One of the multimedia features of Squidoo is the option to include podcasts as part of your small business marketing on this social network platform. Squidoo provides a setting for a Yahoo Media Player that enables you to incorporate and stream MP3’s (your own or other’s) on your Squidoo lenses. I have found that this is one of the most underutilised features of Squidoo.
In an earlier post, I highlighted the benefits of podcasting and stressed the need to incorporate this aspect in your small business marketing. I think that the lack of use of the Yahoo Media Player relates to the fact that the settings are not obvious and are easy to overlook.
How to Enable the Yahoo Media Player on Squidoo
To enable the Yahoo Media Player on your Squidoo lens, you need to make adjustments to ‘Other Settings’ when in the edit mode. The ‘Other Settings’ link is currently in the right-hand column of your Squidoo lens. There is an option for you to tick ‘Play mp3 files with the Yahoo Media Player’ (as illustrated in the image below). When you tick this option, you automatically enable the Yahoo Media Player, so that any link that is an MP3 file will generate the ‘play’ symbol on your lens.
I have demonstrated the use of the Yahoo Media Player in the introduction to a Squidoo lens on Improving Productivity to Overcome Procrastination and Information Overload:
If you want to include a description or call to action (as I have done above), you use a hyperlink with anchor text such as the following:
<a href=”http://www.yourpodcastaddress.mp3″><b>LISTEN TO HOW I HAVE USED A PRODUCTIVITY FOCUS TO BEAT PROCRASTINATION</b></a>
Another illustration of the Yahoo Media Player from the same Productivity Squidoo lens is the following screenshot which shows how I am marketing my Social Media Training Program by including an introductory podcast in a text module:
The Yahoo Media Player on Squidoo enables you to incorporate podcasts (MP3’s) on your Squidoo lenses to enhance your small business marketing.