Author: Nick Booth

Podcasts worth $165 million in the USA

podcast dollars pounds incomeTechcrunch has some guestimates from eMarketeer that reckon the number of active podcast consumers in America was 6.5 million last year (who yielded advertising worth $165 million) and will grow to 25 milion in 2012. Now the bold use of future numbers (licked finger in air) is why I’ve always struggled with a business plan (what are your predictions of tunrover/profit in 3 years and 5 years – how the b***ocks should I know!?).

I’m interested that last year 18.5 million Americans listened to a podcast and a more importantly one third of those remained active listeners. One of the reasons for this is the ease with which podcast can be found and consumed. I’ve already speculated on this and know there is a real appetite for the right niche content, so based on these numbers perhaps I should refine the planning. But I wont be paying eMarketeer $695 for the full report. Now if they bothered to present it in audio or video….

4Talent – Social Media for the Creative Industries.

Gaping Void advertisingA while back Antonio Gould sat in my back bedroom and we talked about social media. He’d come round to record some ideas about podcasting for his fifth and apparently final Birmingham made Channel 4 media cast. It is a great listen. Antonio has a clear and enthusiastic delivery, well produced, with loads of very useful content.

The aim is to encourage creative businesses to use all forms of social media, but starting with basics like a blog or perhaps a podcast. I think the lessons apply equally to social enterprises and to local and community groups.
Mark McGuiness makes a compelling case for a realistic use of a blog. It’s like “networking on steroids”, he tells us before adds oddles of great advice and pointing us to copyblogger, one of my favourites gapingvoid of Hugh Mcleod’s Global Microbrand idea, and David Airey.

Emily Martin of Black Apple makes a great case study. Antonio met her when speaking in America about Etsy. She explains why her online home craft business (“I carry my original paintings and prints, and all sorts of curiosities”) benefits from the relationships established through blogging: “It’s not something that will be articulated in the business schools, but people get attached to you. It’s ephemeral and that’s why they like it”.
Indeed – the ephemeral is tricky to measure, but that doesn’t mean it has no value.

New Blog and Podcast for Brum and some help please – central wifi venue

It’s odd that one thing I haven’t written about recently is the Birmingham Bloggers Group (possibly re-framing itself as the social media group/cafe). Perhaps because I have so much to say about it I don’t know where to start – breaking the cardinal rule of blogging – which is to just start, stoopid.

We met for the first time last month and meet again next Monday 18th Feb.  First question (for help) is we would like a central venue with free wifi – Digbeth or City Centre – for probably about 15 people (maybe more) from 7 in the evening.  Booze and non booze on tap. Does the Friends of the Earth Cafe have wifi?

Also want to mention a couple of new things since the last meeting.   Mark Steadman should be joining us next week. He’s just launched the New Media Junkie podcast – find it here for the moment – new site to come soon. Mark is using podbean.com for hosting, a new one one me.  I host on my own space (a throw back to 2005 and misplaced ideas of being in control!) , but free hosting is plentiful and very usable.

Kevin Rapley has also created Digikev to write about social media.   Others new to me through the blogging group include Ben Neal,  The Boywonder bloggers,  and Paul Burns.

Well.  I’ve started.

Stroll Brum and mobile blogging.

feet walker in brum courtesy Pete Ashton

Walkit.com now covers Birmingham. Type in your start and finish places and it tells you the best route for walking. It reveals how far, expected time at different walking paces, how many calories you’ll burn depending on walk speed and even how much co2 you’ll save if you don’t drive. My place to Digbeth in 24 fast paced minutes. All it needs is to add return journey time at “drunk stagger” speed and the service will be complete. GREAT SITE.

In Barcelona, at the Mobile World Congress Nokia has unveiled sat-nav for strollers, with plans so sell 35million GPS phones this (y)ear. Maybe useful when you’re lost – but I’m not keen to wander down the street staring at my phone.

One thing Nokia is learning to do are those oh-so web 2.0 thangs – share and play according to Darren Waters on the BBC’s dot.life blog. Ovi is Nokias upgrade of what was once twango.com. It looks to me more like a proprietary user generated content and attention capture site – that thing we used to call a portal. I may be wrong. Darren says Ovi will allow people to upload up to 100 different file types. So an easily opened portal then.

Nokia does offer single button blog and flickr updates from some phones (although no social features on the website promoting them), but I think I’m still more keen on the iPhone var uri = ‘http://impgb.tradedoubler.com/imp?type(inv)g(17088080)a(1265758)’ + new String (Math.random()).substring (2, 11); document.write(‘‘); approach, which just offers you the web as you know it, and hence the freedom to use the web as you will, rather than Nokia will. Judging from the single comment on this entry it remains tied into specific apps.

However I have still to acquire a decent mobile phone and contract end is approaching, so anyone with experience of the N95 or iPhone for social media please let me know what you think.

Picture Pete, Hat Antonio.