You can play these messages on the air, making your show much more entertaining for listeners. The best content is your actual listeners' voices. It encourages participation, turning your show into a community, which is what all podcasters and Internet radio hosts want.
A relatively new feature called visual voicemail makes it even easier. As the name suggests, visual voicemail allows you to see your messages. Some services even transcribe them into text for you, which allows you to skim them for usable content. This is an especially handy feature if you've got to take a high volume of calls and sort through them. Visual voicemail is a standard feature offered by many services.
Tips on Using 800 Voicemail
Aside from using your voicemail messages in real-time on the show, you can use them to prepare for the next episode. Turn your listeners' questions or comments into talking points for the next one. You can use listener voicemail messages to create all of the content for your show.If you're going to play voicemail message over the air, make sure the quality is the best possible. While voicemail services offer very high quality, much of it depends on the device the caller is using to leave the message. Still, you have some control over it. Voicemail services come with tools like noise reduction and equalization that can really help make improvements.
Sometimes it's good to edit, but make sure you don't cut anything out. Don't take what your listeners say out of context. Things to edit might be nervous stammering or spaces in the message. Whatever edits you make, make sure you don't alter the meaning of what was said or you'll have another call from them - an angry one.
When choosing a voicemail service, make sure that you're giving your listeners a toll free number to call. You'll get a much higher call volume this way because you're taking the cost of the call.
