What Failed: The Digg Algorithm or the Digg Users?

February 3, 2008 By JD Rucker 7 Comments

Digg Super BowlIt took around 600 Diggs to get the story Super Bowl XLII Champions New York Giants promoted to the front page.  Are the recent changes in the algorithm the reason?  More importantly, is this a case where the algorithm was doing the “right thing” but was overpowered by the sheer bulk of Diggs?

It took 34 minutes for the story to be promoted from upcoming.  During that time, the Ajaxonomy Bury Recorder showed it to have 17 buries (which means it had a lot more than that).  That could be a reason for it taking so many, but let’s explore further.  This is a screenshot of the Upcoming 45 seconds after it hit the front page. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Digg, Featured, Social Media Tagged With: , , , ,

Best Advice for Mixx: Stop Following Digg

January 27, 2008 By JD Rucker 9 Comments

This won’t be a popular article.  It can’t be Dugg because it mentions Mixx and it can’t be Mixxed because it seems to lean towards being critical.  In hopes of my true feelings being expressed and understood, let me say that I love Digg and I love Mixx.  Both are the best at what they do.

What do they do?  Digg serves up the ultimate in news niblets for us to ingest at our leisure.  It grants incredible exposure to quality content and helps blogs, large and small, to pop up on someone’s screen who never would have visited otherwise.  This doesn’t even touch on the other recipients such as YouTube, Flickr, and traditional news sources online.

Mixx does the same thing, right?  Well, sort of.  Mixx does offer the same type of quality content.  It does grant exposure, but not on the same scale (or in the same ballpark) as Digg.  Still, its strength lies in the people and their attitudes.  For the most part, Mixx is a much more social and sociable platform that Digg or any of its clones. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Digg, Mixx, Social Media Tagged With: , , , , ,

Bogus Lawsuits, Wins and Losses, Don’t Buy It, and Other Recent News About Digg

January 5, 2008 By JD Rucker 1 Comment

DiggDigg.com is always a popular topic on blogs and tech news sites, but recently, it’s been the word of the day.  Instead of posting links to dozens of stories, we’ve hand-picked and summarized some of the best ones over the last couple of weeks.  Some are funny, some are sad, but no matter what, Digg is in the news. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Digg, Social Media Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Going Social for Marketing, Business, and Fun

January 1, 2008 By JD Rucker 10 Comments

porkfriedsocial.comSocial Media Marketing isn’t new. 2008 is simply the year that it emerges as THE thing to do if you want your business, charity, or blog to be “in” instead of “out”.

With companies that aren’t traditionally forward thinking in their marketing techniques, such as Ford Motor Company and Starbucks, making a push to enter social media marketing, it is clear that both big and small business are starting to take notice. Even local businesses are approaching anyone knowledgeable they can find on the subject to help them.

Below are some of the social media initiatives and trends from 2007 that tell of things to come in 2008. First, there are ways to create a web presence that goes beyond building a website or a blog. Then there are ways to drive traffic through social media to these websites. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Digg, Mixx, Newsvine, Niche Social Networks, Propeller, Reddit, Social Internet, Social Marketing, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Social Videos-Images-Music, StartUps, StumbleUpon Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Digg wins in 2007, Looking great in 2008

December 29, 2007 By JD Rucker 5 Comments

2007 was the year that social media truly emerged as a power player on the Internet.  2008 will be the year that it hits the next, final level.  Expect Digg.com to lead the way in more ways than traffic.

First, the numbers.  Compete.com shows that 2007 was huge for all of the major social media sites.  Even though Reddit showed the highest percentage increase, Digg is still tracking at 10 times more traffic.  The graph below compares Digg, Reddit, and StumbleUpon.  You’ll notice that Reddit and StumbleUpon have very similar trends, while Digg has mixed movement — sometimes huge increases, sometime steady.  This really speaks to the growth potential — it can jump up at any time.

 Digg Reddit StumbleUpon

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Digg, Social Internet, Social Media Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Don’t Submit this Story to Digg

December 29, 2007 By JD Rucker 58 Comments

BuriedWarning: submitting this story to Digg will result in a quick burial.

Over the last two months, we’ve had a lot of fun with this blog, thinking of stories and headlines that would appeal to social media users.  Since social news is the topic, we didn’t think it would be that hard.  All three of us are active on several SM sites with friends who are even more active.  It was the perfect fit.

After 8 stories that made the front page of Digg, we have officially pissed some people off.  It’s my fault for being too arrogant, too greedy, too addicted to the traffic boost and mass exposure.  We used a ton of “digg bait” that has proven to be our downfall. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Digg, Social Internet, Social Media Tagged With: , , , ,

Winds of Change in Social Media Promise Improvements

December 28, 2007 By JD Rucker 3 Comments

PenguinsOn the internet, change is part of the definition. In social media, changes are happening literally by the minute. 2008 promises to show humungous growth and an incredible amount of change for major and minor social media websites.

Certain things will be universal as the websites below grow. Some were acquired, some will be acquired in the future, but one thing that we have seen and that we will continue to see is a lack of a shake-up based upon the acquisitions. When a larger company buys a smaller company in the “real world”, there are normally big changes made right from the start. These changes rarely result in mass exodus of employees (unless done by design) nor does it yield a major drop in consumers.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Digg, Mixx, Newsvine, Niche Social Networks, Propeller, Reddit, Social Internet, Social Media, StumbleUpon Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Why Reddit is More Politically Powerful than Other Social Media Websites

December 27, 2007 By JD Rucker 2 Comments

Digg has the traffic.  StumbleUpon has the users.  Reddit has the game when it comes to influencing political opinions.

All of the top social media websites have their advantages and disadvantages.  For political prowess, Reddit has the one major advantage and several minor advantages that make it more of a focal point for politicians than the mass exposure that Digg and StumbleUpon enjoy.  The major advantage is the discussion and debate through comments. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Reddit, Social Internet, Social Media Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

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

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, StumbleUpon Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Digg the Candidates: Not much to analyze here

December 19, 2007 By JD Rucker 2 Comments

When Digg released their Digg the Candidates section back in September, we made lots of predictions.  Luckily for Digg and for America, most were wrong.

Still, it has been a huge disappointment so far.  Digg put together an excellent section with appropriate features and nice opportunities for the candidates to interact with their supporters, as well as those who support other candidates.  It should have been a great thing, with many of our predictions coming true.  They didn’t.

Prediction 1: Ron Paul will dominate this through Diggs, submissions, and fans.

Obviously, we were right about the fans, but that wasn’t exactly a stretch of a prediction.  He currently has over 15k, more than Obama, Clinton, and every Republican candidate combined.  In retrospect, we should have known that it wasn’t possible for him to submit a ton.  There are too many supporters who scramble to submit the stories about him for him.  I’m shocked his team has been able to submit 9. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Digg, Social Internet, Social Media Marketing Tagged With: , , , ,
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