While watching Leo s keynote at the New Media Expo, I started thinking about how I found TWiT

[G+_Christos Tsartsalis]

While watching Leo’s keynote at the New Media Expo, I started thinking about how I found TWiT. Leo is extremely good at what he does, but his weakness seems to be finding new audiences.

 

I found TWiT via a Verge forums post that got featured on the front page of The Verge. The question was simply “What podcasts do you listen to?” I scrolled through the responses, and I kept seeing TWiT and This Week in Tech. Eventually, I figured out that they were the same thing. I had no idea what the show was about (I later learned it was not just a show, but a network). A quick wielding of Google led me to TWiT.tv and I was on my way to becoming a huge fan of Leo and TWiT.

 

Until I connected the acronym TWiT with its meaning, I would have never found TWiT. That is, I think, part of the reason it is hard to bring in new audiences. The name “TWiT” means absolutely nothing to anyone outside of the TWiT community. Google is not particularly helpful in this, either. I just googled TWiT, and the results include twit.tv  and various dictionary definitions for “twit.” The description for twit.tv has a list of show titles, but not anything about the site itself. Again, this is inclusive! The show titles only have meaning to people who already know what TWiT is.

 

In his keynote, Leo mentioned the “audience ceiling” that caps a show’s audience numbers. It seems as though this ceiling comes from the limited reach of word of mouth. I think more people would love to watch quality content from networks like TWiT, there is not a good way to find shows of interest. I spent a great deal of time searching for engaging and interesting podcasts/ shows to watch, only to find TWiT by accident.

 

How do we spread the word?

[G+_Collin Winans]

My intent was to point out that there are people who fit a target niche (for any show, not just TWiT) but have not yet found the content. I am part of the target niche for TWiT, but it existed for years before I knew it existed.

 

Everyone has their own interests. There is good content available for many of those areas, but it is difficult to find quality content unless we know what we are looking for. Google+ Communities actually do a decent job with connecting people of similar interests, to share ideas and favorite content, yet I feel like it could be done better.

[G+_Glenn Rubenstein]

Collin Winans Similar to your journey, word of mouth and personal endorsements are the most effective means of spreading the word and helping people discover TWiT.

[G+_Dave Bach]

I would argue that there is a tool but people are too lazy to use it. I'm talking about Google searches. People would rather post the same question in these communities over and over instead of doing a search. People go to what they know instead of searching for better. That is why sites like mapquest still hang around and the masses haven't made the leap from Facebook to Google+. I tell my teenagers to go do a new Google search or YouTube search all the time instead of just sitting on Facebook or watching "fail" videos on YouTube. My thoughts here are a bit scattered but my point is that we do have a huge tool in Google at our disposal to find more of what we want.

[G+_Zulhaimi Abdul Hamid]

Living outside the US, I only found twit while searching for Leo on Google. Was reminiscing about the good old days of tech tv and trying to check what happened to the "stars". I found twit to be more old school in tech reporting vs the drivel I was following on YouTube - all flashy and opinionated but without real content. Two thumbs up to Twit.

[G+_Stuart Moore]

This is exactly what I'm trying to solve with my TWiT app. Of course, more downloads behoves both of us, so I try to advertise TWiT as much as I do my features and UI.

 

The "What is TWiT?" section might work, but what really helps are live Apple events. Downloads shoot up 10 fold and I get emails from people who are obviously not TWiT veterans.

[G+_Bryan-Mitchell Young]

twit will often have people on from other podcasts but how often do twit people go on other podcasts? People may follow someone they like to twit and discover it but I think it is more likely that someone would hear a twit person on a podcast they already listen to and then go find twit. go to the people instead of expecting the people to come to you.

[G+_Doug McCloud]

Bryan-Mitchell Young  quite a few people on TWiT are on podcasts for other networks.  Tom Merritt, Brian Brushwood, Justin Robert Young all either have full shows on other networks or make regular guest appearances elsewhere.  Andy ihnatko has a couple of audio podcasts elsewhere as well.