Attention PodShow: Invaluable (Free) Market Feedback, Courtesy of Twitter

...and a blogger with a mission. Christopher Penn, of Financial Aid Podcast, recently performed an interesting (if not invaluable) market research experiment for PodShow. As a passionate podcaster himself, Christopher decided to begin collecting Twitters about PodShow's Suck Less campaign. I read this in my Twitter feed today, which made me pay attention:

Time to shout. HERE IS WHAT IS WRONG WITH PODSHOW. and maybe how to fix it. http://urltea.com/ogb YOUR OPINIONS NEEDED!

And, here are the (partial) results:

Matthew Ebel: Hey PodShow… the 60-second Suck Less crap is making me stop listening to your podcasts. CC and R&RG are all that remain on my iPod

C. C. Chapman: @UCRadio - I have already lost some listeners due to it.

P_Dub: Some podcasters have avoided putting out podcasts until the one minute “suck less” goes away.

And from Christopher,

What’s broken is that Podshow treats its content producers as commodities. What do I mean?

Example: Suck Less. This may have been funny in a conference room somewhere, but hearing Suck anything in front of shows like Lifespring, which has a dedicated, super-family friend focus, or in front of Managing the Gray, a business show that has executives (like myself) listening, is just inappropriate. Asking your producers, “Hey, what do you think of this new campaign?” before you start putting it in front of their shows is not only a good idea, it’s also professional courtesy.

Brilliant post, and kudos to Christopher for taking the initiative that perhaps PodShow should have (or might, in the future). A valuable lesson in focusing on who and what is most important: the customer, and their experience -- not you.

Gets my Digg.

The Long Blonde Tail