One of the toughest aspects of producing a podcast, publishing a newsletter, writing a blog, or any other form of online marketing that must be done on a regular basis, is to come up with creative ideas that will interest your listeners or readers. There is a tremendous strategy, however, that is often overlooked when searching for topics. It’s called brainstorming.
Brainstorming topics for your podcast is truly the ultimate way to keep fresh, original and worthwhile content ideas available for consistent production. Spending some time jotting down ideas, then using the ideas you generate to create a publishing schedule or editorial calendar can help you plan your podcasts months in advance and never have that dreaded thought of, “What am I going to talk about this week?!”
How to Brainstorm Ideas More Effectively
While brainstorming is so easy that anyone can do it, to do it properly, there are a couple guidelines to remember. First, set aside a specific time to brainstorm, say 10 or 15 minutes at one time. Next, don’t filter your thoughts. If an idea pops into your head, write it down, regardless of how inappropriate it may seem. Also, just because you write down an idea doesn’t mean you have to use it. Select the ideas that work for your podcast, specifically. Adapt them, edit them, rearrange them. The ideas are YOURS. Use them as you see fit.
Once you’ve spent some time in your brainstorming session and you have several ideas you think would work for your podcast, group them together in like topics. For instance, do you have several ideas that deal with marketing? A few that deal with writing? Some others that are related to customer service? Whatever they are, having groups of similar ideas allows you to run a series if you like, or to create a special topic day. For instance, Marketing Monday or Time Management Thursday.
After you have a list of topics you feel comfortable with, and you’ve divided them into groups, it’s time to transfer them to your editorial calendar. A simple print calendar works well, or you can use an online calendar such as Google’s free one. Just enter a topic for each day that you plan to create a podcast, keeping in mind your groups or series. Fill it in with as many topics as you have available, then add a note about a week before your topics run out to remind yourself to sit down for another brainstorming session. This method will help to ensure you always have a podcast topic to use.
Where to Find Creative Ideas
If, even after brainstorming, you’re still struggling to find topic ideas for your podcast, there are other places to look. You can do some informal market research using online surveys or social media. You can look at search trends on Google and see what people are looking for. You can check magazines or newsletters that deal with your subject area and see what is popular that you could create a podcast about. There are any number of ways to generate ideas for podcasting, but if you’re looking for the fastest, easiest way… give brainstorming a try. You’ll be amazed at some of the ideas you come up with in just a few minutes of dedicated thinking.
If you want a brainstorm partner to help bounce ideas, contact me today to schedule a 1 hour brainstorm coaching session!
