Doing Podcast & YouTube Live

I gave a presentation to my colleagues at a conference of the PA State System of Higher Education, held  at Slippery Rock University.  Ron Wilshire, PR director at Clarion University and I decided that I would do a live interview, record it, edit it, lay a music bed under it, mix and post the podcast. 

While I spoke and did the editing, Ron videotaped it.  He posted both the  podcast and the video to YouTube. The goal was to show the audience –PR and publication directors—how easy it is.  I know for most of my readers here this is elementary stuff, but it was new to everyone in the audience.  Ron and I wanted to dissolve the intimidation factor and encourage them to try out the new media. 

It went well.  Lots of questions.  I was surprised that most were not familiar with RSS, Web 2.0, FTP and other basics.  A few had never listened to a podcast.  About half had an iPod.

After Ron and  I took a lot of the mystery out of the media,  I think – I hope — many will go back and try it.  I think the real selling point was assuring them that it’s not time consuming.  At Mansfield University,  I conduct the interview, then turn it over to a student who does the editing and mixing.  I give it one last check and we upload it.  If it’s a 20- minute interview,  I invest maybe 30 minutes in it.  The students are the key.

One person did ask a question that’s kind of a hot button for me:  How do you track results to justify what you’re doing?  I’ll answer this and ask for help in an upcoming posting.

Needless to say, I came home from the two-day conference exhausted, but feeling like I’d pulled in a few more converts to the world of podcasting , video and Web 2.0.

 

And here’s a story about reality.

I left lunch early to set up because when you’re dealing with technology, something is guaranteed to go wrong.    I connected my  Peavey PV8 mixer, Heil mics, two miniature monitors and my Dell laptop, only to find Cool Edit wasn’t recording.  I realized with horror that I had used the Dell for basic editing and playback but never for recording!  Panicked, I played with the “preferences”  settings which I hadn’t  touched in two years, and finally succeeded in getting sound levels. 

At  that moment, another guy entered the room and started setting up. I had an uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach.  “Are you presenting in here?”  I asked.  He said yes.  Just then an IT person who I’d requested, came in and said I was presenting in the next room. 

I yanked everything apart, ran up to the next room, reconnected and realized there were going to be too many people to see one computer screen.  The IT guy bailed me out by hooking me up to a big screen and the room sound system.  I finished with three minutes to spare.   

Thanks, Slippery Rock IT guys! 

Note to myself:  next time make a comprehensive check list.

 

15 Minutes of Fame? How About Forever!

I mentioned in the last blog what my big plan is to continue with my oral history experiment.

(Please note the last word. For PR and Marketing people this is The Age of the Experiment. Everything we do with the new media, with Web 2.0 is an experiment. We are in perpetual beta. Footnote everything with: “Subject to Change.”)

It occurred to me that if the old cassette tape interviews were gold, and they are, then why are we not mining more gold?

So, I’m assembling a band of students, staff and freelancers and preparing them for our Alumni Weekend. We’ll descend upon our returning alumni like low-key locusts armed with digital audio recorders, video cameras and still cameras.

We’ll interview the hell out of them.

And they will enjoy it. They’re the easiest audience in the world. If they didn’t love the school, they wouldn’t be returning to Alumni Weekend. Part of the reason they return is to share memories and stories.

I’ll come up with an outline of questions for the students so we’re consistent with all the interviewees, but I’m pretty sure once they start talking, the interviewer can just set back and let the digital equipment do all the work.

The secret here is that I don’t want to dig too deep. I want whatever comes to them – the friends, the way of life during their time here, what they did for entertainment, what the food was like (if they haven’t blocked it out), favorite professors, pranks, athletic games.

We do, by the way, have an alumna coming who just celebrated her 101^st birthday.

I’m looking to haul back as much oral gold as I found with the old cassettes. I’d like to interview at least 20 alumni. If they talk for an hour, we’ll break the shows up into 20 minute segments and end up with 60 shows.

Why do it? Well, if you’re in alumni or fund raising, you’ve got a whole bunch of happy alumni. If you’re in public relations, you have more people adding to the history of your institution.

The 70s-80s interviews are being downloaded everyday across the country and 10 different countries around the world. So as the word gets around to the alumni’s family, friends, other alumni, local historians and others, these interviews will be popular as well.

The message to these alumni is this: You’re important to us. You’re important enough that we want to listen to you, record you and post it to our website where your story, told by you, will live forever.

Give it some thought for your school. I know you’re stretched thin. Everyone is.

You don’t need one more project. No one does.

But this project will outlive us by generations.

Resurrecting the Dead

This year  Mansfield University is celebrating its sesquicentennial anniversary. “Sesquicentennial” is a hard word to remember, to spell and to pronounce.  I don’t like it at all but it comes only every 150 years, so I’m stuck with it.

Two years ago, while beginning some research, our janitor/volunteer historian (another story in itself, one that made The Chronicle of Higher Education) found a box of cassette tapes in the library archives.  They contained interviews a history professor conducted with older alumni and college officials in 1973.

One of the women interviewed was the grand daughter of one of the university founders.

When another retired history prof heard about this, he loaned a box of cassettes containing interviews he did in 1987.

We had a gold mine.  Altogether there were about 45 tapes.  I bought some software ($20) to convert analog to digital and set two students on the project.

It took all of last summer. 

When they were digitized, we began the process of editing them.  I gave the students a template and let them write and record the intros and outros. We mixed in music beds, under just the intro and outro.  I wanted to leave the interview as close to the original as possible.

At the end of every interview we make it a point to say that the interviews are not copyrighted and we encourage others to use them in their research or projects. 

The shows certainly aren’t studio quality.  These are interviews done with a cassette recorder using the internal mic in a variety of environments.  But nobody minds. 

Again, the content reigns.

We’ve been posting them gradually over the year on our sesquicentennial website as oral history.

The interviews have been amazingly popular.  We’ve been getting calls from around the country.  The primary sentiment is appreciation to us for making them available. 

Just about all the people in the interviews are long gone.  But thanks to the technology, they’re alive again for an hour, telling their unique stories in their own words.

I share this because I’m sure many you have such treasures in your archives. 

These are tapes that were heard by virtually no one for three decades.  Now people all over the country are listening to them.  All of us understand the benefits in terms of community and alumni relations, and fund raising.

Aside from the software and work study students, it cost nothing.

I think I’ve mentioned in a previous post that podcasting is quickly morphing as new uses are found. 

Keeping the dead alive is one more morph.

 Next post:  Keeping the alive alive—our next project.

 

Note:  Thanks to Karine Joly for featuring my new experiment in compelling stories, and the Mozart interview.  I hope you check it out and comment.  Karine rightly pointed out that we didn’t include a call to action at the end.  It’s kind of like typos in the headline.  It’s so big you just don’t look at it —until it’s printed. . . .

I’ll keep the advice in mind with future videos. 

Mozart and CASE Currents

The first in my experimental video recruiting series, “Compelling Stories” is posted on YouTube.  Mozart Gerrier definitely is compelling.

On the PR side, I’ll keep you posted on reaction.  I’d also like yours.

On the technical side the file size was too large for YouTube’s restrictions. We had a choice of cutting out the opening interview and just using the performance or compressing it with less quality.  Normally I go for quality but in this case I felt that the interview added a whole new dimension to the student as artist and person.

If anyone has any tips on compression I’d appreciate hearing from you.

*            *            *

My thanks to Patricia Quigley of Rowan University and the editors of Currents, the CASE monthly, for including this blog in its “Calendar Pearls,” an “abridged list of resources for PR pros.”  Readers  apparently took it to heart because I had a pretty significant spike when it appeared.

A few others who were highlighted included Karine Joly,  Steve Rubel, and Dan Kennedy.

YouTube, Karine & Mozart

In response to my YouTube post, Karine Joly wrote, in part:

And, how about doing a video that will target the young women and their daughters by using their brothers or sons as carriers. If you can get the guys interested enough to look at the video and share it with the women in their life you might achieve your goals.

I started to respond several times and quit. If YouTube users are young guys looking for humor and gross stuff, would Karine’s idea work? My first response was “no.”

Then I realized I’m doing exactly what she suggested. In previous posts, I’ve talked about the importance of storytelling. I also talked about doing a series of “compelling stories” with students, faculty and staff. Well, we’re doing just that. The first in the series is with Mozart Guerrier, a black Philadelphia native of Haitian descent. Mozart majors in psychology and writes some pretty powerful street poetry. In the video he talks about poetry and performs one hard-hitting piece that’s absolutely riveting.

I also did a second interview with him for an audio podcast, which is posted in two parts: Mozart and the Power of the Spoken Word.

 

(Let me note here that I’m not doing this to promote the shows. I’ve said from the beginning that I’m exploring, experimenting and sharing—ups, downs and everything in between.)

The “compelling” series is interesting in the sense that audio podcasts and video are different in nature, rhythm, length and interview technique. I’ve been giving thought to the quick exchanges Director Tom and I have had about This American Life’s entrance into the world of television.

We’ll be uploading the video to YouTube (and to Karine), early next week. It could take off. It could flop. Or it could be just another one of the millions of videos floating around the vast cyber land of YouTube.

I’ll let you know.

 

YouTube Wrong Channel?

I had a conversation with the editor of our student newspaper the other day.  She’s a PR major and we talked about ways of recruiting high school students.  I mentioned YouTube.  She shrugged.  “I don’t know much about it.  I almost never use it.”

 “I thought everyone used it,” I said.

 She shook her head.  “People our age go to it for humor and dumb videos.  Guys use it mainly.”

 So I brought up the subject with Eden, my student who coproduces our podcasts with me. 

 She’s a chemistry major. 

 “Do you use YouTube?”

 She shook her head, and said, (I swear):  “People my age mostly go to it for humor and dumb stuff.  I don’t know many girls who use it.  It’s mainly a guy thing.” 

Responses?  Eerily similar. 

 It makes me wonder if YouTube is overrated as a medium for recruiting. 

 I’ve mentioned in previous posts that my primary target audience in recruiting is mothers of high school age students.  My secondary audience is female high school juniors and seniors.  Sounds like I’m not going to get even close to getting my message to them through YouTube unless I do something drastically different than posting  TV spots.

 I do have a couple productions we’re working on now that are different than the usual commercial fare. 

But. . .

 Now I’m wondering, if the majority of people in the high school/college age group is using YouTube for dumb humor, can the site ever be viable for serious recruiting? 

YouTube is huge, but like all other huge things on the Web, its huge because it’s composed of millions of fragments. 

 I know I said with the podcasting that we have a niche and niches on an international scale can be big, but YouTube is different.  Unless you’re riding in the tiny speck of fortunate virals, how do you get people to search you out and watch you?  Then, videos don’t have links.  So the viewer has to remember, say, Mansfield University and search out our site.

Anyone else have the same feeling?  Has anyone had success with YouTube as an advertising or recruiting vehicle? 

 I’d really like to hear ideas.   

Podcasting Boom or Bust Part 3

The third and biggest surprise about our Mansfield University Podcast is not the international audience.  We’re regularly downloaded in about 30 different countries.  No, the biggest surprise is our Chinese audience.  I started noticing China on my Traffic Facts a little more than a year ago.  The audience size was soon 10 % of all our traffic.

This grew to 15 %, then 20% and on.  Today, 48% of our total audience is from China.  The figures surprised our provost, who is working to develop agreements with Chinese universities (which he started before the audience there grew). 

A psychology prof friend speculated that maybe schools are using it to learn English.  A marketing professor, new on campus, comes from China.  His take is that it holds the largest population in the world.  The economy is booming.  The Chinese are very interested in the U.S., especially higher education which, he says, is much better than the Chinese higher ed system. 

Our IT department folks caution that a lot of hackers are in China and they may be a part of the figures. 

I don’t know.  Maybe all of them are right.
If the trend continues, China will soon comprise the majority of our audience.  How do I use this to our advantage?  I mentioned doing something special for our Chinese audience to Eden, my student producer, but she, in her youthful wisdom, said no.  If our podcast is popular, it’s because of what we’re doing right now.

How do I and the admissions director turn listeners into inquiries?  Are the listeners even students?  Since I don’t get feedback, I have no way of knowing the demographic composition. 

I’ll take any ideas or suggestions.

*   *   *

Podcasting took a sort of back seat when video iTunes hit the scene, followed by the exploding popularity of YouTube.

Obviously, from what I’ve detailed here, there is an audience for audio podcasts, especially if shows are interesting, compelling and human. 

I know other colleagues chose not to try it, or dropped it and went on to other things.

I’m sticking with it. I have no facts to show that it has done much in the way of recruiting or marketing. 

All I have is a loyal and steadily growing international audience.

That counts for a lot in a small, rural university in north central Pennsylvania.

It’s a niche audience, but in a global village, niches can be pretty big.

Comments and thoughts, as always, are welcome.

Podcasting Boom or Bust Part 2

In my last post I said I would provide information on where Mansfield University is at with podcasting and what effect the medium has had on recruiting and promotion.I’ve been surprised with some of my findings.  First, while I had been the studying national and international stats,  I was surprised to find that we have a large local audience on campus.  I didn’t realize it until my student producer, Eden, (who has her own show in addition to being one of the students I’ve interviewed regularly since their freshman year) casually said something about students relaying information about her. 

“You mean Mansfield students?”

“Oh, yeah, I have people coming up to me all the time and relating something about my life that they heard on the podcast.  A lot of times I forgot I said it and wonder how they knew that about me.  I get it all the time.”

Does that help recruiting?  Probably not. 

Is it good internal PR?  Absolutely.

Does it help personalize a campus to an international audience?

Yes.

The second surprise is something I knew but see it reinforced everyday:  there is no chronological time on the web.  “The New Testament Chronicles,” posted in February 2006, still occasionally shows up in the Top 10 downloads.  “The Summer That Changed Her Life,” continues to be downloaded nearly a year later.  The latter show has prompted me to do two things.  The first is to create compelling headlines.  The second is to start a series of shows interviewing students with compelling stories.

I’ve talked in previous posts about the importance of storytelling and the importance of dealing with emotions.  I’m putting my money where my advice is.

These shows will still be playing long after I’m gone because most (by design) are timeless.  There will always be a scared freshman.  There will always be a person whose life was changed by a chance event or another person.  There will always be surprises, twists and turns, humor and hope.

  These things never age.

An average week produces 3,000-3,500 unique views or downloads.  It’s remained fairly steady and I would say we’re hitting a plateau, but I’m not sure.  “On Making Movies”  and “Filming America’s Most Wanted,” both of which are nearly a year old, are still being downloaded.  That tells me we’re continuing to attract new listeners. 

People find us by searches, by accident and by word-of-mouth.

I don’t like long blogs, so I’ll save the third and biggest surprise for the next post.

Podcast Boom or Bust?

This is a three-part tale of university podcasting .

I was in on it close to the beginning. We posted our first podcast show October 18, 2005.

We received a lot of publicity. A lot. It was a PR person’s dream. We received coverage with two Associated Press stories. We were mentioned in a ton of roundup articles. Our program was the subject of feature stories in several magazines. Bloggers around the world picked up on it.

I was in early enough to claim the title Mansfield University Podcast so if you do a search for university podcast, we come up #3 out of nearly 42 million sites.

2006 was the “year of podcasting.” It was everywhere in the media. It was cute, exotic, hi-tech and human. It also answered every male’s (and quite a few females) dream of having his or her own radio show.

2006 ended with podcasting as the “word of the year.” Yes, it was over-hyped but what the hell, this is America. Then the hype died quickly, as it does when it’s been overdone (except in the cases of Tom Cruise, Angelina Jolie and Nicole Smith).

It’s still part of the media landscape. Commercial network websites have podcasts and vidcasts. NPR has podcasts of shows. Faculty have adopted it across the country. Podcasting has morphed it into numerous useful shapes.

Now the publicity ride is over.

A few months ago CollegeWebEditor editor Karine Joly asked where we were on podcasting a year after her first interview with me. I responded, but her question has been with me ever since.

Just where are we with podcasting and what effect has it had on recruiting and general publicity.

I have some answers. And some of them may surprise you.

I’m now shaping that information for my next post.