German Chancellor Angela Merkel is doing it. So are the ministers of Russian President Vladimir Putin. And soon, experts say, every self-respecting corporate executive will be joining them.
Podcasting, which involves the distribution of personalized audio or video clips over the Internet to computers, laptops or digital audio players such as iPods, is becoming a new medium of communication in the corporate world. It's being used to replace internal memos, blogs, e-mails and even trade shows. The up-and-coming technology is cost-efficient -- in some cases, it requires little more than a microphone and a computer. And, as a marketing tool, it holds the potential of reaching a young and savvy audience, experts say.
Big names such as International Business Machines Corp. and General Motors Corp. are among the first to embrace the new medium for business communication. Last month, podcasting spread to international politics when Ms. Merkel and Mr. Putin's government resorted to the technology to spread their political views.
Podcasting is also trickling down to smaller players. Ron Clark, vice-president of sales at Oakville, Ont.-based Altana Pharma Inc., starts his monthly address to his team of 120 sales representatives with a prerecorded Tragically Hip tune.
Then, he records himself talking to guests -- including the company's chief executive officer -- about such serious topics as the company financials and new sales programs. He posts the MP3 file dubbed "Ron's podcast" on the company's intranet site. His employees, spread out from Prince Edward Island to British Columbia, can download the file and listen to it on their way to work, in the car, on their iPods or on their computers.
"Most people tune out of e-mails and voice-mails after a while," Mr. Clark said. Podcasting, he added, "is just a different way, a fresh way, of communicating a message."
This year, some law firms have also jumped on the podcasting bandwagon. The Bay Street firm Torys LLP is producing videos that feature lawyers expounding on topics such as mergers and acquisitions.
Nobody could have predicted all this in the summer of 2004, when a former MTV Networks Inc. disc jockey fiddled with Apple Computer Inc.'s scripting program to create the world's first podcast. The medium went beyond simply posting an MP3 file on a website, as it enabled subscribers to receive automatic file updates whenever there was new content from a source they liked, through a process known as Really Simple Syndication, or RSS.
But the technology still has some hurdles to clear before it spreads into every nook and cranny of the corporate world, said Nathan Rudyk, president of Ottawa-based Market2world Communications Inc. Microsoft Corp.'s Explorer browser, workhorse of 80 per cent of Internet users worldwide, requires a special plug-in to read RSS feeds. This makes podcasting the pet of early adopters for now, he pointed out.
Not so later this year, though, when an updated version of Explorer with a built-in RSS reader is scheduled to hit the shelves. "That is going to be the gigantic lever" that pushes podcasting into mainstream use, Mr. Rudyk said.
Some are already swearing by podcasts. Robert Scoble, Microsoft's infamous corporate blogger, has bet his future on it. Last month, Mr. Scoble quit Microsoft and was set to move into his new office at Podtech.net, a Silicon Valley-based podcast producer.
Mention the words podcast and fad in the same phrase, and you'll hear Mr. Scoble's voice rise a notch. "Anybody who says it's a fad who works in a corporation should be fired. They should be fired!"
At HarperCollins Canada Ltd., the marketing team is taking the essence of that message to heart. This month, the book distributor is set to kick off a bi-monthly podcast that will have hip authors like Gautam Malkani and Rebecca Godfrey read excerpts of their books to an iPod-toting audience.
Meanwhile, in Denver, the editor of a Web-based mining newsletter has devised an innovative way to bring companies the exposure of trade shows without the hefty bill. Last February, more than 1,000 investors, industry analysts and curious Web surfers tuned in to the podcast of three Canadian silver mining companies.
That exceeds the average numbers of visitors who stop by a trade show booth, said Peter Spina, owner of the Web-based newsletter SilverSeek.com, which hosted the show. The costs for the virtual conference and the podcast was around $2,000, well below the $15,000 it costs to mount a single booth, Mr. Spina said.
In its expansion, the technology has even reached such old-fashioned figures as Santa Claus. Since December, 2005, Saint Nick has been communicating with kids through a podcast produced by Toronto-based Five Star Experience Corp., a gift-giving service.
"We decided to make Santa as real as possible," said Todd Hustins, the co-creator of the podcast. "Podcasting is just the natural evolution of communication."
