In many school marketing departments, marketers often find themselves fixated on gathering written and visually lead content, often neglecting the potential of audio. While such traditional content has benefits, podcasts present unrivalled accessibility, captivating storytelling, and a sense of community that resonates with students, teachers, and parents alike.

From flexible listening opportunities to the power of audio to spark imagination and inclusivity, schools should explore how a school podcast can enhance the educational experience, cultivate deeper engagement, and celebrate the diverse voices within your school community.

Deciding On Content

When deciding to start a school podcast series, it can often be difficult to know exactly what kind of content to include. Podcasts quite literally give a voice to your community, so in essence, the answer to podcasting content is simple; to encourage your school community to discuss what is important to them.

Podcast topics that we often find to excel for schools are…

👨‍🎓 Student Spotlights - have students discuss their achievements, experiences of school life, and what is it like to be a member of the school community.

🧑‍🏫 Teacher Talks - have teachers discuss different educational issues, approaches, and school initiatives.

💼 Alumni Adventures - have members of your alumni discuss the cool and inspirational things they have been up to since graduating.

🤝 Committee Corner - have students introduce their group/club and detail how they contribute to the school community

If you are struggling for inspiration check out some of the winners of our School Stories Awards for the Best Use of Audio and Best Use of SoundCloud/Spotify who have some excellent podcasts.

The 4 P’s Of Podcasting

Once you have decided what the topic of your podcast will be, it’s important to follow the 4 P’s of Podcasting: Planning, Production, Promotion and Publishing.

1. Planning

In the planning phase you should be thinking of what questions should be asked, what should the name of the podcast be (as well as the names of individual episodes), how often episodes should be released, how long the episodes should run for and exactly who should appear in each episode. Obviously, the answer to these questions will vary depending on the topic of your podcast. Once marketers have answered all of the above questions, they are ready to move to production.

2. Production

The production phase is crucial for ensuring your podcast sounds professional and engaging. This includes investing in good recording equipment (microphones and headphones), choosing a quiet recording environment to minimise background and recording software.

Some recording software include: Audacity - a free, open source audio editor sutible for beginners, GarageBand- free for Mac users with a user-freidnly interface, Adibe Aud

Some recording software examples:

Riverside.Fm - a free, open-source audio editor suitable for beginners
GarageBand - free for Mac users, with a user-friendly interface
Adobe Audition - a professional-grade audio editor with advanced features

3. Promotion

The next important step in podcasting is promotion. Although SoundCloud and Spotify are the best platforms for audio content, they are not likely to be channels that your audience look to regularly. This is why it is vital that marketers spread the word about podcasts in order to maximise views. Marketers may wish to include a countdown sticker with a short sound bite with a creatively designed episode thumbnail as the image on their Instagram to promote the podcast more widely or include a link to the podcast in the school newsletter for current families. If you would like any creative assistance with visual promotional aspects, please contact wow@interactiveschools.com.

4. Publish

Once you have filmed your podcast, you must decide where you will publish it. The process for uploading your podcasts to both SoundCloud and Spotify is relatively similar. For both platforms, the content will need to be fully edited before you start uploading and we recommend the file be in the form of either MP3, MP4, WAV, MPG or MOV. Both platforms also share a similar process for uploading your podcast and have similar fields that are required to be filled in upon upload.

Once you have started successfully publishing podcasts, it is essential that you review the data of plays, listens, downloads etc. to see what type of podcast content your audience values the most. This will allow you to target your content more specifically for the next season.

If you have any further questions regarding how your school can rise to podcasting stardom, please contact social@interactiveschools.com who will be more than happy to assist you further.

Podcasting Prowess: A Guide To Crafting A Successful School Podcast