Short Paper 3

Social Butterfly decided to do a Podcast for Paper 2. We went back and forth with doing
that or the E-How but none of us had ever done a podcast before so we wanted to try
something new. To define a podcast they are media files distributed via subscription on the
Internet (Barker, 104). At the start of our brainstorming ideas two weeks ago we thought that
we should each pick a topic that is of our personal interest/experience. For me I was going to
choose the wedding industry due to the fact of that is what I do for a living. We decided that
Greg would be the host of the show and it would act as more of an interview session between
each of us. When we returned to class this past week we had a different idea. We wanted to
make the podcast more informal and relaxed. So after our class this past week we all went into
the radio station and started recording.
Once we started recording it seemed to flow pretty easily. It was as if we were just
having casual conversation within our group except we were just recording ourselves. Greg still
took the position as the articulate moderator that kept the conversations flowing throughout
the podcast. In this podcast we spoke about current events and pop culture. We also brought in
a guest speaker, Mike Rizzo, to tell us all about our weather update for the next few days. The
material was relevant to what is in the media today.
Social Butterfly is such a diverse group of people that we all had such dynamic and
different opinions which made it an extremely interesting show. We combined informative yet
entertainment type of content for our audience. Once we were finished recording we added
introduction music to the beginning of the podcast. Also we had Mike take a photo of us to add

to the beginning of the podcast when the music came on. There was very little editing that
went on afterwards, our group liked how it was more raw material rather than edited and
scripted. We ended the podcast with a tribute to a Ken Weatherwax, who played Pugsley on
The Adams Family. We found out at the end of our podcast session that he had just passed
away at the age of 59 so we found it only right to go out with the Adams Family theme song.
My experience in doing the podcast with my group was a lot of fun. I really enjoyed the
whole process from the planning to the recording to the analysis afterwards. What I realized is
how inexpensive it really is; basically all you need is a mic and recording software. We used
Audacity for our podcast. I think it is so great how you can make podcasts your own and the
topics that you can speak about are endless.

References
Barker, Melissa S., Barker, Donald I., Bormann, N.F. & Neher, Krista E. (2008). Social Media
Marketing: A Strategic Approach. Mason, OH: Cengage Learning, pgs. 104-111.