Following Weekend Edition through social media leads listeners to become more engaged with the show and more positively view NPR overall. For most listeners, social media following is a new activity they do frequently, and it increases their use of multiple platforms to access the show. While radio remains the primary way of listening, social media followers are more likely than non-followers to use digital platforms too. Over time, social media followers develop stronger positive feelings about Weekend Edition, look forward to it more, and feel closer to its hosts. These positive changes in perceptions also extend to NPR as a whole, as social media following correlates with increases in listening and more favorable views of NPR.

1. Audience Insight & Research Weekend EditionSocial Media UsageSurvey Results Ben Robins Research Manager, Programming Sandra Lozano Research Analyst, With contributions from: Davar Ardalan Supervising Sr. Producer, Weekend Edition, Tuesday, January 12, 2010

2. Background Compared to many other public radio programs, Weekend Edition is ahead of the curve in terms of how many social media followers it has and how it uses social media to engage its listeners. For example, over recent months, Weekend Edition listeners have been engaging with the program in the following ways: Radio: 5.3 million listeners Web: 1.3 million visitors/month Simon Says: ~11,000 downloads/month Sunday Puzzle: ~95,000 downloads/month Facebook: 3,336 fans Liane Hansen on Twitter (@nprliane): 2,570 followers Scott Simon on Twitter (@nprscottsimon): 1,304,589 followers Weekend Edition on Twitter (@nprweekend): 7,763 followers 2 Audience Insight & Research Note: Numbers for radio usage are based on Spring 2009 data. Numbers for digital usage are based on data from November – December 2009.

3. Who participated in the present research project? 3 Audience Insight & Research From December 18th-27th, NPR Audience Insight & Research surveyed 7,274 Weekend Edition listeners to find out: How they use social media to follow WE and what doing so has added to their listening experience How following WE through social media has changed listeners’ perceptions of WE and of NPR more broadly 2,000 of the respondents came from an invited sample of 2,500 known Weekend Edition listeners on the NPR Listens panel. The remaining 5,274 respondents were non-panelist listeners invited through: On-air call-outs over the weekend of December 19th – 20th Weekend Edition Facebook postings Tweets from Liane Hansen, Scott Simon, and Davar Ardalan on Twitter The respondents were demographically similar to the Weekend Edition audience and represented a wide range of listening behaviors (e.g., from frequent to occasional listeners and different types of platform usage) *Source: ACT 1 based on Arbitron Nationwide, Spring 2009, Persons 12+ Listening Composition based on AQH estimates for Persons aged 12+; Education based on Persons 25+

5. It’s important to keep in mind that most of the survey participants are probably core listeners. They probably listen to NPR more than the average listener, so this means, for example, that:

6. They’re probably more likely to follow WE through social media and might devote more time to this activity than the average listener

7. Their opinions of WE and the WE hosts are likely to be more positive than those of the average listener

8. WE and the WE hosts may have a more profound impact on them than the average listener – given their probably higher listening levels

11. As listeners follow WE through social media for longer, they start coming back more and more often to keep following WE

12. As the length of time listeners have been ‘WE social media followers’ increases, the number of other platforms they use to access WE and NPR more generally also increase

13. Following WE through social media leads to more positive opinions of not just WE, but of NPR more generally:

14. Social media followers look forward to WE more and feel a closer connection to the hosts than non-followers

15. Followers also spend more time listening to NPR and hold more positive opinions of NPR than non-followers.

16. As listeners follow WE through social media for longer and longer amounts of time, their motivations for continuing to be followers change:

17. At first listeners’ main reason for following is simply so that they can passively collect of information presented to them,

19. Audience Insight & Research Do the listeners we surveyed interact with WE via social media, and if so, how? About half (49%) of the listeners we surveyed do not interact with WE through social media. Notably, most social media followers only use social media to interact with WE in one way (e.g., they only interact through Facebook and not Twitter, or only follow Scott Simon on Twitter but not Liane Hansen on Twitter. Note, though, that these percentages reflect only our survey sample, not the general WE audience. 8 N = 7274

20. Audience Insight & Research For how long and how often have listeners been following WE or the WE hosts through social media? For most listeners, following WE through social media is a relatively new experience but one they engage in often. About 70% say they’ve been following WE through social media for under 6 months. Over 60% say they use Twitter or Facebook frequently to follow WE. How long have respondents been social media followers? How often do respondents use social media to follow WE or the WE hosts? 9 N = 3710

21. Audience Insight & Research Does the length of time listeners have been following WE through social media affect how much they listen to WE? Following WE through social media increases listeners’ devotion to WE: The longer they’ve been following WE on Facebook or Twitter, the more time they spend using those sources to access WE. 10 N = 3710

22. 11 Audience Insight & Research What is the primary way that listeners access Weekend Edition? The primary way listeners access WE is by radio – even if they do follow WE through social media. However, social media listeners are twice as likely as those who don’t to primarily access WE using a digital platform. Social media followers, N = 3710 Not social media followers, N = 3564

23. Audience Insight & Research What are all the ways that listeners access Weekend Edition? Listeners who follow WE through social media access the show via more platforms than other listeners. Notably, followers show comparable levels of radio listening as non-followers. Followers are using other platforms not as a replacement to the radio, but rather, in addition to the radio to listen more. 12 N = 7274

24. Audience Insight & Research Part 2 Summary of Key Findings: How does using social media change listeners’ experience of WE? Compared to non-followers, social media followers look forward more to WE, feel a closer connection to the WE hosts, hold more positive opinions of NPR, and feel more like a part of the NPR community. While one might worry that this is because social media followers were more devoted listeners to start with, this doesn’t appear to be the case: We’ve been tracking listeners’ opinions of WE and NPR over the past 6 months, allowing us to compare listeners who started out with the same opinions and then did vs. didn’t become social media followers over that time period. Over the past six months, listeners who never became followers didn’t show a change in opinions, but those who did become followers have developed progressively more favorable opinions, not just of WE but of NPR, more generally. Listeners verbatim comments provide insight into why following WE through social media changes the way they experience the program: When they first start following WE through social media, their main purpose is to get updates or links to story content Over time, they develop an appreciation of gaining a behind-the-scenes perspective and getting to know the hosts as “real people” And as even more time passes, a relationship or sense of connectedness develops between the hosts and listeners 13

25. 14 Audience Insight & Research How does the WE listening experience change as a result of using social media? We asked listeners to rate how much they agree or disagree with each statement below. Those who follow WE through social media are much more likely to hold favorable opinions not just of WE, but also of NPR more generally. Social media followers, N = 3710 Not social media followers, N = 3564

26. Audience Insight & Research How do listeners think following WE through social media has affected their opinions of WE and the WE hosts? We asked listeners whether they think using social media to follow WE and the WE hosts has affected their opinions of them. At least half of listeners say their opinions have improved as a result of their social media following, and less than 1% say their opinions have worsened. Worsened Improved 15 N = 3710

27. Audience Insight & Research Does being a social media follower change how much time people spend listening to WE on other platforms? Six months ago, before panelists were following WE through social media, we asked them about how much time they’re spending listening to WE now on different platforms (other than Facebook and Twitter) like the radio, podcasts, or NPR.org. Six months later, in December 2009, we followed up with these same listeners to find out whether they had become social media followers and whether their listening levels had changed. Simply becoming a follower through social media increases how much people listen on other platforms, and the longer they’ve been a follower, the more their listening has increased. 16 N = 2000

28. Audience Insight & Research Does being a social media follower of WE change listeners’ opinions of WE? Six months ago, before panelists were following WE through social media, we asked them whether their opinions of WE had improved or worsened over the past half year. In December 2009, we followed up with these same listeners to find out whether they had become social media followers and whether their opinions had changed. Listeners who started following WE through social media now hold more favorable opinions of WE than those who have never become followers. Also, the longer people have been social media followers of WE, the more likely they are to hold favorable opinions. 17 N = 2000

29. Audience Insight & Research Examples of how listeners say that following WE through social media has affected the way they experience the show 18

30. Audience Insight & Research Why does being a social media follower change how listeners experience WE? We asked listeners to describe in their own words how following WE or the WE hosts through social media has affected the way they experience WE or think about it and its hosts. We coded their descriptions for how often different themes were present and found that over time, their motivation for continuing to follow changes: At first they’re just passive collectors of information presented to them, but over time an interactive relationship between listeners and hosts develops. 19 N = 3710

31. Audience Insight & Research Part 3 Summary of Key Findings: How does being a WE social media follower change listening behavior and perceptions of NPR? Following WE through social media has benefits that extend beyond WE and to NPR more globally. For example, following WE through social media has benefits including: Increased NPR listening behavior: WE social media followers are more likely than non-followers to engage in cross-platform accessing of other NPR programming and spend more time listening to NPR. More positive perceptions of NPR: Followers are more likely to hold positive opinions of NPR than non-followers. The longer a person has been a WE follower, the more positively they tend to perceive NPR. A sense of belonging to the NPR community: WE social media followers are more likely to consider themselves as part of the NPR community than non-followers. As the length of time following WE increases, the sense of belonging to the NPR community grows stronger. 20

32. Audience Insight & Research Over time, how does cross-platform accessing of NPR change for social media followers vs. non-followers? If there are increases over time in cross-platform usage, they could be due to social media following or alternatively, to something else . For example, technological changes in recent months could have increased cross-platform usage for all listeners. Or it might be that more tech savvy listeners are just increasingly likely to use multiple platforms. Since we collect information from panelists on a regular basis about how many platforms they’re currently using to access NPR, we could test these different hypotheses. As the graph shows, cross-platform usage has increased selectively for social media followers, suggesting that changes are due to the impact that following WE through social media had on listeners, rather than other factors. 21 N = 2000

33. Audience Insight & Research Does following WE through social media change how much time people spend listening to NPRmore generally? We asked panelists about how much time they’re spending listening to NPR now and compared that to information we had collected from them six months ago. Simply becoming a social media follower of WE increases how much time people spend listening to NPR more generally. Over time, as people follow WE for longer, their listening to NPR progressively increases. 22 N = 2000

34. Audience Insight & Research Does being a social media follower of WE change listeners’ opinions of NPR more generally? We asked panelists whether they hold a positive or negative opinion of NPR and compared that to information we had collected from those same panelists six months ago – before any of them were following WE through social media. Listeners who start following WE through social media hold more favorable opinions of NPR than those who have never been followers. The longer people have been social media followers of WE, the more likely they are to hold favorable opinions of NPR more generally. 23 N = 2000

35. Audience Insight & Research Does being a social media follower of WE make listeners feel more like they’re part of the NPR community? We asked panelists to what extent they feel like they’re part of the NPR community and compared that to information we had collected from those same panelists six months ago – before any of them were following WE through social media. Listeners who have started following WE through social media now feel more like a part of the NPR community than those who have never been followers. The longer people have been social media followers of WE, the more likely they are to feel that they’re part of the NPR community. 24 N = 2000