The Power of StumbleUpon
To some these days, social bookmarking sites are almost a little quaint. Facebook and Twitter are the kings of social media content, and bookmarking sites seem so … five years ago. I’m here to tell you, however, that social bookmarking is alive and well as a traffic generator. Recently, for client SleepBetter.org, I was researching which tactics we weren’t using to help people find the sleep tips and advice provided by the site. Of course, we’re on Twitter and Facebook, and we’re also utilizing Google Buzz. We tried Digg, Delicious, and Reddit with little success. Then, we started submitting links to Stumbleupon. The results were immediate and dramatic. In fact, in the month of February, Stumbleupon was our second largest referrer, after Google.
Unlike other social bookmarking sites, such as the aforementioned Digg, Delicious, and Reddit, users of StumbleUpon don’t have to be looking for your content to find it. I’ve often thought this was the downfall of trying to use Digg to help visitors find you. Unless your content is tech-related or involves someone falling off of a donkey and hurting a sensitive part of the body, posting to Digg is often like whistling into the wind. StumbleUpon is different. In fact, the whole point of the site is finding random content that you didn’t know you were looking for. You click a button and “stumble upon” a site. It’s much like channel surfing. StumbleUponn can help you find random content that’s been submitted, or you can have it help you find random content within a category. Obviously, it’s an outstanding time waster.
StumbleUpon’s strength is it’s lack of the cliques found on Digg and other sites. On other sites, it can be hard to generate interest unless you’re already well known. In other words, if you’re well known already, you’ll get plenty of “Diggs”. Thing is, if you’re well known already, you don’t NEED Diggs to help people find your content.
So, what’s the strategy for using StumbleUpon if you’re hoping to generate interest in your site or your other content? It’s pretty simple. First of all, submit your content to StumbleUpon. You can go directly to stumbleupon.com to do it, or you can download a toolbar for your browser that will help you. Then, review others content. Don’t give random reviews that are not well thought out. Find good content relevant to your own, and write good reviews. After doing a couple of reviews per day, if your content is good you’ll find that more people are reviewing and finding your content.
Pretty simple.
Happy stumbling!
What Would You Do With Randy’s Stuff?
I’m in a bit of a quandary. Please bear with me while I explain. This actually does relate to social media, but you’ll need some background before we get to that.
When my wife and I moved into our last home, the previous owner of the house left behind a dresser. It was in acceptable condition, but it was horribly out of style, so I ended up using it for tool storage in the garage. This old dresser made its way to our new house, where it soon became the bane of my wife’s existence. She finally convinced me recently to get rid of the old dresser and replace it with high metal shelves that use our limited space better. The dresser is a very low and wide one (six feet wide at least) and wouldn’t fit into our car, so I decided to take it apart and cut it into smaller pieces that could more easily be taken to the dump. Upon taking out the drawers, I made a discovery.
Under one of the drawers I found stacks of papers. They included letters to girls (never finished or mailed), letters FROM girls, greeting cards, information about applying for college, report cards, a book of matches, an empty carton of cigarettes, some high school newspapers, a folded Styx poster, a picture of a guy with a mullet (the former owner of the dresser?), and two pay stubs. After looking through the papers, I found that they belonged to a teenager named Randy, who lived in Missouri in the mid 1980s.
Understandably, I was excited about my find. Being a child of the 80s, it was much like digging up a time capsule. Reading through the letters, I felt like a combination historian/voyeur. I even started to make plans to use social media to locate the owner of these treasures. My good friend Jeff Kraus suggested I start a blog to find the guy. I thought it would be a fun social media experiment (I bet you were wondering how social media played into this blog post!)
Facebook is Better for “Old Folks”
There’s a great post today on Mashable about something I’ve been talking about with clients and when I present to groups for quite some time — the fastest growing segment of the social media world has grey hair.
The article, Baby Boomers and Seniors Are Flocking to Facebook, has some great stats about the growth of the number of Americans 44+ on Facebook.
A Facebook and Twitter Primer, Part 2
This is the second part of a two part primer on social networking giants Facebook and Twitter. The first part gives basic information on using Facebook. This post will cover basic information on Twitter. This primer came about when a client asked me to send him an email on how to use the two sites. The information I emailed him ended up being longer than he was likely expecting. When I was finished, it occurred to me that I could re-purpose this information into a two part blog post. Bear in mind when reading this that I’ve edited it somewhat, but it was originally written in more of an email format than a blog post format.
This isn’t a complete textbook on Twitter, nor was it meant to be. It’s merely some information to get you started. Whether you’re just learning, or you’re a social networking pro, please be sure to follow me on Twitter, at @stevemullen!
A Primer on Twitter
While Twitter and Facebook have some similarities in what they’re used FOR (at least when it comes to business), the atmosphere at each is very different. Using Facebook privacy settings, you can control who sees your posts. On Twitter, everything is out in the open for all to see. Additionally, there’s the 140-character limit to deal with on Twitter, which means posts are usually limited to a sentence or two and a link.
A Facebook and Twitter Primer, Part 1
A client recently asked me to send him an email on how to use Twitter and Facebook. I wrote him what amounts to “Facebook and Twitter 101″. I don’t think he realized just how long this email was going to be. When I completed the long email, it occurred to me that I could re-purpose this information into a two part blog post. The first of those two parts is below. Bear in mind when reading this that I’ve edited it somewhat, but it was originally written in more of an email format than a blog post format.
This isn’t a complete textbook on Facebook, nor was it meant to be. It’s merely some information to get you started. While you’re learning, please be sure to become a fan of EndGame PR on Facebook!
When you’re done reading this post be sure to read the sequel, A Facebook and Twitter Primer, Part 2!
A Primer on Facebook
The general idea of social media, whether it’s on Facebook, Twitter, on a blog, or somewhere else, is to provide something of value that people want to consume — whether it’s an article, blog post, video, audio, or something else. Before launching a social media presence, think about what you’re going to do with it. That may tell you which site is best suited for you, or that none of them are.
There are a few different types of Facebook presences:
Comments
Subscribe & Share
Blog/Site Feed
News Releases
Podcast
Receive our content via email
Our content is featured on Alltop!
Connect
Twitter
Facebook
LinkedIn
Google
YouTube
StumbleuponCategories
- Client News
- EndGame PR News
- EndGame PR Site News
- Media News
- Media Relations News
- Media Relations Opinion
- Media Relations Tactics
- Online News Release Distribution
- Podcasts
- PR Opinion
- PR Tactics
- Rants
- Recommended Sites
- SEO PR News
- SEO PR Tactics
- SEO Tactics
- Social Media News
- Social Media Opinion
- Social Media Tactics
- Speaking Engagements
- Uncategorized
- Web Design
- Web Marketing
- Web Videos