Podcast Standards: Post 6 - Descriptive Data “title” Tag Primer [IBNMA]

Need: Every podcaster must understand the importance and use of descriptive data as a strategy to attract and maintain subscriptions.

Moving from Post 5 “What is a Podcast? No Really!” we now enter the realm of my specific forte – descriptive data or what is better known as metadata. So important is metadata to a podcast that it can literally make or break the relationship with would be subscribers by not convincing them of its value or effectively point a subscriber to content once the subscription is in place.

First, what is metadata?

[ metadata: Referred to as descriptive data, metadata is literally data about data. In the context of a podcast, where the data is an audio or video file, metadata typically describes the date the podcast episode was published and provides a description of the episode to better inform the listener of its contents. Metadata is critical in the development of a podcast and should be implemented with great care to ensure search functionality and proper visual identification. ]

With that under our belt, let’s get started with a quick review of the important aspects of properly developing title descriptive data for both channel and title XML feed tags. The following title development standards and support materials represent various extracts from my forthcoming Technical Manual on Descriptive Data for podcasting.

Podcast Title

Task: Compose an appropriate show name to quickly attract attention and inform audience.

Standard: 60 character limitation and directly correlate with the podcast subtitle

Guideline: Create a title that is short, unique, easy to remember, and details the tone and focus of the podcast.

What’s in a name? Absolutely everything! It’s most likely the first thing that will bring attention to the podcast. This is true both before and after subscription. Additionally, the title will be visible in both the player organizational tree and on podcover artwork.

The title of a podcast show must attract the audience with a clear message and appeal for their consideration. Keep the name unique but don’t over-embellish: a poor title can potentially lose the listener and they may never subscribe. The title should be quick to remember, as short as possible, and detail the tone, emphasis, and focus of the podcast. Know the intended audience and work from there. So critical are the choice of words that they will be used as scan points after subscription as participants review their bins continuously in search of unique content. To maintain consistency in descriptive data, a “style guide” should be developed. A title should identify a podcast as clearly as a name identifies a person or a title identifies a book.

Episode Title

Task: Compose an irresistible headline to quickly attract the attention of audience and promote topic.

Standard: 60 character limitation and directly correlate with the episode description.

Guideline: The episode title should be short, informative, and stimulate interest.

The episode