Beyond the written word, the easiest outlet to start building your media platform is through audio form. Specifically through podcasting and teleseminars. Not only can you reach more people by giving them multiple outlets with which to hear your message, if you are a business owner, this is a great way to make content that you can later use as a product.
Podcasting is a great way to share information because of the iPod. Now when people want to listen to your content, they don’t have to sitting in front of their computer. Consumers of your content can listen to you when they are traveling, working out etc. One of the intimidating things for people is how to get started.  You can search the internet for tips, there are several books on the subject that you can find here, or if you are like me you have tech geek friends that can help you (note to friends: I will apologize in advance for calling you geeks). If you want to be the most effective, I would suggest finding someone who can be a resource for you to get started.
Teleseminars came onto my radar after attending a teleseminar with Alex Mandossian who built his business around this medium of communication. These are basically seminars and telecomferences rolled into one. You can attend teleseminars and give them anywhere that has a phone available. The great thing about teleseminars is that, like podcasting, they are inexpensive to set up and run. You can format these calls any way that you want. One of my favorites is to do “ask campaigns” (this is one of Alex’s ideas). You bring on an expert to talk about their topic. You then solicit your clients for questions to ask the expert. You then take the most frquently asked questions and use that to build your topic for the call. This is a great way for you, the interviewer, and the expert to have something that they can take the content sell it later.
Other mediums in the audio realm are doing interviews on other radio or podcast programs. This can be free or you can pay to be on someone else’s program. Doing live events is a great way to start building your platform. Just make sure that you record them.
Utilizing these avenues allows you to not only build your platform but it allows you to serve the marketplace with great content, build connections and have content created that you can later use to make products. These are all effective and inexpensive ways to get your message out and start building your business.
I am curious as to how you have been able to use podcasting or teleseminars successfully. If you aren’t doing this, why aren’t you?
PS..This week’s podcast is on… podcasting and other media outlets that you can utilize to build your platform.