Donna goes one step further and suggests that even if a potential consultant does podcast, that's probably not enough.
...I believe a podcast consultant should have experience in business and particularly in business communications. Owning a nice microphone and a copy of Audacity does not make you a podcast consultant.
In general, I think that Donna is right, but the skills that a podcast consultant needs to be effective in any given situation depends largely on what the client needs. As Donna herself points out, sometimes a client has all their ducks in a row and just needs a little technical help to plug the microphone in the right way and upload the file. In those cases, it's probably not worth the money to pay a B Comm consultant.
In most cases, though, clients will likely need more and Donna's advice is sound.
I chuckled a little bit when I read this part:
Almost two decades ago, I remember being on contract at an organization when “desktop publishing” consultants started to appear. They all owned a copy of a newfangled piece of software called PageMaker and they all described themselves as desktop publishing gurus.
I didn't live through this during the desktop publishing craze, but I did live through it during the "everyone can make web pages" phase. When MS Frontpage, Allaire's Homesite, and Macromedia's Dreamweaver hit the stands, everyone thought they could just make their own websites and ditch the expensive web designers they had on staff or retainer.
Well, web designers and developers are still here and that's because their skill goes far outside of the technical bits of shoving content together into a web site. Those organizations that decided they could make their own websites ended up with tragically bad looking and under-functional sites.
The same is true of your podcast consultant. Do some internal self-exploration first to determine where your expertise level is at and determine what, exactly, you need out of a consultant. Then hire the right person.
Very good points. Thanks for the trackback and for sharing your wisdom. Yes, if you just need someone to show you how to use Audacity -- easy. More often, people need help planning and producing their shows so as to prevent podfading. But that's fodder for another post, eh?
Posted by: Donna Papacosta | October 1, 2006 10:14 AM | Permalink to Comment