At the Corporate Podcasting Summit, Dana Gardner, principal analyst of Interarbor Solutions and producer of BriefingsDirect announced their plans to include full-text transcripts of their sponsored podcasts. The announcement reflects the reality that podcasts have to be found to be heard, and that can be difficult without text that can be indexed by search engines.

“Studies of listener behavior show that they prefer to know a lot about an audio program before downloading and subscribing,” said Gardner. “Contrary to conventional wisdom, giving the audience a chance to peruse a text transcript of a podcast in a blog or on a web site actually prompts more listeners to then opt-in to get the full audio production.”

P-moderated podcasts of 30 to 40 minutes get deeply into complex subjects, with ease of understanding due to natural language and the enjoyable give-and-take of a discussion among knowledgeable and balanced participants.

By creating credible knowledge campaigns on technology, products, and trends, podcast sponsors are delivering dynamic new content into their own communications and RSS channels, while also benefiting from freshly produced, taggable content for search engine crawling and blog-based distribution and pass-along link efficiencies.

“Interarbor Solutions has developed a fast and simple way for companies to use analyst-moderated podcasting as a viral element of their sales and marketing strategies. Podcasting and associated RSS campaigns allow organizations to attract and communicate directly with their core target audiences, on the listeners’ terms and at their mobile convenience,‚Äù said Gardner, founder of Interarbor Solutions, based in Gilford, NH. ‚ÄúCompany-sponsored podcasts are an ideal, cost-effective method of getting a sophisticated message out to prospects, customers, the media and the market at large with depth and credibility. Podcasts augment a company’s blogs, and aid in creating more taggable content for search engines to find and deliver to inquiring buyers.”

Examples o the B2B podcasts are at www.briefinsdirect.com and www.blogs.zdnet.com/gardner.

As part of a comprehensive, all-inclusive package of podcast creation, delivery, and distribution services, beginning immediately, corporate sponsors of BriefingsDirect podcast shows gain:

–In-depth IT industry analyst briefing and planning sessions for identifying credible, knowledge-based podcast topics, participants, and content.

–Full logistical support for podcast recording sessions via convenient, location-independent telephone conference calls.

–Expert and compelling moderating of the entire 40-minute podcast, with up to three guests, by popular IT industry analyst Dana Gardner, who retains editorial control over the show.

–Turnkey production, editing, delivery, and hosting of each podcast show, as well as full perpetual license by the sponsor to use and post the podcast MP3 file anywhere, forever.

–Full-text transcript of the entire podcast, with full license to use and distribute the text, as well as posting of the text and extracted podcast highlights on a transcripts-only and openly available blog, http://briefingsdirect.blogspot.com.

–World-wide distribution of the podcast via www.BriefingsDirect.com and associated RSS feeds, as well on Apple‚Äôs iTunes podcast distribution service, and through such podcast listing portals as ODEO, Technorati, Podcast Alley, and Yahoo! podcasts listings.

–Powerful alerts of and links to newly available podcast shows and text transcripts via Dana Gardner‚Äôs popular BriefingsDirect software strategies blog on ZDNet.com, as well redistribution of the podcast and transcripts links on ZDNet.com and ebizQ.net.

Pricing for sponsorship of the complete package of B2B podcasts and transcripts planning, moderating, production and broad distribution benefits starts at $3,000 per podcast episode.

Sponsors of BriefingsDirect podcasts series currently include HP, Akamai Technologies, Cape Clear Software, Wind River Systems, Integrien Corp., Eclipse Foundation, and Splunk.