Welcome Stumblers!
Our goal was to have a news story about StumbleUpon up and running before we got the homepage stumbled, but it’s too late now. We’ve been researching the Web 2.0, social media “wild card” (that’s one of the angles we were considering) for several weeks now. Tons of story ideas, but with a website like StumbleUpon, if you’re going to write something, it better be the right story.
The effect that SU has had on the Internet has been unique and engrossing. On the surface, it shouldn’t work. People want to see what they want to see, not what others want them to see, right? It just isn’t so.
There are a million questions that we’ve asked and considered while doing our investigation.
What makes it work?
Is the traffic “valid” or does it manipulate the numbers?
How does someone go about becoming “good” or even “powerful” at SU?
Then, we started looking into the industry itself to see if there were any other angles. Buyouts? Upcoming changes? Reactions, both positive and negative, from other websites?
After all was said and done, the best way to write a first story about this enigma of a website was to ask the members themselves. We’ve started contacting some TopStumblers, hoping to get some insight. We’re going to ask average, active Stumblers what, why, how, etc. We want to talk to people at the company itself to see what’s happening.
All of this was supposed to happen before the website got stumbled. We were too slow, so to try to salvage the situation, I ask…
“What story do you, the Stumblers, want to see?”
Thank you, and enjoy the blog.
This post was written by...
JD Rucker – who has written 512 posts on Soshable | Social Media Blog. JD Rucker is a social media enthusiast who resides in Orange County, California. He works simultaneously for 2 companies - TK Carsites (an Automotive Internet Marketing Firm) and Hasai (a Social Media Strategy Firm). He writes for several publications including BusinessInsider, Fast Company, Techi, Top Cultured, and ICanHasInternets. Follow him on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+.
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
No more “How to be a supermammothkillertopstumbler” articles unless you post a way that doesn’t include “vote for everything and everyone and spam all day”
@Everyone – OH, and don’t forget to thumb it! And subscribe to the feed! And tell all your friends and relatives! And, and… oh, just have fun.
@Princeton – Thanks for the recommendation. Unless we can get a few TopStumblers involved and what they tell us is truly insightful, I doubt that tips would be the topic of a story.
I would like to see more information about ways to improve SU.
What’s telling is that although Reddit rewarded you with front page stories, you think it’s from “Uranus”. Why is it that we have more respect for a gf that plays hard to get than 4 1 that puts up right away?
I still don’t get how it works but as long as I get page views and comments I don’t care. LOL