Today and tomorrow I will be covering some of the sessions from the Search & Social Spring Summit based in Tampa, Florida. The coverage is more "note" type as opposed to live blogging format. Here is coverage of the Social Media News & Content session with Chris Winfield, Chris Bennett, Neal Rodriguez, Brent Csutoras moderated by Jordan Kasteler.
Chris Winfield:
Social Media Sites:
Social media sites Chris like include Fark (funny), Drudge Report (right wing), i-am-bored.com (targets users bored at work, best times to submit are during 12pm - 5pm), Extra Mustard on sportsillustrated.cnn.com, Slashdot is the original tech news site.
Tips to Get Syndicated:
Make it easy for mods to post. Make flawless titles based on the community. Know the site's lingo and play off that. Most content on these sites come from top 5% of their users, because they know the community.
Jordan Kasteler, the moderator said, make sure your server can handle this traffic!
Brent Csutoras:
Social media is not a bandaid approach, it should be a strategy. Don't use his tips to game the system but it may give you an edge to get some visibility.
Digg Tips:
- Digg short bar gives you views of your article, but it isn't a 100% accurate. If you have 50 votes but only 10 views, they take note, so make sure to get people to visit the page. Same works the other way, don't game it.
- Votes should come from the areas that Digg sends people to, such as the recommended section
StumbleUpon Tips:
- Spread out your shares via various methods, not just one - There is no time limit to being hot on the site, you can do it each day - There are SU groups on other web sites
Reddit Tips:
- The more you try to promote your site here, the more likely you will hit a filter. - Instead just try to get 5 votes, and not from the same people. - Never send people to reddit URL
Kirtsy Tips:
- They simply count views on their site for that title - This is a women oriented social news site
Delicious Tips:
- Get someone else to bookmark it so you get a link on delicious to share with people - Once you get popular, promote the popular page
Takeaways:
- Avoid Patterns - Explore and use their site features - Know what you are doing - Control your influence by making sure people don't congratulate you on the submission - Don't Game System
Neal Rodriguez:
- 100 stories later, he became a top user on Digg - Digg Karma, people who can help you promote it to next page - Neal does a very entertaining presentation showing the dollar value of social news
