The Moment When Facebook Will Allow Audio Content

Today you can post on Facebook almost everything: from visuals (photo, images, charts, ads), videos (small and big), gifs, emojis and text (status and notes).

But what about audio? You can’t post simply audio on Facebook. And I think that this will be a big step forward for this social network. Only then they will have the complete “colour palette”.

But let us look a little bit at some stats about podcasting and see an example of a brand who tried to upload an audio and what results did they got.

Edison Research generate a survey in may 2015 about the podcast consumer and here are the conclusions:

• People who listen to podcasts are more likely to take digital media with them in the car (think about the content consuming here even when you drive or shop or making sport)
• Podcast Consumer exhibit strong social (and brand following) behavior
• According to Share of Ear data, daily podcast consumer listen to more podcast audio (by time) than any other form of audio
• Demographic of the Podcast Consumer are now equally male/female, and strong 18-44
• Podcast Consumer are affluent and well-educated

Well, my friend, now that we know about the Podcast Consumer and I think that also you are a big fan of podcasts, as am I, you already know that lots of brands and other branded content creators are jumping in the podcast industry.

Sometimes, at the ends of some days, I realize that I didn’t listen to any music on Youtube but i went through tens of podcast episodes where I found ideas, tips, tricks and other ‘behind the scenes’ stories about people that are working in my fields, such as social media, marketing, branding and design.

But let’s get back to the start of this blog post, because I’m a little curious about why, or better said, when Facebook will introduce the audio content on their platform. And when they will, it’s going to be a big step for the podcast industry and also for them too.

WNYC tried to upload a podcast (but it’s actually a video without too much video) where they interviewed Jimmy Fallon. They are calling this piece of content – an audiogram.

On their Facebook Page “Here’s The Thing” they have more than 10k likes and the video got 32,367 views (ok, let’s not get into the deeper idea about how many listened to it and how many just scrolled their feed and that video got on their display). Also, i don’t want to talk some arithmetics theory about the page likes, engagement and reach – it’s just a fact presentation.

The WNYC social media director, Delaney Simmons, said about this audiogram

“This experiment is different…you don’t have to leave Facebook to consume it and the content itself is uploaded directly into a product feature within the Facebook universe.”

And he is right!

Facebook wants us to spend more time on their platform. This is the reason why they are now investing so much resources on video, on their instant articles, on their mobile platform and other features.

Think about this, if they will let us upload an audio and that piece of content will have the features that a video content got with their pop-out it will be a big one. The only problem is that you should have your Facebook open, if it’s on mobile and you want to watch or listen the video, this can be a disadvantage. The only disadvantage I see, is that videos don’t work unless you’re inside Facebook.

But with the native podcast from iPhone, you can close your phone and still listen the episode. I’m sure that they will come with a solution for this problem.

What I want you to understand is how big this can be if Facebook will allow to upload the audio content on their platform.

This will be a considerable step not only for the podcast industry but also for the online radio stations and for the music industry. You will have your TV and radio in one place.

And for brands and artists, this step will also be a big one, because they can get more viewers, listeners and fans with their different content and engagement strategies.

The problem here will be that brands will look at Facebook as their own home and they will forget that is only a rented place where they can put their content, community and other brand stuff.

Let’s not forget that these social media channels are just some channels that can help us reach our audience and we should build our community in our own home, on our own platform.

Ohh yeah, and that reminds me an episode from This OLD PNR “Don’t Build Your Content House on Rented Land”

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