A friend just sent me a copy of a recent article in Association Trends about podcasting. It requires registration to get to it. However, the one line that I can share from it is, “Not every hot new trend is applicable for assns, but podcasting certainly is!” Pretty enthusiastic endorsement for using the 2005 New Oxford American Dictionary word of the year. Even my hometown newspaper is writing about it.

Just like blogging gives an association or company a very personal way to communicate with it’s membership and customers, podcasting takes it a step further. Many associations are using audio in what I call a “traditional” way. They produce sound bites or interviews and make them available to “media” hoping it will get aired. They aren’t thinking of using it to communicate directly with their members. Why not? Your members and customers can get it and are. Are they hearing it from you?

The article I mentioned above was submitted by Gary LaBranche, who is CEO of the Association Forum of Chicagoland. Their mission statement is “Advance the professional practice of association management.” If you visit their site you’ll see that they’re podcasting. They’ve even created a nice page about podcasting. You can hear his latest podcast here.

There is one farm “association” that I know of that’s already podcasting and that’s the Missouri Beef Industry Council. It’s a weekly interview about their activities. Their members can hear it directly from them and they do. We produce this report and track the number of times it’s downloaded. According to the statistics there’s a growing number of listeners. You can see the link to their podcast on their homepage and on their blog.

It’s not a fad but is a hot trend. Like blogging I have to ask if you’re considering it. Are you? If so and you’d like to learn more about it you know who to call.