Tech Tools: TalkShoe Provides Easy Conference Call/Podcast Solution

Happy New Year! This is our first Succeed Speaking post of 2010, and our first-ever Tech Tools feature, where I’ll introduce different technology solutions that may be valuable to professional speakers. In the spotlight in this edition is TalkShoe. Ever heard of it?

If you’re looking for a super-easy way to start publishing your own podcast or to speak to your clients, fans and followers via teleconference, TalkShoe is worth a look. When it comes to podcasting, especially, I’ve never seen anything easier. And did I mention that it’s free?!

Explained in their own words, “TalkShoe is a service that enables anyone to easily create, join, or listen to Live Interactive Discussions, Conversations, Podcasts and Audioblogs.” They call recordings “Community Calls,” which can be listened to, downloaded, or subscribed to. You can read more here.

As a speaker, you want to reach as many people as possible with your content, right? And the lower the cost and the easier it is to get started, the better, right? It seems to me that TalkShoe is a great match if that’s what you’re looking for. You can create a call in minutes. TalkShoe will record and process the audio file for you (if you want), so you could record your message and publish it to your web site immediately, or you can schedule a call and invite people to listen live at the appropriate time. (Then the recording can still be made available for those who want to listen later.)

I recorded a short message this morning just so you could see/hear a sample… and to demonstrate the different ways TalkShoe allows you to share the recording. For example…

You can simply share a link to your recording’s page on the TalkShoe site:

http://www.talkshoe.com/tc/73723

Or you can embed a player for a single episode on your own site like this:

Or you can embed a widget like this which will allow listeners to choose from all of the episodes in a given series:

I’m by no means an expert on TalkShoe, so if you’re interested, visit their site and take a look around. There are some great help videos as well as an FAQ section, or you can contact them directly for support.

The biggest drawback I see is that there is no registration process for people who want to join a call (if you’re using TalkShoe as a teleconference solution). You just invite them, and they call in if they want to, or they don’t. Ideally, your attendees would register so you could capture their email address and follow up with them in some way, or at least get them into your sales funnel. It’s free, though, so I guess you can’t have everything. As an alternative, you could just offer something really valuable at the end of the call that is only accessible if they email you or complete a form.

And since there’s no registration process, there’s also no way to charge a fee to attendees, so this is not a good solution if you’re looking to monetize your content.

As I understand it, TalkShoe’s main focus is to allow people to connect with their “community,” and as a speaker, that’s something that should be high on your list of priorities. So, if you have another teleconference or podcast solution that you’re happy with, great. But if you’re not doing anything of this sort right now, forget about TalkShoe’s shortcomings and get on board. You can be talking with your followers by the end of the week, if not by the end of the day!