After looking at my statistics after numerous posts from my site were submitted and promoted on StumbleUpon, I saw a huge difference between traffic from the more mainstream socially driven sites (i.e. Digg and Netscape) and that from StumbleUpon, in a very positive way.
Archive for August, 2007
The Dangers of Digg Self-Submission (And How To Avoid Them)
Although Pronet has made clear that our writers will not submit our own stories to any socially driven sites, hundreds if not thousands of people submit their own content (and often only their own content) to Digg on a daily basis. Today we take a look at this phenomenon and evaluate its dangers.
Social Media Success Beyond Digg
Digg is the behemoth of the social media and bookmarking world. Hit the front page of Digg and you should get several thousand visitors at least. You could get many, many more. My best result on Digg was Top 10 Reasons Why Proposals Fail, which resulted in 50,000+ unique visitors over the course of a few days. But Digg is a fickle beast.
What You Can Learn From The StumbleUpon Top 50
Any socially driven site is only as good as its top users. In line with the Pareto principle, most of the content that is moderated and is successful (or unsuccessful) on social sites is the result of a select few users. With that in mind, let’s take a look at the top users on StumbleUpon and what we can learn about them and from them.
The Digg Upcoming Page and the Necessity for Digg Friends
Last week we took a look at Reddit’s New Page and praised its ability to drive traffic and serve as an interesting news source for social networking. Today we take a look at Digg’s Upcoming Page and evaluate its effectiveness as a place to share news, blog posts, and other interesting websites.
Relationships on the Social Web
While most people make the argument that the social web is doing exactly what the name suggests, making us more social and harnessing our collective strengths to deliver a better experience, others are not convinced.
The Brand Called You: 10 Years Later
Ten years ago, Tom Peters wrote “The Brand Called You” for FastCompany magazine, a classic, stunning, and grandiloquent piece on the necessity of and the methods for branding yourself. The piece prompted this recent retrospective from BusinessWeek. Today we take a look at some of the promises and challenges of self-branding in the world of online social networking.
The Quest for PageRank
PageRank is a number that Google uses to represent how important a page is for the search engine. As more and more people start exclusively using Google, the PageRank method for assigning importance becomes a priority for content producers wanting to rank higher in search results. But as with everything, there are those who will accumulate rank organically and those for whom the end justifies the means.
Speak Your Customers’ Language Part 2: The Pitch
Yesterday we discussed the importance of speaking your customer’s language. Let’s expound upon this concept with an example from a company that sells an instructional DVD on integrating Russian kettlebells into a baseball training program, since I recently bought the DVD myself, solely on the strength of their sales letter.
Wikipedia, Transparency, and Your Brand’s Reputation Online
Wikipedia has come to epitomize the Web 2.0 movement, with all its benefits and pitfalls. Small wonder then that many organizations have tried to harness the power of Wikipedia for their own ends. But the recent release of WikiScanner and the ensuing response show how Wikipedia’s apparent transparency and neutrality can have the opposite effect of what companies intended.
