Meet Colette Vogele, Founder of Vogele & Associates. Jeff Karnes, VP of Marketing and Products for VoloMedia, an ADM founding company, discusses the intellectual property law, including copyright, trademark, and privacy, and how it relates to new media and podcasting. Colette dives into topics such as the DMCA, Creative Commons, downloads vs. streaming, and legal considerations for podcasters.

Colette practices intellectual property law specializing in technology and new media. She represents a range of business, non-profit organizations and individual clients addressing copyright, trademark, privacy, reputation, and security issues. She speaks and writes regularly on issues related to intellectual property, on-line reputation, and the Internet. She holds a non-residential fellowship at Stanford’s Center for Internet & Society and has been featured on numerous on-line programs including the New York Times Tech Talk, CNET Live, and This Week In Law. She is an Editorial Advisory Board member of the Journal for Internet Law, the California Lawyer magazine, and The Conversations Network, and a Board member of INFORUM, a division of the Commonwealth Club of California. She is also a contributing author to the forthcoming 2009 Broadcasting Legal Guide published by the National Association of Broadcasters.

Jeff is the Vice President of Marketing and Products for VoloMedia, Inc, the leading provider of advertising and reporting solutions for downloadable media. Jeff is a digital media veteran with over a decade of experience delivering solutions within the enterprise and direct-to-consumer. Most recently, he held the position of Director for Multimedia Search and Products for Yahoo! where he led the company’s efforts in launching their video portal along with managing video search, audio search, image search, and a podcasting directory. Before then, he led the product and marketing efforts at Virage, a leader and pioneer in video indexing and search. And prior to that, he worked at Cinebase Software (renamed eMotion) leading the product efforts in the category of digital asset management. Jeff holds a BA in Economics and Sociology from Bucknell University and is a board member for the Cinequest Film Institute. 

When the iPhone exploded onto the market, it certainly turned the conversation back to mobile (in a good way) here in the US and even abroad where Europe and Asia are further ahead. It also shifted the focus from the carriers and the concept of ‘on-deck’ towards the devices, many of which are media-enabled and allow users to obtain content directly from whatever sources they choose. Mobile video, just like podcasting, has gone through many phases of interest, buzz, and market projections. Similar to how Napster fueled the online music movement (later won by Apple) and as YouTube propelled online video, it’s quite possible that the iPhone (or media enabled devices) combined with the resurgence of podcasting can push ad-supported, downloadable media into the mainstream. Especially given podcasting’s benefits (e.g. subscription, download, and device readiness), it seems reasonable that these two spaces are likely to enjoy some cross promotion. A terminology post would be useful at some point regarding the best category definition of the media whether it’s downloadable, portable, mobile, on-demand, or some other term.

In June last year, Nielsen published a report on mobile video. Some of the key findings included:

• As of Q1 2008, 91 million (36% of all mobile phone subscribers in the U.S.) owned a video-capable phone. As more subscribers upgrade to phones capable of receiving mobile video, subscription cost, promotion and network speeds will be the primary challenges to the growth of mobile video consumption.

• As of Q1 2008, there were already 13.9 million persons (6% of U.S. mobile subscribers) paying for a mobile video plan, up from 8.4 million (4% of all mobile subscribers) in Q1 2007.

• 4.4 million persons (2% of U.S. mobile subscribers or 31% of those who subscribe to mobile video) report that they watched mobile video with a mobile video subscription.

• In addition, 95 million persons (37% of U.S. mobile subscribers) subscribed to mobile Internet as part of their mobile data plan in Q1 2008, a significant platform for mobile video consumption.

As an industry, connecting podcasting into the mobile discussion can help accelerate the recent eMarketer audience numbers towards a more mainstream conversation (say over 60% of US Internet users as opposed to 17%). This combined with ADM driving the standards and awareness, should fuel a bigger and more efficient advertising market that benefits us all.

Jeff Karnes
VP Marketing and Products
VoloMedia, Inc.

Matthew Snodgrass from ADM and Lippe Taylor interviews both Tim Bourquin of TNC New Media and Rick Calvert of Blog World Expo about the sale of Tim’s New Media Expo to Rick’s Blog World Expo. Separately, the two conventions were delivering a wide array of content and attendees. As the scope of the two shows started to overlap, Tim and Rick realized that the community would be better served by a single – and greater – convention. You can find out more about the combined show at http://www.blogworldexpo.com. We also get Tim and Rick’s thoughts on social media today and the use of it by corporations.

Tim Bourquin is Founder and CEO of TNC New Media, Inc., an online media company that has developed, launched and grown several advertising-supported podcasting sites.  Under Tim’s leadership, TNC New Media has also used podcasting and other forms of new media as a promotional tool for everything from corporate events and tradeshows to product launches.  In 2005, Tim launched the Podcast and New Media Expo, a convention and conference for podcasters and online video creators.  The event, was recently sold to BlogWorld Expo, is held annually and attracts thousands of podcasters who attend to learn how to create compelling shows and grow their audience.

Rick Calvert is the CEO and Co-Founder of BlogWorld & New Media Expo. He has been active the trade show industry since 1998 working on three Tradeshow Week 200 events including the SEMA Show (#4), AWFS®Vegas (#39) and the DEMA Show #(97), as well as one of the nation’s largest consumer shows, Comicon. He has been a voracious new media consumer since 2000, launched his own blog in 2005 and formed BlogWorld & New Media Expo in 2007.

For more information, check out these posts at Blog World Expo:
BlogWorld & New Media Expo Now One Super Huge Event!
BlogWorld Expo Acquires New Media Expo
 

These numbers are extremely close to the Edison numbers on podcasting and certainly validate that study’s conclusion that podcast consumption continues to grow. This is a good study, and a worthy addition to the growing body of credible research out there on the consumption of downloadable media.

The Pew report does draw one conclusion that is likely to draw comments from a number of podcasters, if not outright controversy. With 3% of Americans indicating that they download podcasts “on a typical day” (and 17% of actual podcast consumers claiming the same), the data suggests, as Mary Madden indicates, that “podcasting has yet to become a fixture in the everyday lives of internet users.” One could point to the “300% increase in the daily podcast audience” here, as the headline reads in today’s Podcasting News, and see the glass half full, or one could focus on the number “3″ and be fairly dismissive of podcasting.

The truth, as it generally is, lies in between, and is best summarized just exactly as Madden has written–podcasting has proliferated, but has yet to become a fixture in daily life. The overall consumption numbers from both the Pew and Edison studies (one in five Americans) show that podcasting is becoming important on a national scale–but it isn’t yet a “daily habit.” I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that podcasters don’t really “ask for the order,” a phenomenon I wrote about at length on this very site in an article entitled “Podcasting: The Curse of Convenience.” Because you can listen to a podcast any old time, there is not necessarily a daily urgency to do so. There aren’t many daily shows, for one thing–and I often wait until the end of the week to even sync my portable MP3 player. “Daily” may not even be a reasonable standard–radio is measured on weekly reach (Edison’s data puts podcasting’s weekly reach between 8 and 9 percent) and television is measured on the “show,” both of which are more reasonable standards for podcasting.

Still, the essential conclusion here is correct–podcasting continues to proliferate, but is not yet a daily habit, even for most podcast consumers. The key to reinforcing daily podcast consumption is to reinforce its relevance to the lifestyle and context of the listener–keep teaching your listeners how, when and where to listen to or watch your content.

This year, our third annual Podcast Consumer Revealed report (derived from the 2008 Arbitron/Edison Media Research Internet and Multimedia study) details significant gains in both audio and video podcast consumption. The audience for downloadable media is not only growing, but also represents a very attractive target for advertising. Our national data shows that more than one in five Americans have ever downloaded and watched/listened to a podcast, which breaks down further to 18% of Americans having ever listened to an audio podcast, and 16% having ever watched a video podcast. Those numbers are up sharply from last year’s figures, which were 13% and 11%, respectively. Nine percent of Americans 12+ have listened to an audio podcast in the past month, and those 23 million Americans are affluent, spend lots of time (and money!) online, and are increasingly more difficult to target with interruption advertising.

All of this represents good news for Podcast producers, and I encourage you to download the study and use it wherever you deem helpful. As a part of this release, I listed some implications/recommendations for podcast producers to consider, which I won’t recapitulate here. I will, however, touch on one of the findings of this study, and flip it on its head for a moment. I was unsurprised to see that many podcast consumers were also users of various social networking sites. For instance, about a quarter of Americans who have ever watched or listened to a podcast maintain their own profile page at Myspace. You may also find this data to be unremarkable, especially if you, too, are a relentless “profile-pruner” like I am. One can no doubt conclude from this that social networking sites and services may be an effective means to promote your podcast, especially when everyone “seems” to be on Twitter, Facebook, etc.

Change occurs at the margin, and it would be unwise to ignore the increasing popularity and utility of the various social networking sites. However, as a researcher of that big ole’ middle of the bell curve, I am compelled to add here that this means that the vast majority of podcast users–and of Americans, period–do not maintain social networking profiles. This means that if you confine your marketing and promotional efforts to getting the word out on social networking sites, you are depriving your podcast of a potentially much greater audience. If you produce a podcast on restoring and customizing automobiles, for instance, the number of auto aficionados on Twitter is a rounding error compared to the vast size of this potential affinity group. If you are creating well-written, well-produced quality content on a topic or subject, you have as much right to the big fat middle of the tail as you do the long part, so think big–and market your content accordingly. I would love to see more and more partnerships between mass media broadcasters and independent content producers. You need each other. The ADM’s recent announcements on standards provide a common nomenclature for traditional and new media content providers alike to communicate with each other and with advertisers, so I encourage you to review them and get involved.

We at Edison are very proud of this research series (the main Arbitron/Edison study from which it is derived is now in its 16th iteration) and we hope it helps you in your quest to grab whatever part of that tail you are reaching for. I am happy to answer questions–grab me in Brooklyn (before I slink off to Peter Luger, that is!), contact me at our website, or follow me on Twitter (@webby2001). Good luck!

Tom Webster, VP Strategy and Marketing, Edison Media Research

Becky Hogge from the Open Rights Group lead a meaningful session on how TV regulation threatens to spill over to internet. Dean Whitbread from UKPA moderated a panel on music rights in which speakers from the MCPS-PRS (the UK performing rights organisation representing writers and publishers) and the head of digital for the Association of Independent Music laid out the now more affordable and less rigid schemes designed to give podcasters access to their extensive repertoire of music.

Read more here on UK Podcasters Association website.

While it’s always helpful for an instructor to provide resources to students directly, there are a number of ways for a student to find the resources they need for themselves.  Students can find existing downloadable audio and video content via search engines and podcast directories that better fits their own specific needs beyond the suggestions of the teacher. But these students have the potential to be more than just consumers of new media. One of the most powerful aspects of new media creation is that anyone can produce it.  Savvy students are creating powerful study tools for themselves and others with a minimum of effort and skill.

It is through creativity that higher forms of learning takes place.  Learning progresses along many levels from the early phase of knowledge acquisition and rote memory through basic comprehension and into simple application of learned concepts.  Beyond this the student begins to take their learning and examine it in order to adapt it to new situations.  One great way to do this is through creation of new media that instructs themselves as well as others.

This doesn’t have to be a solo project either.  There are numerous online conferencing tools that allow students in separate geographical locations to collaborate and create a downloadable study guide, recorded from their discussion.  Add to that the ease with which video can be recorded and uploaded and classes can create whole productions centered around their course work.  An online university support network in the making!

Next time, as I wrap up this mini-series on new media in education, I’ll focus on how those who produce and consume new media projects are better prepared to operate in the information age in which we live.

The panel included Nathalie Schwarz from Channel 4, Matt Wells, Head of Audio from Guardian Unlimited, Sarah Prag from the BBC, and noted independent radio / podcast producers Hermeet Chadha and Karen Pearson. The session covered many issues around podcasting, including definition, production values, regulation, culture, expectations of both listeners and viewers, metrics, and the commercial realities of making podcasting pay.

ADM member Dean Whitbread from Talking Voices and the UK Podcasters Association takes part in the question and answer session in part two, talking about video and the Association for Downloadable Media initiative.

This is a two part podcast of the event.

Part One
Part Two

Podcasting requires some specific “best practices” to increase the search exposure of your audio, video and RSS content. Here are five tips that are sure to increase your traffic.

1. Accompany Audio and Video Content with Text

Search engines look at the content of your site to decide which keywords are relevant to your content and which phrases you will be listed for. Currently, search engines such as Google don’t index audio. That means they have no idea what is said in the audio or video files it find on your sit. For this reason it’s extremely important to include text content that can be indexed and listed in search results.

Including “show notes” is one obvious way you can do this. Each episode should have its own post on the blog with a description of the content that includes relevant search keywords. An easy way to get the entire content of each episode indexed is to post a transcript to your site as well. You can find a transcriptionist on Elance or you can also give CastingWords a try.

2. Use Complete and Keyword-Rich Data in Your Feed

Podcast directories such as iTunes and the Zune Marketplace are search engines, too. Including complete and strategic metadata (i.e. information about your show such as the author, title, category, etc.) in your feed increases the exposure you get in these directories. These directories look at the keywords in your title, author and description fields to determine which search phrases to list you for. Choose high volume and strategic search phrases to include in these fields.

3. Use a Blogging Platform to Publish Your Content and Feed

Using a blog to publish your podcast offers numerous promotional advantages. Search engines like indexing and listing blogs because they regularly provide fresh content. Also, the structure blog-based sites (i.e. the link architecture) makes it easy for the search spiders to quickly find and index all of your content. Each piece of content is given its own permanent URL that can be used in the search listings.

Using a blog to publish your podcast not only makes your site more search-engine friendly, it also just makes it easier to publish your feed and maintain your show. The platform that I use for all of my podcasts and those I set up for clients is WordPress.

4. Submit to the Most Popular Podcast and Blog Directories

Submitting your show to be listed in podcast and blog directories offers multiple benefits. First, these are also search engines with “eye balls” looking for new content on a daily basis. Each one is a potential source of new audience members. Second, these directories usually include a link back to your web site. Such backlinks help boost the “authority” of your site (an important criteria for favorable search listing). A link back to your site is like a vote for the quality of the content.

Recently I implemented promotional strategies for a clients brand new podcast. Within a few days they were listed for one of their primary search phrases on the first page of Google not once but four times. Not only did their primary site appear but also their listing in three other podcast directories. This was reinforced by complete, keyword-rich metadata in the feed that used by the directories to create a listing for the show.

5. Use Keywords in Your Post Titles

Getting ranked in the search engines is all about your content being seen as relevant and authoritative for given keywords. You can reinforce the relevancy of your content to a given phrase by using that phrase in specific ways on a page. For example, a search engine will often look at the title and headings when determining which phrases a page is relevant to. Using your targeted keyword phrase in the title of a post/page helps to reinforce the relevancy of that post/page to that phrase.

Conclusion

Regular efforts to search engine optimize your podcast and site will bring significant ROI when it comes to audience growth. SEO should be a regular part of your marketing efforts. There’s a lot more to SEO that is worth looking into, but these five tips will get you well on your way.

What is your experience with podcasting and SEO? Do you have any tips to share?