Social Marketing | Social News Watch

The Year that Stumble and Digg will hit the Bridge Club Level

Wednesday, December 26, 2007 by JD Rucker 4 Comments

This really should be two separate stories, but we’ll consolidate because there are just to many similarities in the reasons why both Digg and StumbleUpon will take their already-mammoth popularity and truly become household names beyond just the tech households of the world.

Social media in general is growing, but there is still a thin but clear gap between the point that Digg and StumbleUpon currently enjoy and that next level that would yield exponential growth in visitors, pageviews, and popularity. Call it the tipping point, and there are several points in a website’s life that can be called that, but this particular one is the last that either will enjoy. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Digg, Social Internet, Social Marketing, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Social News Sites, Stumbleupon Tagged With: blogs, Digg, internet, marketing, Social Media, Social News Sites, socialmedia, socialnews, Stumbleupon

2008: Year of the Mini Social Networks

Saturday, December 22, 2007 by JD Rucker 3 Comments

MySpace, Facebook, and the other large social networks need not worry. The small, niche social network sites that are popping up faster than poker rooms in the 90′s are not going to hurt the big boy’s bottom lines. They’re just going to draw more people by the end of the year because of one fact.

They’re just more useful than the big sites.

The appeal that brought millions to form profiles and make friends on MySpace and Facebook will have the opposite effect in 2008 an beyond. We built our MySpace page and started Facebooking because everyone else was doing it. As closed social sites begin to gain in popularity, they will appeal to people because NOT everyone else is doing it. Inclusion is easy on today’s internet. Being part of something exclusive is becoming the new IT thing to do. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Niche Social Networks, Social Internet, Social Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Social Networking Sites, StartUps Tagged With: facebook, friendster, myspace, niche, Social Networking Sites, social networks, socialnetworking, socialnetworks

SEO Spammers: Leave Social Media Sites Alone!

Wednesday, December 12, 2007 by JD Rucker 48 Comments

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...]

Filed Under: Digg, Mixx, Newsvine, Propeller, Reddit, Social Internet, Social Marketing, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Social Networking Sites, Social News Sites, Stumbleupon Tagged With: Digg, Mixx, Newsvine, Propeller, Reddit, search engine optimization, seo, smm, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Social News Sites, socialmedia, socialnews, Stumbleupon

Digg is from Mars, Reddit is from Uranus

Tuesday, December 4, 2007 by JD Rucker 32 Comments

(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...]

Filed Under: Social Internet, Social Marketing, Social News Sites Tagged With: , Digg, Reddit, Social Media, Social News Sites, socialmedia, socialnews

Feeling Heat: Why Facebook Changed Controversial Ad Program to Opt-In Only

Sunday, December 2, 2007 by JD Rucker 1 Comment

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...]

Filed Under: Social Internet, Social Marketing, Social Networking Sites Tagged With: beacon, business, facebook, internet, marketing

Social Media: Experts Offer Tips for Success

Wednesday, November 21, 2007 by JD Rucker 8 Comments

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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Social Self Sabotage

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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