Recently, the Pew Internet & American Life Project, a non-partisan, non-profit research center that examines the social impact of the Internet, released the results of a survey that included questions about podcasting. They determined that 12% of Internet users say they have downloaded a podcast or vodcast.This is up 7% from a similar survey conducted in February-April of 2006.Here are the basics of the survey.

• Nationally representative telephone survey of 2,928 adults.
• Conducted during the month of August, 2006.
• Portion of the survey that covered podcast downloading was administered to 972 Internet users.

This survey has led to quite a bit of press about the subject. Catherine Holahan from Business Week wrote a recent article titled, “What Podcasting Revolution?” Melissa Campanelli’s article, “Podcast use Increases, not yet mainstream: Pew Study” was written for DM News; and Silcon Valley Sleuth blogs about it under, “Podcasts: growing pains or the end of hype?”So, what does this all mean for businesses interested in pursuing podcasting?These authors are positing that podcasting is falling on deaf ears.Mp3 players and applications like iTunes have only been around for a few years; in fact, podcasts really only started showing up in 2003. Considering the time frame, I’d say 12% of Internet users is not too shabby.What this study does not capture is how many people are simply listening or viewing the podcasts on the company’s website. For Horse Power, I know through analytics that the majority of our listeners actually listen to the podcasts directly from the blog.Podcasting is distinguished from other digital audio formats because it can be downloaded automatically using feeds like RSS, which makes it a distribution channel capable of delivering rich content. Other than that, it is still simply an audio or video file.What I think is so important about podcasting is that it has pushed businesses to think about how to improve the online experience with more audio and video content. Beyond that, it is fairly simply to distribute it through a feed and provide the opportunity for subscribers to listen or watch it on the go as opposed to being tied down to their computer. Based on the research, podcast dowloads are growing, so it is really a no brainer if you are producing this content anyway.Podcasting offers businesses the ability to personalize their brand and demonstrate their expertise. Even if the majority of listeners or viewers come to the website to download or stream the content there, as opposed to subscribing to the RSS feed and downloading it to their mp3 player or mobile device, they are still providing good content that helps build relationships with new and existing customers.In short, podcasting and vodcasting are simply cost-effective means of distributing content that you should be creating anyway. If the mainstream wants to listen to the hype, the counter-hype and follow the statisticians no matter the results, then great. To quote Marty Neumeier, “zig when the others zag.”tags: podcasting, vodcasting, blogs, pew study, horse power

This entry was posted by Robert Payne on Tuesday, November 28th, 2006 at 6:08 pm and is filed under Podcast, Relationships. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.