Social media is hot today. There is no internet-savvy person who is oblivious on what social media means. When we hear the word social media, what words do we instantly associate with it? Do you think of social networking websites such as MySpace or Facebook? How about social bookmarking sites such as Digg and StumbleUpon? And who can forget about the status-updating and microblogging website called Twitter? All of them may be designed differently as well as serve different functions but they all have a common element for them to be regarded as a group.

Social media pertains to websites which has a community of people that shares information through the website. In this situation, the website acts as the medium to get the message across. That is why it is called social “media”.

With this in mind, social media have been utilized by people for various reasons. Mostly, it is used for businesses for it offers a targeted community which you can easily reach out to through messaging. Others have used it for its sheer power of promotion. There is a part of the community, however, that is called as social media addicts. These are people who stay at that particular website for the whole day and concentrate their promotion there.

This behavior is good and bad. It is good because it allows a user to penetrate the culture of a particular social media website in the beginning. This way, he can easily talk to its users regarding their needs. On the other hand, it is also bad. As Kristy Bolsinger said in her article entitled “Are All Your Eggs in One Social Media Basket?“, focusing all your time on one social media website alone will not help you as that website falls down in the future.

Well, we have seen social media sites rise and fall. There are some websites that have consistent traffic and revenue but there are also others which has a decreasing popularity as time passes by. What you need to do is to prevent facing problems in the future and spread your marketing scheme all throughout different websites.

Of course, this does not mean that you have to join every social media website you encounter. Managing 4-7 accounts will do. Besides, you will just create confusion for yourself by joining too many sites.

There is nothing wrong with being a social media fanatic. Participating in social media websites must be done with strategy and care.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Kevin Rose is at it again. Some people have claimed that Twitter have beaten Digg to the ground. It was just this January when Matt Churchill said in his post “Twitter vs. Digg: Measuring Success” that Twitter has equaled Digg in popularity because of a whopping 974% surge in its users thiss year. This was further exemplified with Joe Wallace’s post “Twitter vs. Digg: Social Media Wars” that indicated Twitter had really topped Digg. But what did Kevin Rose do? Whine? Complain? Create another website that will beat Twitter? Hell no. But he did create a website that will help Twitter.

A common error among internet marketers is the search to break new grounds. If you are as lucky as the founder of Twitter or Google, then you may find yourself successful. But then, helping or contributing to what is already out there is a rather wise option to make. That is why we have to commend Kevin Rose for his efforts on this new targeted Twitter directory called WeFollow.

Unlike other directories, WeFollow has this unique feature of getting updated easily. Each entry along with categories are ranked based on the number of followers. All one needs to do is reply to WeFollow on Twitter with the following format:

@wefollow #category1 #category2 #category3

WeFollow have also limited the number of categories you can sign yourself into. I think this is to make sure that the people in each category are somehow targeted. Because anyone can sign themselves to a particular category, there is the danger of irrelevant sign-ups that only solicits followers. If you want to try signing to more than three categories like what @mattcutts did, you will find that only the last three categories were credited.

I think WeFollow is a nice directory especially for those who are starting out on Twitter. Let us face it. All of us want to follow people who are relevant in our field. For example, if you are a designer, wouldn’t you find it more interesting to carry a conversation with a fellow designer than a programmer? Of course, there will still be a connection but not as intense as that of the same niche. Also, this will also be useful for customer targetting. If people are sorted into categories of interests, then targeting them for marketing would be more worthwhile because of better conversions.

In the end, we have to thank Kevin Rose for WeFollow. As Danny Sullivan said in his discussion of WeFollow,

It’s not perfect, but it’s a great start and well worth visiting.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Just a day ago, we have posted a catchy headline on how Digg had admitted the existence of autobury in their website. However, as a lot of people have suspected, this is just a prank started by the nitmeh3, the concerned user who conducted the anti-Digg campaign.

We confirmed this when Jen Burton, the community manager of Digg.com replied to our post entitled “Autobury Exists” Digg Admits. Her comment goes as follows:

“Hey there. Just wanted to reach out directly and let you know that the supposed emails this user has written about do not exist. I have personally checked all our contact history with this person and while we do have emails back and forth with him, none of them indicate the existence of an auto bury list or his supposed place on it.” – Jen Burton

We would like to thank Jen for directly telling us what is happening. We are torn after all since the user who spread this news have no credibility to begin with. As we said in our past post,

“…the argument of the user here is somehow childish. He sent an image on the Digg website that degrades Digg itself and was surprised that it got autoburied. He then went to this anti-Digg campaign on his blog post which may also be biased.”

A lot of things have been clarified here. First, the emails spread by the user nitmeh3 are all fake. Second, Digg did not admit that they autobury posts or did they exchanged emails with this particular user. I think this should clear up the noise a little bit. However, we think that because of this commotion, a lot of people will still entertain the possibility of the existence of autobury. Not that it matters. A single user can only do so much.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Lately there has been a lot of fiasco surrounding Digg and their auto bury feature. This comes as somewhat as a suprise to me as this is something that I predicted months ago.

Just to get a quick recap on the happening, lately this story has been creating a lot of buzz http://www.brentcsutoras.com/2009/02/20/digg-finally-admits-autobury-exists/ its basically being talked about everywhere.

But this was something I suggested months ago, just take a look here http://www.seotops.com/digg-is-no-longer-user-generated_111/

So it just goes to show if you want your stories delivered long before they go mainstream then continue reading this blog

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Image Submitted by nitmeh3 to Digg

Digg have admitted with an email with a user that the autobury function exists. The said user is named nitmeh3 and he has been recently banned for digging an image that degrades the Digg staff. Digg, in trying to protect their name, have somehow admitted they autobury particular posts which they deem as inappropriate to the community.

This admission, however, is not blatantly stated. It is merely used by Digg as a reason for taking action on the user’s post. As the user saw his post is being automatically buried, he sent the following email to the Digg staff:

Hello Digg ,
I am Mick (http://digg.com/users/nitmeh3) at Digg. I have recently noticed that all my stories are getting buried automatically . I havent submitted spam right ? I have been submitting quality stuff since beginning and most of them have been featured on the digg homepage has well. But since yesterday my stories have started getting buried automatically ? Even though i didnt shout them and didnt ask for votes on IM ( which i usually do ) because I sure that those would reach the FP without giving them a push.
Kindly give me clarifications for this.
Thanks.
Mick (nitmeh3).
Source: http://fuck-you-digg.blogspot.com/2009/02/screw-you-digg.html

In Digg’s reply, they stated that the autobury exist and is shown in the following statement:

We appreciate that you have submitted quality stuff on Digg.com but because we must be vigilant in protecting against activities that compromise the Digg community we were forced to bury your submissions.

This particular email have caused a lot of noise in the Digg community. This somehow denotes that Digg actually buries particular posts. Of course, Digg is entitled to its right to protect their name and their staff but can it really suppress the freedom of expression in their website? Is it good to be part of a social bookmarking website that has staff members that control the content being displayed?

The answer to this question is yes and no. Yes because this website can protect users from inappropriate content such as adult content. However, the answer is no if it suppresses the freedom of expression and limits the information its users will know. This is like modern day censorship. But it all boils down to the effects of this process.

In the end, Digg being a commercial private institution have the right to set up its own rules on how to implement its policies. It has as much power to protect their integrity as they have to protect their users. After all, the argument of the user here is somehow childish. He sent an image on the Digg website that degrades Digg itself and was surprised that it got autoburied. He then went to this anti-Digg campaign on his blog post which may also be biased. Tell me. Can we blame Digg for taking such actions?

What’s your take on this issue? Is the action that Digg took appropriate to the situation or is it a mere suppression of the freedom of expression? What will you do if you own Digg?

But I guess Digg should not have used the word “bury” in their email. This is where all the commotion have stemmed from.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Google and Digg have been on and off negotiations for the last few months, but it looks as though there has finally been a breakthrough as sources state that not only will Google be purchasing Digg in the next couple of weeks but that Microsoft will also drop its three year ad deal.

The question is though will Digg remain the same as it is now or will Google give it a total revamp maybe applying a no follow links to submissions which would not be so great for some peoples SEO efforts. We will see what the next few months hold in store.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Ok so today I logged into my digg profile to see that there is a story with other 10K votes an amazing feat for any story of any nature. Although I have before slated digg in previous posts for the way the site is run, you can absolutley see the potential power of a strong story. I guess with about 10k diggs that site in question must of got a heck of alot of traffic with alot of subscribers and it generated alot of buzz as its all over the internet. Whether or not the story is true it just goes to show anyone using digg can see why it is labelled the top social site around these days

As you can see from the title I feel this story in question has broken the digg record with the most votes. There maybe another few that have like 20 – 30k votes but this is the only one that caught mine and a global attention. So if you have do let us know the URL if you think there are more that has the power of this story. Finally id just like to congratulate the submitter of the story and digg for achieving such a great feat. I say bring on the 20k with a killer story! 

P.S If you know any other storys that have achieved this feat do let us know

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

The good old days are dead, what happened to you digg? The site that used to be user generated has fallen prey to the big guns and has fallen victim to there own success. Its a shame how we always see the same domains being made popular although the storys are so boring that my grandma would not even read! Just to entail how diggs algo has changed I would like to show you, or maybe they do not have an algo at all I believe they just have a few editors that will post.

Just take a look at this for one example:

http://digg.com/tech_news/Plurk_The_Near_Perfect_Lifestreaming_Experience_Has_Arrived

Over 200+ diggs and the story still did not go popular. Why because digg is a sham, the days are gone where the users got to promote which story they love no matter where the source was from. Now BBC, CNN, Techcrunch and all the other big guns have a slice of digg and noone else can get there foot in. Yes you heard it right here digg and other big user generated sites are abusing there members to bring in the fast cash they are taking advantage of the web 2.0 bubble and if they dont sort themselves out they will end up bursting it.

An update this story has now been classed as inaccurate apparently by users!! hmmm I wonder how that can be when it got so many diggs in the first few hours. Again work of editors not users they have no right its not adult, gambling or spam, with this many diggs it should have gone popular but theres no way they would let that happen

The link is here http://digg.com/tech_news/Digg_is_no_longer_user_generated

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

We all know that Google are the most visited and talked about search engine in the world, but now they are looking to buy the hottest social media site Digg. This will be an amazing buy for Google as they will be further seeking total domination of the online industry. Sources are said to be saying Google are to offer around $225 million for the aquisition of the largest social media site. You can read more info on the sources here and here

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!