Do You Really Need a Podcast?
Hey, what’s up? I’m Samir from Colin and Samir, and today I’m going to answer the question, do you really need a podcast? Podcasting is a medium for storytelling that is on the rise. I’m sure if you’re watching this video, you either listen to podcasts or have heard of some of your favorite creators who have launched their own podcast. Podcasting just seems to be like something that everyone is talking about.
What makes podcasting unique?
The thing that makes podcasting so unique is that it’s based in passive consumption. Now, what that means is that people can be listening to podcasts while they’re doing something else. A lot of times people listen to podcasts while they drive, do the dishes, walk the dog, get groceries, and that makes podcasting really unique. When you watch a video or scroll Instagram, you kind of have to have all of your attention on your phone or your computer or wherever you’re watching that, but when you have your headphones in and you’re listening to a podcast, you can be doing something else. That makes podcasting really dynamic.
Podcasts range in length and format. There’s conversational podcasts, there’s interview podcasts, and now we’re also starting to see scripted podcasts as well as documentary style podcasting. The audiences for podcasts are typically willing to invest more time in the content than otherwise. Podcasts a lot of times are in the 20 to 60 minute range. When compared to YouTube videos, which are often under 10 minutes or Instagram posts which are like 60 seconds. It’s a lot of time that a podcast audience member is investing in listening to you and because of the raw nature of podcasts and how long they typically are, you can develop a much more intimate relationship with your audience.
How to use podcasts for storytelling
So how do we use podcasts? We actually have a weekly podcast that we upload and we use it to bring the audience behind the scenes and give them a raw look at the ups and downs of pursuing our creative career. Now because our podcasts are conversational, there’s pretty minimal effort on the post production side. It takes a lot less time than making a YouTube video, which allows us to be really consistent and upload weekly. And we also find that the conversational nature of our podcast brings out the most authentic versions of ourselves. From a production standpoint, podcasting is a lot lower lift than making videos. Either you can use microphones or you could actually record audio directly into your phone. You don’t need lights, you don’t need a camera, and you can kind of do it from anywhere. Podcasting is really great for long form storytelling conversations, interviews with guests, and it’s a really affordable low lift way for you to tell your story.
Now, what it’s not great for is visual storytelling. If you have something that’s really visually engaging that you want to tell your audience, it’s a little bit harder to do that on a podcast. It’s also not that great for discovery. It’s a lot harder for people to just organically discover a brand new podcast. So to answer the question, do you really need a podcast? Well, I think the first question to answer is what would be the goal of your podcast? Do you want to develop a more intimate relationship with your audience? Or maybe you want to interview people in your industry. You could also use podcasting as a medium to test a new format that you eventually want to make into video.
Why you need a podcast
Podcasting is definitely something that’s here to stay. So if you are interested in making a podcast, there’s never been a better time than now. You don’t need that much equipment to get started and give it a try. So we hope that answered your questions about podcasting. If you have more questions, you can comment below and make sure to subscribe to the StoryBlocks YouTube channel.
