To get started, please reach out to Scarlet Studio to set up an introductory meeting. During the meeting we will cover the process of setting up your podcast on WordPress and Apple Podcasts Connect. We will explain our involvement with your podcast and the services we offer. Once we get you set up, you will have the autonomy to schedule, post, and edit your podcasts on your own. We will be available to answer questions, but this will be your podcast!
You must have a title for your podcast. If you need help, this website is a good resource for ideas for a podcast title. You can also collaborate with the enterprise OMC or your unit’s marketing or communications team for more resources and ideas.
Listed below are a few podcast titles that are hosted by Ohio State:
The short description gives listeners a basic understanding about the podcast. Think about it like a blurb for a book! Since there are over 3 million podcasts worldwide, the description is what helps to set your podcast apart while listeners are surfing or searching through directories. This website is a helpful resource to assist with an applicable podcast description. We also encourage you to contact your marketing or communications team for help.
Before you make your podcast public, you must add a graphic logo for the show. Apple requires that all podcasts have a logo. Here is a Photoshop template that you can use to adhere to our organization’s branding guidelines. You or your graphic design team can add your preferred image to the template for your podcast cover page. Reach out to Scarlet Studio for graphic design services, or reach out to podcast@osu.edu for consultation.
There are several ways to release your podcast to your audience. You can release your episodes all at once so that everything is available at the launch, or you can schedule your episodes to be released on a regular timeline. Each strategy has its own pros and cons.
We will schedule a time to connect with a team member from OMC to show you how to navigate WordPress (the web content management system), add/edit posts, and how to analyze podcast metrics.
See page 6 in this guide for more on WordPress.
Prepare your audio content to upload into WordPress. The OMC team can walk you through this process during your initial WordPress training or we can schedule a follow-up meeting to show you how to post your first episode.
Start thinking about the titles and descriptions of your first episodes. This website is a helpful resource for coming up with episode titles.
We use PowerPress (a plugin for WordPress) to host your podcast. Using PowerPress we can distribute your podcast to Apple and other platforms.
NOTE: We do not have the ability to distribute to Spotify since OSU does not support it.
Some users prefer to keep their podcast only on WordPress for several reasons (keep private, tag episodes, organize chronologically) but you are welcome to use other audio streaming services that are supported by the university. The primary reason we use WordPress is because it gives you the independence to do what you want with your podcast. For example, if you want to schedule it to release at 6:00am on Mondays, you can do that! Also, any updates that you make to WordPress will automatically be applied to the other podcasting sites associated with it.
After your episode is posted to WordPress, OMC can add your podcast to Apple Podcasts if you want. You are added as an administrator for your podcast, giving you the ability to view analytics including followers, engaged listeners, top cities, etc. Apple Podcasts is convenient because once your podcast is up and running, you will not have to make any updates manually. All updates are made automatically using the RSS feed from WordPress.
Once you log in to WordPress, the navigation sidebar is located on the left. The list below indicates the most common menus items that you will use. Once you get the first few episodes published, you will mostly use Posts and Media. Listed below are the most common uses of each menu items for podcasting.
Appearance – choose the theme that you want displayed
These are the steps to build your content on WordPress.
Once your podcast is up and running you will be able to analyze metrics from the Web Traffic dashboards and Apple Podcasts. For access to Apple Podcasts, please reach out to podcast@osu.edu. The Web Traffic dashboards are available in Tableau. If you don’t have access to the dashboards, follow these instructions:
About 5 podcast episodes are a good number to have complete before you make public depending on the type of podcast that you have. If your podcast has more current events, then you may only want 1-2 podcasts ready. Having your episodes set up ahead of time makes managing your podcast less stressful while it is live. Five is also a good number to release at once so people can go back and listen to older episodes if they want. You can also backdate your episode dates if you want it to appear like your podcast has been established ahead of time.
Adobe Creative Cloud access is free to all Ohio State community. This suite of desktop and mobile apps gives you the tools to create professional audio and video, photos, and more. A new app, Adobe Podcasts is available specifically for podcasts to record and edit your podcast episodes, including transcripts more easily and efficiently.
The Office of Marketing and Communications is available for any questions or support needed for your podcast at podcast@osu.edu.