BlogTalkRadio is a platform, it’s an audio platform wrapped by a social network. That idea complexes many people. Mashable wrote an article today titled “BlogTalkRadio: Does it Have a Future“, evidently written by someone who hasn’t been following the rise of the company, it’s position in the market and the potential of the platform. Think of BlogTalkRadio like a multi-engine car, it can perform light and smart, or rich and heavy. You can detail it yourself, and drive it, it’s yours — or you can pay BlogTalkRadio to build a custom frame and paint it to your specs. Here’s what the new digs look like:

If you’re an author, or a business owner, of say a media or publishing company, or a non-profit person who wants to spread the word about your cause, or an individual with a particular prowess for prancing your personality by means of pr, then you’ll immediately see the potential from the business side to brand a whole station, not just one show. I do Lisacast, my show on BlogTalkRadio because it brings together a crowd of people I otherwise may not have ever met. (Thank you listeners, by the way!) That’s good for business, because I run a digital marketing agency and it’s one of the way I can show off what I do, who I know, etc. Lisacast has become one of the most popular shows on the BlogTalkRadio network with millions of listeners each month.

Here’s the official feature update:

Inline Listening

User can listen to shows right on the page in search results without leaving the page

All program guide pages Categories, Featured, Popular and Branded Networks

Reminders

Integration of episode reminder with Outlook and Google calendars

Inline Listening Flash based widget

Ability to syndicate any network content to the widget with Inline Listening
Based on Categories or Keywords
ex. http://beta.blogtalkradio.com/widget2.aspx?string=technology&siteid=1

Improved Search

Search search is pre-filtered into user experience styles
Shows – hosts that produce the episodes in the results
Episodes – the individual episodes that are results of the search
On Air/Upcoming – currently live or future shows that are results for the search topic

Ex. a search for “Gaza” – in the new site is a great departure from the ability to find shows and episodes quickly

Users can also perform advanced filtering without having to enter ‘advanced mode’ with the a tabbed navigation above search results

Keywords

We’ve opened our entire network to user choice by integrating keywords into
- RSS feeds: receive episode specific to the keyword topic
- Search
- Internal Taxonomy

We’ll be expanding this in the new year. Organic keyword integration helping BlogTalkRadio to increase our 1 million+ indexed pages at Google.

Learning Center and Community Forum

A renewed focus on engaging and making our platform more user friendly

iTunes

Fully compliant with iTunes podcasting spec and album art
New integrated one-click subscription to show, episode and keyword RSS feeds

Corporate Website

Distinguishes business content from listening site

Branded Private Networks

This addition opens BlogTalkRadio for the corporate client seeking a new media presence online with control over the interface, show aggregation and syndication of their media.

Social Network Profiles

In an effort to increase the sharing of work produced on the network we’ve added into host profiles such as Twitter, Facebook and MySpace.

Those are just a couple of examples. Here’s one in working action too, the Woman’s Day station on BlogTalkRadio.

The new home page looks much more Web 2.0 now, and has simple descriptions and content areas. It’s really easy to listen now. Easier. Really, it was pretty easy before. They’ve even got player buttons running in ads on other networks, so people can play shows directly with 1 click. Advertisers, listening?

Check out the new BlogTalkRadio web site, maybe start your own show. In the meantime, checkout previous Lisacast shows here on Lisacast.com. I have a show coming up today with the FlyLady, you won’t want to miss it. Call-in at 1 (646) 478-4956 to speak your mind about “energy efficiency.” The show airs today from 12 – 1 pm PST.

I said “hero”, because we’ll all see heartbreak at some point, but few of us create a mechanism by which anyone can communicate, build community, share, connect with friends, family, paranormal psychologists, authors who write about paranormal psychologists, actors who play them on TV and activists concerned for the pet portrayals played therein. Smart businesses will take the technology, like Dave Winer did and build cool sub-services. They can use these privately like recorded conference calls, or on the fly via cell-phone only from the ballpark or town hall meeting. Podcast on-the-go.

While I don’t work for the company now, I still love them and I respect what Alan did, coming back and building this for the world. He didn’t need the money. He needed to give back and he did that for thousands of people. Listen to the discussion with Alan.