#GrabTheMIC Client Journey Interview

In this #GrabTheMIC client journey we speak to Liam Nolan, Communications Manager at Children’s University. We make their Children’s University: Live podcast.

We start off by asking Liam, what exactly is Children’s University?

Children’s University operates as a social franchise. So we are a small charity at the heart of a network of organisations that deliver the Children’s University programme. We have 66 different organisations that run the programme and they work with about 1,000 schools across the country. So that’s about 110,000 kids doing Children’s University! With our big network, we know we’ve got huge potential to make a positive impact on those kids’ lives.

“Working with MIC made perfect sense to us because podcasting stopped our annual conference being just what happens within four walls on one day. So the speeches that move people to tears on that day can continue to move people to tears. They can be shared and they can spread.”

What do you love about MIC?

Children’s University is a really small charity, but we’ve got a really big, complex network that reaches lots of people. We wanted to work with someone who understood our mission, the complexities of our organisation and why we wanted a podcast to help spread our message. We wanted someone that could help us make the most of that, make it easier for our stories to be heard by the right people and produce them in a way that just kept it straightforward and simple.

And importantly understand that that this isn’t a numbers game – it’s all about the message. MIC got all this and they made us get really clear on why we were doing a podcast and how we wanted to tell our story.

Why did you get MIC involved?

We’ve got a really big network and huge reach. It’s a real challenge for our small charity to share our messaging and learning with everyone. So a big part of that has been our annual conference for our network of Children’s Universities. The conference is all about getting people together and putting them in front of the right speakers. And, at the same time giving them the opportunity to hear our latest messages and share a whole load of learning. The challenge though is getting everyone there, especially with covid-restrictions, it’s more tricky.

Even when you get people in the room, the next challenge is getting people to sit and listen. If you’re not in the right headspace, it’s gone or just becomes another page in your notebook that never gets looked at again. On top of this, it all takes place in one room on one day, so if you’re not there, you’ve missed out on it all.

So getting MIC involved was about not losing the messages, learning and lessons from the conference and the subsequent conversations we have around the future of education and social mobility. We want what we talk about to live on!

To have people access our conference without having to come along in person is of great value for us. That’s where podcasting is great because it takes just 20 minutes or so to listen to while you’re on your way to the canteen. It’s a way for people to digest our messaging without having to disrupt their busy day job.

Initially made we made five Children’s University: Live! Podcast episodes from content recorded at our 2019 conference. Each of them strategically had a message that we really wanted to get across to people. This was to 1) give people a sense of who our organisation is 2)what it does and 3) our mission.

Also, there’s no point in having someone speak at the conference as a perfect case study as to why you do what you do – if you can’t share that with as many people as possible.

Saeed Atcha was a perfect example, his story reflects many of the young people that we work with. Then strategically, he’s also part of the social mobility commission. To get as many people as possible to hear his story engages people on a personal and strategic level. We wouldn’t be able to do that without MIC media. This episode actually had the most shares!

What impact has having a podcast had?

Having a podcast is a great new channel for us. It’s brilliant to be able to get a story out there in a unique way that gets direct to people. I love the really personal nature of listening to a podcast, headphones in, walking, in the bath, wherever you are, it’s someone talking to you. It’s not often with any other form of media that you get such a direct voice to someone. This is so useful for us to have.

Many people who work in charities dismiss social media; ‘it’s pointless’, ‘you’re tweeting into a void’, ‘if it’s not retweeted a million times it’s not impactful’, it’s very much a quantity over quality mindset. I think that’s ridiculous. If you use social media correctly, it doesn’t matter how many people see it, as long as the right people see it.

We never went into podcasting expecting to have big numbers and a mattress sponsorship within six months or anything like that. We want to have that chance to speak directly to people at the right time.

And so a good example of this is our work with Skills Builder or the Fair Education Alliance. Whenever either of those organisations do something new, encouraging and we’re proud to be a part of it, we’re able to pinpoint exactly why we worked with them by just referring back to the Children’s University: Live! podcast episodes in which they feature, which is a really unique thing to be able to do. We also know that when we do that, we’re getting new listeners. Importantly, it’s the right listeners for us, people who are interested in what we do and what we’re doing in partnership.

Looking at future conferences, it’s been useful to actually send possible speakers them the links to episodes and speeches via our podcast from our previous conference. It’s not a case of ‘here’s a picture of last year’. It’s rather, ‘here’s some high-quality audio and an example of the vibe and things we discussed’. Again it’s adding credibility. Also, it adds value to the speaker too, they can share it, embed it into their website or portfolio, so it boosts their visibility too.

What would you say to an organisation that’s concerned that their podcast can’t compete with the sheer number of podcasts out there?

If you were to try and create a new TV soap to compete against EastEnders or Coronation Street, you’d be daft, but that’s not what podcasting is. Podcasting is using the unique format to get your message to the right people. If the right people are 500 million strangers, then a small charity with no resources is probably not going to achieve that. But if it is a small handful of people who may open doors for you or help start partnerships, introduce you funders…you only need it to be heard by 10 people, as long as those 10 people are the right people.

It’s not all about the number of listeners. If you do things right, the podcast may well find these new listeners, but just using social media, using your existing communications tools and fitting podcasts within that broader spectrum of tools and channels and whatnot. That’s the joy, that’s the magic of podcasting for charities.

It’s great for us to share our podcast with potential new partners as well. So like local authorities or new universities, who’ve just heard about us for us to be able to say, ‘look we’d run a conference and these are the people we have coming along. You can hear last year’s conference here.’ It’s a great selling tool to show what we do. It’s definitely given us credibility with potential partners.

Would you recommend MIC Media as a place for social impact organisations and charities like yourself to explore podcasting?

It’s easy to work with MIC and I recommend you guys all the time. I think there’s a lot of value in what you do. I would also definitely recommend charities and social impact organisations to consider a podcast, whether that’s as a tool to engage with beneficiaries, potential beneficiaries, funders, potential partners… or if you are looking to reach or engage with people beyond or in your current network in different ways, it provides a unique way to get into people.

It’s been brilliant for us and great for us to use as a communications channel. Once people follow or subscribe to our podcast, it’s in their podcast library. So, when a new episode is released, it goes straight into their feed. It’s not as easy to get overlooked as just an email with a link that gets lost. It’s direct, like, ‘here’s something on your playlist now for you to listen to!’ I love this unique and personal approach.

There’s a lot of talk about podcast hosts being thought of as like friends because you end up spending so much time listening to the same people talk about the same subject. It’s one of the quirks of modern-day life! But that’s what podcasting offers charities.

It’s easy to work with MIC and I recommend you guys all the time. I think there’s a lot of value in what you do.

Take a look at the Children's University Client Journey digest

Are you looking for podcast training for your beneficiaries, members, team or group? Contact MIC HERE, let’s have a chat about your workshops wants and ideas!