Episode Summary
At this point most companies understand what a branded podcast is And marketers are starting to learn how to use a podcast as a foundation for a lot of great content for both prospects & customers
But your normal publicly-accessible podcast is typically used as a way to grow your audience How can your business gain a competitive advantage with an internal podcast
In this episode Tristan Pelligrino speaks with Craig Hewitt the Founder of Castos Castos is a podcasting platform that helps podcasters grow their audience and offer exclusive content through public or private podcasts
During the conversation the two uncover the difference between a public podcast and a private podcastand discuss how a private podcast can help build a stronger workplace culture and bridge the gap between marketing and sales teams
Guest Profile
Name: Craig Hewitt
What he does: Craig is the founder of Castos a podcasting platform that helps podcasters grow their audience through public podcasts or offer exclusive content through private podcasts
Company: Castos
Noteworthy: Craig is also the founder of PodcastMotor a company that used to build and optimize podcast feeds
Key Insights
- Public podcasts grow the audience Private podcasts offer exclusive content Craig distinguishes between private and public podcasting pointing out the uses of each You can use podcasting as a marketing tool to grow your brand And then you can use private podcasting as a way to share information with a select group of people
- Private podcasts are the step away experience for teams Craig believes that companies that share private podcasts internally with their teams can provide them with an outstanding learning experience beyond the usual internal communications We do private podcasts for companies wanting to share information internally with their teams And the term they use is the step away experience They say I want my employees not to have to be on another freaking zoom call read another eight-page memo or a blog post or attend a webinar a live stream or whatever garbage that were all doing I want them to be able to consume this piece of content
- Private podcasting for teams can be informal and intimate According to Craig private podcasts can create a meaningful connection within teams and companies especially since COVID hit and companies started to work remotely I am very casual talking with our team And I know Matt from our team has the internal podcast for our academy members He flips the mic on and doesnt edit it Its five minutes and its raw and casual And thats how it should be I think that private podcasting even for teams can be really informal and intimate and create this connection within the company
- Private podcasting is a concept that hip companies are just gettingand other companies arent even aware of
Episode Highlights
CASTOS DIVING INTO THE WORLD OF PRIVATE PODCASTING
The concept of private podcasting got into vogue about this time last year with the pandemic People were saying I have all this stuff I want to do with people And I cant see them in person And so we saw the opportunity to say We do this You can manage who has access to your content And it turns out that it has been interesting for a lot of different kinds of applications and personas from a business perspective
People are loving what were offering and its fulfilling a big need for them The core of what we do hasnt changed conventional podcasts hosting WordPress integrations etc Were layering on top of that this focus and the ability for folks to manage private podcasts on the platform
AUDIO IS THE RIGHT PIECE OF CONTENT FOR TEAMS COMPANIES
Audio is the right medium for this piece of content that we want to create But thats not always the case There are things where the video is absolutely the way that you should do this There are things where written content an internal blog post an email or a memo is the right thing to do
But when youre walking the dog or when youre working out or some people are commuting again you can tune into this and catch up on this And so companies are giving their employees the ability to consume the right piece of content in the right format and the right way
B2B COMPANIES CAN USE PRIVATE PODCASTING INTERNALLY WITH THEIR TEAMS
Podcasts are like sales enablement information to help sales teams operate better Weve seen a lot around diversity and inclusion from HR and communication teams internally talking about initiatives within companies that they want to share with people
If theres a way you want to communicate with your team and anything you want to talk to them about theres no wrong answer here If audio is the right medium for it then it fits in this box well
WITH INTERNAL PODCASTING PRIVACY IS THE BIGGEST CONSIDERATION
I think that some of the biggest considerations with private podcasting are privacy Who from a company has access to this How do we know its secure How do we know that Bob cant go share the private feed on Reddit
But theres no way around it Someone could not share that feed with someone outside of the company The app is super secure The files are streamed only Theyre not downloaded So someone cant go and share it and email it to someone else We at Castos do that intentionally
CAN PODCASTING HELP WITH THE HIRING PROCESS
Were hiring for a few different roles right now and the place of the podcast comes in We talk to customers and prospects about podcasts all the time If you want to know if Im the right person to work with or you would like to work with me check out my podcast
I have 85 episodes talking about what I think about this topic How I act who we are and everything And I send that to people who apply for roles with us now So they apply for jobs with us and so we do screening and interviewing And at some point I send it to them and say Hey heres my podcast And heres our audience podcast Take a look and listen to both of these to see if you think that we are the kind of person you want to work with
THE FUTURE RELEASES BY CASTOS
We are releasing the opportunity for audience members to participate in a conversation But before that there will be the ability for our customers to charge money for their content right on the platform
Private podcasting right now needs to integrate with a membership tool like Zapier API And were building all that in the platform to where you can say Go to myshowcastoscompremium put your email address and sign up Its ten bucks a month to get the awesome content that I dont put up publicly And that is coming in the next couple of months
