How to ... Start a podcast

There are a number of ways to start and strategically use a podcast, says Katie Krimitsos, host of the Biz Women Rock podcast.

Krimitsos sought to leverage the relationships she had built through Tampa Bay Business Owners, a networking and industry organization. In the last few years her podcast has been downloaded 250,000 times and listened to in 112 countries. Krimitsos has built a community of 4,400 women who are members of a private group associated with the brand, in addition to the 25,000 followers on the podcast's Facebook page.

For those interested in starting their own podcasts, she suggests building avatars of the people who make up your target market. For Biz Women Rock, Krimitsos constructed a few different avatars that she builds her content around. They range from Jane, a smart woman who has been in business for 10 years and constantly seeks info to grow her business, to Kelly, a woman building a business on the side of her full-time job, trying to decide when she wants to transition to full time. Kelly wants to hear success stories and tips and tricks.

That helps determine how you will deliver the information, what information your audience wants to learn and what those avatars may be searching for on Google or iTunes.

Next up: podcast names. Those should be keyword heavy; check what else shows up when you search different keywords, says Krimitsos.

There are other decisions to make early on, including what kind of content; show format; how often it will be recorded and released; who does the talking; and if there will be guests.

Some people record shows on their iPhones, others buy a mobile pro set. Some podcasters edit their own shows and some send to producers to edit, she says. Joining groups like the Florida Podcasters Association (led by Krimitsos' husband, Chris Krimitsos) or attending the Podfest Multimedia Expo (in Orlando February 23-24) can help you connect with these resources.

Krimitsos says a key step in building a podcast audience is marketing. “The grassroots marketing effort is one of the first things you should do,” Krimitsos says.

On Facebook, for example, you can post snapshots or a Facebook live video of you sitting at the mic with a guest and tease the show. “It will alert people that you have something that is of value to them,” Krimitsos says.

The next marketing focus is to get people to share the show. “It's a one-by-one-by-one person game,” Krimitsos says. “You have to deliver phenomenal content and ask people to share it.”

— Traci McMillan Beach