The Power of Internet Icons

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Earlier this month, News Blaze writer Robert Paul Reyes posted an article talking about Conan O'Brien making a random Twitter Follower famous. Leo Laporte host of a weekly podcast called This Week in Tech (TWIT) decided to do the same thing. Digg Founder Kevin Rose which was a guest on TWIT searched on Twitter for the phrase "I hate technology" and found "Lisa Tickled Pink."

At the time she had 3 followers. By the end of the live podcast she had around 3,000. To date she has 24,852 followers. Lisa is enjoying the fame. She has done a few interviews about it and is now very active on Twitter. Leo is giving her an Apple iPad when they come out for her trouble, and is also giving 1 to a random follower of Lisa. Conan O'Brien's follower named "LovelyButton" has 28,174 but had a head start. Leo's goal was to get her to 15,000 which was the same amount Lovely Button had at the time. Leo succeeded thanks to his loyal fan base.

Leo Laporte used to host 2 shows on ZDTV, which later became Tech TV before it became the G4 Network. Call For Help and The Screen Savers had a huge fan base. Now Leo Laporte has his own Podcast network located at http://twit.tv which is a huge success. He also has a radio show called The Tech Guy that is broadcasted nationwide live on Saturdays and Sundays. It is also streamed live across the TWIT Network. This Twitter experiment is just 1 example of how popular his following is and what an internet icon can accomplish.

Tim Martin is a Technology Specialist, Follow him on Facebook at facebook.com/tsmartin75