended for the entire company, how does the information from the podcast benefit employees directly?
• What is the true purpose of this podcast? Is it for training, information, or infotainment?
• Is the podcast being made to create a better reach out to a specific targeted demographic within the company?

Depending on the type of employees you’re trying to reach, will determine how you will create the stories and whom you’ll ultimately have on the podcast.

Ensure it’s employee centric

No internal podcast would be complete without the voices of employees. You need to ensure that your internal podcast is not seen solely as a platform where only the management gets to speak. 

You would need to take care to share the opinions and insights of employees, their concerns, and topics covering their general welfare.

If you say your podcast will present interesting interviews, be sure you’re not boring employees to the point that they lose interest completely. Stick to the schedules diligently and ensure that the podcasts go out regularly as decided. 

For example, if you describe your podcast as being published every Monday morning, stick to the schedule. It’s all right to recalibrate your podcast as long as you keep your listeners informed.

Plan the distribution

Distribution is vital for companies that are planning an internal podcast because there are some costs and considerations involved with bringing in third-party software or services into their environments. 

There are security concerns, and vendor approval processes that honestly more podcast hosting companies aren’t prepared to deal with or aren’t equipped to handle.

Hypecast provides you with the best platform to start your own internal podcast, free of worry and completely safe. You could easily create content for your teams, B2B clients, and business partners. Access is safe and secure and readily available anytime from anywhere without any hassles.

Conclusion

Before deciding on a platform and how your company will distribute your internal podcasts here are a few things to keep in mind.

• It is imperative that the podcasting partner you select can work with your company’s IT team to get the podcast distributed in a way that’s both easy to consume and secure.
• You need to choose a vendor that understands the procurement process, dealing with government regulations (if needed), and how to speak with the C-Suite is crucial for your podcast to be successful.
• Pay close attention to their onboarding process and how they work with your staff to get them ready to manage all aspects of producing a podcast.

Internal podcasts can be an amazing experience for your company and could be used to deliver so much value to your employees, if implemented correctly and with a well-developed strategy. 

At Hypecast, we understand this and partner with corporates and entrepreneurs to put systems in place, which would help you create a world-class internal podcast of your own. One that your employees can relate to, and resonate with. 

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