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Social News Watch
My StumbleUpon PageThe StumbleUpon Digg Experiment
(The initial results are in. Read them at StumbleUpon vs Digg).
Bloggers and webmasters out there who watch their traffic as closely as we do have been amazed by the “Stumble Effect”. Many know about the sudden burst of traffic that comes from the “Digg Effect” when a submission reaches the front page of Digg (or even better, if it reaches the “Top in All…” section on the frontpage). This is normally a day of joy (or terror if your server bombs) followed by limited tricklings of traffic.
Stumble has a different, more steady infusion of traffic that it can send to a website that gets stumbled, especially if it is hit by multiple top users. The effect is sustained, but more importantly, can be rejuvinated by a thumbs up and/or review by the right person/people.
Digg, on the other hand, has the advantage of having “controlled” traffic. Anyone watching their posts as they’re submitted and rising on Digg can pinpoint if and approximately when their page will go popular. You know when the traffic is coming and you know when it will stop. Read more
Please buy me a cup of coffee.SEO Spammers: Leave Social Media Sites Alone!
You’ve seen them before. They create accounts that have either a gibberish name or “SEOSuperstud”. No avatar, or one that is their company logo. They might have lots of people befriended. They may have none.
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. Read more
Please buy me a cup of coffee.Front Page Addiction: Destroying Families, Ruining Lives
A little-known but dangerous epidemic is spreading across members of social media websites like Digg, Reddit, Propeller, Newsvine, and Mixx. Like a secret scourge, SM-FPA (social media front page addiction) isn’t making national headines yet, but the effects have been felt in thousands of households across the world.
“Ever since my wife’s submission hit the front page of Reddit last month, we only see her on the way to the bathroom,” said Jake Dixon. His wife Amber, better known as “diggwho”, made the front page of Reddit with a story titled Bush makes more people mad by saying something stupid. Since then, Amber has been submitting 15-25 stories per day and has a submission hit the front page 3-5 times per week. She declined to be interviewed.
Research scientists at the Social Media Institute of Technology (SMIT) in Kolkata, India, say that Mr. Dixon and his family are not alone. They have documented 342 confirmed cases of SM-FPA in 2007 and estimate the actual number in the thousands. Read more
Please buy me a cup of coffee.Digg is from Mars, Reddit is from Uranus
(In other news, Front Page Addiction: Destroying Families, Ruining Lives)
There are many mini-wars being fought on the Internet. Facebook vs. MySpace. Google vs. Yahoo. Apple vs. Microsoft.
One of the most polarized mini-wars going on is Reddit vs. Digg. While the two differ so greatly in look, feel, style, and membership, they are generally going after the same crowd - those who want to read and share in media on the Internet. There are others out there - Propeller (formerly Netscape), Newsvine, newcomer Mixx - but in the end, Digg is the top dog and Reddit is #2.
Those who are dedicated to either Digg or Reddit sometimes find it hard to crossover between the two. If you look at the top members for both, you will not find any duplicates. MrBabyMan, Digg’s top guy, does not have a Reddit account (unless Andrew is using a different name, which is unlikely). QGYH2, Reddit’s top guy, does have an account on Digg that has had some success, but not to the extent to be considered a “top digger”. Down the lists, this trend continues. Top Diggers are not Top Redditers. Period.
In any polarized war there are differences. Here is a breakdown of the differences and an analysis of their impact on each website. Read more
Please buy me a cup of coffee.Feeling Heat: Why Facebook Changed Controversial Ad Program to Opt-In Only
Whether you use Facebook or not, you should be watching these developments. What happens with Beacon over the next few weeks will make a huge difference in how internet users are treated by websites and their advertisers.
It almost made it through the month of November without succumbing to pressures to make changes.
Almost.
Facebook Beacon, the new “hypertargeted” social advertising program that has drawn negative attention from across the internet, received an overhaul on November 30, less than a month after its launch. There are still points of contention that organizations such as MoveOn will continue to press, but the most notorious feature has been removed.
Instead of having to opt-out to prevent personal purchasing data from showing on a user’s page and their friend’s pages, Facebook members now have to opt-in. Despite future controversy over other issues, this will be the last major change for a while, and here’s why… Read more
Please buy me a cup of coffee.Social Media: Experts Offer Tips for Success
There are always articles about getting started in or getting better at social media, but this week was flooded with some great ones written by talented, respected authors. Here, I have compiled some great resources, some “must reads” for anyone wanting a leg up.
Social media is huge and growing. Those who have had success are often not willing to offer advice. It was a great week — the advice was strong and it seemed to be free flowing. Enjoy
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Ben Cook with bloggingexperiment.com takes a very straight-forward, conversational approach to showing the primary mistakes that submitters of social media make. Faking comments, misleading titles… we’ve all been tempted to try it. Some of us (myself included) have had marginal success doing these things. In the long run, it is futile and hurts your chances of building a strong profile that puts stories on the front pages consistently.
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Please buy me a cup of coffee.-
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