Now more than ever, companies are eagerly embracing private podcasting. A successful podcast program can be used to slash to-dos and costs for web enablement, remote learning, excessive intranet or training systems, operating costs for businesses and much more.

Although creating a private podcast for your enterprise is easier than it might seem, there are still items to keep in mind to ensure it is successful within your workforce. Here are the 6 things necessary to create a successful private podcast for your enterprise.

Multi-Tier Security Capabilities

In order to create a successful private podcast for your enterprise, you need to be confident that your business messages stay secure. uStudio goes beyond the password protection that many of our competitors offer, to protect the embedded media players, as well as the stream itself, to ensure private podcasts are only playable when initialized inside of the location for which they were intended. Businesses can quickly authenticate users using SSO (or other authentication protocols) and restrict access by departments, seniority, location, and more to make sure content is effectively targeted and always remains in the correct hands.

Detailed Analytics 

As with any technology or communication medium you implement in your workforce, you’ll want to measure how it is performing. Private podcasting is no different. It’s important to observe how your employees are consuming and reacting to your podcast so that you can realize if changes need to be made within your content, thus making it as successful as it can be.  Are you promoting your program well enough to bring in new active users? Did listeners share or download a particular episode? Analytics can give you answers to these questions and more. uStudio offers basic listening data, named-user data, adoption data, engagement data and live streaming data to make sure all of your bases are covered.

A Content and Promotional Plan

Promotion of your private podcast is one of the most important steps to audience engagement and is key for it to be successful within your enterprise. If your employees don’t know the podcast exists, how are they going to listen? The good news is: it’s much easier than you might think. From leveraging internal champions within your business to embedding share links there are many ways to promote your private podcasts to your employees. A promotional calendar can be a nice tool to plan out your promotions and remind you to frequently boost your content.

Programming your podcasts is a chinch. Podcasts can simply slot into your overall training or communication calendar next to the content you are already producing for your company. Adding podcasts to your strategy will greatly amplify your messaging reach, frequency and engagement.

Consistency is also important for your private podcast to be successful. Think about your favorite podcast show - you’re pretty bummed when producers randomly take a break with no notice and the show comes to a halt, right? A predictable show frequency and length is a great way to establish listener expectations and habits. When your audience knows exactly when to expect the next podcast episode, they will be more inclined to tune in and listen in a timely manner.

Here at uStudio, our best practice is to have the first 3 months of content planned by the time your podcast is launched. We recommend launching your podcast episode within a particular show in a consistent frequency, day and time. You can download our templates for your own planning purposes here.

Engaging Content and Platform Capabilities

It’s no surprise that engaging content is essential for a successful podcast. While creating content can be quite daunting at first, we have found that once you push through any initial concern, it can be quite simple and straightforward to deliver engaging content your audience will get tremendous value from. Consider if you have any pre-existing assets that can be converted into a podcast episode. uStudio customers also have great success interviewing employees and company leaders via private podcast episodes.

uStudio’s platform offers video podcasting and live audio podcasting capabilities that many of our competitors do not, to help make your content engaging and successful. With live audio podcasting, shows are broadcasted live to your audience through uStudio’s private application who is listening as you are recording your audio. Live audio lets you move fast, removing the friction that recording sessions or live in-person events create.

Video podcasting is great for enterprise training purposes to show PowerPoints and hands on demonstrations. Gestures and body language are also helpful for getting your emotions across and developing a stronger relationship between listener and host. And if you are pushing your employees to consume your content via desktop, video podcasting could be the way to go. Although when it comes to choosing the right format for your organization’s private podcast, there is no “one size fits all'' solution and it is dependent on what your goals are for your program.

A Strong End User Experience

Your podcast adoption rate will depend largely on your end-user experience. To create a successful private podcast for your enterprise it’s important to opt for a true podcasting provider with an intuitive interface. Your employee’s podcasting experience with uStudio will be very similar to consumer podcasting players they already know and love, like Apple Podcasts or Spotify. With no new habits to learn, the ease of our technology supports employee adoption. To create a successful private podcast for your enterprise, you need to follow a subscription-based program so that no effort is needed for your listeners to find appropriate content.

uStudio’s grouping and audience segmentation features allows private podcast admins to restrict access and produce personalized material to different pillars within your organization. The private podcast end user will feel more in control and more important, as they have podcast content that’s just for them. All changes to podcast shows and episodes are automatically updated across all users’ applications, no matter the device.

Leadership Support

In many cases, your private podcast will not be successful unless it has the support to grow within your enterprise. One of the best ways to push your podcast program is leverage communication and support within your leadership. Your employees will listen to their direct boss more than most other groups within the company - that is why it is important for them to promote your podcast content within their teams. When it comes to asking for leadership support, make sure to include the value that the podcasts will provide their team and why it’s something many companies are investing in.

Creating a successful private podcast for your enterprise is a lot easier than it might seem, especially when you opt for an expert platform that offers free educational resources to help you grow.