Ed Roberts (photo, right), KC Weather Podcast, and music podcast, Looking Out The Window, led a PodCamp Midwest session called “Join the Conversation: (Ed Roberts is not the guy who invented the Altair computer, nor the guy who founded the disability movement and caused wheelchair-accessible parking spaces to be made availalbe)

The New Media Triangle (barriers to entry for media) Production/Distribution/Marketing. We’re breaking down those barriers – production via our inexpensive computers. Distribution: we have the Internet. Marketing: people can do word of mouth promotion.

Engaging people is what it’s all about: (cool video “Free Hugs” guy)

Lessons about conversation: People have ben reluctant to step out and communicate, folks don’t even know their close neighbors. But, once one person begins to engage others, more people feel less hesitant to join in. People become willing to champion your conversation, your agenda.

Getting involved in the conversation has benefits beyond just your own issue or program.

“Google is your friend” – do ego-surfing to see where people are talking about you (Google yourself). Find conversations already happening about your topic. Join in. Google Alerts will come and bring those mentions and conversations to you. Google Analytics can show you statistics for traffic and who is visiting your website.

“Social Media is your friend” Use Twitter to engage people in conversation- search Twitter, and other social networking, social media sites, to find other people with similar interests, and engage with them.

“RSS is your friend :)” – Technorati, a blog aggregator, can track changes in feeds around the world, and you can subscribe to that search, and feed it into your feed reader. Tweetscan.com can also do this. EveryZing.com used to be called PodZinger and searches audio files which it has indexed. (demonstrated using a search of “Ed Roberts” – search yielded his last 2 weather podcasts, and a mention on CC Chapman’s Accident Hash. Very cool.).

So many ways to find where and how people are talking on the Internet. But we need to be cognizant of living in the fishbowl, only talking to other people in your little insular circle of friends. Be sure to look at communities outside your online bubble, outside your echo chamber.

Include listeners’ comments and voicemails *in* your show, and that encourages people to interact with the show, and with you, contributing ideas and content.