05
Mar
2008
Posted by Bill as Social Media

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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
8 Responses
Tom Beaton
March 5th, 2008 at 8:51 pm
1Hey Bill, I think lots of us are in the same boat here. Starting the race from the back is not ideal, there seem to be no end of hoops to jump through. Persistence is the key, along with developing those relationships which help us along the way.
Tom Beaton’s last blog post..Introduction to social networking
Kyle James
March 5th, 2008 at 10:27 pm
2Bill I think many people have come to the same conclusion. Stumble definitely has the biggest hope. It also is the only one that will provide truly targeted visitors. Digg is fun and I find some of the best internet marketing articles on Sphinn, but I’ve NEVER gotten anything that made it to the front page. You just have to be a power user and I just don’t have the time for that… who does?
Kyle James’s last blog post..Quick Update - New Resources Section
Life Sprocket
March 5th, 2008 at 11:16 pm
3I think the whole social thing is a fad. Looking at the trends over time, you can see that the most of the popular sites are popular through default. They were around when social bookmarking was a twinkle in some developers eye. And as a result, by default, they are the money making gurus. Why? They almost lucked into it.
In fact, I find that those power users actually offer less useful info than blogs just like this one. I know that the ONLY reason I visit John Chow’s site these days is for entertainment purposes. It’s kinda fun to see what stupid amount of money you have to pay to have your blog written about? Doesn’t the very concept of paid postings ruin what Web 2.0 is all about? Seriously, when have the big dogs actually put out great content really worth being viral?
Okay so where am I going with this? That’s a good question. Nowhere… except that I think that social bookmarking will steadily become less influential because of the power players lack of creating useful content. But before it fades all together, it will become as automatic as pinging… its the life cycle of every social fad… bell bottoms, afros, butt cuts, wedge hair styles and the famous lines in the eyebrows. Going, Going… Gone!
-John
Bill
March 5th, 2008 at 11:24 pm
4@Tom - Yeah I concur….it’s the penalty a lot of new bloggers are paying for starting to blog on the back end of the curve. I think blogging has a lot of growth ahead of it but certain niches are already pretty thoroughly saturated.
@Kyle - I agree. I know I could master Sphinn or Delicious or what not but what would it be worth? I have yet to see anyone bragging about sphinn sending them 2k visitors in a day. You could argue it provides more targeted traffic maybe but at what cost in time, effort and energy? For me it isn’t worth it right now.
@ John - I DEFINITELY agree that Social Media is the latest fad. I don’t think it will die off but rather the strong will get stronger and the weak will wither up and die. That’s why I am going to focus my effort on Digg, Stumble and maybe one other site. I have yet to decide…Digg and Stumble for sure….they are the top 2 dogs.
Tamera
March 7th, 2008 at 8:27 pm
5As a complete newbie, some of the social sites helped me to get a feel of what this blogging world was. In addition, I picked up small technical tips from others regarding trouble-shooting. However, the past two weeks I also had to sit down, and take a look at my effectiveness. I am taking my Masters degree, so I decided I needed to focus more on writing, and studies. I did that this entire week, and I was impressed with my own productivity. I was obviously using too much time answering in forums, and it had no effect at all on my blog. The same personalities hang out there, and if they haven’t yet visited my blog (even though I may visit theirs), they probably won’t. I decided to stop being so active there. I feel that it was a smart thing to do.
I have been stumbled, but I cannot say that I see a couple thousand visitors coming in from a couple of stumbles. I hear people talk about it, but I have not experienced it from a stumble. That may mean that I have to learn more about it, however, I do stumble other people quite a bit. So, I am an active user.
Tamera’s last blog post..Six Hours Past Thursday- Jack Payne review
Bill
March 7th, 2008 at 8:47 pm
6Tamera…Amen. It can be productive or it can be a giant time sucker. Depends on how you utilize your time.
Erica DeWolf
March 9th, 2008 at 1:05 am
7Great post. There are sooo many social networks and social media sites out there, I will go so far as to say that it is impossible to be an active participant in every one. Hell, it’s impossible to be an avid social media user on half of the social media site available. Personally, I use Digg, stumbleupon, and delicious extensively, and try to use Sphinn as much as possible. Those four networks are more than enough for me. In order to spend enough time in each of those networks in order to draw some real traffic and be a valuable member providing valued content to users, I wouldn’t be able to take on any more.
Erica DeWolf’s last blog post..CSS Garden: Inspiration Breeds Creativity
Andy MacDonald
March 12th, 2008 at 11:02 pm
8I have to say, that we are very similar indeed when it comes to what we have done, tried, and experienced. For example, i have received the exact same results as you when it comes to the amount of trouble social networking is, and whether the juice is worth the squeeze, as you put it.
The only consistent source of social media traffic for me has been StumbleUpon. I therefore decided that i would become more of a user with stumbleupon and build myself a network there, whilst spending a little less time on other networking sites.
I’m not sure what the results will be, but just recently i signed up for a MyBlogLog & BlogCatalog account, and have started building networks there. Only time will tell whether the time will be well spent, but in blogging, i think you have to give everything a try once.
Excellent post, Ive stumbled and dugg it.
Andy MacDonald’s last blog post..Where’s Your Blog’s Unique Voice?
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