We all have a vague idea that Podcasting is a medium for young people- but obviously our information is not grounded in evidence.
So I thought I'd find out- Who is our audience? This research is obviously American-centric, but since our project is very much globalist AND technologically our society is on part with the US, these graphs are very useful.
1. Nearly 50% of Podcast Consumers are between the ages of 12 and 34.
This graph shows that 37% of Americans are between the ages of 12 and 34. But as you can see from the graph below this comprises of half of the podcast consumers in America.
This doesn't alter our strategy of creating technologically edgy, interesting content. The market for podcasts, vidcasts, animations have already been firmly established. The Edison Consumer Report demonstrated that although the term 'Podcasting' has hit its cap [the amount of people that recognise it], the accessibility Smartphones now provide, has increased Podcasting the behaviour. The report recommends podcast producers to provide multiple hooks and packages for their content- even separating 'Podcasts' from 'Shows' to acknowledge differences in consumption habits and audience.
This justifies our multimedia approach- we are acknowledging the dynamic new media environment where we can accommodate personal tastes in medium while providing useful content.
2. Podcast users are more likely to use social networking websites.
Perhaps more importantly, Podcast users are a lot more active on Twitter than non Podcast users.
This tells us a lot about podcast consumers. They are more accessible through social networking than other members of society so we'll be able to communicate to our audience via Facebook and Twitter. I've created a Twitter and a Facebook page for our podcast so that we can access the masses and market our feature effectively.
BUT our marketing should not end there. In Lecture 3: Avoiding the Googlisation of Everything, we learnt about Search Engine Optimisation and what we can do to make your page as 'searchable'. The importance of marketing early is important, so I've added some meta-tags to our blog.
3. Podcast Consumers are also likely to be Content Creators
So we've had a lot of issues with what our content should actually be. "Is podcasting about podcasting too mundane?" was a big concern for all of us. But lets consider a few things first:
- If we do a podcast on "handshakes" or other cultural oddities, is our podcast unique? I mean, what separates it from any other podcast out there? By creating a web feature for individuals interested in podcasts, we create a fresh angle on a relatively unexplored field. I mean, we are all podcast users, but have we ever seen an investigation on podcasting?
- The Content doesn't need to be boring! Lets get some interesting guests on to talk about their podcasting experiences and give credibility to our feature!
- If the graph above tells us anything, its that podcast users are more likely to be podcast creators. Our market is set up well- a twenty-something podcast consumer who is more likely and enthusiastic to set up his/her own podcast.
- In Lecture 2: Citizen Journalism we learnt about Terry Flew. What I took away from Flew was that we live in an era of citizen journalism- and as journalism students we should not only be trying to understand the world of podcasting, but also how this idea of democratisation of information works. When we make a podcast about podcasting, we are embodying Margaret Simmons' Gift Economy. Once we share this informative feature, we are not only giving our podcast users with the tools for producing their own podcast via our "how to make a podcast" content, but also are demonstrating how the delineation between amateur-professional of the "old media" no longer applies.
No comments:
Post a Comment