Cozy season calls for curling up with a good book, but for many readers audiobooks have transformed the traditional reading experience. As more literature lovers fall in love with listening to books, they are using social media to discuss the experience. We used our social listening and analytics solution to examine a year’s worth of social media conversations about audiobooks to learn more about what is catching consumers’ attention.
What do audiobook listeners talk about most?
From December 16, 2023 to December 15, 2024, there were about 3.15 million English-language mentions of audiobooks across 15 social media platforms and networks, including X, Reddit, and Pinterest.
The biggest day for organic audiobook discussions was May 5, 2024, due to conversations about South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem’s book No Going Back: The Truth on What's Wrong with Politics and How We Move America Forward. Critics and commentators noted that Noem narrated her audiobook personally and thus should have caught the book’s false claim that she met with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un.
6.3% of audiobook mentions talked about the narration, compared to about 3.6% that mentioned authors and 0.16% that mentioned multitasking/saving time.
What do audiobook listeners talk about when it comes to narration?
The quality of audiobook narrators and their impact on the listening experience was a common topic in the more than 199,000 mentions of audiobook narration. More than half of all audiobook narration mentions were positive, showing just how eager listeners are to publicly praise their favorite voice actors.
Michelle Obama’s Grammy win for Best Audio Book, Narration, and Storytelling Recording for her self-help book The Light We Carry: Overcoming in Uncertain Times drove a significant number of positive mentions. Other positively discussed audiobook narrators included voice actors Paula Slade and Nigel Peever, as well as screen actor Michelle Williams for her reading of Britney Spears’ memoir The Woman in Me. Social media users also recommended their favorite narrated audiobooks by title, like The Cottage by Lisa Stone, The Seasons of Sam Rock by Ann Wilmer-Lasky, and Spooky Lakes by Geo Rutherford.
What is the most mentioned audiobook platform?
Kindle and Kindle Unlimited were the most talked about audiobook platforms, with about 322,000 mentions. Meanwhile, Audible was mentioned about 277,000 times. Finally, YouTube rounded out the top three with more than 167,000 mentions, beating out Spotify, library apps Libby and Hoopla, and Google Play.
What are the top audiobook subreddits?
R/audiobooks is the top Reddit community for audiobook conversations. And while it and other general book-related subreddits like r/suggestmeabook are most popular, genre-specific ones like r/Fantasy, r/stephenking, and r/RomanceBooks are also highly active.
Takeaways for marketers
- Voice actors are the stars of the audiobook world. Listeners notice and praise great voice actors online, sometimes more so than the authors themselves. For audiobook fans, voice actors have the potential to be conversation leaders and influencers, bringing their audiences along with them from project to project.
- YouTube is a go-to platform for audiobook listeners. Though it’s primarily known for its video content, the platform is also home to free audiobooks that you can listen to without logging into an account, lending themselves easily to recommendation and sharing.
- Fantasy and romance are top audiobook genres. These books have large online fanbases with active discussions. Look to them for inspiration on how to get related audiences engaged.