iPhone to spark podcast boom among executives: social networking guru

By Stan Beer
Monday, 28 July 2008 17:56

Technology

The still nascent podcast phenomenon is set to explode driven by the emergence of the massively popular Apple iPhone, according to one of the world's leading social networkers. One of the keys will be the adoption of the iPhone by business users.

"The new media and in particular Podcasts are high on people's agendas as one of the new technologies that people are discovering. And that's not surprising given the fact that now the iPhone has been launched," says headhunter Stan Relihan, who ranks number 40 in the world on the list of most connected networkers on professionals social network LinkedIn.

Relihan, who has more than 16,000 direct first level connections on LinkedIn, has his own successful twice monthly podcast series called The Connections Show which can be found at his website of the same name. The podcasts feature interviews with some of the world's most successful entrepreneurs from different areas of business, and he claims to now get about 12,000 downloads for each show.

"The podcast is about utilising social networking and Web 2.0 tools and applications for business benefit. It's all very well to have fun and make friends but unless there's a business value add, what's the point? It's not just about LinkedIn because I've talked to people who have used LinkedIn and other social networks to ask where's the business benefit that you've received from this? It's all about how do we use the Internet to create a business benefit."

According to Relihan, putting the iPhone in the hands of senior executives will be an explosive mixture that has never happened before and will take the adoption of podcasting to a new level.

"Now that the iPhone has been launched globally with multiple carriers, it's going to get major penetration. What that does is that there are many managing directors and senior executives in organisations that would probably never have an iPod but would get an iPhone for all its other functions, which automatically puts an iPod in their pockets," says Relihan.

"Are they more likely to listen to music? Well I'm sure some will but the opportunity to get business benefit whether it be The Connection Show or something else."

But what about the potential for would be podcasters? Please read on to page 2.