Is iTunes losing its podcast audience-generating crown?
Published by on February 24th, 2007
Part of my work in recent months has been learning the dynamics of on and off network promotions for PodShow’s in-house produced shows.
Using whatever existing online tools are at our disposal, and little more than grim determination and effort, the UK production team is starting to grasp an understanding of how to actively grow a show’s audience within the still emerging online space. Lots of stats tracking, lots of matching download number patterns with promotional activities, and many hours slaving over encouraging cross promotion (mostly not by me, I have to say). We are starting to see the payoff.
The most significant audience growth comes from one weekly show which has shown an astonishing amount of download growth on what was already a healthy regular level of download. What is interesting, and gratifying, about this growth is that it is as a result of deliberate, strategic, and targeted promotional activity and not merely the usual large download spike as a result of, say, front page iTunes podcast directory promotion. This show has had some iTunes prominence in recent months, but that particular and limited prominence has not generated the greater accelleration of downloads - much to our surprise, to be honest.
This is not saying that iTunes is in any way losing its influence on the promotion of podcasts - we are a good while off suggesting that, and I suspect it will always be relevant - but it demonstrates that what is sometimes regarded as the holy grail of podcast promotional placement, is just weapon piece in the audience building arsenal.
Of course, growth potential for any media property depends on a raft of factors not least of which is the audience potential for its genre/niche. But it is good to see that simple, active, targeted promotion pays off.
iTunes is hardly impotent as a podcast promotion engine, but this is another example of reality not living up to perception within the podcasting space.
[tags]itunes,podcasting,promotion[/tags]
2 Responses to “Is iTunes losing its podcast audience-generating crown?”
February 25th, 2007 at 12:14 am
Perhaps podcasters don’t pay enough attention to Google and should work hard to build up visitors to their site with written content along side their audio.
March 8th, 2007 at 7:04 pm
Hugh,
I’m moving in the direction you talk of.
You may be interested in my post of Mar 7th on this podcast alley post.
For a long time I thought “where do the soccer fans hang out?”, and I’d be trying to pseudo-spam message boards, get a mention on established websites, etc.
It’s dawning on me that soccer fans hang out on Google, just like enthusiasts of every other genre.