Podonomics

Jason Van Orden, author of Promoting Your Podcast and who recommended Podonomics as one of the 7 must-read blogs on podcasting, has been doing a series on his blog exploring Podasting Metrics.

This is a fussy area as there are about 4 ways you can measure your podcasting success. You can look at the number of subscribers to your feed, but that’s different from the number of requests for your feed which is different from the number of downloads of your podcast which is different from the number of times it’s played on your podcast page (if you provide a flash-based player).

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I made a troubling discovery after recording a teleclass using a free conference bridge line today. It appears that each conference bridge service records your interviews or calls at different sample rates which makes a huge impact on audio quality.

The sampling rate is key because it makes the difference between a recording that sounds like a CD or a recording that sounds like AM radio. And when people are listening to your podcast, if you record your welcome message using the equipment in your home studio and then transition to a recording of an interview you did over the phone, it will be noticeable and may ruin the listener experience.

Over the past year, I’ve used 3 different services. Here’s my discoveries.

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Confused by the title of this post? Good. That’s how I feel when I see podcasting mis-defined.

Unfortunately, people are still getting the definition of podcasting wrong. I was on this site reading their review of the recent Pew study on podcasting and I saw this paragraph:

“Podcasts are typically sound files that can be played on personal computers, TiVo Inc.‘s digital recorders and music players such as Apple Computer Inc.‘s iPod. Many are regularly scheduled and automatically delivered, and more recently some have incorporated video.”

As I continued my quest to review the coverage of the Pew podcasting survey, I stumbled upon MSNBC and unfortunately, someone plagarized the other because I found the same lame, silly definition of podcast in their article.

What’s wrong with the definition on MSNBC and copied word for word on the other site (or vice versa)?

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So, Pew has come out with its own podcasting statistics. And why the heck not since everyone is doing it.

The report (download here) states:

1. Some 12% of internet users say they have downloaded a podcast so they can listen to it or view it at a later time.
2. However, just 1% report downloading a podcast on a typical day.
3. Men are more likely than women to report podcast downloading (15% compared to 8%)
4. And those who have used the internet for six or more years are twice as likely as those who have been online three years or less to have downloaded a podcast (13% vs. 6%)
5. 972 adult Internet users were surveyed over the phone (not a far cry from the 928 Canadians who took the Canadian Podcast Listeners Survey online back in May of this year)

Unbeknownst to me, Pew released a similar study back in April, but somehow, I missed it. What’s interesting to me is the weird contradiction between points #1 and #2 above. So, I went to their website to find out more.
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Yes, this is a podcasting blog and yes, I’ve focused alot on social media this week, but trust me, it all comes full circle. Here are some additional news items that caught my eye this week.

• One in 3 Canadians read a blog. Not just that, but baby boomers are spending time on them as well. My only gripe is that the article called blogs “web diaries.” Please, please don’t call them online diaries. Doing so removes the seriousness as to why businesses should consider blogs as a communications tool. Use the Wikipedia definition for blogs instead.

• EMI now accepting music submissions from aspiring, unsigned artists. The reason? It’s because the emails of EMI employees are being clogged by attachments that are MB in size. Why don’t you tell us the real reason, EMI? That you’re finally recognizing that social media actually works and that you may just find your next million dollar talent in a sea of no-names. Hope you’re kicking yourself in the foot regarding Napster.

• WOMMA’s Ethics Assessment Tool. By way of For Immediate Release (#185), I found out that the Word of Mouth Marketing Association has developed 20 questions that you can ask contractors, agencies and all personnel to identify, avoid and eliminate unethical word of mouth tactics. This is definitely needed in light of the Walmart and lonelygirl15 fiascos.

By way of Podcasting Scout, I found out about some podcasting statistics that I missed. Here’s a quick summary.

• According to Nielsen, only 42% of Britains know what podcasting is. That’s lower than what Canadians reported in the Canadian Podcast Listeners Survey. Seventy-seven percent of Canadian respondents were somewhat or very familiar with the word podcasting.
• According to Edison Media Research, those between 18-24 years old are listening to 24% less radio today compared to the same age bracket 10-years ago. In Canada, there’s a similiar decline in radio listeningship amongst Canadian adults according to a report released by Statistics Canada.
• According to some digging around by the person who updates the blog over at Typical Mac User Podcast (what’s your name?), there are now 82,978 podcasts listed in iTunes, a ten fold increase in just 12-months. Compare that to the 25,883 in PodcastAlley and the 10,771 listed in PodcastPickle and you can see why iTunes is the Google of podcast directories.

(**sigh**) I found out by way of these comments posted by Brian of commandN that Canada’s favourite podcast isn’t Canadian afterall.

Although This Week In Tech (TWIT) has some connection to Canada, it’s fully produced on American soil. By way of my colleague Dave, Amber (who hosts a podcast in the TWIT family called Inside the Net) confirmed that it is indeed American.

Woe is me, I made a mistake. I mean, something so well produced has to be Canadian, right?

Not in this case.

So, as quickly as you could say Web 2.0, the PDF was updated and a note was added to the download site explaining the change.

Slap me on the wrist. Roast me over coals. To all my fellow Canucks, TWIT is indeed American.

Lesson learned?

1. Just because it projects like a Canuck, sounds like a Canuck and smells like a Canuck, it ain’t necessarily one.

Note to self - Don’t write and watch the dishy Orlando Bloom in Pirates of the Caribbean at the same time. There’s way too much distraction.

Technorati Tags: canadian podcasting

A couple of months ago, I asked for your participation in a survey I was conducting with another company looking at the state of podcasting in Canada. Well, here’s the press release announcing the results.

The press release will tell you how to download your copy of the report. If after reviewing it, you’d like to blog or podcast about the report, do tag it as canadian podcasting.

Podcasting Taking a Hold in Canada
First Comprehensive National Survey Shows Traction of New Media

Toronto, Ontario (July 31, 2006) – With the objective of understanding podcast growth and technology adoption in Canada, the first comprehensive podcasting survey has wrapped up and results are currently available at www.canadianpodcastlistenerssurvey.ca.

Of particular note, survey findings indicate podcast listeners in Canada are almost evenly split between men and women, 59% of podcast listeners are between 25-44 years old, and the baby boomer generation is embracing podcasting at almost double the rate than those under 24.

For 77% of those surveyed, podcast is a familiar word - a compound word that combines: ‘iPod’ and ‘broadcasting,’ and according to Webster’s dictionary, is defined as “an audio file published on the Internet with an RSS feed, allowing users to subscribe to automatic downloads of a series of programs.” Moreover, of those who don’t currently listen to podcasts, 67 per cent said they would be interested in downloading one.

“Podcasting is moving away from early adopters and into the mainstream, and is no longer synonymous with young, tech-savvy men. The survey proves that podcasting appeals to the nation, whether they be young, professional or retired. Moreover, the podcasts users are downloading are just as numerous and diverse as are the podcasters themselves.” says Jen Evans, President of Sequentia Communications and co-creator of the podcasting survey.

While American podcasting research is readily available, especially as Forrester Research Inc. predicts 50,000 podcasters are expected by the year 2010, Canadian research lacks a comprehensive understanding of who, what, when, where, and why Canadians are podcasting. Consequently, Sequentia Communications and Caprica Interactive Marketing joined forces to delve into the state of podcasting from a truly Canadian perspective.

Additional analysis finds that Canadians prefer original, fresh, weekly, and entertaining content that can’t be found anywhere else. The top 5 podcasts of those surveyed include:

1. TWIT/This Week in Technology (USA)
2. Ricky Gervais Show (UK)
3. Quirks and Quarks (CANADA)
4. LOST (USA)
5. CommandN (CANADA)

However, poor audio quality, boring hosts, excess advertising, and episodes longer than 6-10 minutes may push Canadians to seek podcasts or alternative sources of information and entertainment, elsewhere.

“Although Canadians rely on other sources of information, Podcasts are quickly becoming integrated into their daily consumption of news and entertainment,” says Leesa Barnes, President of Caprica Interactive Marketing and co-creator of the survey. “This survey also shows that Canadians will become impatient with podcasts that fall below their standards. Content is indeed king and this old adage holds true to podcasts as well.”

For more information, please contact:
Nicole Meitsch
Sequentia Communications
416-203-3656 x229
nicole [at] sequentia [dot] net

Technorati Tags: canadian podcasting, podcasting, podcasting listeners, canadian podcast listeners survey

I use iTunes to listen to my podcasts. I just double-click the icon on my desktop and that little baby opens up showing all the podcasts I’m subscribed to.

At last count, there’s about 27 podcasts on my list. I subscribed to some for research purposes and found them good enough to keep on my list. Others are there because I met the host in person and liked their attitude so much, I subscribed to their podcast. Still others are on my list because I just find the content engaging.

Until I looked at the number of listening hours that showed up at the bottom of my iTunes screen.

“47 items, 19.4 hours, 917.8 MB”

My goodness, where am I going to fit in 19.4 hours of listening time?

Update: I just unsubscribed from a whole slew of podcasts and have narrowed down my listening hours to 6.9 hours for 15 podcasts.

Technorati Tags: podcasting, iTunes, podcast listening hours, podcast listeners

Think my take on the Nielsen numbers was harsh? Take a look at a few other perspectives.

Jon Watson over at BizPodcasting says that the Nielsen report wrongly compares bloggers to podcasters. As he puts it:

“That’s like comparing newspaper readers to karoake singers. No correlation between the two.”

Robert Scoble, VP of Media Development at PodTech.net, says that the Nielsen numbers blows when it comes to podcasting. He says:

“And podcasting doesn’t need the false hype. We need real numbers, real research, with organizations we, and advertisers, can believe. This doesn’t help us out AT ALL.”

Neville Hobson also had the same question in his post. More specifically:

“Um, podcast listeners on a par with blog writers? And online daters? What a strange comparison. Am I missing something here? I’d love to know what their survey methodology was.”

Read the Neilsen report. What are your thoughts?

Technorati Tags: podcasting, podcasting trends, Robert Scoble, jon watson