Imaginary Buttons

You got me pushing imaginary buttons
Step away from me lover, away from me lover
-"Buttons", Sia


In the past 60 days, I have come to appreciate the importance of choosing the right button. 


No, really. 


When I first started posting podcasts, I understood that many people were intimidated by using services like Itunes and still a few do not fully grasp the concept of subscribing to feeds. I knew that having an option to post episodes on a blog with an embedded media player in each post was important to reach more listeners. 


For over a year, each episode posted to my blog contained a bar-type media player, where the listener could click on the "play/pause" button, see the progress of the track as it played, and make adjustments to the volume. It looks like the display on an old cassette deck or CD player, so my logic was that people who were less familiar with the technology would feel more comfortable with it. If one hovered over the correct place or right-clicked, they could also be shown a direct mp3 link that was downloadable (though I admit that it was not overtly obvious to locate.) 


On so many occasions, I would come across people who had heard of my blog, had even visited my web site and browsed the episode descriptions and titles, but admitted that they had never actually listened to them. My site statistics put this phenomenon in plain, painful view. 


At one of our Nola New Media meetings, a few of our members suggested that I use the round button instead of the typical bar-style media player. There were jokes about making it large so that the near-sighted and elderly could find it. Kidding aside, I am willing to experiment a little bit to learn what works and what doesn't, so eventually, I gave the round button a try. 


Just out of my wry sense of humor, I made the button a bit over sized. 


I closely tracked my flash player, podcast, and download statistics over the next several weeks. 


Sure enough, I had a significant increase in the number of listens to my podcast, but not for the reason that I expected to. 


Yes, there was a small increase in the number of people who used the flash player, but the number of people who actually downloaded the entire episodes of the podcast increased by over 200%. Prior to this, there were some episodes that were never downloaded, other than in Itunes. 


So what's the difference? 


In the template, there was an option to add the mp3 link underneath the button. In very plain, obvious font it simply says "mp3", and when you click on it or hover over it, the full link is revealed, so you can play the podcast or download immediately. 


As a podcaster, this is what you want to see. Why? 


When the user thinks that the only method of listening to your content is via the flash player on a web site, very often, they don't listen to the podcast all the way through. For example: My podcast is generally 12-20 minutes in length, but the average visitor only remains on the site for just under five minutes. If they're using the flash player, this means that they've only listened to part of my show. (How sad!)


When the user downloads a podcast, they're able to listen on their own time, whether or not they're connected to the Internet. 


When it comes to increasing the number of listeners to your podcast, sometimes it's really just about getting them to push your buttons.