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I just wanted to share three awesome radio show podcasts you need to subscribe to and consume.  I have been listening especially to the unedited recordings that are podcast exclusives of On Being with the visionary radio host, Krista Tippett.  The one I consumed last night at the gym was an unedited interview with Scott Atran.

Today, I have been listening to The Splendid Table with Lynne Rossetto Kasper and produced with the help of foodie Sally Swift. They also have a book out together I think I will check out today titled The Splendid Table’s How to Eat Supper because they had a short-lived eponymous podcast I discovered on iTunes. I boiled eggs and also made a fluffy omelet after listening to these short instructional podcasts.

I have been learning so much not only about cooking but also about ingredients and culture choices and variations of recipes and how diverse food and food preparation is.

Finally, I am sure you’re already listening to Fresh Air with Terry Gross.  I can’t throw the radio show or the podcast into Foodie or Spiritual but more along the lines of general culture interest.  Not simply highbrow interviews with historically-important jazz men or explorations into books and so forth, but there is a lot of broader culture.

The thing I love the most about all three women in all three of these radio programs is that they’re inexorably linked to their personality.  None of them try to remain detached or objective.  They all three get wiggly about their guests or topics or their favorite thinkers, meals, or movies.

Terry Gross acted like a blushing little school girl when she interviewed Russell Brand, who charmed her and made her giggle — and she has such a funny little laugh.  And that is good, and that is authentic to me, especially in the case of the unedited recordings that Krista Tippett generously shares to the point of really give us, the audience, a lovely insight into how these shows are produced.

[Guest post by Stevie Wilson of the LA Story blog] If you aren’t familiar with me, this is Stevie Wilson and I post very intermittant posts here and on Marketing Conversation.com .

Chris Abraham has been on my blog many times–both in podcast and in reference (where have you been?). If you read this blog you know that Chris Abraham, attends– and speaks at– many major social media events and conferences. He’s an interesting person to know because he’s a multi-dimensional person with an inquisitive mind and lots of interests. If you want to know about the posts on my blog, head over there and do a search on my blog or head over to www.chrisabraham.com or marketingconversation.com and search for my posts there. This might be a bit redundant for this blog but hang with me people, it gets better!

Chris Abraham (looking pretty dapper here and he was dressed pretty much like this the night we had dinner)

Before we get into the podcast, you need a bit of back story. I interviewed Chris Abraham at least 3 years ago– about a statement he made about his life. (Like I said, it’s a podcast, hunt it down in my blog or his). I was able to connect to him and he was willing to talk to me and so began a series of irregular podcasts and contributions to blogs that sort of created a friendship of sorts. Given the range of topics, we have no problems laughing at each other’s jokes or finding out that we both like to do target practice. Yet during all this time, I had never met Chris. The only way I had seen him was his photos or if he was in a video–really– in at least 3 years.

So as Chris Abraham made this sojourn across the country, making pit-stops in all kinds of places (and being stuck in ice storms), we eventually put together a “meet-up” and when all was worked out, we met at the Beechwood Restaurant in Venice. Not the easiest place to find for an Angeleno who doesn’t know Venice but so much easier for someone from out of the area — he beat me there because I got lost and circled the area twice! Patient man that he is, he recognized me as I can flying in the restaurant door and we headed out to the patio for dinner — and to get me a cocktail.

We ordered up some appetizers– and this man has a taste for the exotic and I went with it. Great idea too! Fried edamame, fried spicy chickpeas (YUM!) and some sashimi type fish.

This podcast was done LIVE in a busy restaurant. I have tried to amplify and clean up the sound but parts might be a bit faint so turn up the volume or plug in a headset and turn up the volume. It is very very funny. We had a diverse range of topics to talk about.

We did order dinner– and you will hear it in the podcast along with 2 people who were sitting next to us. The person who mentions Steve Martin’s book is the wife and the man talking about dying his hair red is the husband.. and they were interesting people–VERY interesting people.

Here’s my dinner– and me! Photo by Chris Abraham.

(sparkly eyes thanks to the Jack and Jill cocktail and a lot of laughte. Recipe at the end. )

I didn’t take a photo of Chris because he was back-lit and he would have either been dark with a halo (hmmm Chris does that mean you are an angel in disguise?) or I would have/should have used my flash and then worked it a bit in photoshop! Why didn’t I ? I thought it would stop the flow of conversation and the people on the other side were listening to our conversation too. I guess we were pretty interesting or we were having a better time than them.

Beechwood Jack and Jill Cocktail

• Lairds Applejack
• Pomegranate Syrup
• Fresh Lemon Juice
• Orange Bitters

Served on the rocks, topped with Prosecco.
Yummy drink and the Prosecco adds just the right amount of fizz.

Thankyou to Chris Abraham for being willing to podcast in that environment. I think he may not remember all that was said. I certainly didn’t. Also the couple next to us were very chatty and very funny. Thanks to Chris for dinner too.. he was willing to fight me for the bill. So I deferred to his better judgement as he is over 6 feet tall and I am about 5’3″. We both have the similar taste in cars– fast, German and BMW are 3 key words. What they will be next year.. could be entirely different.

Chris Abraham has left LA now and headed north. So by the time he sees this I am not sure where he will be. However maybe, if we are very lucky, he will head back down into LA and I can corral him into another podcast about social media topics or affects or whatever topic he chooses. “The princessification of girls” is on facebook and his blog.

Thanks again Chris. It was really fun. Hope we can have coffee or show you something other than Venice as part of a tour of LA. I think you would like to see more of So. California.

Stevie Wilson, LA-Story.com

I have done everything to do with podcasting except for having a podcast.  I would say I am as close to an expert in podcasting as anyone can be without a stitch of practical experience.  I have been listening to podcasts for well over five years and know all the major podcasters.  I attend as many podcamps as I can.  I have even been blogging for 12 years and yet I have never started a podcast.  “Why,” you ask?  Well, because podcasting is really really hard.

It has been such a challenge to be persistent enough to maintain both Because the Medium is the Message and Marketing Conversation.  To keep up-to-date with what’s going on, being au courant, relevant, and interesting.  That’s hard enough. Recording audio or video, synchronizing with a co-host, making technology work, making sound work, learning the recording, editing and compression strategies necessary to compete with more professional podcasts, and then being persistent, consistent, amusing, reliable, and worthy of a Very Large Download approaching 50-100 megabytes.

I listen to No Agenda religiously as well as Adam Curry‘s Daily Source Code when I can.  I also listen to Shel Holtz‘s FIR as much as I can and used to listen to many more — but it is also hard to spend and dedicate the time listening.

I believe that podcasts are going the way of the blog.  As I wrote in The Blog is Dead — Now’s the Best Time to Start Blogging!, most of the fair weather bloggers have given up because even blogging is hard. Especially when you do it alone. Now, Marketing Conversation is becoming much more effective and popular these days, but that’s because we’re blogging as a team — we’re collaborating.

Podcasting is sort of a little like radio — people listen to their favorite personalities.  I guess you could have different hosts and run Coast to Coast AM post Art Bell and have a stable of hosts, but then there is the challenge of organizing more than just yourself, wooking multiple people to commit what can be a grueling schedule of keeping, maintaining, editing, uploading, and marketing a podcast.

What’s more, podcasts are a little dangerous.  The more successful a podcast becomes, the more people download and the chance that you will incur lots and lots of bandwidth overage charge.

What’s more, casually monetizing podcasts is impossible. With this blog, I can post annoying Google AdSense / AdWord ads all over the place and make a couple cups of coffee back and help underwrite the hosting.  For Podcasts, however, the only advertising that you can do is either reading ads into your podcast that one or more sponsors have given you — thus, you have to spend lots of time finding sponsors and advertisers — or you can ask for pledges the way Adam Curry and John C. Dvorak — and NPR — does, sending people to a pledge or donations page.

That said, God bless everyone who goes through that ringer.  I guess I would surely participate in a podcast as long as someone else did all the editing, all the pre- and post-production, all the uploading, all the hosting, all the fees, and took care of all of the advertising stock.  Then, I would be more than happy to saunter in and be the face, be the voice.

So, until someone offers me that, I will just listen.  I listen via my iPad, via my iPhone, via my Blackberry using an awesome app called Podcasts — and it is surely worth the $3.99 fee as you can download password-protected podcasts like Streamlink offers — and also I love using the built in Nokia podcast software on my aging-but-still-awesome Nokia N95.

Anyway, happy new years and I don’t know really why I wrote this.  Maybe because I was listening to some podcasts this AM and, for a second, I was contemplating it, especially as I unpacked my trusty ZOOM H2, until I stopped, reconsidered, and said, “no way, man, podcasting is too hard!”

God bless you merry podcasters of the world!

Only had a late-night two hours from 9pm-11pm tonight, Tuesday. Listened to some No Agenda and some Coast-to-Coast AM on podcast while trying to walk as fast as I wanted.  Night was cool and I enjoyed the walk. Via Jockular Athletic Blog

This is the second year I have traveled hundreds of miles to attend PodCamp Ohio, this year in its second year because PodCamp Ohio is a true unconference with a real spirit of collaboration, sharing, engagement, and cross-pollination.

Another thing I love about PodCast Ohio is that there are loads of newbies who are at 101-level and they’re not afraid or laughed at. Chris Brogan and Christopher Penn should be mighty proud at how exemplary this unconference is.

Remind me to save my pennies to work on having Abraham Harrison become a sponsor of PodCamp Ohio 3 — remind me and hold me to it!

Last night there was a lovely get-together at Baja S?l last night for dinner and drinks and tonight there will be another dinner and drinks get-together for everyone!

I just think that I am a wanna-be Midwesterner, then. Last year, the conference was held at ITT Technical Institute last year but this year it is being held at the home of the Buckeyes — what a gorgeous campus.

In fact, after lunch, I walked out into the quad and laid down in the sun and spend a happy half-hour dozing in the sun amongst the students under a hearty breeze. So, I am pretty blissed out right now.

Since I am blogging via PostBot via my Android G1, I am just going to continue gushing for now. When I get back to my PC I will make a point of reporting more accurately on some of the content and link you up and hook you up with all of the poop and the 411.

Come listen to Stevie Wilson and me talk about the economy, buying, spurring the economy, being gauche, and being economical — especially, when it comes to DC and LA — come listen to us spout and if I piss you off, poke me with a sharp stick, Why Do You Need to Spend Money? Recession-Buster Chris Abraham Chats Up LA-Story.com

Talking to Chris Abraham is always an interesting conversation. It’s part serious, part giggles and part free-falling imagination.

This is part one of a series of podcasts that started out as a series of IM’s about the economy and spending money. It was right after Obama was talking about people should resume spending money because that will help regenerate the economy. (It is a statement of fact. I have done my fair share in the past few weeks— though not always for things I really wanted. Four tires later, she sighs.)

We decided it needed to be a podcast with a loose theme on the economy, recession and about spending money. That’s what it started out to be— and then we segued into other related topics and then into vaguely related topics. About an hour later, we pretty well solved the world problems as well as a fashion dilemma or two.

Now if you find this dreadfully boring — and it’s not— wait for podcast # 2. It’s much better and by # 3 — wow.. It’s popping!

See ya!

Stevie Wilson

A few weeks ago, Ray Welling reached out to me to see if I would like to be interviewed in a podcast on the topic of online conversation marketing.  Well, it came to pass and it is really quite amusing and Mr. Welling did a brilliant job of making me sound good and authoritative.  Ray, thank you very much for your interest.  Please hurry off and visit the HotHouse Blog!

HotHouse content director Ray Welling talks to Chris Abraham, president and COO of online consultants Abraham Harrison, based in Washington and Berlin. Chris is a leading expert in online public relations with a focus on blogger outreach, blogger engagement, and Internet reputation management.  An international pioneer in online social networks and publishing, he works as an Internet analyst, web strategy consultant and advisor to firms across the globe. He specializes in web 2.0 technologies, such as online collaboration, blogging, and consumer generated media.

Chris talks about the ins and outs of social media marketing, which he calls “online conversation marketing”, and why good gardeners make good social media marketers. Listen to the podcast below.

Back in 08/13/2008, Phillip Rhoades and I shared a quick podcast which is quite amusing to listen to — check it out: Download audio file

A little interview to sharpen my teeth. Chris Abraham tells us about Berlin. The cute Romanian girl. Being almost tri-coastal. And a few other random things. He even answers my three favorite questions. :)

If you Google the name of our President and COO, “Chris Abraham“, you will see what it means to dominate the search engine results and own a position as an expert in a field.  We can do the same for your key staff.

Methods: Blogs — Yours & Others: Dominating the Online Space as an Expert & Generous Contributor. We will get your blog infrastructure and your content production policy established. This involves installation, set-up, and design of the blog software. To drive SEO it is important to get the relevant social bookmarking, ping server, etc. accounts and plug-ins set up and installed.

To further drive SEO, a powerful additional methodology is to mirror your blog content across multiple other blogs on highly-ranked blog hosting sites like blogspot, wordpress.com, etc., or under additional aggregation blogs you may set up under your own domain names.  This process will be automated at the outset and run without human effort thereafter.

Blog Content Creation Policy
We will help your team get the blogging policy right, following best practices in line with the informational guidelines of your company.   There is a clear culture of blogging and respecting and adhering to its norms and expectations will make the difference between you being welcomed as a respected contributor and being mocked as a soulless corporate shill (or an embarrassment and danger to your company).

It is essential to have a clear policy for your company’s bloggers, particularly in terms of outlining and reserving their freedoms as writers.  With a clear understanding by the blogger and by the company of what freedoms are allowed, you avoid cramping, overly-careful, stuffy-sounding, self-censoring while also avoiding cringe-inducing embarrassments of inappropriate disclosure and language.

Blog Content Creation System
The best system of content creation is to have the key staff members whose reputations are to be built writing the blog content themselves — that leads to the most honest, transparent, and bi-directionally informative information exchange. However, sometimes those key staff members simply don’t have the time, inclination, or writing talent to create that content.  In that case a content creation system and methodology must be put in place:

• Hiring or assigning professional bloggers or staffers with good writing abilities to produce the content under their names or
• Establishing a ghost-writing system where topics are suggested (by the writer or the key staffer), concept outline given by key staffer, posting written by the professional writer, posting edited and approved by key staffer, posting proofed by editor (optional), and article posted.

If this route is taken, there are workflow blog softwares that can be put in place and set up to manage this process.

Appearing on Others’ Blogs
By generously contributing to the community via bloggers in your spaces, you can get broad coverage and enjoy the implicit (or explicit) endorsement of these influencers.  We would help you get these content contribution requests by executing a Blogger Outreach. This is done by:

• Giving of yourself in the form of interviews, etc.
• Interviews are excellent relationship-builders that give you direct, personal access to the bloggers and builds up a connection for the future.  Interviews can be given via:
  • Email
  • Chat
  • Phone
  • Podcast (voice)
  • Vlog (video — either onsite or via video VOIP)

This list is by order of “live-ness” of the interview with email being very asynchronous, allowing time to reflect and gather info and Vlog interviews being very live.

Guest blogging by the key staff
Guest blogging is very warmly welcomed since it gives bloggers good content that they don’t have to write themselves, and it makes them look good because they are being honored as a valued platform.

Being a guest blogger gives you coverage on another site, increasing the number of locations you are appearing while giving you total control over your message and while driving your SEO by adding link-backs. Additionally, you get the implicit (or explicit) endorsement of the blogger in front of his readership.

It is important to be writing interesting, engaging content as a guest blogger and avoid presenting something that sounds like a callow pitch.

If the key staff member is not interested or capable of doing the guest blogging, then the ghostwriting approach outlined above can be followed

Podcasting and Vlogging (video blogging)
Podcasting is very much like blogging, but in audio format.  While it is not as SEO-friendly as text-based blogging, it has a stronger “star-quality” effect, as the listeners develop a stronger human connection to the podcaster.    The lower SEO-friendliness can be counteracted by posting transcripts of the podcast along with the podcast itself.

It can be done very simply, but generally it is good to have quality raw audio, a polished intro and outro, and good tone balancing so that the podcast sounds somewhat professional and is auditorily a pleasure to listen to.

We can guide your staff in setting up the recording mechanisms, get your intro/outro composed, and have the raw audio balanced and cut into a finished podcast.

It is also good to have clear, interesting concepts to speak about and an effective style of delivery.  It’s easy to be boring or irritating.

While the ghostwriting approach outlined above can be followed, much more responsibility lies on the key staff member who is recording, since it is a very “live” experience — you cannot read a pre-written article and come across as a compelling Podcaster.

The staff of Abraham Harrison, LLC, can get the transcripts written and assist in the posting of the podcasts and the maintenance of the podcast blog website.

Vlogging follows the same rules as podcasting in regards to production and quality, but the pressure on the “star” is that much more intense.

Abraham Harrison’s staff can guide your staff in getting the recording and production infrastructure set up.

An advantage of vlogging is that it has the even higher “star” effect upon the key staff member doing the vlogging, and the videos can be posted on all the video-sharing sites (dozens) to get more coverage and dominate search results.

We at Abraham Harrison can handle the video asset distribution for you, or train your team in the method.

Contact Mark Harrison, CEO of Abraham Harrison, for more information