How to Create a Crisis Communications Podcast Episode

cartoon dog surrounded by fire | crisis communications podcast episode

When news breaks and you need to respond quickly, a press release is just the start. A crisis communications podcast episode is a great next step. It gives you the space to share your message and expand on the press release - all in your voice.

Over the next few years, the demand for crisis communications podcasts will increase quite a bit. When a crisis hits, you need to be ready. 

You already need to have a podcast up and running

The worst time to start a podcast is when you need one right now. You need to have a podcast up and running so that when a crisis arises, you can respond quickly. 

The good news is that setting up a podcast is relatively easy. The bad news is that a new podcast often requires a lot of internal approvals before it can go live - for a show title, show description, music, logo, etc. Even if things are approved fairly quickly, it can take two weeks minimum, especially to activate the podcast feed and align all the distribution platforms. 

I do have more good news: You don’t have to constantly create fresh new episodes. You can put out a new episode every couple of months (or even a couple times per year). The important thing is to have the podcast in place so you can turn around an episode quickly. 

Alert your podcast producer and reach out to previous guests

Your podcast producer will need the time and date for your recording so they can block off time on their calendar for the recording and editing. 

For quick turnaround podcasts, we also strongly recommend booking guests who have already appeared on your podcast. They will have the proper headsets needed for quality audio (earbuds do not cut it!). If the potential guest hasn’t appeared on your podcast, it can take us a few days (barring any shipping mishaps) to get them a headset, thus slowing down the entire process.

Make sure your internal team will be ready to edit/approve the transcript

Our clients typically need to get transcript approval from their internal team - whether it’s comms or legal. Give them a heads up as soon as you can. In our experience, approvals typically slow down production.

We’ll get you a transcript within 8-24hours of recording, but we can’t finalize a show until an edited transcript is approved.  

Podcast editing goes fairly quickly, but …

Our turnaround time is generally two to three days, but this depends on how quickly our clients can get approval and how many clients have rush jobs at the same time. In some circumstances, it can take us up to four days to edit a single episode.

Even though you are in a rush to respond, editing cannot be skipped. To produce a high quality podcast with impactful messaging that your audience easily digests, we take our time editing. We edit out the “um’s” and “like’s”, the throat clearing, the sentence that was drowned out by your dog barking at the mailman. 

But we do edit fairly quickly, simply because we have so much experience.

A crisis communications podcast episode can go live quickly

It all comes down to: The faster you can record and get internal approval, the faster you’ll get your episode. In theory, a crisis communications podcast episode can go live in three days.

With Volubility Podcasting as your producer, you will only need to worry about crafting your message. Our team manages every aspect of the production process, from making sure your guests are comfortable before we start recording to sending you a ready-to-publish podcast episode the first time. 

Let’s discuss how we might work together. Reach out today!

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