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Is social media related to listening figures?

By James Cridland for media.info
Posted 23 June 2015, 6.50am edt

Johan Larsson




Glyn Roylance asked whether TuneIn followers were related to audience figures.

media.info contains full topline RAJAR data, as well as TuneIn follower figures for many stations.

So, an hour or so in a coffee shop gives this graph of radio listening figures vs TuneIn figures. You can zoom in and out to see smaller stations if you like.

Are they related? Well, I don't really think so, looking at that graph. But the Pearsons coefficient, calculated below, seems to show a strong correlation. So, I've also added a rough readyreckoner to help understand how many listeners you might have, based on your TuneIn followers.

Additionally, I've done the same work for radio listening figures vs Twitter, and radio listening figures vs Facebook. The correlation is rather less pronounced. But then, there's precious little to compare a listener following a brand on a social network to audience figures...

James Cridland — James runs media.info, and is a radio futurologist: a consultant, writer and public speaker who concentrates on the effect that new platforms and technology are having on the radio business. He also publishes a free daily newsletter about podcasting, Podnews, and a weekly radio trends newsletter.