Studies are great tools for PR-professionals. Sometimes, we issue them ourselves to use in PR-strategies, or we use them in our client presentations to make a case. So, of course we jump happily on new studies, as has happened with the recent Forrester podcasting report. The line everybody jumped on was:
Our survey showed that only 1% of online households in North America regularly download and listen to podcasts.
This lead to statements such as podcasting is still just for geeks for example. Over night, podcasting as a PR-tool becomes indefinitely harder to sell. Look at other stats though:
3% of people 12-24 attribute reduced use of radio to listening to podcasts.
Podcasting is beginning to show evidence of cannibalizing radio’s time-spent-listening. (Link, study by Bridge Ratings)FeedBurner reports that the number of podcasts grows at a rate of 15%/month. (Link).
185.55 million users online in the US (Link, October 2005) via Neville
1 percent is about 1,8 million. Isn’t that a great number of potential customers? I’d say so. And remember, it is not about the numbers, but who listens. Listen to what guests on shows like the Gillmor Gang or Gillmor Daily have to say, how they have listened to this episode or that episode and enjoyed it (Hugh McLeod and Robert Scoble are two recent examples).
The potential is immense, and in my opinion, the Forrester report took a little air out of it, even if unintended. I’d go exactly the other way. Make one yourself. Keep it up. Tell everybody about it.
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