It’s easy to sit here and claim that podcasting is the best social media platform to get noticed in today’s noisy world, but the natural response question is, “Do you have any solid reasons for that claim or do you just like podcasting?” While we certainly do like podcasting, and it’s been good to Jason to the tune of $10 million dollars last time he ran the numbers, we do have four actual reasons we believe podcasting is the llama’s pajamas.
Run the Numbers
Recent estimates say that there are 450 million active blogs on the Internet today. On YouTube alone, 72 hours of video are uploaded every minute of every day. Can you say competition? Contrast that with only 200,000 podcasts listed in the iTunes directory. Our first reason to suggest podcasting offers you a better chance to get noticed is based on numbers alone.
Smart Phones
While we’re talking about numbers, here’s one to try on for size – it’s estimated there will be 1.82 billion smart phones in active use by the end of this year. Ponder that for a moment, then ponder this. More than 1.3 million of those suckers are activated every day around the world. Guess what more and more people are doing with their smart phones? Listening to podcasts!
Screen Time
One of the really awesome things about podcasting is, unlike video or blogs, you can listen while engaged in other activities like the mind-numbing drive to work, the energizing lunch break spent on a treadmill, or simply standing in line to order tacos. Video and blogs require a consumer to put everything else on hold while they pay attention. If there’s one thing this frantic-paced modern world does not tolerate well, it’s stopping everything in order to focus on a singular task. Podcasting is the perfect infotainment option for the multi-tasker.
Greater Influence
Cliff Ravenscraft (Podcast Answer Man) made another great point. All other things being equal, the human voice carries more influence than the written word. While there are incredibly eloquent blog posts going online every day, humans have shown a preference for audio or visual learning and entertainment. Listening to a podcast is like an aural window into the soul and mind of the podcaster. We hear the passion and the humor as expressed to an extent simply not possible through writing.
There you have it – four pretty darn good reasons Internet marketers like Jason Hartman are using podcasting to catapult their platform to the next level. (Top image: Flickr | sridgway)
* Read more Speaking of Wealth articles
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