Are We Too Social For Our Own Good

In the short time that I have been blogging one thing has become abundantly clear and that is that it takes a lot of work to generate content, tweak the theme, respond to comments, leave comments on other blogs, be social, find pictures etc. Blogging is a lot of work.

I have aspirations to not only blog on this blog but possibly some others and continue to build niche websites. My pesky little day job that requires about 50-60 hours a week really gets in the way. I am pretty efficient at work but I am still learning to be efficient as a blogger so I have recently decided to evaluate how I spend my time.

If you’re in need of time as much as I am then maybe you can get something out of this article.

How To ( whatever) in 10 Easy Steps

One thing any newbie will attest to is being barraged by “How To” articles. I write them, you write them, almost every blogger on the planet has written a “How To” article. If you go searching for advice on building traffic or increasing RSS then you will inevitably find someone that will recommend “How To” do this by using social media.

I must confess that 3 months ago when I started I barely even knew what Social Media was. People would throw that term around like they simply assumed you know what it meant. I was one of those that didn’t but after an early post was stumbled, I quickly decided to figure it out. That one article took my blog from about 20 or 30 visits a day to about 2000 on the first day, 1000 the next and then back to normal over the next few days.

I was hooked. Social Media had my full attention and I wanted to know more. If Stumble could bring me 3000 visitors then what if I used Stumble, Digg, Furl, Sphinn, and the other 200 social media sites? I could have 10k visitors a day in no time….right?

Wrong.

My Favorite Social Clubs

In the months since I have tried various social media forums, I have to say that many of them are a huge disappointment. If you are new to blogging then you may not have seen this yet. In this article I will share my own personal opinions and results of some of the more popular social media sites.

• Digg – Digg was the first social media service I had heard of when I started. The server meltdowns that I had heard about actually sounded appealing. I was looking forward to this. I dugg posts, pumped them, pushed them on my friends, asked the mailman to Digg my post etc. What did I get? Very little.

• Sphinn – Sphinn was the next social media site I had heard about as I saw those little Sphinn buttons on some bloggers sites. I liked the idea that it showed the number of Sphinns and being competitive I could quickly figure out the higher the score the better. I submitted, Sphunn, commented, got my wife to Sphinn etc. What did I get? Very little.

• Stumble Upon – I had heard of Stumble but I didn’t quite get it. I didn’t see any “Stumble” buttons on blog posts and for whatever reason it slipped under my radar….at least until I got my first stumble. 3000 visitors later I was a Stumble Fan. Stumble has been very good to me and we will discuss that later in this article.

• Delicious – Delicious was a mystery to me but I signed up and tried it. I bookmarked a few posts, submitted a couple of things, added a few people to my “network” but it’s almost like it doesn’t exist.

• Technorati – I spent about a week trying to improve my Technorati ranking using some grayhat methods. I scanned the site, added people to my “Faves,” linked out to other blogs….you know the drill. Again…nothing. I have had a sum total of 5 hits from Technorati since inception. Whooopi.

I realize these aren’t the biggest 5, the top 5 or anything of the sort. They are just the 5 that I used most often when trying to be “social.” Feel free to share your Top 5 in the comments.

Social Sites Have a Personality

Something I have learned since I first started is that the social media sites have a personality. Most of them “specialize” in a certain kind of user and they don’t respond well to others playing in their sandbox. The smaller sites like Delicious and Sphinn are not quite as nichey or targeted but I think anyone who has used Digg for very long will agree that Digg is very finnicky.

Digg only Digs certain Diggers

If you don’t believe me then take a look sometime at what is on the front page of Digg. It isn’t your typical blog post. Digg is a site that likes politics, technology, current events and bizarre stories. Diggers are a very discerning crowd who like to poke holes in unsuspecting newbies, leave nasty comments and/or bury your stories if they don’t meet the Digg standard.

They can range from indifferent to downright brutal to new Diggers. If you expect to see results from Digg then you need a catchy post with a hook. Something that grabs their attention and attracts them to your site. Writing for the Digg crowd is an art form that I have yet to master.

Digg has long been the playground of “power users” who had large friend profiles that they use to leverage their submissions onto the front page. In other words it isn’t what you know, but who you know. Digg is updating their algorithms to try and reduce the power these people have to front page stories but only time will tell how much impact it will have.

My personal results with Digg have been a perfect example of the juice not being worth the squeeze. Make Money Blog posts are not that well received on Digg no matter what your name. You could be Chow, Shoe, Court or any of the above and Digg isn’t likely to be your friend.

Too Social?

The 5 social sites I have listed above only scratch the surface of those available. You have probably seen all those little icons that some bloggers put at the bottom of their posts. Dozens and dozens of them….all with a username, password and submission requirements.

If you want to be social, as you are often told to do, then it can take you an hour or better to submit your posts to the various social sites. Very tedious and time consuming. Is this an hour well spent? That would depend on your results. Only you can determine whether the Juice is Worth the Squeeze.

In my case I have to say that no, the time invested was not worth the results that I was getting. In the early days I was trying to submit to every social site I could find and it would take way too much time. I would follow up on every submission and try to foster comments, add friends, build networks etc.

I spent so much time trying to be social that it severely cut into my writing time, something that is in short enough supply as it is. The results I received from each service were minimal at best. A few here and a few there with the only consistently dependable source being Stumble traffic.

I spend all of this time and have yet to even explore Facebook, Myspace or the latest craze known as Twitter. Honestly I don’t see myself with a Myspace page. Isn’t my thing.

The question that I found myself asking was whether the time I spent trying to be social, could be more productive doing something else. In my case I feel the answer was yes. In your case maybe not? I don’t know.

Conclusion

I would be remiss if I didn’t say that my trouble might be my own fault. I just may not be that good at being “social” and being “social” might work well for you. Their is no question that each social site has something to offer to someone but they aren’t all for everyone.

I still intend to partake in social media but I am going to narrow my focus and concentrate on getting to be a better “Digger” and become a “Power Stumbler” so that I can maximize what these two sites have to offer. This may go against every single How To article that you have ever read in regard to driving traffic but I am going to try it and see how it works for me.

I have yet to notice a significant decrease in my traffic and I have had much more time at night to develop relationships otherwise, mainly by guest posting and working on my niche sites.

How about you…are you anti-social like me?