Spent an interesting hour on the phone with publicity guru Joan Stewart, of PublicityHound.com talking about how blogging and podcasting can be a part of your media plan, and am glad to be able to make the audio available for your listening pleasure. The overall program is entitled How to Create a Media Plan for 2008 and the speaker on the call before me was my good friend Don Crowther — you’ll hear him mentioned a couple of times on the call.
Sorry for the tiny player, but here’s the audio content for your listening pleasure (after the jump)…

Lesson #4: Blogging & Podcasting: The Valuable Extras
You will learn:

• How blogging and podcasting can push your message to your target markets
• How to know if blogging or podcasting, or both, are right for you
• Simple steps for starting a blog quickly
• How to find influential bloggers who can spread the word about you
• Time-saving tips for blogging frequently
• How blogs and podcasts can pull journalists from traditional media to you
• Tips for starting your own podcast without turning it into a major chore
• The best way to build relationships with bloggers and podcasters
• Dave’s best advice for using social networking sites to spread your message
• And his tips on how to stay on top of social networking and determine which sites are best for you

For me, the most interesting question we addressed in our discussion was about what you should write about on your blog. It’s one of those questions that experienced bloggers think is obvious, but for neophytes or professionals who are used to the more traditional channels of publicity (e.g., newspapers, press releases, etc), having to write about what your customers care about rather than just what you want to promote is a whole new concept.
Just as much, the idea that you need to get involved with other people’s sites, to add smart comments on other blogs that are already written by industry thought and opinion leaders, seemed like a surprise to Joan and her group. Probably the issue around that is that old one of control: to really use a blog for marketing or commercial purposes is to let go of control and realize that the best you can do is inject your message into the slipstream and hope it won’t be overrun by other, less positive messages.
Anyway, it was a very interesting discussion and I hope you find it a worthwhile listen!
ps: if you want to learn more about Joan’s media planning teleseminar, please check out her sales letter. Looks pretty interesting to me, truth be told!