I’ve been working a faculty library podcast for the previous 5 years. It’s been lots of enjoyable and I’ve actually loved serving to to create it. The college students are actually concerned with it and have taken it to entire new ranges. I’m hoping to share some recommendation, issues I’ve discovered, and issues which have labored and haven’t labored. I hope you discover this convenient in beginning your individual podcast in your library!
Give Teens Control
It will be straightforward to take over and “meddle” for lack of a greater time period, and I totally agree that it’s best to have lots of say and act because the supervisor of the podcast. But for probably the most half, it’s best to give teenagers management. In our podcast, the scholars created the title (Booklings Chat), the intro music utilizing their very own devices, and recorded the intro and outro. They additionally made their very own art work to make use of as promotion for the podcast. I really like that this present is a hundred percent pupil made and operated.
I totally advocate giving them this sort of management as it will likely be lots of enjoyable and lets them know that they personal this podcast. I additionally strongly encourage them to give you all of their very own materials, though I undoubtedly help after I can.
Have a Theme and Focus
Our theme is clearly books however what its important focus is interviewing authors. We are very fortunate that we will have some authors go to the college all year long. We take full benefit of them coming in and at all times ask if we will take 20 minutes of their time for the scholars to interview them. Of course, this doesn’t must be your theme. It may very well be present occasions or occasions across the faculty or one thing else college students concerned are obsessed with. It will likely be extra enjoyable and simpler to digest you probably have a theme that runs by way of every episode. This will take some planning and dialogue along with your teenagers, college students, or library customers.
Create a Schedule
This will be difficult in each public and faculty libraries as a result of persons are busy and many various things come up on a regular basis. However, creating no less than a unfastened schedule along with your teenagers may also help an amazing deal and guarantee they take the podcast extra severely. It can even provide you with and the teenagers one thing to look ahead to doing.
We don’t have a strict schedule as a result of writer visits aren’t on a schedule however that doesn’t imply you possibly can schedule yours each two weeks and even simply as soon as a month if that works. Consistency is vital and also you’ll have a greater product due to it.
Find Equipment and a Good Hosting Site
You don’t want a lot to start out a podcast; you should utilize one thing as easy a telephone. My recommendation is to make use of a laptop computer and obtain Audacity. It’s free and intuitive to make use of. I believe Audacity appears sophisticated if you first open it but it surely’s not onerous to determine in any respect. If you open Audacity, join a headset, click on file, you’ve acquired your self a podcast.
There are additionally seemingly lots of of various internet hosting websites on the market. I strongly recommend Buzzsprout for ease of use. Other websites like Captivate and Transistor are additionally extremely beneficial. All three supply free internet hosting up to a degree. If you’re often importing podcasts, there will likely be a value concerned in all of them so that’s one thing you’ll want to think about.
One cause why I like to recommend Buzzsprout a lot is as a result of it’s straightforward to make use of. The web site means that you can add, edit, and schedule your reveals in minutes. Buzzsprout additionally offers tons of recommendation and knowledge on the right way to make your podcast simpler they usually provide you with step-by-step recommendation on the right way to get the present listed on iTunes and different directories.
Promote It
Whether you’re in a public or faculty library, there are many methods to advertise your podcast and get individuals excited. In each kinds of libraries, you possibly can create e-book shows along with your podcasts brand or art work surrounded by books which might be associated to radio, broadcasting, or podcasting, or books which might be associated to your theme. For instance, we’ve created a show that incorporates the books by authors we’ve interviewed. It’s an effective way to get the phrase on the market.
If your library makes use of social media, you possibly can create your individual Twitter or Instagram and even TikTook channel particularly to your podcast. This is a very talked-about approach to get extra listeners. Another means is to create art work on a free graphic design program like Canva and place a quote from a current episode after which publish this on social media.
Have Fun
Lastly, it’s necessary that you’ve enjoyable along with your podcast. This looks as if it ought to go with out saying, however in case you and the teenagers aren’t having enjoyable then you definitely’ll want to determine why that is.
If you develop an excellent theme, discover a good internet hosting web site, and recruit enthusiastic teenagers, you should have an amazing podcast.
Discussion about this post