Tools for Networking From Home

Whether you’re at a conference or networking from home, it is a chance to share experiences and talk about podcasting with other people in the industry. More importantly, it is an opportunity to forge connections within the industry that can have positive benefits for your content.  

Physical events may not always suit your traveling abilities or available time. However, that doesn’t mean that you cannot network with your fellow podcasters.  There are numerous online avenues that you can utilize to connect with your fellow podcasters while networking from home.

–

Livestreaming

Live-streaming (audio or video) offers a new way to interact with people utilizing live chat features and call-in options. Most primarily use it as a new way to connect with their listeners. With the adaptability of the platform, there’s nothing to stop you from creating a livestream for podcasters for the purpose of networking.

What differentiates this from conference livestreaming is that you are the one in charge of the livestream. You can run it at any point, for whatever length of time allowable by your chosen livestream platform. Create either a public livestream to create an “anyone can join” environment or unlisted livestream to create an exclusive, “invite only” experience. 

This puts networking opportunities in your own hands, without having to worry about waiting for these opportunities or to fill a need for networking opportunities between conferences.  

Virtual Conferences

Many conferences now offer virtual opportunities in the form of pre-recorded panels to event livestreaming.  

Networking at these virtual conferences are just as important as networking at physical conferences.  Through these livestreamed events, you can connect with fellow podcasters in the chat section, or in any call-in Q+A sessions that may be held.  This is the perfect opportunity to reach out not only to podcasters who may be present at the conference, but also to podcasters who, like yourself, are presently networking from home.

Virtual conferences usually offer their livestreams for free, or cheaper than their usual tickets to the physical conference, also creating a more budget-friendly opportunity for networking.  Podcasting, as a form of content creation, offers fewer roadblocks between you and finished content than other content creation avenues, and thus virtual conferences and their networking opportunities fall in that same vein.  This also allows you the flexibility to stretch your budget and attend more conferences (both virtual and physical), and utilize more networking opportunities.  

Facebook groups

If you’re familiar with Facebook as a social media platform, you are aware of its Groups feature.  Through this, you can connect with other people around a central topic to do things like ask and answer questions, get opinions on the latest tech or strategies, or just share something funny you found while out and about on the Internet.

Podcasting Facebook groups operate in the same vein. There you can talk with other podcasters about podcasting issues or victories, get opinions on microphones, and more.  These groups can be geographically targeted, but that’s not always the case leading to a wider breadth of opinion from your fellow podcasters.

Podbean runs one called Podcasting Smarter, where podcasters come to network with fellow podcasters to learn more about best practices and changes in the industry, with opportunities for self-promotion.  It welcomes every podcaster, not just those hosted with Podbean, to once again facilitate more chances for networking with podcasters you may never get the chance to speak to otherwise.

Webinars

Webinars are online presentations done to provide education and resources for services, interfaces, and other things that you may require a hands-on walkthrough to learn about.  Podbean offers several webinars on different aspects of podcasting such as monetization and promotion, as well as its livestream interface. Podcasters of every style, genre, and experience level visit to learn more about the practice.

The idea with networking from home within these webinars is that you have the chance to encounter people who may know about different aspects of the podcasting industry than you do.  With this learning environment provided, you have the opportunity to exchange knowledge and learn more from just the person presenting the webinar.

Webinars, being online-only, are a great online networking opportunity in that they are always being presented, and there are so many different kinds being offered that you can find the right topic you’re curious about exploring with other podcasters.

–

Networking is an opportunity to meet up and discuss podcasting with other people. You get the chance to meet people whose interest in podcasting mirrors yours, and whose knowledge can be a learning experience for you.  These networking from home solutions aim to give you networking opportunities while allowing for situations in which you may not be able to physically attend.

Check out our webinars for chances to meet up with podcasters here. If you’re interested in learning more about our livestreaming solutions (both public and unlisted), you can check it out here!