Scoble Leaving Microsoft - News at 11
Chris Pirillo reports that Robert Scoble, the world’s most famous corporate blogger, is leaving Microsoft and heading to PodTech.net. I haven’t seen a confirmation from Scoble himself yet, so for the moment we’ll put it in the realm of a rumor with a high likelihood of veracity.
Some of you will be interested in the news itself, but I was wondering more generally about what happens when a prominent corporate blogger leaves the company. I’m sure Scoble will still maintain somewhat of a following, as he is so well-known in the blogosphere. But I’m thinking he’s going to lose a big part of his audience. Sure, readers have developed some attachment to him personally, but let’s face it — most of the people reading his blog aren’t just reading it because he’s a great writer, but because they’re interested in knowing what’s going on at Microsoft and he offers more of an inside scoop than anyone else. But he’ll build a new audience. Podcasting is hot now (although I have to admit that I’m ambivalent about it myself). I’d be curious to see his traffic stats over the next few months (hint-hint, Robert!).
Now what about Microsoft? Who will become the new principal voice of Microsoft in the blogosphere? There are certainly plenty of popular Microsoft bloggers - Eileen Brown, KC Lemson, Raymond Chen, Michael Kaplan, Heather Leigh, Larry Osterman, et al. (my apologies to the other several thousand I didn’t list here). And no, while he may be more “famous”, Ray Ozzie’s once-a-month posting habits won’t cut it.
But Scoble definitely leaves a void there. Does Microsoft need to deliberately attempt to fill it? I think if they’re smart, they won’t. It will happen like most things do in the blogosphere - organically.
What do you think? Will you continue to follow Scoble’s blog or no? Who would you like to see as the next prominent “voice of Microsoft” in the blogosphere?
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Pingback by Scoble is Leaving Microsoft ~ Chris Pirillo — 6/11/2006 @ 1:11 am
I doubt I’ll get much, if any, of his traffic since I can’t even come close to speaking on a technical level, though I apprecaite being referred to as “popular”
I’ve been told mine is more of a “personality blog” than a “corporate blog” or a “recruiting blog”…not sure if that’s good or bad, but I’d say that’s one thing my blog and Robert’s blog have in common (trust me, it’s not his incredibly high traffic numbers).
Robert’s post today appeared similar to his April Fools post, and I don’t know him personally other than sharing an e-mail every now and then, I would assume that it’s true (mostly since its not April Fools and you can really only play that trick once). I have no first hand knowledge.
Anyway, I’d be lucky to receive a small fraction of his blog traffic, but I’m afraid some might be horribly disappointed when they find out that I’m more likely to blog about social networking than computer networking ; )
Comment by Heather — 6/11/2006 @ 2:31 pm
Wow! This is big news…
I just got done watching the keynote video from Virtual Tech Ed 2006 and came across this post:…
Trackback by IOpine — 6/11/2006 @ 8:43 pm
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Pingback by shmula » Scoble & Microsoft: A Circus Act — 6/12/2006 @ 9:53 am