What I’ve learned from two episodes of my first true podcast…">What I’ve learned from two episodes of my first true podcast…
So I’ve dabbled with the podcasting thing before, both here and on my family blog. Last week, since some friends of mine are heading into Chicago to attend a music festival with me, I began a podcast where I put on an hour-long radio show featuring music. The subject matter is pretty contained: I don’t talk tech, I don’t wax politic (at least not overtly) — I only talk about the music being played and any anecdotes related to the song, both historical and personal, since I’m kind of a music buff. If you’re curious, you can check it out. I can share how I put it together in comments or offline.
I emailed all of my friends and acquaintences. Maybe 200+ people (I have a lot of actual friends). And of that number, only six people seem to have signed up. Instead of handling the feed myself as I would have using podPress for WordPress, I signed up for FeedBurner, which provides stats on my podcast — who’s signing up via email vs. iTunes vs. Other, how many clicks back to the site have there been, how many downloads of the .mp3 files, etc. But 6 out of 200 is only 3%. I would have thought I’d get better results.
Then a friend of mine called me up yesterday, about a week after I first launched the podcast. She didn’t know what the whole podcasting thing was about, and was confused. So I made my friends a video on how to add my podcast to iTunes, now perhaps better understanding that while most of my oldest friends own iPods… they may never have downloaded a podcast. It might sound weird to this audience, but just think of it as an adoption challenge I didn’t see coming.
I sent the video to my friends, and the numbers the next day? They went DOWN.
Maybe it’s just a bad podcast. Don’t know. But as long as I have my six regular listeners, I’ll keep doing it.
I think what you may have needed is an email with an iTunes one click hyperlink that automatically launches the iTunes app and registers the application to watch the feed.
If others were like me they were like, “yah I’m definitely going to go sign up for that podcast,” but then their ADD kicked in and they spaced it.
Here’s a snapshot of a one click button:
http://www.screencast.com/t/xcc45Qo6u
And here’s a quick look at the anchor tag wrapping that button:
http://www.screencast.com/t/PgJWZUb0Eju
I’ll definitely take your advice the next time I advertise it (if I ever do it again). But something tells me that while I might have gotten a few more clicks, far fewer people understand podcasting (adults over 30, that is) than we’d like to think.
After sitting in at the GLS Conference in Madison last week, I’m even more convinced that even the people who are shaping technology use in schools and outside of schools only scratch the surface of what they can really do with the tools at their disposal.
I mean, most everything I’m producing I’m using tools that come free with my Mac. We’re talking COTS, and not overly complicated tools to use at that, but most co-workers look at the production as something that’s beyond them — when in fact most everything I’m doing is not all that special, not that hard or time-consuming to do and certainly not beyond even a 4th grader’s reach. So there’s a barrier, probably emotional, that blocks a lot of people from understanding it.
The challenge I see is part technical — as far as removing the barrier to entry — but a lot of it is psychological and design-oriented, as in how can I reduce or work around a fear that I don’t understand?
Aaron, I didn’t realize I missed your second podcast. I just signed up for your google group so hopefully I wont’ miss it next time. I would like to link to your next podcast in the next C2S newsletter. See you at Implementation Fest!?
Aaron, thanks for sharing your podcast.
(I must admit, I have never done or listened to a podcast).
I have always been amazed at the hype surrounding podcasting – mainly to be fair generated by the suppliers of hardware and software.
The truth is (and this is general and NOT personal) is that most people really aren’t that interesting…
One of the first people to get online in our family was my brother in law about 10 years ago. I said what’s it like and he said it’s like one great big car boot sale (I think you call them yard sales).
You spend ages wandering round other peoples junk looking for something you want.
This still rings true so – question for the floor -
Is podcasting the new car boot/yard sale ?