Rethinking the role of statistics
Many podcasters look for ways to measure success. The most common, and possibly most validating, is monitoring statistics such as subscription downloads, web downloads and plays through an online player. For each download we can track the country of origin, date, day of week, time, and frequency of downloads. These numbers can be used to create pretty graphs — many of which are generated automatically — and software tools allow us to chart trends.
Despite all of this amazing technology, we are still unable to measure how much of each episode was listened to and whether or not the listener was actually engaged in the program when they listened. Measuring this level of engagement sounds like having the ability to generate a podcast consumption box score. Oddly, it’s the level of engagement that makes the most difference.
It’s easy to become addicted to the numbers and overlook the personality and purpose of the podcast, and the community which it serves. I know that Andrea and I have spent various periods of our “podcasting careers” refreshing the stats pages of our sites on a very short cycle. That was until recently when an upgrade of the Podpress player caused a problem that could only be overcome (bypassed, if you like) by disabling the stats collection function.
Try taking a step back from following your stats this week. Use the extra time to read a book, relax, or (if you’re like me) work on additional creative projects (podcast or other). If you make it to the end of the week, see if you can make it to the end of July and then to the end of the summer. Since stats historically decline over the summer, it’s probably best for your ego to ignore them now, anyway. If you still need your stats at the end of the summer, find a compromise between obsessing and ignoring.
July 15th, 2007 at 11:50 am
My question is - does it even matter how much of a podcast someone consumes?
I say no. What’s more important is the action the person takes. If I sign a thousand dollar deal with a new client or if I sell 100 copies of my CD, whether 100% of my audience chose to listen to all 15-mins of my podcast no longer matters.
At the end of the day, it’s the results that win out. That’s the level of engagement I’m looking for.
July 15th, 2007 at 12:11 pm
If people play any amount of a podcast to keep themselves company and they don’t actually register what is being said, presented or requested, the stats don’t matter — if you are serious about what the stats mean. That is, a call to action is pointless no matter how many downloads you have if noone listens to (or acts on) the call to action. [sidebar: calls to action can be for anything... to submit feedback, enter a contest, buy a product or service, or do a good deed for someone else]
There’s a difference between receiving, hearing and listening. For the most part, statistics only tell you that the Podcast was received.
July 17th, 2007 at 12:28 am
I agree with you Mark..we can indeed get sucked into the stats vortex. Many of us are trying to “quantify” our shows…trying to see if we are making some sort of impact. The stats that we have available to us now only do indeed tell us the “package was delivered”…there is no insight as to what happened after.
The fact that we are producing content that on the most part gets consumed by people we may never meet. Like you said, I don’t want to be the noise in the background kind of podcast. I want to be the kind of show that people have to stop what they are doing and listen intently to what I’m providing. I like to craft the shows in such a way that the listener wants to …nay…feels compelled to listen to the whole show.
I’ll take one comment from a listener that says I made them smile to 1000’s of downloads anytime even if that one comment is from me.
I see podcasting more along the lines of mutual funds…you’re biggest return is gained in the long term investment.
Andy Bilodeau
http://andycast.net
July 18th, 2007 at 12:17 pm
I’d go a step further and encourage people to stop looking at their stats altogether. *Not* knowing when numbers are rising or falling has made my content stronger. If I don’t know what the numbers are, I can easily use my podcast to talk to one person instead of a group of people.
In the late ’90s, when I *was* checking my stats daily (hourly) my content suffered dramatically. I was trying to please all the people all the time. Which is, of course, impossible.
July 23rd, 2007 at 8:42 pm
I am in this for fun, I am in this to meet some, talk to some, and with a couple of my podcasts, educate some. Comments, emails etc mean the most. I am not trying to sell anyone anything.
For T6, the one I do for the University, I have to care about the stats, cuz well, they pay all my bills for that and for our gear. So, once a year I give a presentation telling about how many listeners we have had.
For Broca’s and Why and the lectures and Tangential Convergence, well they are fun. The ones that never seem like work, ever are Broca’s and TC. One is with the most wonderful woman in the world and one is with a close friend. These are reasons for us to hang out and talk. I like to think people listen, but I really don’t look much at the stats any more. I think Sage is correct, when you don’t much give a hoot about the stats you make better stuff.
Oh yeah and remember, bring da king….
July 23rd, 2007 at 8:45 pm
Oh and one more thing, the longer we keep not being able to truly measure this stuff, the longer we can keep it indie.