This first episode of the Auto Shop Podcast is where I present an introduction to this website and automotive podcasting. It’s my vision of how auto shop owners can benefit by having a company podcast.Podcasts are very popular right now. From a marketing standpoint you could say podcasting is on fire. Everybody's talking about them. Many people are listening to podcasts on their phone for hours a day and it's not just a certain demographic. It’s all demographics at different levels.I'd like to present some information for auto shop owners relating to how you can use podcasts to get the word out about your company. I refer to this podcast and business model as co-hosted podcasting. How to differentiate your shop from other auto repair shopsWe can start by identifying what your expertise is? What do you do well? What do you do better than anyone else? What's your repair specialty? We want to get the word out about your specialty. We want to have you share tips and helpful information on your auto shop podcast. You would share about your skills and expertise and those of your employees.We also want to help you tell your story. People want to know, like, and trust their auto shop. Podcasting is a way that you can improve relationships with your customers. They can get to know you better and they can get to know your employees better by listening to your podcast.It's a great way to connect with your existing customers. It will also help attract prospective customers who are searching online for help.How to grow your online presence with auto shop podcastsWe all use our phone in our pocket or purse to find what they're looking for. Podcasts have a lot of search engine optimization or SEO benefits. Some people say it's as good as videos for SEO. We know how good video is for sharing helpful tips and other types of information. Things that we want to learn. Well now podcasts are found in Google and another search engines. Another nice thing about podcast content is that you can convert audio files to text and share it on your website. It can be crawled by Google, which can help your website SEO.You can also repurpose that content and put it out on YouTube. It's not actually a video, but it's the audio with a graphic. There are a lot of people on YouTube. It’s the second largest search engine in the world.Podcasts can attract ideal customers to your shopPodcast listeners who share your values are the type of people that might be ideal customers for your business. When they hear you sharing tips, stories or other information they’re searching for, they value your help. They might be searching for help with brakes, engine repair, engine replacement or getting a transmission overhaul. When they hear that type of content from you on your shop podcast, then they're going to trust you more. And wouldn't it be nice to have your customers listen to your podcast in their car while they're driving to work. So it's a great media that has many benefits.Interview your service advisors on your podcastWe know that service advisors are the liaison between the customer and the technician. That's their job. The thing is, they love doing their work and they're good at it. What they're doing is building a long lasting relationship with your customers. So wouldn't it be something if you interviewed them on your podcast? You may get in a situation where sometimes someone listening to a shop owner may not connect with them well for whatever reason. It could be values or tone of voice. But they might connect with another person well. It might be a female service advisor. It might be an older person or any number of situations. But service advisors are someone that would be good to have interviewed on your automotive podcast. Auto shop owners can be good podcastersI know that many of you have been and still are master technicians who have become...