If recent trends on Alexa (which we all know are not always accurate) give any indication about what is happening, then Mixx is making the move to become the 3rd choice amonst social media sites.  Propeller, on the other hand, is heading down, down, down as users have expressed concerns about a lack of communication from the administrators as well as a disastrous redesign that threatened to push its dwindling core of users off to another site (perhaps even Mixx).

Propeller has hope, but they will need to employ some fresh ideas from people outside of their normal realm.  The current leadership is heading (theoretically) in the right direction, but there needs to be an infusion of ideas for them to be able to keep pace or even exceed expectations in the growing world of social media.

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Read more social media opinions on this blog.

As of the time of this post, it was broken 3 hours, 33 minutes ago.  We started watching the front pages of Digg, Reddit, Propeller, Newsvine, and Mixx just over 3 hours ago.  Here are the results:

Propeller and Newsvine: Currently not on the front page.  This is disappointing, as one of the reasons to have Scouts and Anchors on Propeller is to quickly move breaking stories to the front page.  For Newsvine, which has a front page that is similarly edited and also feeds directly from many news sources, this is not a good omission.

Digg: 2 hours, 38 minutes.  The first three stories that broke the news were bypassed by this Rawstory piece.  The odd part came when the live C-Span coverage received quite a few more diggs (over 300 in 2 and a half hours) but was immediately “buried” from the upcoming section when the other story hit the front page.  Fishy.

Mixx and Reddit: Less than 30 minutes.  By the time we started checking the front pages, both Mixx and Reddit had it already on the front page.  Mixx had it in their innovated Breaking section and Reddit members had already pushed it to the front page naturally.

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Read more about Social News Sites right here.

While it hasn’t taken off yet as hoped with only 4 stories posted there currently, a variation of the idea was created at PopFAIL.  This one has much more activity currently (I am one of the contributors) and each submission is accompanied by an analysis of why it didn’t make it and why it should have made it to the front page of Digg.

Both LostShovels and PopFAIL exemplify what should be happening with social media.  While voting is currently king of what does and does not hit the front page of Digg and other social media sites, it brings to light a variation of a solution.  Keeping a site “purely” user driven is nice in concept, but as sites gain power and increase in users, the inevitable flood of poor content starts to creep onto the front page.  Trends take over.  Currently, politics is so heavily weighted on Digg that the former Tech News powerhouse often looks more like a dumping ground of political commentary.

New social media sites are popping up every day.  Some have promise.  Mixx is one in particular that demonstrates a stronger desire to and more malleable platform through which to make a “smarter” promotion system.  Propeller has been promising major changes for a while.  Reddit is Reddit, but even its homepage is starting to seem more quality-based of late.

Until somebody figures out a way to put the best of the best at the top and the rest at the bottom, PopFAIL and Lost Shovels are potentially viable options to see what “coulda, shoulda, woulda” been a popular submission on Digg.

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Read more social media analysis on the homepage or visit some of the sites we recommend.

Ever since Digg, Slashdot, and the other early social news sites took hold of a new market on the internet, there have been clones and competitors popping up left and right.  The next “Digg Killer” has emerged and subsequently fallen almost every week for the last couple of years.  Newer networks have been proposed, many are getting worked on, and I know a lot about some, little about others.

All I can say is, a couple of them are so innovative, so promising, they just might make it.  Sadly, I can’t say much more than that at this stage.

Propeller has updates coming that are rumored to be able to give Digg a run for its money.  We’ve heard that before out of their camp, but reports from those who have seen the changes indicate that this may be the real deal.  Propeller has been on the edge of greatness since shortly after its inception.  The skeptics who believed that losing the type-in traffic from Netscape would spell doom for the social media site have been proven wrong.  Still, it hasn’t made the huge impact that it should have.  The changes coming up give it that last chance boost that it will take to finally “make it”.

Over the next 6 months, there will be several more new sites popping up.  What’s different now is the mindset of these new companies.  Before, everyone was making Digg Clones or innovations on the Digg theme.  The proposals I’ve seen for the newest batch of sites is different — they want to make sites that take the best parts of social media, turn them on their head, and present something that is unique.  Something new and different.

They all seem to be heading towards the goal of launching Web 3.0.

What makes now different from before?  The motivation now is to make something that is better.  More people are getting into the game, not because they want a piece of the pie, but because the pie the way it sits is getting old and stale.  People want something better, something fresh.  Social media users want something better.  In general, all of the social media sites have a stronger public outcry for a better site than ever before.  That is why the new players are primed to succeed where others who have tried to get in have failed.

Will they succeed?  Most of you don’t know because I can’t put out the details yet.  You have no reason to trust me when I say that a couple will most definitely work.  All I can say for sure that most will agree with is that sites like Digg, Reddit, and Mixx have strong points, but there are weak points that prevent them from being truly great.  The new sites, as they emerge, will be great.  Not all of them, of course, as I’ve seen some doozies of poorly-conceived ideas, but there are a few gems that will stand out from the crowd and pick up the traction they need to become real players.

Don’t hate me for being vague.  Just trust me when I say that the next big thing, the “Digg Killer,” is real and is not far in the future.  As soon as I can report more details, I will.  In the meantime, start throwing your rotten tomatoes at me for being an absolute tease.

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Read more Social Media Articles, or visit our sister site at the Social News Blog or visit some of the sites we recommend.

That is what comes to mind when you look at the Social Media Social Network at Social News Central.  It is a simple Ning site, but it has started off very strong.  With 160 members joining since its recent creation and a member list that boasts “heavy hitters” from social media websites like Digg, StumbleUpon, Propeller, and Mixx, Social News Central promises growth and a world of potential.

The network itself has several features.  There is “open source blogging” in which members can post their own blog posts to the primary blog.  Images can be submitted as well.

Groups can be created and joined, with many of the social media sites already represented.  StumbleUpon has the highest current membership with 60 members as of this post.  If it involves social news, you can find it here.  If you can’t find it, you can start it.  That’s the real beauty of the network.

“Go there to vote, come here to hang out”.  That’s the tagline for the network, and in its simplicity it speaks volumes.  If you ever wanted to discuss ideas, talk with people who are involved with the same (or different) social media sites that you frequent, or if you just wanted to socialize with SM users from across the Web 2.0 spectrum, SNC is the place to go.

Read more about social media sites like this one at the homepage for Social News Blogs or visit some of the sites we recommend.

There are those who spend several hours every day on social media websites like Digg, Reddit, Propeller, Mixx, Sphinn, and StumbleUpon.  These sites invariably get huge benefit by having these people, as they can themselves become part of the news.  The question is, “What’s in it for them?”

Is it the fame and notoriety?  Few use their real names as their profile name, so that COULD be it, but I tend to think it’s a small part.

Power?  Most have heard of the Digg Effect, while a power Stumbler can have a huge effect on a website with a click of a button.  Do they enjoy knowing that they’ve helped out a blog or website tremendously (or possibly killed their server) by sending thousands of people to their website?  Perhaps.

Is it an earnest desire to spread quality content?  Maybe they’re promoting an opinion, a trend, a product?  Helping a candidate or a cause?

Maybe it’s just fun.  As one top Digger who already answered the question for me noted, “Some people play Xbox 360.”  He, on the other hand, shuts down servers.  Hopefully, we’ll know soon enough.

The story itself will probably be posted here, but it may end up on my new blog (with nothing currently on it) at soshable.com.  Either way, I’ll let you know.  Please post your comments.

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For the Democrats, Reddit darling Dennis Kucinich is falling too far behind to matter.  Frontrunners Clinton and Obama enjoy moderate play on social media.  The rest are dropping off slowly.

In the world of Republicans and social media, there are two words.  One of those words is Paul.  The other starts with an R.  If you don’t know from those hints, you probably shouldn’t be on a social media blog.  The other Republicans normally get very little in the way of social media love.

Why do we anticipate a huge jump in social media exposure for the final 2 candidates(plus the Indies and other parties, of course)?  One more word: Google.

What SEOs and social media marketers have known for a while now is that social media sites like Digg, Reddit, and Propeller can give instant, albeit short lived, access to the search engine (no need for plural in this case).  Soon, the campaign teams will notice, if they haven’t already, that Google loves social media.

Take the search term “Political Coverage” as an example.  Not a high volume keyword, but still, most would agree that it would take weeks to rank on the front page.  As of the time of this posting, the google search for Political Coverage has a story that was Dugg, plus the Digg itself, on the front page.  They went popular 26 hours ago.

StumbleUpon seems to have a similar effect.  With Google adding StumbleUpon rankings and reviews next to search results, there is a distinct note of favoritism for stories, pages, and videos that are stumbled often and reviewed well.

YouTube has become another instant way to the front page.  Searching for the highly competitive term “Barack Obama” offers a video on the front page that was submitted less than 24 hours ago.

Most Americans are “playoff participants”.  They don’t watch much college basketball until March and they don’t watch much baseball until October.  The same is true for politics.  While we have our interests in the candidates and we watch to see who’s winning the primaries, the majority of people who will be voting in November are the ones who are waiting to see who emerges as the nominees before they really do their research.

Where will they go when it’s time for that research?  Most will start their research at a website that starts with G.

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Learn more about social media at the Social News Watch homepage. We take Political Social News seriously.  Visit some of the sites we recommend.

With companies that aren’t traditionally forward thinking in their marketing techniques, such as Ford Motor Company and Starbucks, making a push to enter social media marketing, it is clear that both big and small business are starting to take notice. Even local businesses are approaching anyone knowledgeable they can find on the subject to help them.

Below are some of the social media initiatives and trends from 2007 that tell of things to come in 2008. First, there are ways to create a web presence that goes beyond building a website or a blog. Then there are ways to drive traffic through social media to these websites.

First, Build Something for People to See…

Social Media Press Release

Ford’s Web 2.0 advertising for their 2008 Ford Focus made some waves in 2007. Not only did they create and market a completely different type of hype-up page that could appeal to and be spread virally by social media members and social networkers, they also branched out with the subdomain media.ford.com.

People can join the network and interact with each other, learn more about Ford products, and share what they find through an easy interface. MyMedia.Ford is the network, and while far from perfect, it is definitely ahead of the curve compared to other automotive manufacturers.

<Expect Ford to expand and other manufacturers to imitate and innovate in 2008. Combining different principals of Web 2.0 will prove to be brilliant. The advantage — appeal to a broader range of people, whether they are the Facebook/MySpace social networking types or the Digg/Reddit social media types. Links throughout to tag on del.icio.us, so no, the social bookmarkers weren’t left out. It’s a social smorgasbord.

Facebooking and MySpacing

It isn’t just for teens and techies. Social networks are getting groups from all around the internet. Facebook has popular groups for Victoria Secrets and Reebok, while MySpace boasts Bombay Clothing and Urban Outfitters.

Both Facebook and MySpace need to (and are, I’m sure) make changes to appeal more to business, not just through advertising, but also through networking. Even though neither format is strong enough yet for significant benefit for business, it isn’t stopping the businesses from flooding in to figure out some way to get their words out.

The emergence of niche social networks should end up being the fix that local and even national businesses are looking for to engage their direct audience. They are popping up left and right, are easy to market online and off, and as more new users swarm to Facebook and MySpace, more older users are leaving, looking for something more personal and less obscene.

Viral Social Marketing

Starbucks has never really gotten into advertising their products heavily until 2007. They didn’t need to. When the word Starbucks became synonymous with quality coffee in the 90′s, the buzz fueled unprecedented growth. Now, with more competition and rising costs, the old business model still works, but why not pump it up with some viral marketing.

Their Cheer Chain was extremely innovative and successful, with over 30,000 chains created already. Relatively inexpensive advertising perpetuated by users with a competitive edge to it — what better way to get the word out and expand on their monumental branding. Social media marketing is not just about selling something. Sometimes, the branding alone is enough to make sales happen down the road.

When you have the clout that Starbucks have, you have the luxury of being able to focus on such things. Still, businesses do not have to be mega-global empires to learn from this. Any time you can get your customer base to spread the word and get your logo out in front of the masses, you’ve accomplished something. Perhaps more importantly, it’s dirt cheap.

Twitter and Flickr and YouTube, oh my!

Social media marketing doesn’t have to require long development and planning. Some businesses have recognized that micro-blogging and media submissions are enough for a boost to get more of the word out. With Google’s Universal Search starting to take wings and show up on the search engine results pages in the form of images and videos, this is more important now than ever before.

Companies like Radio Shack and Bowflex have done a little on YouTube, while EBTM T-Shirts and Chumby are active with using Flickr for marketing. Then there’s Tiger Direct, who has created a mini-empire by promoting on YouTube in bulk.

Micro-blogging platform Twitter needs only two words to prove its effectiveness: Amazon and Apple. Though both have modest follower numbers, you can always bank on these two knowing what they’re doing with new and innovative marketing techniques. Businesses large and small would do well to follow their lead on internet marketing matters.

Second, Get People there to See it…

Promoting Social Media through Social Media

Possibly the most important trend for 2008 is the use of social media to promote other social media. A perfect example recently happened for one girl trying to win a contest. Kina Grannis put a video about Digg on YouTube, had it submitted to Digg, and watched as it flew onto the front page and up the Top in All Categories section.

It has had over 250K views in 10 days, not including the knockoffs and resubmits.

Sometimes, taking events on social media websites and turning them into news for social media websites works well.

“The true gems in the social media arena are folks that not only find good User Generated Content (UGC), but create it as well. Interviewing a top banned Digger and interviewing the Mixx founder were great sources of content for us.” – Brian Wallace, NowSourcing

Any good social media marketing piece should make its rounds. That part is clear. But in these tough-to-find cases, the social media became the social media story. The results — a likely victory for a singer and a nice couple of bursts of targeted traffic for a pair of social media blogs.

StumbleIt! the Right Way at the Right Time

Every day, many people see a spike in their traffic that they hadn’t seen before. They check their web analytics and see StumbleUpon.com as their top referrer by far. If the content is high quality and they are lucky enough to get a few good reviews and some thumbs up, there’s a potential for this traffic to continue for a few days.

If they get lots of good reviews and lots of thumbs up, the traffic could continue for months.

At some point, these website owners go to SU, create an account, and stumble every page of their website. At this point, they’ve nearly ruined their chances of getting any real traffic from SU, and they don’t know why.

StumbleUpon is an incredible traffic driver, but the algorithm is designed to not be used for spam marketing. First, the more prolific stumblers are the ones who drive traffic, not the ones who just created an account. It takes time and sincere stumbling, discovering, befriending, and activity to build the kind of account that can shut down servers the way Digg can. Second, repeated discovery or stumbling of the same website by one user will result in turning your stumbles into worthless window-dressing on the review page.

If you have time, Stumble earnestly. Create an account, discovery quality content, make friends, and enjoy. You can stumble the occasional page from your website, but for the most part, it’s better to just let people know where your website is by posting it on your profile and hope they discover your pages for you. If your stuff is good, it will get traffic. If not, you might get a burst, but it will die quickly.

Digg, Reddit, Propeller, Mixx, Newsvine, and Everyone Else

As with StumbleUpon, you have to have something high-quality that people want to see for the social news websites to be able to work for you. Whether it’s a new and innovative service, an interesting article or blog post, a funny picture, or a great video, you have to have something that compels social media users to vote it up or it’s a mostly worthless submission. Of course, it helps with search engine optimization, but this is about driving social media traffic.

Submitting your own content is fine as long as it is done sparingly. Still, having someone with some clout find your story and submit it is always best. Many of the top users are flooded with requests to submit things for people. Keep in mind — if it’s crap, it’s crap, and having Mr BabyMan on Digg, TechnologyExpert on Propeller, or QGYH2 on Reddit do the submitting will not get it to the front page if it’s crap.

Best techniques – either spend time, make friends, build up a strong profile on the social media websites, and succeed that way, or just hire a social media marketing company who knows what they are doing. The best of the best have made connections with strong submitters. In some cases, they’ve gone so far as to contract or even hire them. Services claiming to get you on 200 social bookmarking and social media websites for a fee are usually not the best. Services who have a firm grasp of social media marketing are the ones that will make themselves (and you) stand out in 2008.

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Social media marketing is here to stay (at least in internet terms, which means a couple of years or more). Businesses, charities, blogs, and individuals with a message or a product should take advantage of this, as it can be extremely cost effective and fun. You’ll touch people that you probably weren’t touching before. There are many pitfalls and a high chance of failure, as very few understand the concept and even fewer have the ability to practice it, but if you can market through social media properly, you have the potential to reap tremendous rewards.

Special thanks to resources with research that helped: 110 Ways Retailers are Using Social Media Marketing and Get Ready to Get Social in 2008, plus others who offered ideas and advice.

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Learn more about social media at the Social News Watch homepage. We take Web 2.0 News seriously.

Certain things will be universal as the websites below grow. Some were acquired, some will be acquired in the future, but one thing that we have seen and that we will continue to see is a lack of a shake-up based upon the acquisitions. When a larger company buys a smaller company in the “real world”, there are normally big changes made right from the start. These changes rarely result in mass exodus of employees (unless done by design) nor does it yield a major drop in consumers.

The participatory nature of social media and social networks requires that changes happen slowly and any changes in the beginning must be subtle. Unlike in the real world, a change from one social website to another is quick and easy. Had eBay started throwing their results pages on StumbleUpon, many would have left. Reddit is virtually unaffected by being acquired by Wired, just as Newsvine has seen no change since MSNBC scooped them up. Expect this trend to continue.

Newsvine – Marketing Changes

The MSNBC acquisition will not change much for Newsvine from a useability perspective. What we will see more than with any of the other social media websites is marketing that hits all fronts. Newsvine was the “pet project” for someone who recognized that it was a low-risk acquisition that, if handled properly, could turn into a home run.

The interface is more geared to help people transition from traditional news websites to social news. It’s citizen journalism that offers the quality in writing of professional journalism without making the less educated user feel alienated. Social media with a smile! By the end of the year, expect Newsvine to triple in membership and double in traffic, due in large part to MSNBC taking its mass of resources to get the word out.

StumbleUpon – Monetization Changes

The eBay purchase terrified many users. They waited, and when nothing happened, many put it to the back of their mind that there was even a purchase. Did it really happen, or was it a rumor that never came through?

It did happen, and executives at eBay (other than the ones on the campaign trail) are brainstorming ways to make money from it. Tying it into eBay in any way is out of the question. Many will bail out the second they stumble a couple of “Buy it Now” filled pages. Still, there is an angle, and someone knows it, but nobody is talking yet.

We will see SU blossom as more and more features make the user-experience so strong, people will continue to tell their real world friends about it. It’s fun. For 2008, the fun will be monetized. Currently, buying stumble traffic is working to some extent, but advertisers are realizing that the traffic quality is low. They don’t buy. One idea on the table is to utilize user data to offer targeted advertising while stumbling and when not. They will learn from Facebook Beacon and offer a better service in 2008.

Digg – Sellability Changes

Will it be sold? Who will buy it? Are we in the groomed product stage, or are recent indications of an upcoming improved interface part of the master plan to increase traffic, pageviews, and perceived value?

Expect major changes to Digg on an evolutionary level. It has the luxury of a large base of users who are so entrenched in it, they will welcome changes that improve the site and deal with changes that don’t (at least that’s the hope). The changes have been rolling out pretty constantly over the last few months, but it should be miniscule compared to the changes that are coming. Advertising will change, as will how pages are delivered. Nofollow attribute is also coming, as the huge base of users do not care whether there is any search engine optimization value in the links and Digg no longer needs the SEO submissions and traffic to maintain huge status.

Comments fixed at last? Most definitely.

This article by Muhammad Saleem details some of the potential changes, and they barely scratch the surface.

Reddit – Design Changes

Will Reddit have its first major redesign in years? Will the algorithm be tweaked, submission style get changed, or functionality be improved?

The smart money is on “no”, that Old-faithful Mr. Steady will not change. The users like it the way it is. Our money is on a big, fat “YES”. For the first time, there will be a truly noticeable redesign that will be met with resistance at first, but with the tremendous loyalty that Reddit users have, they’ll get used to it and eventually love it.

Mixx – Innovative Changes

The new kid on the block has been tweaking behind the scenes since the beginning. This social media website that rose to modest prominence because of a single banned user at Digg drawing attention to it is now working their way up the ranks.

Are they a Digg-killer? There is no such thing, other than Digg itself. Still, Mixx has features that other social media sites don’t, and it’s in their nice array of stories that will be its greatest strength in 2008.

Watch as it grows to compete with Propeller, possibly even Reddit, in traffic. It has a long way to go as far as users, but the ones that are there are either in and out, here and gone, or they are the dedicated users that Reddit and Newsvine enjoy.

With a billing that says they take the best features of Digg, LinkedIn, and My Yahoo!, expect them to innovate their platform to draw in people from other realms outside of social media. More interaction, more Facebook-style community, and less Digg-cloning. They want to improve on what Digg started, not copy them.

Propeller – Partnership Changes

Is AOL going to sell Netscape? Who would buy it? Propeller, on the other hand, is ripe for a change. With all of the traditional media outlets looking into social media, someone will most likely make an offer that Propeller can’t refuse. Whether it’s a buyout or a partnership, something will attach them to someone. It could be someone within the AOL circle, but if that were the case, it probably would have happened already.

The interface itself should only see minor tweaks. They like the product they have to offer, and most of the users do as well. It’s growing faster than the larger SM sites, not as fast as Mixx, but it’s starting to secure its place as the 2nd/3rd/4th option.

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Social media was big last year, huge in 2007, and will become the same level of phenomenon that social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook enjoy. They allow for video interaction on sites like YouTube and 5min, but they have the avantage of being filtered by peers.

One more thing to remember — the niche social media sites that have been a failure so far will slowly emerge in 2008 as viable websites. Sphinn has proven that appealing to a small group of people is not a sign of doom. Sites like Hugg didn’t exactly explode in 2007, but they did offer a glimpse into what is to come in 2008.

Should be a great year.


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Learn more about social media at the Social News Watch homepage. We take social media news seriously.

They always submit.  They never vote/Digg/upmod anyone else’s submissions.  Their submissions get 1 or fewer votes (unless they are a MASS – a Multi-Account-SEO-Spammer, in which case they will have more than one, but it will always be the same amount and always voted by the same “people”).

They submit stories or websites that nobody from social media visits or votes for, and they don’t care.  They are the social media SEO Spammers.  If nobody clicks on their link, no worries.  The only visit they care about is from Googlebots, and sadly (in some cases) Google will visit and take note of the website.

We wanted to make a video spoof on the “Leave Britney Alone” theme, but neither Chris Crocker nor Seth Green were available.  Instead, we’ll just put together a nice little rant about why Reddit, Propeller, Newsvine, Mixx, StumbleUpon, Sphinn, Digg, and the others are not communities tolerant of spammers.  More importantly, we’ll offer ways to combat the issue.  Read on.

For those unfamiliar about how Search Engine Optimization works, here is the one basic premise that draws SEO Spammers to our hallowed pages: Links Rule.  Inbound links with the proper title (or anchor text) posted on many social media websites gives the target site a boost in rankings for their particular keywords.  There is much more to it than that, but that’s the basic idea.

SEO Spammers realize that a link from SM sites can be a powerful tool in their SEO arsenal.  The problems are many, but the one that affects the masses is simple: we don’t care about Viagra, unsecured credit cards, penis enlargement, free credit reports, or any of the other hundreds of things that SEO Spammers are pushing.  Period.

Is everyone who uses social media websites for SEO bad?  Are they all spammers?  Absolutely not.  Some of the most respected members of the SM sites are SEOs by profession.  Without “outing” any, it’s clear that they are active contibutors who submit quality content.  They participate in many ways, more than just submitting.  They vote, interact, and in general they add more to the website than they take.

Every now and then, you might see them submit content that is possibly spam.  To social media purists, this is bad.  To us, it’s earned.  If 1 out of 50 submissions is for their benefit or to benefit a client, we shouldn’t worry.  To us, the other 49 quality submissions supercedes the spam.

So, the question remains.  How do social media websites combat the problem?

Newsvine is the most heavily policed social media website in the world.  The members are passionate.  They have a “Greenhouse” where new members are scrutinized, watched, reported, and subsequently banned for spammy behavior.  They track multiple accounts very well and they take action quickly.

Still, Newsvine is very small in comparison to the other social media powerhouses.  Reddit uses the SEO-dreaded “nofollow” attribute on any stories that do not get over 1 point through upmodding.  Spammers generally do not get the full benefit for this reason.  It is somewhat effective, but barely makes a dent because even in the SEO ranks, many do not check for nofollow.  Even amongst those who do, there is a debate over whether the nofollow attribute is real or not.  Could it be red herring?  We say no, but our opinion doesn’t matter to the SEO Spammers, so they continue to use it.

StumbleUpon uses it on all of their posts, but the effect from Stumbles is too strong to make the spammers care.

Digg, Mixx, and StumbleUpon rely on members to report.  This, to us, is the only real recourse that active members can use.  If enough people file a report, eventually, the spammers will get banned.  They can return, but some will not.  Is it futile?  As with so many things, it’s only as futile as the general public believes.

Propeller has people who hunt for spammers.  Pound for pound, this may be the most effective method for larger sites.  While Newsvine is the best policed, its ways are not practical on a scale as large as Digg.  Propeller’s on the other hand, is.  While it isn’t as hole-free as Newsvine, it is better than what is currenty being used.  It would require money spent to hire people, but Digg, Reddit, and Stumble have the money to invest.  Isn’t user-experience important enough of an investment?

What can we, the users, do about it?  Some was mentioned above, but here is more:

1) Report abuse to Admins - It takes a few seconds out of our busy day.  It’s worth it if we don’t have to sift through spam, in our opinion.

2) Report abuse to their Clients - It doesn’t take long to follow a link to find out the source.  Send their admin or webmaster an email asking if they are aware that their SEO vendor or in-house SEO team is spamming.  Tell then that you are not interested in buying products from companies that use/condone spam.  If it’s a Viagra or one of the other types of sites listed above, it probably won’t make a difference.  If it’s some other type, it just might help.

3) Make their posts invisible – Most social media websites have a threshold that makes a particular post become virtually invisible, both to the people and to the search engines.  If you find extremely spammy posts, bury/downmod/sink their submission.  Get your friends to do the same.  Contact the SEO Spammer and let them know.  If it doesn’t help, they won’t do it anymore.

Anything we missed?