Digg up some traffic on Digg

18 August, 2008, 9:30 am

Our second installment on increasing traffic with Social Networks is going to concentrate on Digg.  Digg is a great little social network which centers around people “digging” or “burying” content.  People can vote up or down on submissions thus either promoting it, or “unpromoting” it.

It is only fair to mention here that in the last year or two there has been a decent amount of controversy surrounding digg because a group of users have acted like the digg mafia and have gotten things they want promoted despite the intended purpose of keeping the site a truly democratic forum.

That fact aside, Digg is still a great way to drive traffic into your blog or website.

So let’s talk about how to best use Digg to drive traffic in.

1. Join

First of all I suppose the most obvious thing I can say is join digg, and build a profile.  This does not need to be extensive, by any stretch of the imagination, but you definitely want to put some links to your blogs or other sites there.  Se mine for an example.

2. Add Friends
After joining, be sure you add some friends.  When it comes to adding friends there is no such thing as too few friends.  When you look at a users profile, you will see several things.  You will see things they have voted on, comments they have made, links they have submitted, and usually a brief bio describing them or some links to other websites they like.

If they don’t appear to be a spammer or pornographer, go ahead and add them as a friend.  Digg’s friend system works on a two tier function.  You have fans and friends.  Fans are people who say they like you.  They will see everything you add and digg on, and you can “send shouts” to them asking them to “digg” your content.  But fans cannot shout their content to you.  They must be mutual friends.  So when you add someone as a friend, they must then return that favor or you will not be able to contact them through the network.  Don’t worry though, since having friends in digg is often so important, most people will reciprocate your friendship after you add them.

By now you will have a digg account and several friends.

3. Digg

Next you need to be digging and commenting.  Spend some time digging your friend’s submissions, and commenting on things you find interesting.  You will find just about anything you ever wanted to know in digg.  In fact, I get most of my news from Digg and other Social Networks.  This is especially important since the major news outlets and I all seem to disagree on what “news” is.  But that is a rant for another day.

4. Submit

When it comes to submission to Digg, I will repeat something I have said before.   Don’t be narcissistic.  The old and dying business model is the selfish, greedy, establishment.  Your Social Marketing will N-E-V-E-R survive if you show that you are only out for yourself.

So when you are submitting things to digg, submit thing that other people wrote!  Your network is for asking people to digg you.

Listen to me, this is the most important thing I can say.  The people who get the most traffic from Digg use the network alot, and they rarely submit their own content.  They ask other people to submit their stuff!  Do you hear that?  Ask others.  That’s what friends are for.  But DO NOT tire people out with your constant begging.  Find the medium and you will find yourself with some good business contacts and some great digg traffic!

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