What’s the deal with podcasting in 2009?

Posted by matthew on May 7, 2009 in Podcasts, Social Media, Television, Web/Tech | 0 comments

I was in San Francisco last week for two conferences (this one and this one). At one of the evening get togethers, the conversation turned briefly (and I do mean briefly) to podcasting. It went a little like this:

“So, how come no one talks about podcasting anymore?”

“Because it’s not new anymore. Everyone’s doing it. It’s totally mainstream.”

I guess I agree and disagree. A couple of years ago when I launched the company, I anticipated that podcast production would be a big part of the business model. With my years of experience as a video producer and director, it seemed like the next logical step in the evolution of online media creation. I was, and continue to be, a HUGE consumer of podcasts, many of them courtesy of NPR. But I was wrong about the production part being a big segment of my business. Aside from my own, we only produced a couple of others.

But back to the topic of podcasting and NPR…Tom Webster from Edison Research had some interesting stats that he presented at IMS. 43% of Americans are aware of this thing called podcasting, up from 22% just three years ago. And about 27 million Americans listened to a podcast in the last month. Chances are, a lot of them were from NPR.

While stories about the contraction of mainstream media outlets abound, an underreported story is how much NPR has grown, thanks largely to their bear hug embrace of new media. They consistently have several programs in the iTunes top 10 and traffic on NPR.org grew 78% from 2007 to 2008. There has been some internal conflict from member stations that they are essentially cannibalizing themselves. NPR member stations have to pay the mother ship for programming, but if all that programming is available online on matter which affiliate you listen to, you might be less inclined to give during pledge drive time.

Or maybe not. According to a recent article in Fast Company, the NPR audience “is perhaps more ready than most for the radical concept of paying for the content they consume… When we had to announce layoffs and cuts in December, there were comments on some of our stories: ‘How can we help? Where’s the give button?’ There’s a sense that the organization is leaving money on the table. People would like to contribute more to this service that they adore and depend on.”

Compared to traditional media, podcast audience numbers are still small. Yet, as we say over and over, it’s not about the quantity of your audience, it’s about the quality. 50,000 highly motivated listeners (or viewers) is preferable to 1 million indifferent ones.

Social Media and Online Video- 2009′s Power Couple

Posted by matthew on Apr 28, 2009 in Social Media, Television | 0 comments

Nielsen
released a study last week during ad:tech in San Francisco that tracked
the interests of the average online user from 2003 to today. Quite a
difference!

Video
and social networking sites are the two fastest growing categories in
2009. The stats are a little skewed since online video was not as
prevalent in 2003 as it is today, so when you read things like "the
number of American users frequenting online video destinations has
climbed 339% since 2003," it's sort of like saying "airplane travel is
up 100% since a similar period in 1809. Uh, yeah, I guess so,
seeing as how the airplane had not yet been invented.

Nevertheless,
the findings are still valid and paint a picture of what's to come for
marketers, advertisers and PR people. Here's the line that stuck with
me: "In the age of Twitter, feedback barriers have all but disappeared,
creating a near friction-free environment for playing back brand
experience, campaign reactions or brand events. Recent public cases
involving Motrin, Amazon and Domino's show that marketers must be quick and savvy to react to these unprecedented channels of instant feedback."

Read more and download the report here.

TV might not be dead…yet

Posted by matthew on Mar 27, 2009 in Television | 0 comments

What is being called the most extensive survey ever conducted about our media consumption habits was recently concluded by the Council for Research Excellence. Now, granted, the CRE receives funding from Nielsen, but the results might surprise you. Researchers directly observed participants over a total of 952 observed days.

Between TVs, smart phones, computer and even GPS screens, we are exposed to some kind of screen about 8.5 hours per day. Two of the findings that jumped out at me were that those aged 45-54 consume the most video media, and that computers have overtaken radio as the number two media activity, bumping radio to number 3 and print to number 4.

Another surprise was that the number of media minutes was virtually identical for every age group, with exception of those younger boomers (45-54) who spend an extra hour in front of a screen every day. Multi-tasking does not appear to be the sole province of the young and careless-folks in their 20s, 30s, 40s and 50s multi-task virtually the same amount.

You can read the report here. I guess we’re not as different as we all thought we were in terms of the way we consume media among the age groups. And, despite the inroads that internet TV is making, traditional TV remains the dominant player. But for how much longer?

Is Hulu changing our online video habits?

Posted by matthew on Feb 6, 2009 in Advertising, Social Media, Television, Web/Tech | 2 comments

Not sure how much higher the numbers can go, but the latest online video figures for December 2008 are out from comScore and they just keep on growing.

US internet users viewed a record 14.3 billion videos in December, up 13% over the previous month. Google sites, which include YouTube, accounted for 2 of every 3 users who watched video.

What is interesting to me is that Hulu made some big gains, meaning that the AMOUNT of time people spend watching video is also increasing. The average duration of online videos watched was just over 3 minutes, but that number jumps to over 10 minutes on Hulu. Not sure if Alec Baldwin’s Super Bowl commercial for Hulu will bump those numbers up any further- something worth watching (pardon the pun).

How and how much online video do you watch? Do you seek it out on your own, or do you rely on forwards? And what did you think of the Alec Baldwin ad? I thought Hulu missed a big opportunity by almost insulting us. Do you agree?

Trouble figuring out your social media strategy?

Posted by matthew on Jan 26, 2009 in Consulting, Politics, Social Media, Television, Web/Tech | 0 comments

So you’ve been hearing how social media can help with your overall communications and marketing plan and you want to get started. Maybe you’ve even got the boss to buy in and you’re beginning to see the opportunity to move the plan forward.

But it can be confusing knowing how to get started. You may even have technology issues. Or internal disagreements on messaging or who is going to manage the community. You think you got it bad?

At least you’re not the President of the United States!

The nimble and effective online netroots campaign that helped launch the Obama-Biden ticket into the White House is still feeling its way during the first days of the Administration. But the point of this post is not to point out the problems that they may be encountering as they try and turn what was a powerful campaign movement into an equally effective governing movement. But, rather, to illustrate that while the Obama team is operating on a scale larger than what you’re probably facing, the lessons are instructive to the rest of us, whether we run small, medium or large organizations or businesses.

Organizing for America is the Adminsitration’s attempt to redirect all that Facebook-Twitter-YouTube iTunes mojo into an opinion shaping entity. (No website yet for Organizing for America. I TOLD you this stuff can be hard!)

Just like in the “real world,” figuring out an effective social media strategy inevitably implies what some like to call “failing fast.” Not everything you will try will work right away, or work at all. But flexibility is critical. David Plouffe, Obama’s campaign manager said in an e-mail to around 13 million members of  “Obama for America” (notice how “Organizing for America” and “Obama for America” yield the same acronym? Clever, huh?) “This has obviously never been undertaken before, so it’s going to be a little trial and error.”

The weekly radio address is now also a weekly video address, and has been since Election Day. The YouTube channel, as of this writing, reports over 800,000 views in two days, with almost as many flame throwing and offensive comments. (The videos are also on iTunes, WhiteHouse.gov and probably lots of other places, too) Still, I wonder how many of you, even the most hardened politcal junkies, ever actually heard the weekly Presidential radio address since they began with FDR as “Fireside Chats?” (As a video guy, I have to mention the the quality of the videos have improved signifcantly from the President-Elect versions to now. Amazing what a couple of lights, a decent background and an HD camera can do for your image.)

The principal takeaways are these:

1- Starting, or in this case maintaining, an effective social media strategy is hard work and requires committment, dedication, attention to detail and continuity.

2- Be ready to shift on the fly if the law of unintended consequences kicks in. Just because something is not going how you planned, does not NECESSARILY mean it’s going badly. Your “perfect” strategy may be revealed as “imperfect” the second you launch it. Study the lessons and adjust.

Pay attention to the difficulties someone else is having, and use them to your advantage. But do SOMETHING. The success of your business may be at stake.

Online video is an unstoppable force

Posted by matthew on Jan 12, 2009 in Consulting, Social Media, Television | 0 comments

Since we are video producers, we are partial to this kind of news:

comScore announced that US internet users watched 12.7 billion online videos in November 2008, up 34% from November 2007. That translates to 77% of users watching nearly 4 hours of video per month EACH with the average video duration being around 3 minutes. THAT’S OVER 90 VIDEOS PER MONTH FOR EVERY MAN WOMAN AND CHILD ON THE INTERNET, or four videos a day. It boggles the mind.

Another recent survey says that 66% of marketers plan to implement online video into their 2009 plans. Uh…YEAH. You think?

Using social media to market your business or organization is more than setting up a Facebook page, as 59 of the top 100 US retailers have done, including BestBuy, Kohl’s and Wal-Mart. You need to connect with people and there is still nothing more powerful than the moving picture, whether it’s coming from your TV or, increasingly, your computer screen.

We’ve said it before, but it bears repeating: videos get shared, commented on and passed around endlessly. When was the last time you forwarded a banner ad to a friend?

How much video do you watch online? Has it changed your TV viewing habits at all?