Ten, twenty – Maybe a hundred?

OK, what if you were Leo Laporte, one of the best known and most respected people in your field with hundreds of thousands of followers and fans?

The answer might surprise you!

Leo Laporte & Google Buzz: It’s complicated

Yesterday, Leo Laporte was checking his Google Buzz account when he noticed that a recent post had not been published.  He looked again and saw that in fact, not one of his posts for the past 2 weeks had been published.  Moreover, according to Leo, no one even noticed he wasn’t posting to Buzz!

Now, Leo has hundreds of thousands of listeners and viewers to his various Internet TV shows and his nationwide radio show.  He also has a following on Twitter (at time of writing), of almost a quarter of a million people (including me.)  Ironically, he is also one of the most followed people on Google Buzz, with over 17,000 followers there.

Leo’s missing.  Why didn’t anyone notice?

The general belief is that Leo primarily uses social media to broadcast, so there was a complete communication breakdown.  The suggestion seems to be that he either wasn’t listening or when people saw he wasn’t posting, they assumed there was no point telling him, as he’d be highly unlikely to respond to them.  This, by the way, is based on an incorrect assumption – Leo DOES connect (more on that in a moment.)

However, I can understand where this suggestion comes from.

It did, after all, take Leo 2 weeks before he realised that 50% of his “communication” stream was broken (the broadcast part).  Had he been listening, he would have heard the defining silence and immediately noticed the drop in conversations with him on Buzz.  Ironically, Leo does communicate a great deal with his followers.  His challenge is that he is active on a number of social networks and between them all, he has hundreds of thousands of people sending messages to him, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.  In other words, I believe his error was that he spread himself too thinly, across too many networks, to effectively communicate.

Is it even possible to communicate with that many followers?

I only have 16,000 followers on Twitter, but hundreds of thousands of followers must make 2-way communication almost impossible.  I have personally “chatted” many times with Leo on Friendfeed and equally, I have also had many messages ignored!  However, the same can be said of any “tech celeb” with a large following.  I’m guessing Leo’s Twitter stream looks like The Matrix, because HE IS seen by his followers as approachable and interested.

Clearly, if you follow someone with a massive following like Leo (or Veronica Belmont, Pete Cashmore etc), you need to accept that the way they connect via social networks will be very different from the average user, with a more manageable network of contacts.

Further reading

I found 2 really good posts on this subject:

• This post by Brad McCarty on The Next Web makes some excellent points about social media’s strengths and weaknesses.
• This post on Techcrunch, by Paul Parr is also well worth a read.  It widens the discussion to look at where to, and not to, post our content.

Photo Credit: Leo Laporte

TWiT Grows in size and credibility

Established in 2005, Laporte’s TWiT network is rapidly becoming one of the most popular providers of technology related content online, with figures of 175,000 for their flagship show; This Week In Tech.  That’s a very large audience.  When you then look at the dozen or so other shows produced by the TWiT network and do some math, it’s easy to see why Merritt, one of Cnet’s most popular content producers / broadcasters, would join his long time friend at TWiT.

As a follower of TWiT since its very first show, I am confident that Tom Merrit’s arrival will be followed in due course, by other leading names in tech broadcasting. Leo’s approach to content provision is far more open and social, than that offered by the traditional networks.  This is enormously more attractive to people like Merritt, who are known for having genuinely strong opinions on topics.

I see this as a very wise move for both Merritt, who brings a loyal following with him and for TWiT, who now have one of the best broadcasters in the space.  I also believe this is an indicator of the growing importance of the TWiT network.

Are Molly Wood & Natali Del Conte next?

Oh, and this may just be a very good time for Natali Del Conte and Molly Wood to have a chat with their Cnet / CBS bosses about a pay raise?  If Leo is as smart a guy as I think he is, these 2 super-smart ladies could be next to join Leo’s impressive TWiT network!

TWiT – This week in tech

Top of the pile by a mile is The TWiT network. TWiT is a collection of over a dozen tech related podcasts; from the daddy of tech podcasting: Leo Laporte.

Leo is probably the most respected (and copied) podcaster / broadcaster in the business and has won every award worth winning.  His wide range of tech knowledge and his broadcasting style are, in my opinion, unsurpassed anywhere.

Leo’s podcasts (which he often refers to as netcasts) pull in huge international audiences and because of his reputation, Leo attracts top people from the world of technology and tech news on his shows.  Regulars on his shows include; Patrick Norton, John C Dvorak, Jason Calacanis, Steve Gibson, Paul Thurrott, Roger Chang, Molly Wood and Tom Merritt – Plus many, many more.

The TWiT network is easily the best collection of tech related podcasts available anywhere and I can’t recommend it highly enough.  By the way, you can also watch Leo’s shows being streamed live, which is always well worth watching if you get the chance!

Side note: Leo Laporte is also one of the inspirations behind me starting this tech blog (Thanks Leo.)

Crave

Crave is cnet.com’s UK gadget blog and the quality of writing there is consistently excellent. Written in a slightly different style to cnet.com, Crave offers news and reviews of the latest gadgets and also gives expert opinion on tech related news.

Bloggers include Nate Laxnon (their senior editor), Rory Reid, Rich Trenholm, Flora Graham and Ian Morris.

I highly recommend you subscribe to the cnet.uk podcast – especially if you already love Buzz Out Loud from Cnet.com.

The BBC website technology pages

The technology section of the bbc.co.uk website is essential tech reading for one extremely good reason: It’s fully independent!

Respected worldwide for its journalistic independence, this is perhaps the best place to find out what’s going on – without wondering if what you are reading is being written or altered, to keep a sponsor happy.  For those who don’t know, the site carries no sponsorships or advertising, so is free to say what it believes, without having to spin anything out.

Whilst I would like to see it updated more regularly, the quality of the writing makes up for the lack of content.

There’s also a tech news blog called dot.life, which is worth checking out.  My favourite writer there’s Rory Cellen-Jones.

I hope you find these recommendations useful.  If you do, please share them!

Image credits: Leo Laporte, CNET & The BBC

The possibility that Leo Laporte, one of the most respected people in ‘tech, would compromise his integrity in return for a week long loan of a Pre, is highly unlikely.

Leo Laporte & Michael Arrington – a set up?

It seems opinions are divided as to whether the row between Michael and Leo was a set-up or not.  They will both have seen a lot more traffic to their websites as a result of all the coverage this row has attracted.  However, the risk to Leo’s reputation, should that accusation cause people to doubt his integrity, is way too serious for him to have considered setting this up.  This was not, in my opinion, a set up or pre-planned.

Leo knows, as do all of us content providers, that it takes a GREAT deal of time to gain the trust of our audience.  However, that same trust can be lost in seconds.  Without the trust of our readers, we have nothing.

I subscribe to a few of Leo’s podcasts and am a regular reader of ReadWriteWeb, so it was extra cool to referenced by them.

Thanks guys!

However, this is all starting to change; thanks to the arrival of celebrities and some professional networkers!

Twitter: The celebrities

UK comedian and actor Stephen Fry leads the way. It’s not only that he has over 100,000 followers that’s interesting, it’s that his numbers have doubled in just 12 days!  Yes, Kevin Rose has around 100,000 followers too BUT it’s taken him 2 years to get there!

Britney Spears has gained over 20,000 followers in a week.  Even UK TV presenter Philip Schofield has attracted 20,000 followers in the past 2 weeks. The tech celebrities can’t compete and are quickly falling down the ‘most followed’ rankings.

Twitter: The networkers

With the exception of Robert Scoble – all the tech celebrities seem to have made a pact.  They REFUSE to follow people back unless they know them personally.  This is the 180 degree opposite of the approach being used on Twitter right now, by hundreds of professional networkers!

There are legions of professional networkers, spending hours every day; following thousands of people and gaining thousands of follows.  These guys are also seeing their follower numbers grow far faster than the tech celebrities too!

The new face of Twitter

If you want to keep up to date with the rapidly changing top 100 Twitter users (based on number of followers) – You can do so at twitterholic.com. It makes for surprisingly interesting viewing!

I recently posted about how the pro Apple bloggers / podcatsers / journalists would have a challenge in 2009; dissing Windows 7 – when the general geek population seems (mainly) to think that even the beta version is actually pretty good.

Great is not good enough for Leo Laporte

I love Leo Laporte’s work – he’s one of the people that inspired me to blog about tech!  However, he freely admits to being an Apple guy.  This is why I found his recent post about Windows 7 so interesting.

On his blog today, Leo says that even though Windows 7 is a great operating system, the best Windows OS since Windows 2000 – There were some problems. One  gripe was that he couldn’t get Google Chrome to work.  However, the second gripe was plain silly and makes the point I blogged about; when I asked how the Pro Apple guys would treat such a popular Windows OS.

Leo said that the Windows 7 default UAC setting was too low.  Now,  when Windows Vista was released, Leo complained that Vista’s default UAC setting was set too high!

I’m getting the feeling that no matter how good Windows 7 turns out to be, it’s still going to get a lot of sniping. It’s going to be interesting, watching how others in the Apple camp comment on Windows 7.

UPDATE:
Paul Thurrott has just posted a reply from Microsoft, regarding the UAC issue.  You can read it here.

Are TWiT’s numbers cause for concern?

Leo Laporte has been showing up as a guest all over the place recently, plugging the excellent twit.tv network.  Leo suggested at the end of his slot on Buzz Out Loud, that listeners / viewers were leaving TWiT, accusing him of  ‘jumping the shark’.  So, I took a look at the traffic numbers for twit.tv and it seems he might not have been joking!

According to compete.com, traffic numbers to twit.tv have dropped steadily since last October.  Alexa.com also shows traffic down.  Whilst neither compete or alexa can provide exact data, they both show a negative trend in Leo’s figures.  This, after he’s invested massively in new broadcast equipment and lost Visa as a sponsor.

Less advertising & broadband caps – Ouch!

Internet TV needs advertisers / sponsors in order to survive, however, companies are cutting back on their advertising budgets as the economy struggles.  These shows also need viewers too – Many of whom are now on capped broadband packages from their ISP’s.  This might mean some people are having to think, before ‘investing’ in watching that full screen video stream, from TWiT every day. In my opinion, if you are keeping an eye on your download quote – TWiT is NOT the thing to drop – Leo ROCKS!

Could this explain the drop in figures – what do you think?

You would imagine that the BIG tech news outlets would be OUTRAGED at this and get some kind of movement going to give consumers a better deal.  Many of them are – and for good reason!

Broadband caps could REALLY hurt companies like Revision3 and could kill smaller IPTV providers like Leo Laporte - as consumers find they are having to PAY to download these shows….

However, I am hearing a lot about how Ziff Davies is using its massive number of websites, podcasts, blogs and magazines to PUSH what a GREAT IDEA capped broadband is.

But why are Ziff Davies being so anti-consumer?

Ask Dvorak, Dan Costa and co!

Now, I don’t know if Comcast are a big sponsor of Ziff Davies or if it’s a more general desire to kiss the asses of the broadband providers who pay Ziff’s bills – but the way Ziff are championing capped broadband seems really bizarre to me.  Yes, some people at Ziff are making comforting anti-broadband cap noises – but there’s no doubt that some major players at Ziff are acting very suspiciously.

For example; Dorak on Cranky Geeks and Dan Costa in PC Mag (both Ziff Davies properties) have been insanely anti-consumer and PRO capped broadband.  They are doing this at the risk of pissing off their readers and hurting their circulation.  But why?

Well – what do you think?

OVERVIEW

Windows Weekly is a podcast (or netcast) show on Leo Laporte’s TWiT Network, where Leo Laporte and Paul Thurrott discuss ‘all things Microsoft’ (not Windows).  Subjects covered range from Xbox and the Zune to Microsoft Office, Mesh and (of course) Windows.  The shows can range in length from 35/40 minutes to just under 2 hours!

Windows Weekly – Background

Leo Laporte

To fully enjoy the show, you need to know a little about the background of the guys behind it.  Leo Laporte is a BIG Apple fan and Paul Thurrott is a leading Windows / Microsoft ‘insider.’  Paul knows the top people at Microsoft and is as pro Microsoft as Leo is pro Apple.

Sadly, for whatever reason, although Leo regularly slams all things Microsoft in his other shows and in interviews, he pretends to be neutral during the Windows Weekly show – which is a real pity, because he’s so bad at it. Every word of praise is followed with a negative quip – which Paul Thurrott either doesn’t get or ignores (I think the latter!)

Windows Weekly – Downsides

I personally feel the show would be better if Leo was just as anti-Microsoft during this show, as he is in all his other shows.  This way, the show would feel less ‘fake’ and it would be able to address some of the genuine issues people have regarding the “which is best – Apple or PC” debate.  In fact, why not get a Linux guy in and make it a real debate (I’m writing this post on a linux box).

I recommended the show to a friend recently, who commented that it was a little like listening to one of those; “I’m a Mac – I’m a PC” advertisements – (and that’s with Leo pushing himself to be less anti-Microsoft!!)

I also think the title of the show needs changing from Windows Weekly to Microsoft Weekly.  Windows is actually a minority part of the show – with the majority of the program based around other Microsoft products, like; Zune, MS Office, Mesh, Xbox and Xbox Live, MSN, Hotmail etc.  There is also a stack of time in almost every show dedicated to Apple and their products!

Windows Weekly – Upside

If you want to know what’s going on in the world of Microsoft, this show is for you.  Paul Thurrott REALLY knows his subject and often gives some extremely valuable advice and information for anyone running Microsoft products.  There is also a very good rapport between Leo and Paul, which makes the show even more enjoyable.

I use a Windows-based PC for some of my work and have been able to save both time and money as a direct result of listening to Windows Weekly!

I have been listening to Windows Weekly since the very first shows and I have always enjoyed them.  Leo Laporte is a superb broadcaster and provides podcasts (netcasts) that I believe set the standard for all Internet-based audio shows.

In my opinion, if Leo Laporte could just stop with the fake ‘Windows love,’ the show could be even better.

OK, that’s my opinion of this excellent show.  What do YOU think?