Brittany Brown and Rob Winters are the co-founders of Digitiv, a marketing and website design agency. Brittany is the Business Officer and Rob is Technology Officer of Digitiv. Tom Fox welcomes them to this week’s episode to talk about their company, the benefits of data management, PodOps, and the components of a successful podcast. 
 

 
Data Management: The Core of Digitiv
Digitiv maintains that your website and social media presence are crucial to growing your business. They provide their clients with strategies and marketing efforts that aid growth, one of which is data management. Tom comments that some businesses may think that they are too small to worry about data management. He asks why Brittany and Rob place it as one of their primary services. Rob responds that every business, no matter the size, should start thinking about data management from the start. Whenever the Digitiv team begins to build a new website there is usually some customer data that is not protected by the SSL certificate, making it susceptible to potential hackers. Some organizations even believe that their data is safe and self-managing when in reality it is not. This is why data management is so vital to a company. “It’s really not about protecting customer data but you’re also protecting yourself. You don’t want to open yourself up to potential lawsuits because you’re disregarding certain aspects of data security and integrity for your customer,” Rob argues.
 
What is PodOps?
Tom asks Brittany and Rob to talk about their podcast and their podcasting app. Rob and Brittany started a podcast as a way to continue to grow their business and promote their services. Each episode they discuss “what it truly means to start, grow and thrive as a small business”. It began as a fun thing where they were able to share ideas with other entrepreneurs but eventually evolved into a new revenue stream. When you exhaust your contacts, they tell Tom, it becomes difficult to cast new guests for your show. Their app, PodOps, is “a dating service for podcast hosts and guests to really connect and get interviews scheduled.” It revolutionizes podcast content as we know it, they explain.
 
The Components of a Successful Podcast
Tom asks what Brittany and Rob believe to be the key components of a successful podcast. The first key, they remark, is setting a goal or purpose for the podcast, as it provides a structure to grow fruitfully. You should also be in tune with your listeners, which means that the host should know the topic well enough to conduct it in a way that your listeners would be receptive. A third factor that plays into the success of your podcast is the sound quality. Listeners are “quickly turned off by poor sound quality or poor production”, they tell Tom.  The last component of a successful podcast is providing transcripts, as it widens your audience to people with hearing loss.
 
Resources 
Brittany Brown | LinkedIn | Digitiv  
Rob Winters | LinkedIn | Digitiv