If you are involved in media, communications or your job description involves spreading ideas and you are not participating on sites such as\u00a0Digg\u00a0and\u00a0Reddit\u00a0you are at a huge disadvantage compared to those who are.<\/p>\n
There is so much you can learn from the open socialization of news, content and ideas that these communities are unmissable from a sociological perspective.\u00a0 Success in social media is more than knowing how to market \u2013 it is understanding society.\u00a0 At its core, the social web is merely all of us having a giant digital conversation anyway.<\/p>\n
Especially interesting to me and why I want to focus on Digg and Reddit specifically and not others in this post is the community fostered.\u00a0 The Digg and Reddit communities are far more vibrant in the discussions, opinions and vocalizations than others such as\u00a0StumbleUpon\u00a0and\u00a0Delicious\u00a0due to their layout.\u00a0 I won\u2019t say they are \u201cbetter\u201d or \u201cworse\u201d at sharing content, that is entirely subjective \u2013 just different.<\/p>\n
To me they are very much message forums 2.0.\u00a0 I spent time daily for about the last decade on message boards\/forums and see huge cross over between many of the old online communities to Digg and Reddit.\u00a0 The only difference is these sites are about content-sharing at a much larger scale as opposed to boards which are niche oriented.\u00a0 Note that the meta-community content is ever-present across web communities.<\/p>\n
The monolithic, open communities of Digg and Reddit represent a chance for you to spread ideas, socialize with intelligent people and participate in an undeniably cool social experiment.<\/p>\n
They are hardly new, and you\u2019ve heard about them before \u2013 but I want to express specifically why marketers, bloggers, artists and anyone looking to spread ideas and content can learn valuable lessons from these communities specifically:<\/p>\n
Learn viral content archetypes<\/strong><\/p>\n Digg and Reddit are incredibly fertile ground to learn successful viral content archetypes.\u00a0 Obviously\u00a0lists in social media\u00a0are hot, but there is even more to learn by closely studying the layout of popular content, voice it is written in and the design elements supporting it.\u00a0 There are lots of subtle elements that people use to package content that is just irresistible to web communities like Digg and Reddit.\u00a0 A few websites have picked up on them and have seen huge spikes in traffic \u2013 as I have\u00a0shown\u00a0examples\u00a0of\u00a0previously.<\/p>\n Test what types of ideas spread<\/strong><\/p>\n Everyone wants to have their ideas spread.\u00a0 Without it, marketers and communications people fail to gain steam behind their initiatives.\u00a0 Artists can\u2019t build a fan-base.\u00a0 Bloggers can\u2019t build subscribers.\u00a0 So, why\u00a0wouldn\u2019t<\/em>\u00a0you participate or at the very least study networks that are\u00a0built<\/em>\u00a0on groups of people sharing ideas and participating in some of the most popular examples of content crowdsourcing on the planet.\u00a0 Don\u2019t ignore the 24\/7\u00a0 social science experiment.\u00a0 Savvy people are learning by participation and emerging as the ones with a true understanding for\u00a0why we share content.\u00a0 Don\u2019t test purely your own ideas\/content either.<\/p>\n Deep analysis of ideas in comments, discussions debates<\/strong><\/p>\n Perhaps even more interesting than\u00a0what<\/em>\u00a0is being shared is what is being said about content.\u00a0 Learning what makes something successful in a democratized news environment only scrapes the surface.\u00a0 Now you have the ability to see immediately how an entire community interprets ideas and content in threaded discussions where even the comments are voted on.\u00a0 Where things really get interesting \u2013 for me at least \u2013 is how people react.<\/p>\n Gain insights and inspiration to ideas \/ niches that are under-served A few popular stories within a niche\u00a0breaking through the clutter\u00a0that are not receiving much of a share of voice in traditional or other areas of social media may be a sign you have come across an under-served niche that others are ignoring.\u00a0 Now you have the opportunity to serve it before anyone else.<\/p>\n Analyze reactions to your brand and your competitors brands<\/strong><\/p>\n Many people in Digg and Reddit, just like message boards and forums, use alter-egos to share content and contribute to discussions.\u00a0 This is because everyone knows\u00a0they\u2019re being watched\u00a0but still wants to contribute in a raw format.\u00a0 Getting honest, authentic reactions about your brand is powerful as they will be more pure than you can gleam from any focus group.\u00a0 Also you can learn what your competition is doing wrong, then focus on\u00a0being a better choice.<\/p>\n Just a quick end note\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n If you\u2019re going to dive in to Digg and Reddit, spend your first month (or longer) doing nothing by voting up other people\u2019s stories, commenting intelligently and genuinely contributing.\u00a0 Don\u2019t even think about submitting a story until you feel comfortable in the discussion and understand that\u00a0it is not about you, it is about the community.<\/strong>\u00a0This is not a place to promote yourself, your blog, your website or your clients.\u00a0 This is a place to learn about how ideas spread and creating sharp, popular content.<\/p>\n Also one final note for those of you thinking of using any insights on social media to grow your traffic:\u00a0\u00a0organic traffic building\u00a0is the only way to build a sustainable web brand.\u00a0 Social traffic is great but you need a multi-tiered approach for long-term growth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" If you are involved in media, communications or your job description involves spreading ideas and you are not participating on … <\/p>\n
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n