Podcasts can engage you, your volunteers & your donors

By Rose Reinert
Guest blogger
Any time you can increase engagement with volunteers and donors it is a win. Today, we will continue down the path of reading Lon Safko’s book “The Social Media Bible” and review chapter nine. We will dicsuss a common tool you can use to uniquely engage, education and develop board members and volunteers.
A few weeks ago I presented blogs, and talked about how blogs could be used both for personal development as well as provide engagement opportunities for donors and volunteers. In this next chapter, Safko covers utilizing podcasts as a marketing tool. Again, here is a tool that can both benefit you in your professional development and utilized to cover topics to engage your volunteers or donors.
Creating a podcast is pretty simple. Follow these steps to create the best product:

1. Planning
2. Recording
3. Editing
4. Publishing

These steps are pretty obvious and easy to follow. Because of the growing popularity of podcasts, it is often included in various software publishing wizards. You can also utilize tools like Liberated Syndication to publish your podcast.
Sometimes you don’t have to reinvent the wheel and you can utilize current podcasts to share with your donors, volunteers and board members. Below are some great resources to start exploring.
Fundraising is Beautiful – This resource is dedicated to donor engagement and donor centered approaches to fundraising.
Grant Whisperer – This radio show features grant writing tips, secrets and strategies for raising funds for your organization.
Board Star –This resource offers numerous podcasts and articles for board members and executive leadership.
These are just a few possibilities to explore. I encourage you to find more that are relevant to you, and please share your favorites using the comment box below!
Additionally, please consider how you could use a podcast to engage donors, train volunteers or board members. Share those ideas, too.
How have you utilized podcasts?  What are the biggest opportunities or challenges you see in using podcasts?
Oh by the way, Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day everyone. In addition to some volunteer work, I hope everyone takes a moment to reflect upon how social media and podcasting might have impacted Dr. King’s message (both good or not-so-good). I just think it is a fun thing to contemplate on a day like today.