Corporate Podcasting and Investor Relations

IBM launched a series of corporate podcasts in its investor relations site.

The audio series is entitled "IBM and the Future of..."

The latest one I heard (about 16 minutes) is called IBM and the Future of Banking and here's what I noticed about their corporate podcast:

1. The "show notes" page (they don't call it that) has a link to a transcription of the podcast in PDF format. That's a nice touch which will cater to people who are more visual than auditory.

2. The mp3 file is set to 64 Kbits/second (most of the non-corporate podcasts are 128 Kbits/sec, probably because of the music content), which makes the files smaller and thus quicker to download.

They sound like they're using a good mic because when I sampled my usb mic recordings to 64 Kbits/sec, it didn't sound as good as IBM's. I had to bump it up to 128 Kbits/sec.

3. They don't have a flash streaming audio player, perhaps to encourage people to download the mp3 into their mobile devices. Flash players assume people will listen to the podcast while sitting in front of their computer.

4. Their intro music is about 10 seconds, while their outro is 5 seconds. In between you have pure voice and zero background music or sound effects.

5. They don't mention any episode numbers. Neither do they mention the podcast date (you'll see the date in the transcribed PDF file and in the filename).

6. They have an audiocast with slides option, as well as a slides without audio option. You can choose to have the slides advance in sync with the audio, or you can manually move the slides ahead or back.

Companies such as IBM are using the web to deliver information in innovative and cost-effective ways. I wonder how many other companies will try to reach out to their stakeholders in the mobile world. It's just a matter of time.

(Found out about the IBM podcast via eWeek)

[ First posted on 11/08/2005 by Manuel Viloria ]