All of us though have seen a social bookmarking tab. If you look at the bottom of any page on BBC Online, such as this one below, you`ll see a box with tabs for five sites, including Facebook and Digg it, the latter being the most popular pure form of social bookmarking site with around 2.7 million regular users. Skinflakes incidentally uses another variation – a tab on the left hand side of the screen with the full plethora of social bookmarking sites currently on offer.
The presence of Facebook in the BBC’s list hints at the underlining commonality between social networking and social bookmarking. Digg it, like Facebook and its other cousins in the genre, is a free service that allows an individual to create a tailored profile which can be customised with information, pictures, links to sites of personnel interest, a section that allows you to add friends and even the facility to start up a small blog.
However, the main difference between the two is that social bookmarking is built primarily around the sharing, discussion and rating of individual web stories and articles. Users mark a webpage, save it to their profile and in doing so highlight it to the Digg it community.
This latter process of distribution to the millions of Digg it subscribers works through a series of mini-feeds which are tailored by category (identified by the submitter) and can be accessed through the sites search engines or by setting preference controls so the user sees a specific feed when they log in. Categories include political news, gadgets and business.
The real twist behind Digg it though is that articles receive more prominence, the more votes – or “diggs” – they receive from Digg it users who see the article and think it’s worth a positive endorsement. Hence the more digs an article gets, the higher it is on the main Digg page in each category which users see straight away when they log on. In addition, submitting an article creates a mini-discussion forum where all Digg it users can discuss and argue about the stories content.
For users, Digg it provides a neat online storage system where their favourite articles can be secured in one place and shared with other people. For someone with something to say, Digg it provides a way of flagging up content to a large body of people who –thanks to the category based mini-feeds – are likely to be interested in the topic behind the post. It therefore offers an opportunity to get access directly to your target audience.
Of course, simply digging a webpage isn’t the end of the story as to get it widely viewed and dugg it must receive those crucial votes to get on the front page where more people can see it. There are various guides knocking around on how to do this, but in truth all of them, such as this example from Problogger, only work if you have built a strong list of subscribers and have the time to put some serious effort into it. And rather paradoxically, social bookmarking was listed in another recent Problogger post about distractions that can prevent a blogger from the main business of getting a blog written.
Below are five basic tips from my experience of using Digg it that give you a starting point on how to get a webpage promoted through this particular social bookmarking site.
How to … begin to get your content noticed on Digg it
Make sure the content is relevant – if possible – A lot of readers of Digg it have a specialist interest in particular areas, especially tech issues. Yes, the word geek is applicable. Therefore if you want diggs marking your content on tech issues, such as say Firefox, is likely to be the way to go. However, don’t become too obsessed by tailoring articles/webpages solely to Digg it – just make sure that it’s worth posting your information there in the first place!
Make the title interesting – The first thing that Digg it asks for is a title for the article or story. Don’t automatically use the title of the story as sometimes they are painfully dull and probably wont attract anyone’s attention. Pick something that is likely to grab your target audience’s attention when they glance down a mini-feed. Obviously don’t just call it “big tits” or anything like that …
Make sure you place your Digg in the right category – An obvious point, but its surprisingly easy to botch your category and send your article off to the wrong group of people. At the beginning Skinflakes posts were all being placed under gadgets – applicable for articles on podcasting equipment, but less so for articles on Google rankings. Therefore think carefully about your target audience before choosing your category.
Don’t over- spam or become an obvious marketer – The web does not like a spammer. As with all forms of communication there is a temptation to go crazy on Digg it and repeat post your article or flood the system with too many Diggs to boost your profile. This can – and is in one case – result in a lot of negative blowback from the Digg it community. Also make sure you don’t just promote your own pages – keep your account lively with other diggs about related topics so that people will become interested in what you`ve got to say and will follow your diggs as a “fan”.
Make friends and fans – A simple way to alert more people to your postings is to get your current online contacts to join Digg (or link up with them if theyre already on there). Look out for prominent, active Diggers who you can become a fan of and allow anyone whose interested in your content to be a fan of yours.
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