Tom Webster of Edison Media Research shares some current statistics on the growth of podcasting, and wonders if the glass is half-empty or half-full.

On the bright side, 37% of people have heard of podcasting — that’s up from just 22% a year ago. But on the flip side, podcast listening is up only 2% from last year. Here’s the chart:

Ages ago, I wrote a page here on SBS that encourages and helps small businesses experiment with podcast advertising: How to Market on Podcasts. These latest stats are a blessing and a curse from a marketing perspective: More listeners makes your marketing go farther. Fewer listeners keeps the costs under control.

Despite the slow growth of podcast listenership, I still believe it’s a very viable advertising option for some small businesses. If you can find the right podcast that will deliver the right audience, you can safely bet that will be a very passionate audience. Clearly, the stats show that passionate listeners are just about all the listeners.

Technorati Tags: podcasts, podcasting, podcast advertising