Podcast as a tool for social impact communication
The concept of social and environmental impact has become increasingly relevant among professionals in various fields in recent years. As early as 2007, it was discovered that podcasts are a powerful tool for presenting complex and interdisciplinary topics to a wider audience.
Each country participating in the “Podcasting based social learning environment” project had its own focus theme for creating podcast episodes. The goal of the Social Entrepreneurship Association of Latvia was to educate a public about social entrepreneurship and to strengthen the activities of social entrepreneurs by interviewing them.
Social Entrepreneurship Association of Latvia, along with three partner organizations from Lithuania, Estonia, and Turkey: Stories For Impact OÜ (EST), Koc University (TR), and VšĮ “Geri norai LT”(LT), concluded the Erasmus+ project “Podcasting based social learning environment” and shares the collected results of the project.
The project started in November 2021, and its main objective was to inspire and train professionals from the public and private sectors who work or are interested in defining, managing, measuring, and communicating the impact of their activities, as well as young people who want to use podcasts as a tool to create communication materials on topics related to human well-being and environmental protection, or to create positive impact and reduce negative impact in society.
Project Results
Series of episodes featuring social entrepreneurs’ stories
In the podcast series featuring social entrepreneurs, both the personal stories of each entrepreneur and various aspects of social entrepreneurship were showcased.
To attract new listeners and inform a wider audience, we collaborated with several podcast creators who discussed various topics. In total, 26 episodes were released, some in video format and others in audio format.
All the entrepreneurs’ stories in latvian can be found HERE.
Handbook: How to Create a Social Impact Podcast
Throughout the “Podcasting based social learning environment” project, an educational yet easily understandable material was created, providing recommendations on how to create your own social impact podcast as successfully as possible.
The material is organized into various thematic sections and provides advice on how to choose your podcast’s topic and communicate with your audience, as well as how to attract sponsors and analyze data.
You can view the compilation of recommendations HERE!
Guidelines for Creating a Podcast
If you have a desire to start your own social impact podcast but don’t know where to begin, then during this project, we also developed guidelines with recommendations for starting a podcast.
How to assess resources and plan the creation of your podcast? Is it necessary to immediately purchase expensive equipment, or can you get by with the technology available at home?
These and other questions are answered in the guidelines developed during our project, which can be viewed HERE.
This article has been created within the framework of the Podcasting-based social impact learning environment project, co-financed by the European Union’s Erasmus+ program.
The project is being implemented in collaboration with Stories for Impact, Koç University Social Impact Forum – KUSIF, and Gerinorai.lt.
