Social Media | Social News Watch

The Godfather and Social Media

Friday, September 5, 2008 By JD Rucker 10 Comments

In many ways, the top level websites of social media can be compared to the fictional world of The Godfather. Sounds weird? Hear me out.

The Godfather showed us a world of beauty and corruption. Alliances were made and broken. Those who were good to the family were rewarded, while anyone who stepped in the way was hit.

Social media works in much the same way. It can be beautiful, offering the best of the web compiled into loosely organized areas where masses of people can flood a worthy website and enjoy its offerings. It can be corrupt, as spammers use the power of social media to drive traffic to unworthy websites. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Social Internet, Social Networking Sites, Social News Sites Tagged With: Digg, Newsvine, Propeller, Reddit, Social Media, Social News Sites, stumble, Stumbleupon

Front Page Addiction: Destroying Families, Ruining Lives

Sunday, August 31, 2008 By JD Rucker 18 Comments

*** As my first real parody piece, I am moving this up in the blog to see if it gets more comment luv. ***

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...]

Filed Under: Social Internet, Social Marketing, Social Media, Social News Sites Tagged With: advertising, business, Digg, internet, marketing, Mixx, Propeller, Reddit, smm, social bookmarks, Social Media, social networks, Social News Sites, socialbookmarking, socialmedia, socialnetworking, socialnews, stumble, Stumbleupon

The StumbleUpon Digg Experiment

Friday, August 29, 2008 By JD Rucker 76 Comments

(The 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...]

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

Trouble with Reddit? Here’s some tips from qgyh2, the Reddit Jedi Master

Sunday, August 24, 2008 By JD Rucker 13 Comments

This is a repost of an article that still applies today despite being about 19 years old.

Since the beginning of the year, I’ve been studying the major social news websites. Reddit, being one of the best ones, was obviously tops on my list. I did everything that seemed to work well on Digg, Propeller, Newsvine, and most other social media sites.

The results were different from the others. I was successful in the others. Needless to say, I wasn’t successful at Reddit.

My first technique was simple. Make friends, spam a lot, wait for the “Karma” to rise. It didn’t. Actually took a week to break 20. I wasn’t happy, but I kept trying.

I’ve discovered some tricks and tips, rising to a marginally respectable Karma around 1700 over several months. Most of those points have come in the last two. Still, I really couldn’t find rhyme or reason to what was working and what wasn’t. Stories that I thought would surely hit the homepage got down-modded to oblivion, while others that were decent stories at best got dozens, even hundreds of votes.

So, I asked. [Read more...]

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

Impeachment Coverage – Who got it fastest?

Monday, June 9, 2008 By JD Rucker 1 Comment

When the news wires started buzzing, burning, and smoking about Dennis Kucinich introducing 35 letters of impeachment against President George W. Bush, we started watching the three top social media sites to see who would get the news the quickest to their front page.

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: [Read more...]

Filed Under: Digg, Mixx, Newsvine, Propeller, Reddit, Social Media, Social News Sites Tagged With: bush, Digg, impeachment, kucinich, Mixx, Newsvine, Propeller, Reddit, Social Media, Social News Sites, socialmedia, socialnews

Social Media Profiles

Recent Posts