Is Podcasting Social Media?

And what exactly is social media? …

From what I understand social media is like a framework in which infinite conversations continuously evolve. Conversations between consumers and marketers, between teachers and students, fellow peers and followers. It’s person to person. It’s a two way street, where both sides share in the discussion. A continuous exchange of ideas.

That doesn’t really sound like a podcast.

Podcasting isn’t social media. But it does have the potential to be social and the potential to start a conversation. A huge concept behind podcasting is mobility, but a listener on the go isn’t likely to carry that excitement home to immediately comment on a website. So if a listener could leave a voice comment maybe then it would truly be social.

But maybe the majority of listeners are at home at their computer. Then it's not about when they can listen, but what they're listening too. Generally podcasts are integrated with social media aspects though. The series could be paired with a blog post, or the author could have a twitter or website. The fact is, it takes less time to read than it does listen.

Podcasts can be important to social media strategy among companies, and social media can expose and be a pr tool for podcasts. Podcasts can be social because of the sharing aspect, and in that sense social media and podcasts are really both tools that can attribute to the same outcome.