Tricks of the Trade to Help You Get Started with Your Home-brewed Broadcast

Brand awareness methods are always changing, especially with all the uncertainties of a socially distanced world. Sharing your product, service, or brand in a broadcast on social media always helps, but another way of engaging with your clients and customers on an even more personal level is to put yourself out there with a podcast or live-streamed segment.

Live-streaming isn’t the most difficult thing in the world to do, especially when there are live-stream capabilities built into most social media apps. 

Crucial Bits of Webcasting Strategy

But if you’re thinking about starting a podcast or an Internet radio show that will make your voice heard, you are one among many who have begun to broadcast, so here are some tips to put yourself a little bit ahead of the game.

Equipment

In terms of equipment, you’ll need microphones for you and whoever else will be speaking on your broadcast, along with a method for audio input. You can use your laptop’s built-in microphone, but if you’re streaming an audio-only broadcast, your listeners will thank you for using an external microphone to achieve a little bit higher quality. For this you can use a microphone with an XLR cable plugged into an audio interface, or even an XLR to USB cable. Some microphones have an attached cord that plugs directly into USB.

Platform

You also have to choose a platform to live-stream from. Even though most social media platforms allow you to live-stream, it’s important to weigh out the options of each. Most platforms have different parameters, so you should pick the one whose parameters work best for you and your project.

Leverage

Another important tip is to have your streams recorded, and post them in full afterwards to your website or social media. Especially in the early stages, this will help your broadcast to be seen by as many people as possible.

Consistency

When starting off, you need to understand that having a successful broadcast means sticking with it. You may have an established brand with a lot of ground already covered on spreading awareness, but in the fast paced environment of social media and internet brand building, it’s difficult to gain a following in the early stages of a project like this. One of the most important things is to continue with a broadcast regularly, even if your audience is thin.

Auxesys CEO John Swystun has said early on when broadcasting the Internet talk show “Circle One” that,

even if there are only a few people watching the live-stream, the longer he keeps at it, the more he learns and improves. 

If you keep on improving, with your own growth you will often see your podcast audience grow. 

Act As If You Can!

In my time as a host on a Canadian music college radio show, I’m sure that I’ve had my fair share of broadcasts to nobody! However, it didn’t matter if I was talking only to myself or to a dozen people, or even a hundred people! I always conducted my broadcast as if I had an audience, because if even one person was listening, an audience is an audience.