Public Relations Emphasis
Project Summary
My project was a podcast created from scratch by me giving advice on how to date or advice on how to feel more comfortable about getting back into dating. I picked this project because I’ve always really enjoyed podcasts so having the opportunity to create my own was exciting. I also picked it because my emphasis is public relations. Podcasts are vehicles for companies to reach their public easier and even offer more content for them. They can also target niche audiences and make more connections in their line of business through podcasts. They can network through podcasts as well by inviting guests onto their podcasts or being a guest on somebody else’s. Having the knowledge to build something like this from the ground up can be very beneficial for the future in the tools to help companies grow.
The Idea
The idea came from feeling a little lost when it came to dating while at college. I feel like I would have loved to have something like this to lean on and find some kind of guidance. I want to offer that help to somebody else. From the break-up to the first date. I had my wonderful roommate who helped record and is my co-host. We offer advice on these subjects with a few of our own stories mixed in there as we both have some interesting stories to tell considering what we’ve experienced while attending BYUI. At some point, if given the opportunity we would love to have other people tell their experiences and tragedies of dating at BYUI. I knew that if I wanted to do this and run with it I was going to have to be willing to put in the work to offer actual sound advice rather than some silly little dating anecdotes. This is an important topic and I was gonna treat it as such.
The Beginning
I started building the project by setting up all accounts on all platforms I knew would be effective. I used anchor for my podcast streaming platform because from there I was able to distribute it to quite a few other streaming platforms. I got the podcast up on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and Google Podcasts. The most used was Spotify as Anchor is the Spotify platform for podcasters. I think I only had one or two listeners on Apple and I don’t think I had the audience for the other platforms. I then created a youtube channel so that people could have the video aspect of the podcast if they wanted. Some people really like that option because they like seeing how the people talking interact. After all of that was up and running I created a blog to funnel the episodes too so more people could access them and find some more information. This is where the Spotify audio would post and I would embed the Youtube link and post any resources we used in the podcast.
Social Media
Social Media was another story but it always is. Originally I decided that I would just post on Instagram as consistently as I could and try to drive traffic to the podcast. I made a plan to post two reels and two normal posts for every podcast made. I would also post about the podcast on my main account and post the link to Spotify on my story. After a bit of time, I expanded to Pinterest because when you make posts there you can attach a link to every post so if they clicked on the pin it would direct them to the website and what I made to post on Instagram could be repurposed for Pinterest. The reason I did not use Facebook is that the audience I was trying to attract typically isn’t on Facebook which would be college students around my age. Facebook I learned is great to find groups of other podcasters and if this project continues I would love to use it to my advantage. All of my social media posts were created on Canva and I used Headliner to create the Instagram Reels because pulled the audio from the posted episodes and found clips to turn into a reel.
Recording the Podcast
Due to our crazy schedule, my roommate and I trying to find a studio or professional setting to record served to be quite difficult. We opted to get a microphone that would connect to my phone and record it in the comfort of our bedroom. I also liked this because, to the people watching on Youtube, it would have a more homey feeling. I wanted it to feel like you were in the room with us having a conversation. I created a small intro to put into every podcast and we had a little outro sequence as well to make every episode uniform in that aspect. I also aimed to keep them around 45 mins each because that was what the internet said was best time-wise, I also researched a bit and created a very loose outline for each episode, and had an article on my laptop that coincided with every episode. After the recording, I edited it and got it posted within the next couple of days. Each episode was edited on Adobe Premiere Pro.
Setbacks
While this was a wildly fun podcast it was not without its setbacks and struggles as all projects are. I struggled a lot with getting the audio right on all the podcasts because I got Bluetooth mics to use but they couldn’t handle the sound of Grace and me talking so it felt like I was back to square one. I realized a while back I had purchased a mic that connected to my phone and pulled that out to see if it was better and it was. The other issues I found came with trying to export the videos from Premiere Pro. I had one podcast that exported and was 3 hours long. It wasn’t something I noticed until someone who was listening said something to me. It went the length of the Podcast and then was just blank for 2 and a half hours. The other issue I found is on one of my episodes the audio cut off at the 30 min mark after I exported it and had to re-upload it on Youtube because I didn’t catch it at first. I think that editing and quality control are important it’s also important to have a quality control check after uploading because while it takes more time I could’ve caught the problems sooner. Lastly, trying to grow my instagram proved to be a lot of work. I haven’t figured out a way to grow my instagram consistently. I’ve talked to some people to try and find ways to and the biggest suggestion was trying to get on somebody else’s podcast to grow connections that way. In the future, I know how I can better improve my project and help collaborate with other people on a project like this.
This project was so fun and an amazing experience. I learned a lot that will be vital in my field of Public Relations. Podcasting is just another form of media to help connect with customers and potential clients. Having the knowledge and skills how to produce and post a podcast is a unique skill I can bring into other jobs.
The full extended work of my project can be accessed here