Jon Butler, who you may remember from The @jonwitout episode of Blatant Follower Promotion, and his review of the year, asked an interesting question in the comments of The @techmate episode of Blatant Follower Promotion:
Just a thought but have you considered putting feedback from previous weeks at the start of the podcast, as in pre-interview? It may be that after the interview people switch off as they heard what they came for?
Thanks Jon. Having listened to podcasts for many years, I've had a long time to consider the options when it comes to my own podcast, and putting the feedback and other comments section after the interview is something that I did deliberately for a couple of reasons.
My thought process goes like this: basically, the more time sensitive a topic is, the less relevant it will be over time:
Equally, if a topic is not time sensitive, then it will be roughly as relevant in the future compared to when it was released:
The interviews are the non-time sensitive sections of the show, and the post interview section is more time sensitive. Given that the shows will hopefully be available for a very long time, I don't want people listening to shows released a while ago to have to fast forward through time sensitive (then irrelevant) portions just to get to the interview that they chose to listen to.
Ok, this method means that people might stop listening straight after the interview, but I'd rather they get what they really downloaded the show for in the first place anyway. Also, I do mention at the start that there is post interview content, so those who carry on listening should be the hardcore fans who take an interest in the whole show (or people who have dozed off while listening on a lazy Sunday afternoon: you know who you are!).
Occasionally I may talk a bit more about specific items of interest at the start (in fact there is at least one subject that I want to make sure everyone hears about, so I will talk about it at the start, end and maybe even the middle of the show I announce it. More about that when I reveal it).
I've listened to a lot of podcasts, and many of them tend to do all the feedback/news etc at the start. If you've ever listened to an episode of the excellent Security Now podcast, you will have heard the hosts talk for up to an hour on the week's news and other time sensitive topics before delving in to the week's actual topic. As I listen to the episodes when they are released, this is fine - but if I ever wanted to go back and listen to a particular topic (which would be quite reasonable for such an informative show), I'd be a bit annoyed about having to fast forward and guess where I should restart the show so I could listen to just the relevant section.
Granted, my thoughts on this were formed while I was still using a Creative Zen Nano Plus (which only has a scroll wheel for fast forwarding though a podcast) rather than the iPod Nano I use now (with its faster method for skipping to any section of a show), but not everyone has an iPod, or knows/wants to have to fast forward though parts of a show, so to be fair to them I'm happy to keep things as they are.
This isn't my image of a typical Blatant Follower Promotion listener, but in this case, I'm imagining this is the future, and she is looking back at me and thinking:
Why did I have to listen to all that news from two years ago before I got to listen to the interview on your podcast?!
Anyway, I hope that clears up the matter for you.
I'm interested in what others think about the subject though. Would you rather have news/feedback at the start, or do you like it that I tend to jump right in to the show? Is there anything else that you'd like to see introduced to the show?
Just a reminder about this week's request:
Please could consider the people you follow on Twitter, and suggest who you would like to hear on a future Blatant Follower Promotion interview, using the #BFPinterview hash tag. For example:
Hey @edaross I'd like to hear the #BFPinterview with you and @.... http://go.edross.co.uk/bfp
(where the @... is replaced by the user you would like to hear)
I'm really looking forward to seeing who you suggest.
Credits:
