Did you know that 78% of employees are interested in hearing from company leadership via podcast? To improve internal communications, companies are adopting private podcasts.
The pandemic and working from home have put into view something we always knew: your workforce demands better engagement with its leadership. In response to a growing need to improve internal communications, FieldCast is providing a six-part webinar series, “Launching A Successful Podcast for Your Company.” The series walks business leaders through every step of the podcasting process.
In webinar #3, we focus on “The Art of the Podcast Interview” featuring:
- Ted Canova, FieldCast’s Chief Content Officer, and award-winning journalist
- Ray Suarez, award-winning PBS and NPR journalist
You can view the full webinar replay here. The key takeaways include:
How Do You Develop Interview Questions?
When you’re conducting an interview, preparation is like a security blanket. Having an understanding of your guest and subject matter makes it more likely that you’ll ask revealing, interesting and expository questions. When developing questions and conducting the interview, you should:
- Know something about the guest and subject matter
- Establish rapport
- Create a flow for the guest
When you’ve taken the time to prepare and understand the subject, you will make the guest feel more comfortable and put them in the best spotlight to shine.
What Should You Talk About?
Chances are your company podcast will have a mix of topical information that is super relevant to your employees and evergreen content that will never be dated. This mix is a great way to engage your employees, providing both “need to know” and “nice to know” information to help them always leaning in as a listener. Some of the episodes we see working include:
- Profiling new company products and initiatives
- Tips on how to sell against the competition
- The day in the life of a leader
- The day in the life of a rank-and-file employee
- Diversity and inclusion
Your episodes will also come to life if you use existing audio clips, from branded theme music to pre-existing interviews, employee profiles, and information in your press releases.
How Do You Start and Finish the Interview?
As the saying goes, “content is king” but so is the person you choose as your podcast host. The choice may be obvious, but we recommend you consider someone who at first blush you would never think of. Your company has natural communicators walking the halls who can be highly engaging to the listener. Whoever you choose, here are some key attributes to look for in a host
- Highly curious
- Will learn along with the listener
- Takes ownership of the podcast series
- Leverages potential guests in her/his network
Choosing the right guests will also make or break your podcast series. Consider interviewing:
- Top leadership
- Department heads
- Employees who have overcome the odds to succeed
- Innovators within your company
- Diverse voices
This is part of a special six-part webinar series where you’ll discover best practices for building a company podcast. Part three on “The Art of Interviewing” features Ray Suarez, award-winning journalist and a host and producer with FieldCast. To get notified of upcoming webinars, join our email list here.