How Branded Podcasts and Internal Members Podcasts Provide Benefit: with The Moderate Party
We spoke with Zackarias Fariss, the Moderate Party's Project Manager. The Moderate Party is Sweden's second-largest political party and the main opposition party.Why Podcasting?With an upcoming election and the COVID-19 pandemic forcing people to spend more time at home, the Moderate Party had to reassess its communication strategy.How Do You Use Podcasting?Fariss explains that the Moderate Party has taken a two-pronged approach to podcasting. This allows podcasting to be part of the branding strategy and to support internal communications. The Moderate Party uses company branded podcasts; their publicly available podcasts. Also, they use internal podcasts; these are access-controlled podcasts to communicate within and between teams.How Do You Create and Promote Your Podcasts?The Moderate Party has a tiny dedicated team; that is a one-person team! However, there was plenty of go-to support from the wider team to get things off the ground.In terms of promotion, there is an email list for the internal podcast. For the company branded podcast, emails are also used occasionally. However, to avoid spamming their target group and to spread the word, the Moderate Party promotes individual podcasts on social media channels such as Facebook.Interestingly, Fariss says that word of mouth is one of the best promotion tools that they have – once a listener finds value in a podcast, they inevitably recommend it to similar-minded acquaintances.How Do You Leverage Company Branded Podcasts?The Moderate Party makes their public podcasts available on Apple and Spotify, Sweden's most popular podcasting channels. Through the Podbean platform, they’re able to easily distribute the public podcasts on all the podcast directories and apps.These podcasts take several formats. One channel applies an interview format to engage with high-level political party members and academic experts. There is also a news channel that allows the Moderate Party to spread its message and respond to current events.How Do You Leverage Internal Podcasts?Fariss explains that internal podcasts are an excellent mechanism for communicating highly sensitive information to the people that need access to it. This includes the strategy for winning the upcoming election.“The ability to share a high-value strategic vision and ensure that there is no risk of the opposition accessing that can not be underestimated,” says Fariss.How Successful Has Your Podcasting Strategy Been?The results are fantastic, Fariss tells us. The Moderate Party's branded podcast is in the top ten of the Swedish political podcasts on Apple.The benefits of a podcast’s ability to reach anyone at any time are paying off. Rather than asking people to join a virtual conference or consume a video of a virtual conference, the Moderate Party provides a self-serve channel that dramatically improves the ease at which listeners access their content. This helps not only spread the word and gain support for the party, but also keep listeners more informed on a range of issues.What Does Podcasting Offer That Other Channels Do Not?Apart from the ease of consumption, the ability to provide the full content of a conversation is a big plus.Fariss believes that there is simply no other mechanism that would allow them to record and distribute such in-depth conversations and political analysis. Radio, for example, is so very time-constrained, as are most traditional media channels. Podcasting has freed the Moderate Party from the typical time constraints that apply to public communications.What Hurdles Did You Need to Overcome?Engaging with the older generation has been the biggest challenge that the Moderate Party has encountered. For the uninitiated, they have developed a clear set of instructions to assist those unfamiliar with the world of apps and media consumption on the go to engage with their content.One of the benefits of encouraging the older community to listen to Podcasts is that they are sticky listeners; once they "get it" they stick around and listen to more.Do You Have Any Take-Home Podcasting Advice for Other Political Parties or Organizations?A word of advice aimed specifically at political parties is: don't plan too far ahead! The world of politics is very agile, and the Moderate Party has remained responsive to the shifting winds of this arena. For most businesses, of course, creating a content strategy is a far more robust approach. But, this advice to stay flexible can apply in many settings. Podcasts have the unique benefit of being both relatively easy to produce and accessible for consumption… so they can be tailored to keep people apprised of timely information.The other piece of advice is to be patient. The first few episodes of your podcast may not have much uptake. “Be confident that if your content provides value, then your listeners will come. Stay committed to podcasting," says Fariss.And, as a last word from Fariss, remember: "Listeners want a natural conversation. It shows honesty".
