Just read John Jantsch’s latest post on his blog Duct Tape Marketing called Podcasting Makes You a Member of the Media

And while I usually find his posts useful and/or informative, I have to take him to task on this one. My immediate reaction is to mentally add the following subtitle:
“In the Same Way that Saying Your Bedtime Prayers Makes You a Member of the Clergy”.

His basic premise being that having a podcast gives you a foot in the door with “industry insiders” or potential clients by requesting an interview for your podcast.

Let me get this straight John, I want to meet with Joe Blow of JBlow Industries, and sell him a couple of hundred gross of my higglepips. Mr. Blow, being the egotistical boob that he is, can’t resist being a guest on The Higglepipodcast, so he agrees to the interview. Then I pull the old switcheroo and spring my sales pitch on him? Seems a little… umm… how you say… deceptive, no?

I’m not picking on John though, Jeffrey Gitomer suggest a similar ploy (Answer #21 on page 43) in the Little Red Book of Sales Answers. Except, in his case, he suggests the interview for an “Ezine” (What a quaint, 2005 term, huh?). In Jeffrey’s case, he suggests that this ezine be sent to a list, which he warns, you should actually have, and actually mail to. In John’s case, he makes a point of saying:

People can’t resist interview requests. No matter how small the audience.

Again, it seems a little… umm… how you say… deceptive, no?

Anyway, back to the title of this post:

In this Web2.0 world we find ourselves in, it’s pretty easy to convince ourselves that if we throw enough technology in people’s hands, they’ll be able to do what the professionals do. In this case, give some schmuck in the higglepip business an MP3 recorder, and suddenly he’s Chet Huntley. It’s just not true, sorry, I said it, and I’ll say it again, It’s Just Not True.

Self-appointing yourself a Member of the Media is fine, as long as you don’t go around actually believing it, and trying to convince others that it’s true. Mr. Jantsch has forgotten that the full name of “the Media” is “the Mass Media” in that you reach a significant population and (most importantly) maintain some semblance of responsibility in doing so. Just having a “podcast” available and claiming to be a member of the media is pretty sketchy at best.

Follow their advice if you’d like, it’s not my company you work for, I’ll continue making connections, networking, getting meetings the old fashioned way: not relying on a half-truth to get a foot in the door, thank you very much.

And I haven’t even gotten into the whole “quality of the sound” problem that pervades the web2.0 world we live in… I’ll save that for another post (I can hear your shouts of joy already).

Author’s Note: You’ll notice that there’s a link to John’s blog over on the right, it’s been there for the whole existence of this blog, and will be staying there. I still read Duct Tape Marketing almost daily, you should too. And I’m also still a fan of Jeffrey Gitomer’s books, it’s just that I don’t happen to agree with this particular tactic. So lay off all you Duct Tape maniacs, it’s not total blasphemy.