Using Social Media to Grow Your Blogs Community Part 2

Using Social Networking to build your blog’s community Integration • Social network buttons and widgets – Allows easy submission – Highlight previously submitted stories – Easy for users to vote • Javascript/HTML – Copy and paste into your theme – Javascript widgets for digg/reddit/stumbleupon on every post – Chiclets on every post – Other widgets in the sidebar Writing Good Headlines • The headline is key – The object of a good headline is not to get people to read your article – A good headline gets people to say, “Yes! I agree! I’ll vote!” – Once you’ve made the front page, then people will click through to your site • YOU LIVE OR DIE BY YOUR HEADLINE! – So spend some time on it. Writing Good Headlines (con’t) • Get to know the site you submit to – Certain topics and memes consistently do well on certain sites – Read the front page and top stories of any sites you plan on succeeding with every day – Note what topics pop up again and again Writing Good Headlines (con’t) • Writing a good headline in 3 steps: 1. • What popular topic or meme does your article fit into? It doesn’t have to be the main topic of your article 2. • • Quotes work well. Start with the best line of the article. Edit the quote down, remove anything unnecessary. Strong, absolute, angry, or surprising statements work best. 3. • • • Submit and test Submit to one social site first and monitor progress. If your headline is taking off, replicate on other sites, tweaking as necessary If your headline is a dud, submit again or change headline • Your headline does not have to have much to do with your article! – Remember, the object of the headline is to get users to vote up. Reddit: A Case Study • Sign up at http://www.reddit.com • Subscribe to subreddits your are interested in (politics, environment, etc…) • Spend a week reading the first few pages every day • Submit equal parts your own writing and other news articles • Submit throughout the day, no more than once or twice per hour Reddit: A Case Study (con’t) • Topics reddit likes: – Civil rights, civil liberties, the Constitution • Chris Dodd will still filibuster ANY bill containing telecom immunity. Once again, thank you for continuing to stand up for what we all believe in. You deserve our highest respect. – Problems in the Middle East, wasteful foreign aid: • While you were sleeping, a full-fledged war broke out in Pakistan. 200 Taliban fighters captured a military fort. Then they captured another! This isn't a guerrilla campaign, this is open warfare. – The tanking economy: • “A young male in his 30s today has an income, adjusted for inflation, that is 12 percent less than what his father was making 30 years ago.” Reddit: A Case Study (con’t) • More topics that reddit likes: – The dying music industry/copyright • The artists who slave for years to make records, who pour out their souls into their CDs, don’t actually get any of the money recovered through RIAA lawsuits. Not one red cent. – Anti-partisan/libertarian (redditors don’t like either party) • Remember that story on the front page yesterday about Democrats having guts? Well, the Senate version of that new wire-tapping bill includes immunity for telcos. Maybe they don't have the guts after all... – Outrageous facts • By the way, firms like Blackwater were outlawed in the United States in the 1800's. And that law is still on the books! – Anti-drug war • Like invading Iraq didn’t fix terrorism, and locking up drug dealers didn’t fix drugs, building a wall will never fix immigration, which is the point. America doesn’t want a fix, just a scapegoat. Spreading the word • Once you’ve posted, spread the word! – A few up votes quickly, especially on reddit, really helps – Send your link to a few friends • I send stuff I submit to all authors at The Seminal What is Social News • Anyone can submit content • Anyone can vote on content • If a submission gets enough votes, it is featured. Wisdom of Crowds • Given a proper mechanism for aggregating opinions, large groups of random people can come up with better solutions than small groups of experts can. • Ideally, the best content is given the most exposure. • Think rec’d diaries. Digg.com • http://digg.com • 3,000-70,000 visitors • Great for Search Engines • Generally takes between 100-200 votes to “go popular” on Digg. • Can be as few as 50 or as many as 1,700. The Digg Algorithm • Diversity (where they come from, how much their diggs overlap) • Timing (how quickly the Diggs come in) • Comments • Very contentious, always changing Stumbleupon.com Can drive up to 25,000 visitors in a day Channel Surfing the Web Install a browser toolbar, thumbs up and thumbs down buttons 5 million members Current.com • http://current.com Like Digg, but different – Vote up or down • Very Progressive • Sends up to 1,000 or so visitors • Featured on Television Current TV • http://current.com/items/89085331_current_ news Buzzflash.net • http://buzzflash.net • Explicitly Progressive • Drives 300-1,500 visitors • Only requires 15 votes or so Contact Us Jason Rosenbaum jason@theseminal.com http://theseminal.com http://healthcareforamericanow.org Josh Nelson josh@theseminal.com http://theseminal.com http://thehatchergroup.com Matt Browner-Hamlin http://begichforsenate.com Cheryl Contee http://jackandjillpolitics.com