Tuning into your community: Top reasons why your agency needs a podcast

Podcasts are more popular than ever. In fact, in the United States, podcasts attract more than 100 million monthly listeners (according to demandsage.com). Are you tapping into the power of the pod to deliver important news on your city or county’s programs, projects, initiatives and community partnerships? If not, you may miss out on a critical tool to reach your community.

On-demand podcasts are the perfect tool for your community members with busy schedules to tune in and listen at a time and place that works for them. So, whether on the run, commuting to the office or getting dinner ready, they can easily tap into vital information about your organization.

How do you know if a podcast is right for you? For the city of Agoura Hills, Calif., it all started with data gleaned from our strategic communications plan, developed by SAE Communications, a third-party consultant. This plan served as a comprehensive review of the effectiveness and efficiency of our current communications practices and provided a blueprint for the city to refine our communication and outreach strategies.

Data gathered as part of the plan showed that key communications strategies the city should invest in were more videos and community relations efforts. For example, we knew that an audio and video podcast format would help connect the community to important information the city wanted to share and offered unique opportunities to include a healthy dose of levity and creativity with each episode.

Creating a podcast for your city or county may seem like a lot of work and resources, but it doesn’t have to be. We’ve compiled a list of the top reasons your agency needs a podcast along with some key considerations to get you started:

Top reasons your city or county needs a podcast 

1. An additional tool to reach your community: It is crucial to create an avenue for your community to easily get information at a time and place that works for them. Many of our community members commute to work daily and have busy lives filled with family, friends and activities. Meeting them where they are (in their car, at the gym or cooking dinner) means they can connect in a way that is convenient for their schedule.

2. Cost effective: Time and preparation for public meetings and workshops are resource heavy. Though there are still reasons that an in-person, virtual or hybrid meeting may be the way to go, podcasts offer another alternative for reaching your constituents. In our experience, the city hosted numerous community meetings on key topics and initiatives each year. These meetings took a lot of resources for our team to pull together, including developing presentations, promoting the event, staffing for the meeting and more. Unfortunately, these meetings would draw only a few attendees. Inviting our community to join us over the airwaves has opened up a whole new audience. Where our local meetings would only have on average five to 10 community members attend, our podcasts have hundreds of people tune in to both the audio and video episodes. The resources and cost to reach more people with the podcast are far less than we were putting into meetings.As a contract city with only 35 employees, we rely on an outside contractor, RMG Communications, to work as an extension of our team and provide video and audio podcasting services. Even with our contractor’s assistance, these podcasts are still a cost-effective medium compared to meetings and workshops. Many agencies, however, have talented, passionate staff interested in tackling this project in-house and doing a great job.

3. Fosters community partnerships: In addition to sharing information on your city or county, your podcast allows you to highlight relevant partnerships in your community. For instance, we invite guests from agencies that support the city, including representatives from our chamber of commerce, sheriff’s station, water district, school district and the National Wildlife Federation. These partners are part of the fabric of Agoura Hills and provide candid information to our listeners and viewers on current events and projects that affect our city. Not only do we strengthen our relationships with these trusted sources in our community, but also, we are getting regular requests from other local agencies who want to appear on our podcast due to its growing popularity.

4. Enhances employee engagement and morale: Podcasts are an excellent way to bring your team together as part of the process. You can involve your team by assisting with podcast guest recommendations, serving as on-air subject matter experts and providing cameo appearances in videos. We work to inject humor and pop culture references in our episodes, especially the video version. Nearly every episode includes a dynamic intro that highlights the topic. For instance, a recent episode with our City Manager Nathan Hamburger included an intro similar to the much-loved TV show “The Office.” Employees from all departments were invited to be part of the on-air magic. We didn’t realize we had so many natural thespians on staff! Our office was also buzzing with excitement from team members for the rest of the week. We’ve also heard stories of other government agencies tapping into their team’s graphic design and audio/visual expertise to develop promotional materials and recording studios for podcasting.

5. Establishes thought leadership: Having a podcast builds your agency’s brand and establishes your agency and team as thought leaders in your field. In addition, other industry pros, community leaders and engaged members of the public will tune into your pod to learn how your agency innovates and inspires your community.

So, what are you waiting for? Make 2023 your year to start a podcast! Before you hit the airwaves, consider creating a strategy that guides the success of your podcast. This strategy will cover items such as identifying the format of your podcast, pinpointing your audience, creating a production timeline, researching potential topics and guests, measuring success and more!

Ramiro Adeva is a seasoned public sector pro who has worked for municipal governments in California for the bulk of his career. As assistant city manager for Agoura Hills, Ramiro oversees many city departments and services, including emergency preparedness, HR, risk management, legislative affairs, economic development, and communications. Ramiro also hosts the city’s “The Good Life Agoura Hills” podcast, available at agourahillspodcast.com.