…by Suzanne Falter Barnes

So podcasts have been around for a few years now, and I\’m only just now fully appreciating their power. Why? Because I\’ve discovered the perfect way to use them … and I\’m excited to share it!

Here\’s how to make sure your podcast really builds platform for you.

Determine a persona that breaks you out from the ranks. It could be a professional niche, or in my case, a fictitious character with a message. (See www.serenityhawkfire.com)

Set up a blog that you can house the podcast on, and get some basic recording software set up on your computer. (Resources below.)

Set up an event that builds energy around the blog. Serenity is doing a show in Long Beach, CA, on October 28 – her parody of a New Age workshop. (Of course, you\’ll want to keep the podcast going after your event … so keep drumming up events!)

Do something to push that event that\’s out of the box. In Serenity\’s case, she\’s obsessing over how to get Christopher Guest to attend her show/workshop. (She feels karmically linked to him and has felt herself have out of body experiences with Guest after seeing his films.) My intention here is to do something outlandish to get people chuckling, talking, etc … to drum up a following really, really fast. So one thing I might do is talk to people on the podcast about how they can help her connect with Christopher Guest.

Find authors you can interview. It\’s free to set up a request for leads on www.profnet.com — they now have a category for ‘Others\’ who are not journalists or publicity professionals. That would probably be us, right? Bloggers and podcasters are part of that mix.

I put out my podcast request and have gotten about twenty leads in the last week, five of which I have booked. It\’s really amazing what shows up.

Interview these folks – and who knows? You may make friends, find mutual connections or points of interest. They could even potentially become joint venture partners. I interviewed Jennifer Louden oh so long ago, and for the past seven years, we\’ve been leading one of my most successful annual events, The Taos Writer\’s Spa. Don\’t EXPECT a connection, of course, but stay open. You never know what could happen!

Timesaving tip: Offer free calls on a regular basis with experts and other pundits that your list might be interested in. Then cut a small excerpt out of that call and post it on your podcast.

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Suzanne Falter-Barns\’ website at http://www.getknownnow.com/ offers tips and tools that help you build your platform and get known as an expert in your field. Sign up for her free ezine, Expert Status, and receive her free get started guide, “The Platform Jump Starter Kit.” And get regular, easy platform tips at her blog, http://www.getknownnowblog.com/

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