The business adoption of podcasting continues apace. In particular, I find a lot of small businesses producing podcasts. I was delighted to find that the owner of the house I live in has produces a podcast, both audio and video, addressing tax credit issues (he’s a CPA). The podcast is called “Tax Credit Tuesday.”

Podcasting’s allure for small businesses is simple to understand, given the ease and low cost of production. But the number of large businesses with podcasts continues to expand as well. Companies also no doubt recognize podcasting’s ability to reach niche audiences.

Sadly, most business podcasts are positioned as one-way time-shifted broadcasts. There’s no effort to build community or otherwise apply social media principles to these shows. They’re not housed on blogs, there’s no listener feedback or even a means by which listeners can comment.

This morning, Neville and I had a discussion on episode 392 of our podcast, For Immediate Release, that was sparked by a question from a listener, Simon Young in New Zealand. Simon wondered how others select the podcasts to which they’ll give their attention given the limited time available for listening and the massive number of shows available.

I posted Simon’s question on the FIR FriendFeed room, which produced a number of comments, most of which were in synch with Neville’s and my own view: We try out new podcasts mostly based on recommendations from people we know and trust. That is, word of mouth is critical to the marketing of podcasts.

For those businesses that don’t embrace the social media dimensions of podcasting, I wonder how they’re getting new listeners. I’m sure some are promoting their shows through the channels they’re already using to communicate with existing customers, but many business podcasts are designed with the hope of reaching new audiences. Listeners who feel they are part of a podcast community are far more likely to spread the word than those who see themselves as merely part of a broadcast audience.

If you’re taking the time to produce a podcast, shouldn’t you adopt the means by which most podcasts are discovered? Is word-of-mouth the primary means by which you find new podcasts?