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Create Conversations with Long Form Discussions

In our work at Tripepi Smith, we meet a ton of thoughtful people in the local government space who we get to learn from. Working as communicators in the public sector often puts us on the 50-yard line, front row, to see all the major policy challenges and social changes affecting America (especially California). It also means we often speak with (or work hand-in-hand with) really interesting people who spend most of their waking hours thinking about these same problems. Now, we want to share those conversations with you.

So, we started a podcast. Trust us, we know what you’re thinking when you hear that. Who hasn’t started a podcast this year? And, with so many different platforms and mediums out there for organizations to push out their content, why pursue another platform that risks getting lost in the vast online world? The answer is simple: We want to offer you real, actionable solutions to the problems facing public agencies right now through genuine conversations with experts and thought leaders. By organizing these conversations between the public and private sector, as well as between multiple governmental organizations, we hope to give listeners a bird’s eye view of the ideas and trends in the local government space.

Social media offers a lot of value in delivering information easily and quickly to a large amount of people with very little cost involved. However, this type of medium does not always facilitate valuable conversations and does not always allow for authentic engagement with other humans. Unscripted long-form discussions offer captivating and thoughtful conversations that listeners can engage with, and can bring people and agencies together for collaboration.

6 Ways Long-Form Podcasts Bring Value to Your Audience

Creating long-form content that goes beyond the surface and explores ideas you may not have thought of before provides value to an audience, which persuades them to keep paying attention. Here are six ways that long-form podcast content provides more value for listeners:

1. It is human. These aren’t just 280-character Tweets – these are stories of people’s lives; real problems they were challenged by and the actual solutions they used. Stories about real people resonate and stick with listeners long after the audio or video ends.
2. It is an experience. Long-form podcasts invite the listener into an experience with the speaker(s). You’re not reading a prepared statement from a government official or a carefully crafted Instagram caption. Podcasts offer you genuine conversations and debates with those who know those issues inside and out: thought leaders and experts that you may not have access to otherwise.
3. It is unedited. Podcasts offer a space for these conversations to stretch out and take their time. You’re not forcing this dialogue into a 350-word blog post or a one-minute video for Facebook. You are delivering unedited content that can take up as much room as it needs.
4. It is free. Podcasts are not trying to sell you something and don’t usually live behind a paywall. This long-form discussion offers you an idea to consider or a potential solution to an issue you’re facing and expects nothing in return.
5. It is collaborative. You are not just talking to your coworkers; you are bringing in experts to facilitate valuable partnerships. No single person or entity has all the answers or the capability to be the best at everything. Finding the best solutions to a problem often requires multiple viewpoints.
6. It lives on. The conversations don’t stop after the podcast ends. These discussions, while in-depth and thoughtful, are only the beginning. The content, the ideas and the solutions offer a starting point for decision-makers and public agency officials to take these ideas and implement actionable change in their organizations. Your hope is that this dialogue makes your listeners think or see a different perspective, inspiring conversations that go beyond what you produce.

Tripepi Smith and PublicCEO launched the “PublicCEO Report,” a video and podcast series on November 12, 2020. PublicCEO owner and Tripepi Smith President Ryder Todd Smith is the host. In each Report, Ryder sits down with a different thought leader to discuss the policies, current events and challenges affecting local governments today. Our hope is that these unedited, unscripted conversations inform and inspire you to be a more effective change-maker at your agency.

Visit PublicCEO.com/Report to listen to/watch the first episode and Subscribe to our YouTube Channel so you don’t miss future Reports.