A podcast, in case you’re not entirely sure, is little more than an audio file posted on either a website or a blog. In some ways, it’s like a radio program on a topic of your choice, except that it’s ready to be listened to whenever you are. In other ways, it may be more comparable to downloading music, except that it’s usually free and offers businesses a unique resource. Another comparison still might be a book on tape, except there’s no cassette or trip to the bookstore. However you want to look at it, what a a course in miracles can do for your business is present relative information for customers and employees in any number of audio forms, including lectures, interviews, talk shows, meetings, sermons – anything that works for your business.
Explore a podcasting directory such as iBizRadio for a short amount of time and you will find that there are innumerable ways businesses and individuals are already utilizing this young technology. Some companies offer tours, others offer training via podcast. Schools provide news and parenting tips while hospitals showcase health programs.
In addition to the variety of formats possible for your particular niche, podcasting also offers a new dimension of information diffusion that can make it easier for your business to establish a deeper connection to its customers than ever before. Teleconference calls, audio newsletters, and lectures delivered via podcast are only a few of the ways businesses are already managing to use podcasting to strengthen and simplify their relationships with their customers. Because the podcast is available at any time, customers are able to listen as they wish on their computer or MP3 player, or even burn it to a CD to listen to in their car or while on a jog.
In this form, your message becomes both portable and time-shifted. Even better, customers can subscribe and get your podcast updates downloaded to their computer automatically, with no additional work from you. While podcasting is a powerful and fresh tool for business, it is also very easy to understand and use, and the software is almost always free. Many podcasters work with nothing more than their computer and a microphone. Low-cost delivery audio messages can be targeted to and tailored for your audience at little or no cost to your business. With the growth of podcasting technology (keep in mind the more than 50 million ipods sold and counting), the potential pool of customers is already enormous, and expanding.