Radio Talk Show Hosts – The wrong market

In the early days of TalkShoe, as with many companies, we knew we had developed a unique and different product (live interactive voice communications using the Internet). What we didn’t know was exactly which application(s) would be the most effective targets. Whenever we talked to people about the service, we got an earful of suggestions for possible applications: book clubs, fan clubs, voice bulletin boards, voice chatting, podcasting, conference calls, talk shows, training, seminars, and a host of others. One thing we did know what that going after all these applications at once would be impossible and illadvised.

Off to PodCamps

As PodCamp Boston II approaches, it’s time to look back on PodCamps in general and their use as a marketing tool.

In August of 2006, I decided to attend the first PodCamp in Boston. This was the first in what has been a series of events given by podcasters for podcasters. Given that podcasting was our exact target market, I decided that it made sense for TalkShoe to attend, and we contributed $500 as a company. It was certainly a risk in terms of money spent, but I had a hunch that it was going to be worth our time, effort and money, given that I’ve been to many new conferences and trade shows that turned out to be a bust.

PodCamp Boston was billed as an “unconference” which meant that instead of having high-profile speakers and mostly companies speak, instead anyone, and everyone was allowed and encouraged to give a talk in one of the 4 breakout rooms and the large main room. For our sponsorship, TalkShow was sort of given a table to display our product, given out litterature and talk to PodCampers. Personally, I signed up for two speaking sessions.

1-year Anniversary of Leo Laporte using TalkShoe

It’s our 1-year anniversary of Leo Laporte using TalkShoe, and time to reminisce…

It was back in October 2006 when Leo Laporte of TWiT-TV first told us that he was planning to use TalkShoe. Leo, for those of you who don’t know, is the #1 podcaster in the world by most measures. We had a couple of weeks to prepare, and we had no idea what kind of traffic Leo would generate, and what part of our system would break. At that time, we didn’t (we do now) for example have anyway to heavily load-test our system.

The BIG day came on November 5, 2006 when Leo and Amber (MacArthur) first went live with their net @ nite (http://www.twit.tv/natn) Talkcast (previously called Inside the Net). The whole company (all 10 of us) came into the office on that Sunday night, as we prepared for the 9:00 pm live Talkcast. We all popped open some beer, and as the time approached, we could see from our traffic reports that TalkShoe’s system was “heating up.” Web traffic jumped starting about 15 minutes before the show, along with telephone traffic.

Looking for a Top-Notch Public Relations firm

We’ve recently begun our search for a top-notch public relations firm to aid us in generating online, print, TV, etc. buzz about TalkShoe and its podcasting business, and new foree into social networking. (Lots more to come on this subject)

If you know of a good agency with both traditional and online PR experience, as well as experience working with hot tech startup companies, email me at markj@talkshoe.com. — Thanks.

Podcast & New Media Expo trade show

We just finished our 1st trade show where TalkShoe exhibited – Podcast & New Media Expo. It went well. The highlight for me was our <$1,000 booth (compared with $5-$10K) average for a 10×10 booth. It was filled with cubbies and shoes — lots of shoes of all types, and a large screen with a projector showing a live continuous Talkcast. Over 100 different people joined the Talkcast from somewhere out there on the Internet. The live Talkcast really got the idea of our product across to those coming by the booth. Overall, the trade show cost us $6000 + $3800 for travel expenses = $9,800 which is the least amount I’ve ever spent to exhibit at a show. Basically trade shows aren’t cheap. In addition to the booth, there’s travel, shipping, electricity, badge readers, t-shirts, booth space ($3K), etc.

The other hit for us was having iJustine (an extremely popular social networker) in our booth. She knows just about everyone, and her exuberance about TalkShoe’s project shines through. It doesn’t hurt that she’s also quite easy on the eyes. At one point she was LifeCasting (a running video of her life), talking on a live TalkShoe call, Twittering what she was doing, and roving around the trade show wearing her TalkShoe polo shirt. As she put it, she was “buzzing”.