Do Stats Matter?

Podcast Titles

FF = Felixstowe’s Finest
VPC = Verso’s Prock Cast
VPC YT = Verso’s Prock Cast on YouTube (same episodes)
VPC T = Verso’s Prock Cast
TM = Three Men and A?
WWH = What Was He In Again?

Analysis

I’ve been podcasting since August of 2021 and I love stats. But do they really tell me anything? The numbers below are the individual download figures for all the podcasts I have managed. Whilst they’re small numbers how do they fair in the world of podcasts? I’ve done a little bit of research and found these figures:-

If your new episode gets, within seven days of its release:

A) More than 30 downloads, you’re in the top 50% of podcasts.
B) More than 105 downloads, you’re in the top 25% of podcasts.
C) More than 405 downloads, you’re in the top 10% of podcasts.
D) More than 975 downloads, you’re in the top 5% of podcasts.
E) More than 4,588 downloads, you’re in the top 1% of podcasts.

All four of the podcasts hit A for their first episode with VPC maintaining that throughout it’s 12 episode run. FF maintained A for episode 2 but dropped off for episode 3. TM hasn’t reached A for it’s subsequent releases.

All the podcasts are “hosted” on official podcasting platforms who then distribute to places like Spotify etc. All figures are individual downloads not actual listeners. For example:- Joe Bloggs could download an episode then play it to three or four friends whilst in a car. So that download “could” equate to five listeners. We will never know the actual real audience.

Another interesting point is with VPC I uploaded the audio to a YouTube channel and as you can see from the table we had more listeners via YT than we have through the podcasting channel. Is this the way to go on all of the podcasts? Is it because people are familiar with YouTube whilst podcasting is yet another app they need to start using?

Spreading the word is one of my main bugbears. People will listen and enjoy but rarely share on their social media platforms. Why? Makes no sense to me.

Why sharing on social media is more important than liking.

It is the ultimate word-of-mouth and means that your content is reaching a much wider audience. In fact, Facebook’s/Twitter/Insta’s internal algorithms, which prioritise what users see on their news feeds, give shares more than 1,000% more importance than ‘likes’. So when people ask you to “share” their work it helps. It doesn’t cost you a penny but helps the shared content owner get more exposure.

I’ll keep on producing podcasts with friends, family and strangers because I love doing it. I’ll also keep producing the stats because of my inner geek. Who knows, maybe one day a podcast will be in the B or C bracket. That’d be lovely as the plan is to maybe monetise these and any profits get donated to foodbanks.