Results of the first Social Work Podcast Poll

This whole podcast thing is pretty new, and there are only a handful of publicly available podcasts for social workers. Traditional media like television and radio have a pretty good idea of who is tuning in and what they want. In fact, entire industries are dedicated to identifying consumer preferences. The world of podcasts is a little more like the Wild West. I know a little bit about who listens to the Social Work Podcast: I know that since March, 2007, 3200 unique visitors have come to the website over 10,000 times from places like Iran, Australia, England, Canada, China, and Oklahoma. I know that the podcasts have been downloaded over 1000 times. I also know that three times as many people use Internet Explorer as any other browser to view the site. However, I know almost nothing about how you listen to the podcasts, what your preferences are for lengths and topics, why you listen to the podcast, and I know nothing about whether or not you find the podcasts useful, clinically relevant. So, in order to get some information, I've added a new feature to the Social Work Podcast website - a poll. Every month I will ask a question in the hopes of finding out a little more about who you are. The results of the first poll are in...


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The first poll asked visitors to the Social Work Podcast website, "What is the ideal length for a Social Work Podcast?" Over a 2 week period (Wednesday September 26 - Tuesday, October 9, 2007), 43 visitors took the poll. Visitors had the option to chose from five answers:

1. less than 5 minutes


2. less than 10 minutes


3. less than 20 minutes


4. less than 30 minutes


5. As long as it needs to be

I was surprised by the results. Only one respondent thought that ideal length for a Social Work Podcast was less than five minutes. In contrast, an equal number of respondents believed that Social Work Podcasts should be less than 10, 20 or 30 minutes (8, 7 and 8 respectively). The runaway favorite for ideal length? "As long as it needs to be" with 19 votes, or 44% of the respondents.

So, what do I make of these results? I like to think that the average listener to the Social Work Podcast is interested in learning something that will improve his or her social work skills, so the podcast should be as long as it needs to be in order for that to happen. However, more people voted for podcasts to be less than 30 minutes than for "as long as it needs to be," which suggests that I better get my point across in under 30 minutes if I expect people to listen.

Note: This is not a scientific poll: there is no way to determine how many people decided not to vote, nor is there a way to determine if a respondent voted multiple times. Just for the record, I did not vote.

Thanks for helping me figure out what you like and what you don't like. While browser preference is somewhat useful, your answers to these questions will ultimately help me make the podcast as useful as I can. So, please visit the Social Work Podcast to participate in the next poll will be available October 12 - October 24: "What do you use to listen to the Social Work Podcast?"

APA (5th ed) citation for this podcast:

Singer, J. B. (Host). (2007, October 11). Results of the first Social Work Podcast poll. [Episode 25]. Social Work Podcast. Podcast retrieved Month Day, Year, from http://socialworkpodcast.com/2007/12/results-of-first-social-work-podcast.html