The Otter Group has been making quite some waves recently with their RSS Networks for Learning and their e-learning podcasts, which they are using as part of their marketing mix.

In addition, they recently published an excellent report on using podcasting for learning, certainly worth a look.

I was very happy to have had the opportunity to do an e-mail interview with them, which is published in full below ...

1. It seems your podcast is generating quite a business impact, so we have to wonder how you are promoting it?

We did very little promotion beyond mentioning the podcast on our website (http://www.ottergroup.com) which at that time was serving 21,000 unique sites per month. We also listed the podcast in the directories and posted the feed on Itunes the first week that Itunes opened up their store to podcasts. Subscription to the podcast has grown over the last few months. It has really been an example of viral marketing. And publishing the paper has helped draw attention to the podcast series. Last week's podcast on "making the first offer" was downloaded 528 times from Itunes and 535 times directly from the blog that hosts the series: http://www.negotiationtip.com/blog

2. What kind of subscriber growth are you seeing?

Here is a compilation of our podcast subscriptions over time and by topic:

May
392 views

June
691 views

July (so far)
448 views

breakdown
110 views of the Salary Negotiation podcast
71 Negotiation Tip: "Negotiating Styles" 6/14/05
61 Negotiating Tip Podcast: "Psychological Traps" 6/30/05
59 Negotiation Tip: "Art of Questioning" 6/6/05
54 Negotiation Tip Podcast: "Managing Assumptions" 6/21/05
52 Negotiation Tip: "Dealing with Difficult People" 5/26/05
39 Negotiation Tip: "Empathy" 5/19/05
38 Negotiation Tip: "Approaches to Negotiating" 4/5/05
37 Negotiation Tip: "Being Assertive" 5/12/05
30 Negotiation Tip: "Understanding Alternatives" 5/5/05
24 Negotiating Tip Podcast: "The Split the Difference Swindle"

As I mentioned, the last podcast has had over 1,000 downloads in one week. So our subscription rates are clearly going up dramatically.

More detailed and most recent statistics are available at our site.

3. How is podcasting impacting your business?

Podcasting has been helpful to our business in a number of ways. We come from the world of e-learning program development and management and we have shifted our production strategy to finding very low cost ways of producing and distributing learning materials. Podcasting is a perfect example of our new production model. And we are waiting for the rumored upgrade in the next version of Apple's I-life that will allow us to include graphics and video to our podcast streams.

Our new business strategy is to use RSS to build continuous learning networks for organizations. Podcasts from one new channel for learning and are well suited to certain types of training. In the negotiating tips podcast we are using the public podcast for one of our clients as a means of extending a formal learning program on conflict resolution. We are planning new podcasts on topics such as hedge funds and investing that will also fit this public/private model.

We believe podcasting has driven new traffic to our web site, which has been dramatically increasing over the past five months of our podcasting series. In September we had a total of 48,000 distinct hosts served. In April before we started podcasting, we had only 21,000 hosts served. I believe this traffic correlates with interest in our podcast series.

4. Do you perhaps have some practical advice for podcasters?

I think our paper is full of very good advice on how to think about podcasting. I would say that the most important thing is to make podcasts that are interesting. We are fortunate in working with Josh Weiss who is at the Program on Negotiation at Harvard. His content is great and worth listening to and revisiting. I find myself listening to the podcasts on my airplane trips. I negotiate all the time and I know these tactics well, but I always find something new and interesting in the podcasts?even those I have heard before.

From the paper, there are a few basic things that every podcaster should keep in mind:

Description. Always include a brief description and a title for your podcast so people can find it in the podcast directories and scan for relevant content.

Brevity. Podcasts work best when they are short and to the point. We recommend limiting the length of a podcast to two to four minutes. Or, create a shorter and longer version of the same topic.

Publish only high quality audio. Podcast listeners expect clear, semi-professional audio. With many inexpensive or free audio editing and recording tools, high quality audio recording is within reach of even the smallest budget.

Publish regularly. Weekly or bi-monthly? be consistent and let listeners know when you will be away. Josh advises: "if you are going to do a weekly podcast, you should have a lot of material in 'mental storage.' When you get people to tune in regularly, you create an expectation that something will be coming each and every week."

Keep it free and open. Keep some or all of your podcast open to the general public. Sharing knowledge with the public can help raise your company's profile as a leader and innovator in your industry.

Hit the directories. Make sure your podcast is easy to find. People should be able to easily access your podcast, either through your company portal, website, RSS, or desktop program. iPodder and iTunes are free podcast aggregators that can be downloaded on a work or home computer. E-mailing a link to the podcast (or the podcast itself) is also a great way to deliver podcasts.

Use consistent/persistent notifications. Use a combination of technologies to inform your listeners about your podcast. Introduce the podcast on your company portal, weblog, and through email.