Geek Chic

I bet if someone asked you to describe what caused you to make your first foray into social media, your answer would have something to do with the entertainment value it provides.  Facebook provides you with a vast amount of games, Twitter allows you to follow celebrities every waking move and YouTube is a constantly evolving sea of video content ranging from the sublime to the ridiculous.  Now before you balk at this and condemn the notion as “not I,” look at the idea from this angle- there are some people whose livelihoods depend on your entertainment consumption; people, for example, like Chris Hardwick.

Chris Hardwick, ladies and gentleman, is the creator of The Nerdist Podcast, “a weekly interview show ‘about what it really means to be a nerd’” (Wikipedia, The Nerdist Podcast) according to Chris Hardwick and his comedian friends Jonah Ray and Matt Mira who frequently accompany him.


Now we know from what Li & Bernoff have told us way back in Chapter 2 of Groundswell that podcasts are far from the most popular way to consume social media.  Though blogging and reading blogs may be one of the most popular groundswell activities, blogging’s cousin called podcasting, sits at the other end of the user-generated content spectrum.  Podcasts reach around 11% of the online population in America, compared with bloggings 25% (pg. 19-20).  So if they haven’t caught on yet, why is The Nerdist so popular?  Let’s take a look at this podcasts humble begins in social media and how it has grown into what its website calls “a many headed beast.”

In its first incarnation, The Nerdist Podcast interviews recorded were used to generate conversations among a community and encourage listeners to comment, whether good or bad.  But being a tech-geek and frequent contributor to G4tv, Chris Hardwick, the podcast’s creator, knew the importance of multiple social media platforms when trying to recruit followers to his posts.

This was how a simple podcast created by friends erupted into a full-blown website covering all mediums of nerdist culture.  In addition to the typical Facebook, Twitter and Google+ accounts, The Nerdist also has an RSS feed, a YouTube Channel and a constantly updated calendar announcing when Chris Hardwick and his contributors will be performing at local theatres.

 

Followers of The Nerdist even caught the attention of cable network BBC America who produced a few of Hardwick’s podcasts as 1-hour television specials.  This is a preview of one of those specials:

 

What makes The Nerdist unique though is not all the social media outlets working in tandem; it’s the online community that was created.  It illustrates the Groundswell theory of community building, with content of the website and podcasts determined by what listener want.  A man with a desire to talk about all things nerdy used the groundswell to his advantage and was able to reach an entire community.  So how about you; are you ready to join the Nerdist Revolution?