WEBVTT 00:00:03.650 --> 00:00:08.629 Neil McPhedran: Welcome to Continuing Studies, a podcast for higher education podcasters to learn and get inspired. 00:00:08.850 --> 00:00:09.850 I'm Neil McPhedran. 00:00:10.590 --> 00:00:15.509 I'm founder of Podium Podcasts, an agency for higher education podcasters. 00:00:16.410 --> 00:00:20.129 Jennifer-Lee: And I'm Jennifer-Lee Gunson, the founder of Jpod Creations. 00:00:20.130 --> 00:00:21.930 We want you to know you're not alone. 00:00:22.265 --> 00:00:27.285 In fact, there are many of you higher ed podcasters out there and we can all learn from each other. 00:00:27.685 --> 00:00:31.884 Please also join our community at higheredpods.com. 00:00:32.125 --> 00:00:33.535 Neil McPhedran: Jen, just you and me today. 00:00:34.565 --> 00:00:35.174 Jennifer-Lee: That's it. 00:00:35.174 --> 00:00:36.804 Just the two of us. 00:00:37.134 --> 00:00:37.765 Neil McPhedran: Here we go. 00:00:37.785 --> 00:00:39.544 Jennifer-Lee: Building castles in the sky. 00:00:39.585 --> 00:00:40.894 That's all I know of that song. 00:00:41.534 --> 00:00:42.044 Neil McPhedran: I like that. 00:00:43.204 --> 00:00:56.279 So, Jen, this episode came out of a conversation that, I had with another higher ed podcaster that I've known for a couple of years. 00:00:56.279 --> 00:01:08.010 And we got a little bit deep into talking about some Apple analytics and Spotify analytics and some of the things that have changed, as well as some YouTube analytics. 00:01:08.010 --> 00:01:12.760 She was like, oh, that would be a great thing for you guys to talk about on Continuing Studies. 00:01:12.770 --> 00:01:14.670 So that's what we're going to do today. 00:01:14.850 --> 00:01:22.850 Jennifer-Lee: I'm really excited about this because something that everyone talks about is analytics, but a lot of people don't know how to understand the analytics. 00:01:22.860 --> 00:01:23.190 Yes. 00:01:23.390 --> 00:01:28.170 Podcasting is still very young and there's certain metrics that people look at more than others. 00:01:28.280 --> 00:01:30.100 So I'm really glad that we're going through this. 00:01:30.140 --> 00:01:42.240 And I, another big question that I get asked all the time is obviously you have your hosting platform that shoots to audio only platforms like Spotify and Apple, Amazon, all those, and many more. 00:01:42.650 --> 00:01:43.550 And then, of course, you got YouTube. 00:01:43.550 --> 00:01:48.620 And YouTube is kind of out on its like separate thing, but their analytics are important. 00:01:48.630 --> 00:01:52.820 So I think a lot of people get confused, like, why are all these on this one? 00:01:52.830 --> 00:01:55.580 And then YouTube is out in the ether. 00:01:56.090 --> 00:01:57.439 What does this all mean? 00:01:57.720 --> 00:01:59.030 Why should I care? 00:01:59.250 --> 00:02:03.240 How does this affect my podcast growing in the future? 00:02:03.480 --> 00:02:05.040 That was a lot of important questions. 00:02:05.040 --> 00:02:05.720 Neil McPhedran: That was good, Jen. 00:02:05.770 --> 00:02:06.350 I like that. 00:02:06.600 --> 00:02:08.940 Jennifer-Lee: And you answer them all now because you're the expert. 00:02:09.200 --> 00:02:09.790 Neil McPhedran: Here we go. 00:02:09.970 --> 00:02:11.070 You know, I think you're right, Jen. 00:02:11.090 --> 00:02:21.070 In our hosting platforms, and then there's other things, if we've subscribed to Chartable or we, you know, we talked a couple of months ago about OP3 for analytics. 00:02:21.209 --> 00:02:23.110 That's all looking at downloads. 00:02:23.180 --> 00:02:30.560 Jennifer-Lee: But downloads, what I want to say, because this is controversial, is a lot of people are starting to crack down on download numbers. 00:02:30.560 --> 00:02:33.255 Because everyone's like, oh, I got a million downloads. 00:02:33.355 --> 00:02:36.565 That doesn't mean that the people listen to your podcast though. 00:02:36.615 --> 00:02:38.915 And that is the controversy that's going on. 00:02:38.915 --> 00:02:41.685 It's people say, what do we care about downloads? 00:02:41.905 --> 00:02:44.674 But a lot of people are like, no, it's how much is listened. 00:02:44.915 --> 00:02:45.454 Neil McPhedran: Yeah, you're right. 00:02:45.464 --> 00:02:51.505 So there's two sides to that download conundrum, which is, you're right, a download is not necessarily a listen. 00:02:51.795 --> 00:02:57.185 And we know that Apple, for example, is an app that automatically shoots through a download. 00:02:57.185 --> 00:03:01.115 So there's a whole bunch of people walking around there with downloads on their phones. 00:03:01.720 --> 00:03:03.090 And they haven't actually listened. 00:03:03.510 --> 00:03:08.160 The other side of that though, is YouTube isn't in those numbers. 00:03:08.170 --> 00:03:10.080 So as you were saying, it's a completely separate platform. 00:03:10.300 --> 00:03:11.479 Jennifer-Lee: It's still important too. 00:03:11.480 --> 00:03:13.340 Neil McPhedran: It's hugely important. 00:03:13.400 --> 00:03:16.770 It's like for all the podcasts we work with, YouTube is in the mix of the top three. 00:03:17.350 --> 00:03:25.310 Apple, Spotify, YouTube, not always in that order, I should say, but those are the top three apps for almost all the podcasts that, that we work with. 00:03:25.750 --> 00:03:31.385 So the other one, that's the sort of a new plot thickens, Jen, is, Spotify. 00:03:31.775 --> 00:03:41.745 So you can now in Spotify, oh, I should say we're going to put in this episode, 'cause we're talking about stuff that I'm showing Jen on a screen. 00:03:42.075 --> 00:03:46.125 So we're going to either try to put this into a video or we're going to put it in as chapters. 00:03:46.125 --> 00:03:48.325 So we're going to try to grab a lot of these images to show. 00:03:48.344 --> 00:03:50.365 Jennifer-Lee: Not only I get the secrets you get the secrets. 00:03:50.365 --> 00:03:50.865 Neil McPhedran: That's right. 00:03:52.125 --> 00:03:56.190 So in Spotify you can now add video. 00:03:56.270 --> 00:03:59.380 And for the first part, it was like, you have to be invited and, or you had to use, 00:03:59.380 --> 00:04:01.140 Jennifer-Lee: Or you had to be using their account, 00:04:01.140 --> 00:04:02.130 Neil McPhedran: Megaphone. 00:04:02.190 --> 00:04:02.940 Yeah, that's right. 00:04:02.980 --> 00:04:06.599 That's, now you can do it, literally you look, you go into the episode level. 00:04:06.660 --> 00:04:16.480 So we're not going to get into today, how to log into your Apple Podcast Connect, Spotify for Podcasters or your YouTube Studio. 00:04:16.780 --> 00:04:19.595 Those are the three platforms you got to get logged into. 00:04:20.205 --> 00:04:23.205 Reach out to me, I can help you access those if you don't have access already. 00:04:23.205 --> 00:04:29.215 So we're assuming you've got access to all three of those and you're looking at your podcast in those three platforms. 00:04:29.875 --> 00:04:30.794 Back to Spotify. 00:04:30.795 --> 00:04:36.165 So once you go into Spotify and on the left hand rail, you've got home, you've got your analytics. 00:04:36.535 --> 00:04:40.855 Then you got episodes, comments, I'm going to talk about all those, but episodes. 00:04:40.865 --> 00:04:46.735 If you go in, you can hit the little three dots on the right and you can actually upload your video. 00:04:47.025 --> 00:04:53.565 So you upload the video version of your episode and now it's a video version. 00:04:53.835 --> 00:04:57.735 So if someone's listening to it, then they're not looking at the video. 00:04:57.735 --> 00:05:00.505 They're going to hear it, going to be an audio version. 00:05:00.875 --> 00:05:03.365 Or if you're looking at your screen, you can look at the video. 00:05:03.875 --> 00:05:13.625 But if you upload that video into Spotify, and we've got an example here for Think Fast Talk Smart, where we've uploaded our last two episodes, as video, those are no longer downloads. 00:05:13.955 --> 00:05:15.355 So this is the other end of the spectrum. 00:05:15.655 --> 00:05:21.165 So not only is there a whole bunch of downloads that are bologna, not really listens. 00:05:21.204 --> 00:05:28.780 If you upload your video into Spotify, no matter if someone listens to it or watches it, it no longer counts as a download. 00:05:29.160 --> 00:05:31.240 So now all your Spotify downloads go away. 00:05:31.240 --> 00:05:37.160 So for a show like Think Fast Talk Smart, a third of our quote unquote downloads are from Spotify. 00:05:37.890 --> 00:05:40.580 These last two episodes have zero downloads. 00:05:40.870 --> 00:05:41.930 But they have all the listens. 00:05:41.940 --> 00:05:47.420 So long rambling way to say why downloads are less and less and less important. 00:05:47.630 --> 00:05:54.540 Digging into these platforms and seeing as Jen, as you said, real listens, real views, and a bunch of this other stuff we're going to get into. 00:05:54.730 --> 00:06:02.720 Jennifer-Lee: This is super new still, because like, you weren't allowed to upload video unless you were a member of the platform. 00:06:04.210 --> 00:06:10.580 I think I know the answer while I'm looking at it, but I'm going to let you look at it and answer me because I'm sure everyone has the same question. 00:06:11.070 --> 00:06:21.270 Is, with the video, do we know if people are watching the video or listening to the audio only version, or is it counting it all as one? 00:06:21.390 --> 00:06:22.659 Neil McPhedran: Good question. 00:06:22.780 --> 00:06:28.360 So when you're in the episode section and you click into an episode, you actually see the analytics for that episode. 00:06:29.040 --> 00:06:38.410 And what's really cool is, it's the overall, they call it listeners just to keep their verbiage less confusing. 00:06:38.450 --> 00:06:42.160 You see starts, so people who've started the episode. 00:06:42.170 --> 00:06:47.340 Streams, the total number of times that's been streamed and a stream is over sixty seconds. 00:06:47.490 --> 00:06:50.770 Then you have listeners starts and listener streams. 00:06:50.780 --> 00:06:52.440 So those are more individuals. 00:06:52.529 --> 00:06:58.640 So the total listeners number below it, you see the video stats. 00:06:58.650 --> 00:07:07.630 So of the five thousand and six, what they call listeners, the streams, one thousand six hundred and seventy-two in this case are viewers. 00:07:07.640 --> 00:07:11.150 So it does show you the percentage that are viewers. 00:07:11.160 --> 00:07:12.000 It breaks it out. 00:07:12.010 --> 00:07:14.830 You see the total number listens and views. 00:07:15.160 --> 00:07:18.890 And then you see the viewers and the views numbers below it. 00:07:18.900 --> 00:07:21.950 So you can then extrapolate, okay, well, that was like what? 00:07:21.950 --> 00:07:29.290 thirty-five or thirty-four hundred audio listens and sixteen hundred views for a total of five thousand streams. 00:07:29.550 --> 00:07:31.860 And then you got your total consumption hours. 00:07:31.869 --> 00:07:35.425 So, this episode, the most recent episode, which was just Tuesday. 00:07:35.425 --> 00:07:40.845 So it's a couple of days in, it's already had one thousand six hundred and ninety-seven hours of listen time to it. 00:07:41.435 --> 00:07:43.395 And then you can see how much of that is watched. 00:07:43.395 --> 00:07:47.915 So twenty-one percent is watched, thirty-three percent is overall. 00:07:47.934 --> 00:07:50.305 So that's pretty cool though, to see that. 00:07:50.364 --> 00:07:51.244 Does that make sense, Jen? 00:07:51.314 --> 00:07:52.065 That's pretty neat, hey. 00:07:52.350 --> 00:07:53.240 Jennifer-Lee: Yeah, it's really neat. 00:07:53.290 --> 00:07:58.720 And I was just gonna say it's interesting because I've seen popular podcasts that have a lot of listens. 00:07:59.420 --> 00:08:09.070 And they use YouTube as a search format and maybe the watch time is not as high as the listening of the episode. 00:08:09.070 --> 00:08:16.900 So it's really interesting to see that on Spotify, there was quite a few views, but still listening won out. 00:08:16.940 --> 00:08:28.543 So it's just interesting to me that it's important to have these videos and not all podcasts that, but I've just noticed that some massive podcasts, you'll go on their video YouTube account and they don't have that much watch. 00:08:28.973 --> 00:08:32.363 And so it's just interesting to see how they're still going hand in hand. 00:08:32.403 --> 00:08:36.313 Listening is still the key, but it's important to be on video for searching. 00:08:36.953 --> 00:08:38.383 Neil McPhedran: Yeah, very much so. 00:08:39.263 --> 00:08:42.633 I think the other really interesting one is the episode performance. 00:08:43.163 --> 00:08:48.363 So you can see sort of how far people get along in it. 00:08:48.383 --> 00:09:03.408 And another one to look at there is in Apple, they've got something very similar where you can dive into episodes and Apple's version of that same similar metric is called average consumption. 00:09:03.948 --> 00:09:15.378 So on their side, and this is a really key one to look at, you can look at what's the average that people are getting through a certain episode before they're bailing, before they're jumping ship. 00:09:15.438 --> 00:09:18.868 I like to say anything sort of in the seventies and up is good. 00:09:19.258 --> 00:09:23.368 Anything below the seventies something's broken. 00:09:23.668 --> 00:09:26.348 Anything in the fifties and forties is really broken. 00:09:26.748 --> 00:09:30.258 But this is a good way to see an episode's performance. 00:09:30.408 --> 00:09:36.418 There's an episode here, 161 back in September, it's at a seventy-eight percent consumption. 00:09:36.418 --> 00:09:45.578 So of the people who start listening to, of this engaged listeners numbers, people are getting on average, at least seventy-eight percent of the way through the episode. 00:09:45.578 --> 00:09:47.398 So content is interesting. 00:09:47.398 --> 00:09:51.088 This is a really key analytics number to look at. 00:09:51.088 --> 00:09:58.148 So if we looked at our own podcast on this one, let's just flip over to our podcast. 00:09:58.168 --> 00:09:59.248 We've got way less data. 00:09:59.593 --> 00:10:02.203 Jennifer-Lee: I know a lot of people when they're first starting out get discouraged. 00:10:02.213 --> 00:10:07.733 Of course, we were looking at a very successful podcast, Think Fast Talk Smart, who's been around for a long time. 00:10:07.893 --> 00:10:09.643 A lot of people aren't sure what to look at. 00:10:09.653 --> 00:10:16.423 They'll just look at the numbers and obviously a lot of numbers aren't very high yet when you're first starting out, and then you get discouraged. 00:10:16.443 --> 00:10:26.713 But there is some good data to look for that can help you really shape your show in order to grow and get up to the level of Think Fast Talk Smart one day. 00:10:26.933 --> 00:10:28.043 Neil McPhedran: Yeah, I think that's a good point. 00:10:28.043 --> 00:10:32.473 So a few things to look at is one, your follower growth. 00:10:32.713 --> 00:10:35.003 And I like to look at that month over month. 00:10:35.213 --> 00:10:38.523 What's happening there, month over month, and watch that grow. 00:10:38.523 --> 00:10:46.263 And look at that in Spotify, in Apple, in YouTube, and you can look at that in Amazon and there's a bunch of other platforms you can look at. 00:10:46.263 --> 00:10:47.163 So that's one thing. 00:10:47.563 --> 00:10:52.203 And even if they're small listener numbers, like just sort of seeing how are those moving forward. 00:10:52.203 --> 00:10:56.873 But I think a really good one is what we were just talking about, which is this average consumption. 00:10:56.903 --> 00:11:03.923 Because even if it's only two or three people listening to an episode, that's still going to give you a percentage of how far they're listening through. 00:11:03.923 --> 00:11:12.083 So for example, a couple of ones that are resonating on ours was we had Sam Sethi on talking about Podcasting 2.0. 00:11:12.083 --> 00:11:16.793 We've got an episode where it was demystifying Yale admissions. 00:11:16.803 --> 00:11:20.523 Those had seventy-four and eighty percent consumption. 00:11:20.523 --> 00:11:25.263 So, you know, that was a forty-three minute episode and a thirty minute episode. 00:11:25.263 --> 00:11:26.593 So that's pretty good. 00:11:26.603 --> 00:11:31.973 Even though it's not a whole bunch of listens, we can go like, this content resonated with the audience. 00:11:31.973 --> 00:11:37.523 Versus we did our Best Of, maybe this is something for us to consider Jen because we're talking about our 2024. 00:11:38.713 --> 00:11:46.188 So we did our Best Of last year, and it was forty-six percent listened through, average consumption. 00:11:46.558 --> 00:11:47.328 That's not good. 00:11:47.348 --> 00:11:50.188 You know, our other episodes are like seventy percent or whatever. 00:11:50.188 --> 00:11:53.768 So, so obviously that didn't resonate with the audience. 00:11:53.778 --> 00:11:57.828 Jennifer-Lee: So what I just learned was that they don't like episodes that we don't have a guest. 00:11:57.828 --> 00:11:59.738 So does this mean this one's going to tank? 00:12:00.728 --> 00:12:01.518 Neil McPhedran: I hope not. 00:12:01.558 --> 00:12:12.228 Or it just means that putting an episode out around the Christmas holidays, that's a best of where you and I are just talking about what we like the best, is not what people are interested in. 00:12:12.228 --> 00:12:16.618 So maybe now that we're thinking about what we're going to do for our year end, we don't do the same thing again. 00:12:16.848 --> 00:12:21.028 Jennifer-Lee: I thought maybe it's just people would rather us have a guest instead of listen to the two of us. 00:12:21.028 --> 00:12:24.088 Neil McPhedran: Well, you know what, we're going to go back and we're going to get that data from this one too. 00:12:24.128 --> 00:12:32.763 Jennifer-Lee: But that is an important, uh, thing that you were talking about is time listen, because I know people that have like small audiences of fifty, which is good. 00:12:32.773 --> 00:12:38.153 And they are getting like ninety percent of each episode listened to. 00:12:38.183 --> 00:12:39.073 So that's huge. 00:12:39.083 --> 00:12:42.203 Like how many people listen ninety percent to your episode? 00:12:42.203 --> 00:12:46.093 So I think that is an encouraging stat. 00:12:46.163 --> 00:12:47.633 And that's what people have to look at. 00:12:47.633 --> 00:12:47.883 Yes. 00:12:47.883 --> 00:12:52.463 If you have a small audience and they're listening to zero percent of your episode, then maybe you want to rethink it. 00:12:53.253 --> 00:12:54.133 Neil McPhedran: Yeah, totally. 00:12:54.593 --> 00:13:02.138 So let's keep talking just about this percentage consumption because YouTube has something similar that we can look at too. 00:13:02.138 --> 00:13:06.348 And you can see that percentage consumption in YouTube as well. 00:13:06.658 --> 00:13:09.048 And they call it the average view duration. 00:13:09.638 --> 00:13:11.058 And you can see that there. 00:13:11.058 --> 00:13:15.408 So those numbers aren't going to be as high because I think just the audience is a bit different. 00:13:15.438 --> 00:13:28.638 People jump ship a lot more on it, but you can see in YouTube as well, a similar percentage of which episodes are performing better with this notion of like, well, what's resonating with the audience more and how, how far are you listening through? 00:13:28.638 --> 00:13:32.888 So YouTube gives you total time listened and then that percentage as well. 00:13:32.888 --> 00:13:37.668 So you can compare episodes in Apple, as we just talked about. 00:13:37.758 --> 00:13:46.908 Average consumption, you can compare that same episode in YouTube with this average view duration, and then you can also look at the episode performance. 00:13:46.908 --> 00:13:55.788 In Spotify, they have a similar thing where you can sort of see in the first seven days or whatnot, sort of how far people streamed along kind of a thing there, too. 00:13:55.788 --> 00:13:57.708 So that's a great one to look at. 00:13:57.748 --> 00:14:06.093 So going back to Apple, there's some other really interesting stuff, Jen, I think to look at sticking on episode performance here. 00:14:06.463 --> 00:14:08.763 There's actually what they call performance. 00:14:08.913 --> 00:14:09.973 It's one of the tabs. 00:14:10.363 --> 00:14:13.943 And what that one is doing is you're comparing episodes. 00:14:14.313 --> 00:14:19.383 So you can look at your most recent ones, or you can go back into your catalog and you're comparing it to what's the median. 00:14:19.413 --> 00:14:22.763 Apple does a performance median. 00:14:23.023 --> 00:14:28.188 It grabs that, and then graphs the other recent episodes or whatever you choose. 00:14:28.188 --> 00:14:36.998 You can toggle around and you can pick the ones to see like which ones are performing above the median and which ones are performing below. 00:14:37.088 --> 00:14:40.068 What you're looking at is listeners. 00:14:40.078 --> 00:14:40.828 So this is good. 00:14:40.828 --> 00:14:42.028 This is not downloads. 00:14:42.478 --> 00:14:43.388 This is listeners. 00:14:43.398 --> 00:14:45.808 So the number of people that listen to those episodes. 00:14:45.858 --> 00:14:52.373 This is another one where you can look at and compare episode performance, from episode to episode. 00:14:52.373 --> 00:14:54.953 And which ones are performing better, which ones aren't. 00:14:54.983 --> 00:15:04.863 And I think this is great for podcasts in this category, higher education podcasts, because really we're not here to push downloads to sell ads. 00:15:04.863 --> 00:15:10.683 We're here to make sure that the content that we're putting out there is working. 00:15:10.693 --> 00:15:22.038 And I think really what we want to use these analytics for then is to go like, well, what were the subjects and the titles and the guests and the themes that did well. 00:15:22.248 --> 00:15:24.798 And which are the ones that didn't do well. 00:15:24.818 --> 00:15:30.548 So we can do more of the stuff that did well and less of the stuff that, that didn't do quite so well. 00:15:30.568 --> 00:15:36.808 So that's another way to look at it from an episode performance and compare episodes overall. 00:15:37.633 --> 00:15:40.793 Jennifer-Lee: It's something that a lot of people don't do enough. 00:15:41.323 --> 00:15:51.673 And even if they are successful in getting a lot of listens, is looking all the time at what's doing well and doing it properly. 00:15:51.673 --> 00:15:56.813 Because all of a sudden one day you don't look at it and then you make a wrong move and then your listens start going down. 00:15:56.823 --> 00:16:03.393 Or maybe you're missing something that could really lead you to gold and you're not paying attention to the analytics. 00:16:03.393 --> 00:16:07.293 I think a lot of people get confused by them and they just don't want to look at them. 00:16:07.293 --> 00:16:11.113 And then when they do, they're like, okay, but there's other things you can do with them. 00:16:11.113 --> 00:16:20.498 And what you said earlier too, it's about your goal because higher education podcasts are going to be different than business podcasts or celebrity podcasts. 00:16:20.868 --> 00:16:27.478 I know you and I work with our clients really trying to figure out what your goal is, because analytics shouldn't be scary and they shouldn't be devastating. 00:16:27.488 --> 00:16:29.818 They're a tool to help you get better. 00:16:30.628 --> 00:16:31.168 Neil McPhedran: Agreed. 00:16:31.168 --> 00:16:31.883 Agreed. 00:16:32.063 --> 00:16:33.503 Yeah, that's a really good point. 00:16:33.913 --> 00:16:35.363 So I mentioned followers. 00:16:35.373 --> 00:16:38.473 Followers is one that's really good to watch month in month out. 00:16:38.513 --> 00:16:39.803 That's who's following. 00:16:40.413 --> 00:16:42.543 Obviously, um, location. 00:16:42.543 --> 00:16:46.623 You can get location, countries and cities from all three of the apps. 00:16:47.293 --> 00:16:57.353 Spotify is the one app, well, YouTube to a certain extent gives you age and whatnot, but Spotify gives you audience data that you can't get from Apple. 00:16:57.353 --> 00:17:01.483 So that's one of the things that you get from Spotify that's unique and different. 00:17:01.483 --> 00:17:02.673 So you can look at your audience. 00:17:03.003 --> 00:17:03.893 You can look at gender. 00:17:03.903 --> 00:17:14.253 It gives you a gender split, female versus male, unspecified, non binary, as well as an age breakdown, and it breaks it down by male, female. 00:17:14.293 --> 00:17:17.423 So it breaks it down by gender on, as they stack on top of each other. 00:17:17.423 --> 00:17:18.703 So you can sort of see that. 00:17:19.103 --> 00:17:26.363 You can look at that and see trends, one month, way more of a male skew versus the next month is more female skewed. 00:17:26.493 --> 00:17:31.403 So that's some interesting stuff to grab as far as getting to know your audience in there too. 00:17:31.463 --> 00:17:39.943 One other really good one that's across all three platforms, I think is really good to pay attention to is, in Apple they call it time listened. 00:17:40.473 --> 00:17:44.193 And you can see month over month, how that is trending. 00:17:44.193 --> 00:17:45.573 Is it going up? 00:17:45.603 --> 00:17:46.613 Is it going down? 00:17:46.703 --> 00:17:48.943 What's your total time that has listened. 00:17:48.943 --> 00:17:52.013 So I think this is one that's really good to sort of see if you're trending. 00:17:52.013 --> 00:17:57.803 I think a caveat here is if you're a weekly podcast and it's a month, that has five episodes. 00:17:57.803 --> 00:18:02.883 'Cause if you're weekly, there's a couple of months that you're going to have five episodes versus the other months that are four. 00:18:03.283 --> 00:18:06.983 Obviously that time listened is going to be a little bit up as a result. 00:18:06.983 --> 00:18:09.243 So that's just something sort of pay attention to. 00:18:09.923 --> 00:18:14.153 In YouTube, that same idea is called watch time. 00:18:14.543 --> 00:18:19.673 So again, you can look at that by month and you can see, is that trending up, is that trending down? 00:18:20.203 --> 00:18:22.093 Think Fast Talk Smart, there's a bigger story here. 00:18:22.113 --> 00:18:30.763 We've just rebuilt the channel so we've kind of been starting from scratch, so our numbers are down a little bit, and we're seeing some really good month over month increases. 00:18:30.833 --> 00:18:37.603 And then you can get a similar thing out of Spotify at the episode level, which is called consumption hours. 00:18:37.623 --> 00:18:40.563 That gives you your total time people listened or viewed. 00:18:40.563 --> 00:18:46.223 So across those three channels, you can look at those numbers and you can stack them on top of each other. 00:18:46.413 --> 00:18:47.763 We like to do that with some of our clients. 00:18:47.763 --> 00:18:58.003 We'll stack those three numbers on top of each other and then compare it month in month out, going up, going down, which platforms are performing better, which platforms are we seeing things in. 00:18:58.003 --> 00:19:03.598 So another really good one to gauge as well, that total listen, total consumption time too. 00:19:03.668 --> 00:19:04.638 I really like that one. 00:19:04.658 --> 00:19:07.558 And I think more and more marketers are talking about that one too. 00:19:07.758 --> 00:19:11.808 Jennifer-Lee: For people that are doing their own look into analytics. 00:19:11.808 --> 00:19:14.028 I know you did a deep dive for clients. 00:19:14.108 --> 00:19:18.508 For people that are just starting out, what would you say would be the best thing to focus on? 00:19:18.508 --> 00:19:22.218 Because this gets pretty overwhelming if you're new to this and you're doing this for yourself. 00:19:22.298 --> 00:19:23.208 Neil McPhedran: That's a good question, Jen. 00:19:23.288 --> 00:19:27.288 I think that I wouldn't throw the download number out entirely. 00:19:27.288 --> 00:19:29.863 I think it's good to sort of keep an eye on that. 00:19:30.053 --> 00:19:32.993 Big moves in either direction can be a telltale. 00:19:33.013 --> 00:19:39.213 But it's just spending a little bit of time digging into these three platforms and looking at some of this stuff. 00:19:39.253 --> 00:19:46.933 And just even as simple as the front overview screen in Apple, you can choose a month. 00:19:47.033 --> 00:19:51.333 And it tells you right there, a whole bunch of stuff across the board and it's all green or red. 00:19:51.333 --> 00:19:52.253 It's like, is it up? 00:19:52.633 --> 00:19:53.393 Is it down? 00:19:53.733 --> 00:19:59.163 And I think that those are really good just general ways to sort of look at it overall. 00:19:59.163 --> 00:20:00.853 Like where are things trending? 00:20:00.983 --> 00:20:02.063 Same within YouTube. 00:20:02.113 --> 00:20:06.183 There's an overview screen to look at and similar in Spotify. 00:20:06.213 --> 00:20:07.943 You can look at the last calendar month. 00:20:08.543 --> 00:20:16.273 Spotify doesn't give you sort of at a glance, that up down percentage number, but that's easy to calculate. 00:20:16.293 --> 00:20:17.293 And we do that. 00:20:17.293 --> 00:20:21.503 And you can look at what your follower was at the beginning and the end to look at what that percentage is. 00:20:22.433 --> 00:20:27.983 I think the answer to your question is, is really like just digging into these platforms at all is going to be, I think, super helpful. 00:20:27.993 --> 00:20:29.653 You're going to start to see some things. 00:20:30.193 --> 00:20:36.743 Focus on the platform, like initially when things are just sort of trickling in, like, just look at the platforms. 00:20:37.013 --> 00:20:47.908 If Apple is where you're seeing most of the downloads and probably that's where you're going to see most of the data as well, too, if you're seeing hardly any downloads on Spotify, probably a bunch of this stuff is not going to come up for you on Spotify. 00:20:47.918 --> 00:20:51.338 So focus in on those platforms that you're seeing this data. 00:20:51.338 --> 00:20:59.378 And even if you're on a monthly basis, just set something in your calendar and go in and look at that, just at the overview screen for all three of those. 00:20:59.608 --> 00:20:59.868 Jennifer-Lee: Yeah. 00:20:59.868 --> 00:21:14.628 And if you are using a hosting platform, like I started back in the day on Anchor FM, which is now Spotify for podcasters, they are really easy to look at and they grab all the data and put it into bite sized pieces for you. 00:21:14.638 --> 00:21:18.718 So you don't have to go onto every single platform and look at it. 00:21:19.038 --> 00:21:22.858 So don't get overwhelmed, I think is what I'd say. 00:21:22.888 --> 00:21:26.648 And get yourself a Neil if you want to take a deep dive in. 00:21:26.678 --> 00:21:33.028 Because I know this stuff, but it's nice to have somebody that can really nerd out for me and tell me where the podcast is going. 00:21:33.028 --> 00:21:33.143 Neil McPhedran: Totally. 00:21:33.143 --> 00:21:39.258 And I'm happy to talk to anyone, anyone listening out there, just reach out, my email is in the show notes and I'm happy to chat. 00:21:39.718 --> 00:21:43.198 I just want to leave with one thing here 'cause we could keep, I could keep going. 00:21:43.298 --> 00:21:48.858 The one thing I would say I'll leave you with for Spotify is download the app. 00:21:48.858 --> 00:21:54.683 So you can get the app on the phone, which gives you kind of like a bite sized chunk of it, but also the comments. 00:21:54.683 --> 00:21:57.383 So comments have started, I think about a year ago. 00:21:57.383 --> 00:22:00.503 They started on Spotify and they're sort of coming on more and more. 00:22:00.653 --> 00:22:06.233 But go in and look at those because you can publish and you can unpublish, there's an automatic way to do it. 00:22:06.653 --> 00:22:08.033 You can also now reply. 00:22:08.063 --> 00:22:09.743 So it's like social media. 00:22:09.743 --> 00:22:12.623 You can heart a comment, you can reply to it. 00:22:12.683 --> 00:22:21.973 What we've seen with shows is by publishing the comments and replying and liking them, it begets more comments. 00:22:21.983 --> 00:22:30.353 So if you get a comment, pounce on it, reply to that person, make sure it's published, make sure other people can see it in the app because then other people are seeing it in the app. 00:22:30.373 --> 00:22:38.838 So I'll leave with that, that the comments are really an interesting thing that have recently started to be pushed by Spotify. 00:22:38.848 --> 00:22:45.138 And I would encourage you all to lean into it and to go into it and look at them in the desktop. 00:22:45.488 --> 00:22:53.158 But download the app too, because what it'll do is it'll ping you when a comment comes in as one of your notifications on your phone. 00:22:53.158 --> 00:23:00.208 And you can write then and there, you know, like it, make sure it's published, and if someone's asking you a question or whatever, reply to it. 00:23:00.503 --> 00:23:04.273 Jennifer-Lee: I have one more question now because you just sparked something before we go. 00:23:04.583 --> 00:23:13.633 And I was just having this discussion with a client the other day and they said, why is Apple the only one that you can do reviews on, like written. 00:23:14.293 --> 00:23:19.293 And the other ones have engagement like this one's got comments and hearts but not only that you can do stars. 00:23:19.763 --> 00:23:30.113 Which, you know, a lot of podcasts, you'll see that we're like, we got fifty-five stars on Spotify, but why are there not enough written reviews? 00:23:30.273 --> 00:23:37.703 Is that a feature that you think people are going to adopt more or they're going to stay away and do more engagement type things like comments, hearts, stars? 00:23:37.833 --> 00:23:38.613 Neil McPhedran: That's a good question. 00:23:38.863 --> 00:23:45.853 I think the big difference is just Apple has decided and focused on reviews at the show level. 00:23:45.863 --> 00:23:49.533 So almost like a movie review, TV show review. 00:23:50.153 --> 00:24:01.103 Spotify, and then I would say, I'd put YouTube in the mix too, instead of at the show level, well, to your point in Spotify, you can give it a star at the show level. 00:24:01.143 --> 00:24:03.763 Jennifer-Lee: And YouTube you can give it a like or a follow or, 00:24:03.863 --> 00:24:04.873 Neil McPhedran: Yeah, that's right. 00:24:04.963 --> 00:24:12.263 But what Spotify and YouTube is doing it at the episode level, more of a comment, more of a social media stream. 00:24:12.273 --> 00:24:16.453 So think of Spotify comments as reviews. 00:24:17.003 --> 00:24:18.383 at the episode level. 00:24:18.393 --> 00:24:25.433 So really, a lot of these comments are coming in that are reviews of the episode versus reviews of the show. 00:24:25.443 --> 00:24:27.563 So I would say that's the big difference. 00:24:27.693 --> 00:24:28.673 Jennifer-Lee: It's just interesting. 00:24:28.673 --> 00:24:32.653 It was a conversation we were trying to gather, successful podcast reviews. 00:24:32.653 --> 00:24:36.523 And they were like, why aren't there not other platforms that allow you written ones? 00:24:36.523 --> 00:24:38.803 And I was like, I never thought about that because, 00:24:39.063 --> 00:24:42.483 Neil McPhedran: That's what Spotify is doing, but they're just doing it at the episode level instead. 00:24:43.053 --> 00:24:46.873 And a lot of these things that come in, even at the episode level are really about the show. 00:24:46.873 --> 00:24:49.453 Like I've been a loyal fan of this podcast for a long time. 00:24:49.453 --> 00:24:51.533 I really enjoyed communicate techniques you share. 00:24:51.583 --> 00:24:54.663 I'm so happy that now in Spotify, I can not only listen, but watch the video. 00:24:54.663 --> 00:24:54.953 So. 00:24:55.213 --> 00:24:56.853 That really is a show that is a review. 00:24:57.243 --> 00:24:58.663 Yeah, that's a show review. 00:24:59.033 --> 00:25:00.353 A lot of times that's what it is. 00:25:00.353 --> 00:25:11.383 So in the comments in Spotify, they're kind of a mix of comments about that episode or the guest, but a lot of them are really about the show too, right? 00:25:11.383 --> 00:25:13.243 That's just sort of, I think a platform decision. 00:25:13.303 --> 00:25:15.213 Spotify is really leaning into this. 00:25:15.213 --> 00:25:23.753 Like I think Spotify is really wanting people to use this more and to be more like a social media, YouTube competitor. 00:25:25.023 --> 00:25:31.723 Jennifer-Lee: Well, and we'll leave on this Spotify is the only one that is a hosting platform and a player. 00:25:33.773 --> 00:25:38.193 Neil McPhedran: Yeah, and they bought a whole bunch of analytics tools and now they're gonna sunset some of them. 00:25:38.213 --> 00:25:39.513 So there's that too 00:25:40.743 --> 00:25:43.753 Jennifer-Lee: Anyways, on that note, talking about how Spotify owns everything. 00:25:44.778 --> 00:25:50.958 Well, so thank you for tuning into the Continuing Studies podcast, a podcast for our higher education podcasters. 00:25:51.308 --> 00:25:55.538 We hope you found this episode informative and inspiring, not scary at all. 00:25:55.848 --> 00:26:00.958 If you enjoyed the show, we encourage you to follow and subscribe to our podcast on your preferred platform. 00:26:00.978 --> 00:26:02.438 So you'll never miss an episode. 00:26:02.768 --> 00:26:05.918 Also now on Spotify, comment and heart us. 00:26:06.348 --> 00:26:14.658 But if you found this episode particularly valuable, 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