News
Saturday, May 20, 2006
M.A. in FIR
Congratulations, Luke!
Tuesday, May 02, 2006
Podcast survey: FIR listeners are influential, educated, mobile and global
The results are in from the first FIR Listener Survey that ran during April, providing us with invaluable feedback on a wide range of topics including what listeners think of the show, how and where they listen, and with some great suggestions on how to make it even better.
The survey results also provide a credible picture of who the listeners are to a podcast such as this, with a clear demographic view on listeners’ occupations, geographic locations, budget responsibility and education levels.
In all, the survey attracted 126 responses, a meaningful representative number from which to draw valid conclusions and make decisions on developing the show for the future. We estimate that each bi-weekly episode of FIR attracts between 800 and 1,000 listeners. This estimate is primarily based on download statistics from Libsyn where the MP3 files are hosted.
We will be publishing the entire survey results soon with the detailed responses to each of the 22 questions and some pretty graphs, including responses to the open-ended questions. All we will omit will be personally-identifiable information: the names of those of you who chose to provide such information when taking the survey will not be published.
In the meantime, here are some headline figures from the survey results.
Listening to FIR:
- Half of the listeners (49.2%) listen to every episode
- 45% get hold of the MP3 files via iTunes; 18% subscribe to the RSS feed; only 2.4% listen to the audiostream from the website
- Nearly two-thirds of you (61%) listen to FIR on a digital media player like an iPod
- Where you listen varies widely - 22% in the office; 16% on the commute to work, 15% at home, and 10% when jogging or doing other exercise
- Podcast-listening tends to be a solo activity - 95% of you listen to FIR by yourselves
- Over 48% of you have been listening to FIR for more than six months, and 13.5% of you have been listening since the very first episode in January 2005
Thursday, April 06, 2006
IABC ConferenceCast debuts
As reported earlier, Neville Hobson and Shel Holtz are co-hosting and co-producing the official podcast of the 2006 IABC international conference. The podcast—ConferenceCast —debuted today and is available for download, audio stream, and RSS subscription over at the conference blog, In Session.
The blog will launch officially on Monday but is open now for the podcast (the podcast is the only post there at this point). ConferenceCast #1 features interviews with members of the IABC Gold Quill Blue Ribbon panel, which convened over a Friday and Saturday in March to decide which entries would receive honors. The Gold Quill Awards are presented at a gala evening on Monday at the conference. I’m actually pretty pleased with the editing job, which was the most complex I’ve ever undertaken.
ConferenceCast will feature interviews with speakers, conference planners, members of staff, members of the IABC executive board, and individuals who plan on attending. Once the conference starts, we’ll conduct on-site interviews. We hope to podcast a few complete sessions, as well, although that’s up in the air at this point.
Grab a listen to ConferenceCast and let us know what you think by leaving a comment on the “In Session” blog.
Monday, April 03, 2006
First FIR listener survey opens
We get a great kick out of producing For Immediate Release. Twice a week talking about some of the things we’re passionate about in communication, technology and business - how better can it get?
Many of you who listen to our twice-weekly podcast contribute to the overall richness of the conversations and debates, and we’d like to thank everyone who has been part of our show since we started in January 2005, 15 months and 124 editions ago.
What’s next? Well, we have some great ideas to make it even better. But now’s the time to be a bit more scientific about where we currently are with FIR, what people think about it, likes and dislikes, suggestions, etc.
In other words, a listener survey!
We’d like you to tell us your opinions. So we’ve put together a short survey which would take you about 15 minutes or less to complete. Please help us develop FIR into something that we want to be of even greater interest and value for all of us.
So please go to the survey and complete it. The survey is open from today until midnight GMT on April 30. We’ll be publishing the results here during May as well talking about them as in an episode of FIR.
Thanks for your help and support.
Saturday, March 04, 2006
McGraw-Hill will publish our podcasting book
Neville Hobson and Shel Holtz are thrilled to announce that we have come to agreement with McGraw-Hill to write “How to Do Everything with Podcasting,” a comprehensive book on the strategies and tactics of podcasting to be published as part of the popular “How to Do Everything” series. We announced the deal on our Thursday podcast.
We have a June 1 deadline to complete some 450 pages that will cover planning, recording, editing, distributing, marketing, building community, monetization, and a host of other topics. We’ll focus on business podcasts internal and external, as well as podcasting as a hobby. We’ll explore various options for production, review existing services, and introduce you to several podcasters who will share the approaches that led to their success. Our plan is to offer the most thorough and comprehensive volume available. Without question, though, it will be the first podcasting book we’re aware of to be written by co-hosts of a podcast.
We’re particularly grateful to our agent, Yvonne DiVita, who worked tirelessly to pull the deal together.
With Neville in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, and Shel in Concord, California, we’ve decided to use a wiki to collaborate, which should be interesting (in addition to helping us address wikis as work collaboration tools more effectively). At some point down the road, we’ll also launch a blog dedicated to the book and its themes. We already have a domain—www.podcastingbook.net—but there’s nothing there yet. We’ll let you know when it’s ready for launch.
We’d write more, but the first chapter is already due!
[Technorati: podcasting book, everything with podcasting]
Monday, November 28, 2005
Going the Distance no longer restricted
In FIR #89, Shel reported on “Going the Distance,” Steve Rubel’s initiative to open up a dialogue with high-level PR executives around kick-starting practical understanding and use of consumer-generated media in their agencies. Since reporting on “Going the Distance” this morning, Steve has removed the restriction that limited participation to high-level agency execs. As Constantin Basturea, owner of The New PR wiki (where the initiative is hosted) explains, “Steve Rubel announced…that the Going the Distance project is no longer invitation-only. If you have already an edit password for the NewPR Wiki, you can contribute. If you don’t have the password, please contact Steve or send me an e-mail.”
Saturday, November 19, 2005
Join the FIR Community
If you’re a listener to one of the For Immediate Release podcasts and you’d like to let the readers of your blog or website know about FIR, we have some graphics you can display on your own site.
Here’s how:
- Choose which graphic you’d like and save it to your own computer. Then, upload that graphic to your own server or blog hosting service. (Please download the graphic rather than link to it here. Thanks.)
- Select and copy the corresponding HTML code. In that code, edit the location of the graphic you saved to show the address where you uploaded it to.
- Add that code to the appropriate place in a page on your own site (eg, in a sidebar).
That’s it!
FIR 100x100 pixels:
FIR 80x80 pixels:
FIR 80x24 pixels
Thanks again to our friends at Effective Edge Communications, Inc., in Elmira, Ontario, Canada, who designed the logo for us. Check out their podcast.
Finally, why not join the FIR on Frappr group and add yourself? Click below to do that!
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FIR Shows
Podroll: Other PR Podcasts
- Jaffe Juice(Joseph Jaffe)
- Voices of Public Relations (from PRSA)
- Online PR Podcast
- PR and Other Deadly Sins
- Cafe2Go from IABC
- Steve Lubetkin's Podcasts
- Jay Baer's Social Pros Podcast
- Donna Papacosta's Trafcom News Podcast
- On the Record Online (Eric Schwartzman)
- Six Pixels of Separation with Mitch Joel
- Inside PR with Gini Dietrich, Joe Thornley and Martin Waxman
- PRWeek Podcasts
- Marketing Edge from Provident Partners
- Marketing Over Coffee with John Wall and Christopher S. Penn
- Media Bullseye Roundtable
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
Email Policy
Our email policy is simple. We send no email, so you'll never receive any from us. Not spam, not a personal note, nothing. We receive listener comments at this domain, but we both use our personal email accounts when we reply. The only thing to subscribe to here is the RSS feed. Visit our site without worry. We're email free.
Special Thanks
The FIR logo image shown at the top of this page was specially designed for us in October 2005 by Effective Edge Communications, Inc., Elmira, Ontario, Canada. Check out their podcast.