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Social News - Is It Really Social?

By Li Evans

Over the past week, I've been thinking about Social News sites, and wondering truly are they "social", in the way that can benefit building true relationships with an audience or customer base?

Social News tends to be very transactional in that,  you ask and you get something.  You submit a story, you get people to "vote" (Digg, Mixx, Sphinn or Kirtsy "it up"), and then what?  What's the gain?  What's the return?  Where's the building of relationships or trust?  What comes next?

The gain is for the individual users to attain fame and status of being a "top" user.  With that fame and status, also comes a little bit of power on some of these Social News sites that base their algorithms off of the status of the people who submit or vote (up or down) on a submission. The other gain is perhaps you might (big might) attain traffic and a "butload" of links, as I heard it explained once - I'm still waiting for a measurement value on "buttload" btw. ;)

Looking more at the gaining of traffic and links though, again, where's the value social media wise?  There's certainly value SEO wise, links are valuable and so is traffic.  I find it tough to see a true in-depth social media return here.  How can you form a relationship with the community or audience from social news sites?  It's really tough to do it when you probably don't even know who's reading your article or blog post, let alone what they thought of it or how they reacted to it beyond the link, or the vote.

Sure there are comments, but on sites like digg comments consist of "Way cool man", "I agree", "Great article", or the dreaded "Buried because its spam".  There's not much opportunity to really start a conversation, especially when you consider how much most of these social news sites, hate marketers.

Social News sites aren't alone here, social bookmarking sites (del.icio.us, furl, diigo, etc.) also can fall into this realm of "non-opportunity" to really build a social relationship.  However, some of these sites are upgrading and enhancing their user interfaces to allow communities to build and be more interactive with one another.

With social networking sites, the gain is in building relationships and communicating, the same with forums and even microblogging sites like Twitter and Plurk.  In these social media sites, the communities seem to be the biggest benefactors.  With social news sites, the owners of the sites seem to be the biggest beneficiaries.  The users submit the stories, and promote them, to attain "fame", but it's few and far between that these top users, actually get rewarded by the site itself for generating all the content, traffic and revenue.  As David Harry discussed with me, it's tough to even get a "Thank you, Great Job" from these social news sites, for all the time spent generating the content that makes their sites work.

So where's the social in these Social News sites.  Well I guess it comes from perspective.  If you think asking for a Digg, Sphinn or a Mixx is being social and you receive it, then heck that's it.  But if you think social media's a bit deeper than that, Social News might not be the place to start your strategy.

So, I'm curious, what say you?

*Photo Credit: Scott Beale, Laughing Squid

Blog Potomac - Meeting Social Media Rock Stars You've Admired from Afar

By Li Evans

Yesterday I got the opportunity at Blog Potomac to not only meet two people I've admired from afar, but I even got a few minutes of their time to interview them. 

The first was Debbie Weil, author of the fabulous book, The Corporate Blogging Book and the blog Blog Write for CEOs.  I first read Debbie's book 2 years ago, and I still believe it holds solid, foundational information for any CEO or senior corporate executive thinking about entering the blogosphere.  I wrote a review of The Corporate Blogging Book right after I read it, silly me though, I left my copy of the book at home (I wanted her to autograph it for me).  Meeting Debbie was a great experience, her photo does not do her justice.  She's pretty and so nice, and very very passionate about blogging.  She wasn't the least afraid of my "fangirl" presence either.

The second person I got to not only meet, but interview was Lionel Menchaca.  For those unfamiliar with the social media world (beyond just searching for links), Lionel is probably "The Rock Star" of this industry.  Lionel started Dell's Direct2Dell blog and basically kick started Dell's whole foray into the social media space.  Lionel was very accommodating and we sat and talked for an hour or so about what Dell's done and where Dell's going.  Lionel not only understands the pure meaning and use of social media, he lives, breathes and works with it every day at Dell.

Now you may be wondering about these interviews I mentioned.  Well, my video guy, Shannon Hall (better know to a lot of you as "my friend Beau") and I headed down to Blog Potomac to get some video interviews with the speakers at Blog Potomac.  We also took small interviews from the attendees asking them "Why Do You Love Blogging?" which we're putting into a few montages (and no Simon, take down notices aren't allowed!).  We have interviews with Debbie and Lionel.  We also got some other interviews I'm really excited about too, ones with Kami Watson-Huyse, Rohit Bhargava and the other co-chair of the event Geoff Livingston.

Beau's working the editing of course, so it'll be midweek when we bring those interviews to you.  All of these people have such wonderful advice and great things to say.  Each interview was great, and I'll be transcribing them as well for members of the audience that have let us know they really like the transcription of our videos.

Of course you didn't think I went to this event without my camera, now did you?  Well, I've got over 70 photos from the event (Beau saved me, I forgot my battery, luckily we have the same camera).  So check out the Blog Potomac Photos in my Flickr set.

Kudos to Geoff & Debbie, as well as Josh Hallett for putting on a great event!

Online Marketing Tips: Social Media Types Video (Part 1)

By Li Evans

Tuesday's Tips in Online Marketing is back for it's 2nd edition.  This week's video features discussion of the different types of social media that is available for online marketing campaign use.  Since Social Media is such a huge area of Online Marketing and it covers a lot of different aspects, this is going to be part 1 of a 3 part series.

View this video on other video share services: Yahoo, MySpace, Metacafe, Google, Revver, DailyMotion, Blip.tv, Veoh, Crackle, Sclipo and Viddler

Full transcription(loosely) after the jump.

Fetch - Search Engine Guide's New Social News Site

By Li Evans

You can Digg, you can Propel, you can Sphinn and now, you can Fetch!

If you haven't noticed, I've put up "Fetch" buttons alongside the Sphinn buttons here on Search Marketing Gurus.  Fetch is the new social news site that Robert Clough launched in conjunction with Search Engine Guide.  Similar in nature to Sphinn and Digg, you can place these "submit" buttons on your blog posts to encourage users to submit them to the Fetch community.

Even though technically, "Fetch" isn't the name of the site, it's really Small Business Brief, everyone correlates that ever so cute puppy with Search Engine Guide, and thus the idea of "Fetch" was born.  The tag line to the site is "Fetching the Best Small Business News", quite fitting if you ask me.

The best thing I love about Fetch?  It's a totally different market to open your blog up to.  A community that's accepting of the search marketing community and the kind of news, stories and information that is written here on Search Marketing Gurus.  Unlike the other "big" social news sites who bury anything that remotely "smells" of SEO, Small Business Brief is a great place to open you blog up to and find a warm and receptive audience.

So go one, throw out the bone and see who "Fetches" it. :)

SMX Social: Exta Extra Social News Sites

By Li Evans

SMX Social:  Social News Sites - Tips, Advice and Tricks for Digg

Neil Patel - ACSSEO.com
Neil Patel starts off the session.  He loves Digg.  What is Digg and why should you care?

It's simple, you submit and if people like it it'll go to the front page, if it sucks it won't.  Why should you care?  He did a study, on average a front page digg will get approximately 129 links from unique sites.  You also get on average over 10,000 visitors in an hour as well great branding.

Older people do read digg, in fact Washington Post featured Neil, their audience is older, but they are reading Digg.

Requirements, you need a website.  You need a content, picture, podcast or video to submit, however podcasts don't drive much traffic.  The way digg works, is on a voting system.  Time also works, a hundred votes in a 100 days, not so important, 100 votes in an hour then it's important.  Voters, 20 votes from active users better than 100 votes from new ones.  Friends is another factor, act like a Tom Cruise, get friends!

Unwritten rules:

• No self promotion. 
• Don't pay for votes (usersubmitter.com)
• No spamming
• NO SEOs Allowed  (if you are an SEO, don't let it be known)

Only .7% of all stories get to the homepage out of the thousands submitted a day. Top 100 control 56% of the homepage, and you can't control what people say.

Propeller is AOL's New Netscape (Digg Clone)

By Li Evans

Guess what, Digg's not the only Social News site that's changing, you might have missed it, but another site just managed to do a hefty change, domain name and all.  If you've gone out to Netscape in the last day or so, you might be in for a bit of a shock.  Gone is the social news page, no more voting on stories at Netscape.com.  The Netscape site has been replaced with something the might look familiar to readers.  Low and behold, it's just a Netscape news page like it use to be, years prior to that guy who started Mahalo came and went from Netscape/AOL.

Yesterday AOL/Netscape launched Propeller in place of Netscape's social news.  No fear though, minus a few cosmetic changes - such as the icons being a propeller and the color scheme changing, nothing has really changed.  Logins still work the same, you have the vote/sink options and can still comment on the submitted stories.  It's just a domain name change and prettied up a bit.

Propeller differs from Digg though, in that they actually pay their top editors and submitters.  Because of that,  you don't have the "Troll Like" audience you do at Digg, you know that younger set that is rabid about Macs, hates Microsoft and anything at all to do with Search Marketing (thank goodness for Sphinn, eh?).  The audience over at Propeller skews a little older, I guess that's because when you get paid to submit stories, that's a little more like a job (that whole responsibility thing ya know tends to set in).  The audience tends to be a little more mature, considerate, responsible and there isn't the "Bury Brigade" on this social news site, like there is at Digg.

I for one, like Propeller (Netscape), perhaps it is because the users are more like minded to myself.  Although I work at home, I don't work out of my basement, and I do have a date on occasion (yes, sarcasm) so maybe that's why Propeller appeals to me more. 

Will this change, sink the original idea of JC's Digg clone?  I don't think so, I think it really gives it it's own identity.  Thinking of Netscape as a social news site for any techie who's been in the business since it was a browser, is tough to swallow.  I for one welcome that change, and I welcome the change to Propeller.

Michael Vick, Digg & The Virginia Beach SPCA Hoax

By Li Evans

Come on, you all know the "old" adage, if its on Digg, it's got to be true!  Right?  Come on, over 500 people dugg it!  It is true, right?

Not this time, no matter how much dog lovers hate Michael Vick (quarterback of the Atlanta Falcons, charged with dogfighting) at the moment, sorry to say it's a fake.  Just because the poster of him "saving 14 Pit Bulls from Hurricane Katrina" made its way to Digg's front page with over 800 diggs, will not make the badly photoshopped image anymore legit.

Microsoft & Digg Deal Spur Acquisition Rumors

By Li Evans

Everyone's heard about Digg & MSN partnering for advertising syndication.  Over the past few days there's been a bunch of rumors running wild about an impending acquisition of Digg by Microsoft, Pete Cashmore over at Mashable thinks its bunk.  I tend to agree with him on that thought, and his thought on it creating a riot.

How ironic would it be, if Microsoft did buy Digg?  Isn't Microsoft the Evil of all Evils over at that social news site?  9 out of 10 Microsoft stories immediately get buried, unless its bad news for MS or a story about Ballmer throwing chairs.  What kind of sweet justice it would it be for marketers, should this happen?

I find this speculation interesting, as the possibility is definitely there.  Microsoft is not short on cash, and Digg did just dump Google for a 3 year deal with Microsoft's advertising network. There's definitely a little basis to the rumors and speculation going around this past week.

I especially like Evan Roberts, of MarketingShift, take on the speculation of a Digg acqusition of Microsoft:

"If MSN were to acquire Digg.com it would introduce a whole new plethora of users to Digg.com, pump much needed life into all the dead Digg sections, and continue bringing down servers worldwide (although being MSNugg doesn't have the same ring to it). I'd also assume that there would be a mini-revolt from all the Apple fanboys and Kevin Rose loving Digg purists who want the site to remain 'homegrown' but in the end we'd all win."

Really makes one stop and ponder those possibilities, doesn't it?

Wikipedia & The Chris Benoit Murder-Suicide Twist

By Li Evans

Wikipedia has found itself under fire again.  This time it's all about a high profile double murder suicide.  Over the past weekend, Chris Benoit a professional wrestler with the WWE, strangled his wife, suffocated his 7 year old son and then took his own life by hanging himself.  Now you are probably wondering how the heck is Wikipedia involved with this.

Chris Benoit, also known as the "Rabid Wolverine", has an extensive Wikipedia entry.  Approximately 14 hours before the police found any of the three bodies, the Wikipedia entry for Benoit was altered, not once but a few times and the alterations were questioned.  The alteration/edit mentioned Nancy's death as the reason for Benoit missing the matches in Texas.  So someone who knew something before the police did, went in and added Nancy's death.  Did they really think someone wasn't going to notice that?

To add further to this the story, Wikipedia and the authorities have tracked down the I.P. address of the entry.  The twist?  The I.P. address comes from Stanford, CT.  If you are a wresting fan (yes, believe it or not I am), you'll know that the head quarters for the WWE are located in Stanford.

Update:  It seems an editor at Wikipedia who lives in the Stanford, CT area has confessed to writing the post. This probably even goes more to the point about "anonymous" editors and posters on Wikipedia.   (hat tip to Simon Heseltine for im'ing me this link)

DigPhilly - Satisfying a Niche Market Need in Social Media

By Li Evans

Kristen over at Mashable turned me onto DigPhilly.  Being from the area, I was definitely interested in scoping out this neat new social network.  I hope you'll forgive the little indulgence, but this site is actually pretty cool and definitely useful.  I've been in it for a couple hours now, and I'm impressed and they've found an passionate user in me.  Also, just to clarify The DigPhilly name, is not a ripoff of Digg, the "Dig" points more to "my digs" meaning, "my home".

There's actually a lot of thought put into this social network, and it's rather easy to use.  There is also a portal part of the site too, from news to shopping to finding things to do or events to attend, this site as a lot to offer its members.  From center city Philly, to Manayunk to Audubon there's a lot within the site that's attractively designed with a great balance of flash and content.

Here's some unique features I've found that could actually be truly useful to its members:

• Groups - there's groups you can join groups by your interest, whether it's sports (go eagles!), TV shows or interests there's the beginnings of what could be a really great place to meet local friends.  You can also create a group, which I took the liberty of doing - "SearchMarketing".
  
  Groups can also have forums and calendars.  That's really a great feature.  Unlike Meetup.com this just puts the usability part of the group ahead of most of the sites out there.
• Neat Articles  - special articles related specifically to things around the Philly area.  Learn how to make a cheesesteak, fun things to do in Fairmount Park (like catching an Anaconda *not!*).
• Sharing - photos, videos and blogs for both users and groups can share these with friends, group members and the public.
• Buy/Sell - you can buy from the site's list of vendors or from members selling items through the site.  This could be pretty useful in that, it's local, it's more of a community which means members could be seen a more trustworthy than an ad on CraigsList or classifieds on Philly.com.

There are a few things that could be worked on, I think the navigation could likely need some help.  It's not exactly that intuitive and 75% of it's in Flash.  I also know it's a "Web 2.0" type site, but, just aesthetically, it could do wonders to loose that Web 2.0 mirror type logo on it's front page and at the bottom of the pages. 

Lastly, information about who digPhilly really would be helpful.  The only information I could find was the email addresses in my registration confirmation and the information in the whois record which doesn't give any information at all beyond the company CoporateDomains controlling the ownership.

This site definitely fills a niche, hopefully they were smart enough to do this for all the major cities in the U.S., otherwise, I can hear the sound of domains whisking away right now.