A Beginner’s Guide to Social News Websites
A powerful catalyst for viral marketing, social news websites are an excellent way to disseminate ideas and attract attention, traffic and links. These social media channels which will give you a platform to showcase your content and website to a large audience.
Even if you’re not interested in funneling visitors to your website, social news sites can easily be used as personal information-hubs.
They’ll provide you with quick access to a variety of news, along with the opinions of other users. Not only can you share content relevant to your interests, you can also participate in discussions with engaged members as well.
Apart from giving an introduction to social news websites in general, this article will offer some tips on how to pick the right social news community, along with various strategies you can use to promote your website through these channels.
Let’s get started by taking an overview of social news sites in general, in order to understand how they function.
What are Social News Websites?
Image Credit: lone way home
Social News websites are communities which allow its users to submit news stories, articles and media (videos/pictures) and share them with other users or the general public. Some of these articles will be given more visibility, depending on various factors such as the number of user votes for each item.
Social News websites generally operate via a wisdom of the crowds principle; groups of individuals with different points of views are able to collectively determine the value or importance of content disseminated through the community. The users are given the editorial power to influence the visibility of content.
Articles and news from other websites are aggregated in the social news community through the participation of users with equal editorial rights. Some call the social voting process democratic, although the reality may be otherwise: Like politics, social news websites can be manipulated by users from within or forces from without.
Apart from counting registered user votes, some social news websites employ human editors to determine the visibility of each news item. Certain stories will be removed from the website while others may be given a ‘featured‘ position if the story is highly relevant and news worthy.
Different Types of Social News Websites
Social news websites can be divided into wide-focus or narrow-focus communities. Some of them only cater to a niche audience (e.g. marketers/moms) and others cover just about every possible topic in a bid to appeal to a large audience.
Digg is the most popular example of a social news website and it’s probably the most well known as well. It initially started as a community with a strong technological slant, before expanding its topics to include politics, humor and other types of news.
Other social news websites which cover a wide range of topics include Reddit, Mixx and Propeller, among others. Examples of social news websites with a more narrow focus include Showhype (entertainment) and Sphinn (Internet marketing/SEO).
As I’ve mentioned in my article on setting your social media marketing goals, the community you choose partially depends on your objectives. It is not realistic to expect an influx of incoming links or traffic when you only release your content through a poorly populated niche social channel.
How Do Social News Websites Work?
Image Credit: Goin’ down
For all social news sites, content submitted by users are filtered by an internal algorithm which determines the popularity of each story. This algorithm may involve various other factors apart from absolute votes: the discussion surrounding the story and the relationship between users (friends or not) may also be taken into account.
Smaller social news websites do not usually utilize complex algorithms because some of them run on out-of-the-box platforms like Pligg or Drupal and do not have much customization. More established social sites like Digg operate using algorithms which measure a variety of elements on top of positive/negative votes.
Top Digger Muhammed Saleem has written about the Digg algorithm and examined about how the popularity of any user-submitted story will vary according a host of other factors that are not openly disclosed on the Digg website.
Algorithms like this are set in place to prevent ‘gaming‘, which is the manipulation of content popularity through a variety of means that go against the social news site’s TOS. Some common methods of gaming include voting for stories using multiple accounts, incentivitized voting (get paid to digg) and the use of a voting network.
How to Choose a Social News Community: Factors to Consider
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Not all social news websites are worth your time, especially if you’re using them as a marketer. Ideally, each social news community should be populated with enough active users so you can derive something out of it, be it traffic for your site or information/news. It doesn’t make sense to visit a community that is rarely updated.
Learning how to target the right niche social sites is not a difficult or time consuming process. Here are some questions to ask when you are researching social news sites and trying to find out that fits your needs:
- Are there many comments for each news story?
- How many votes are needed to reach the frontpage?
- What is the frequency of new story submissions?
- What is the date of stories on the frontpage? Are they fresh?
- How many members are there? How active are the top users?
- Is the topical focus of the community relevant to your niche/site?
- Do you agree with the site’s Terms of Service?
Sometimes it’s difficult to find the right social news site and it helps to ask a social media enthusiast or marketer for their opinion. Someone more experienced has a good feel for what news site will work best for your content. Not everyone will help but you’ll get a response if you ask the right people.
You can also do a brief background check on the social site by running a query on Technorati or Google blog search. Bloggers love to write about social news websites, especially if it brings them some traffic. Some bloggers will also post traffic statistics, which will be especially useful when you are looking to promote your website/client.
Using a Social News Website: Getting Started and More
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The best way to understand how a social news community functions is to use it very frequently. Regular participation will give you an instinctive understanding on the type of content that will resonate most with the social community, which also makes it easier for you to determine your marketing strategy.
Here’s what you should do when you start to use a social news website:
- Study the News Site Carefully. Look carefully at what stories get the most votes and study what excites or infuriates the community. Experiment as much as possible. For example, I like to play around with different story types and submit stories during various times to gauge the response of the community.
Read articles explaining the social news sites and use additonal extensions or scripts to enhance your experience and the way you use the site.
- Determine the influencers. Influencers are what is known as ‘power users’, a term which refers to active and influential users within the social news site. This includes mavens (thought leaders) or connectors (users with many friends/fans).
Find out who these people are and befriend them. They have a wealth of experience and there is a lot you can learn from them. Seek the advice of more experienced users when you have questions as well.
- Develop a personal system. Regular usage of the social news site is key to building influence and an intuitive understanding, so set aside some time in your daily life to participate in the community. Determine minimum quotas to be reached and keep them in mind. For example, you can aim to submit at least 3 stories a day or comment on at least 5 other stories by other users.
- Connect with other users. Interacting with other users is a great way to make friends and build a reputation within the community. Even if you are purely using a social news site for marketing purposes, active interaction with other users allows you to develop positive support for your site or personal brand.
- Evangelize the social community. After active usage of the social news website, you might want to consider evangelizing it by getting friends to sign up and try the site. You can also connect your website to your social community by writing about it on your blog or putting up buttons which encourage people to use the social news site. The aim of this is to bring other users in to enhance your existing circle of influence. I’ve written more on this topic in my post on social media evangelism.
How to Get Your Content Popular on Social News Websites
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If you want to promote your website, your goal is to get your content in front of as many people as possible. In the case of social new sites, you want your article to be displayed on the frontpage because that is where you’ll get the greatest amount of visibility for your site/content/brand.
Here are three main strategies which allow you to get your content to the frontpage. You can practice all three of them in tandem or you can just choose one strategy and apply it assiduously to obtain the results you require.
1. Build an Influencer Profile
This entails regularly participating on the social media site and then building up a popular social profile with lots of friends, fans and supporters. You’ll need to develop a good reputation as a user who submits content that is of high quality and relevance to the community’s interests. This method can be particularly time-consuming, although it increases the possibility of getting any story on the frontpage.
An influencer profile (if made public) also allows you to brand yourself as a social news expert and allows you to do favors for many bloggers/webmasters, because you’ll be able to popularize their content as well.
A strong social media profile can also be fulfilling in many ways. For example, you’ll have quicker access to news and you’ll also enjoy interacting with other users as well, especially when you discuss ideas or topics close to your heart.
2. Pitch Social Media Influencers
If you don’t have a strong social media profile account or time to invest on the social community, learn how to pitch social media influencers. This involves befriending active social media users and getting them to submit content from your website.
The rule for this is simple: Always make sure your content is 100% relevant to the social news site AND the user’s personal interests. Respect their brand and only pitch content which improves their standing in the community. Practice tact and avoid over aggressive self-promotion.
3. Develop a Voting Network
This is an age-old method used by countless webmasters and bloggers to game social sites. Simply get a bunch of friends, colleagues or like minded individuals to register for the social website and then collectively vote up each other’s stories.
Some companies have even built unethical business models based on paying random users to vote for specific stories. A network of friends can however, be useful for both new or established social media users if used discreetly.
Do voting networks work? Yes they do, but they are not longterm solutions. For example, Digg may able to detect mass manipulation of stories and if you do it blatantly enough, most regular users of the site will recognize it as well. This might result in your domain being banned or your content may be ‘buried’ or editorially removed.
What I Recommend as a Strategy for Beginners
I would recommend building an strong social profile or pitching influencers, instead of using a voting network. If the social media community gives your website traffic, the least you can do in return is to participate as a useful member.
I’ve found that an influencer profile can be extremely powerful when it comes to branding yourself and it is an asset, especially when you are in the business of selling services or consultation. Many opportunities will arise because people are aware of your prowess in the social community.
If you want to build your online brand, the best thing to do is to establish an influential reputation through a wide-focus social media site (like Digg) and have others seek you out because of your knowledge or skills.
More on Social News Websites
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In the next article, I’ll publish a list of the social news websites you can target and use. This list will include both popular and some of the smaller, niche social news sites. Stay tuned for that and feel free to leave any comments you have.
Fundamentals of Social Media Marketing is a tutorial series which teaches you how to utilize the power of social media channels to get more exposure, supporters and customers for your site and business. This is the fourth article in the series.
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Some influencers flat out ask for people to send them stories. They are in their own world of competition with each other for the most popular submissions and most submissions period.
Becoming an influencer would be hard work but the payoff would be huge. Maybe too hard for Digg now, but certainly not for sites like Sphinn where Andy Beard is becoming THE maven. lol
Good post with some really good beginner tips. Look forward to your next post to see what sites you recommend.
Great tips. Building an influencer profile is very hard work on just about any network, but I would expect it to be very useful in the long run. I’ve been working on building a good Stumble profile. A part of that is being picky when people ask you to Stumble. You don’t stumble just anything.
I focus less on Digg, since I rarely write articles that seem likely to strongly appeal to that crowd. Figuring out which social media sites you want to focus on is very important.
Great article Maki!
I especially like the idea of pitching ideas to the influencers. I’d been confused on how best to utilize the tons of social news sites out there.
My site isn’t a blog per se, so while I may not have any particular area of expertise to offer the site perhaps I can pitch articles to interested influencers and help them with their brand while gaining exposure for my site as well. Thanks for the ideas!
Just started blogging myself. After reading your interesting article, I have to set a goal. Write 50 blog articles and then start to engage actively with social news sites.
Starting with a blog is already difficult enough. I need to learn to write in an entertaining manner first
But your site with suggestions helps me greatly!
Maki ~ very interesting post. I will have to come back and read it again so I can digest everything.
I completely agree with the inherent value of social networking and the ability it has to help raise awareness of your blog. The problem I have is that it can be so time consuming…
Happy Holidays!
Mark
Great read, Maki. Some great advice and relevant because I have created a social site LinkSlap.com which for web designers and programmers. The hard part has been attracting the inital bunch users, so the site looks regularly trafficked. I think once that occurs, then the site will pick up steam.
Have a good one,
Jason
Great read, but what’s up with Ichinose chan, the girl who’s playing voilin?
Great article Maki. One of the biggest mistakes beginner social users do is spam a lot. This will probably get them a handful of traffic, but at the cost of a ban. It’s like gaining a fistful of dollars, but losing a sack of it at the same time.
great to read..thx
I read online technology news a lot, receive daily updates from various computer/tech sites, have a engadget/techcrunch widget news box in one of my sites, and Google internet/computer/software news in my blog, and have long thought submitting items of potential interest to social news sites using those avenues.
But I feel there are too many quality news submissions from knowledgeable people or niche technology groups, hence making it difficult and perhaps time consuming for me to submit to add anything that has not been covered, and that could add instant value or interest.
However, your quality article has given me a bit of inspiration to submit items, particularly using the pitch influencer’s approach…
I use social networking sites a lot and know that I get a decent amount of traffic from them. Spamming is frowned about but that also defeats the purpose. I automate the updates to the sites when I post something new and that saves a lot of time but the real trick is getting people in your network that share your interests.
I would say that getting linked to people in the network that fit your demographic is the hard part but once you get a good base it is easy to maintain it and grow.
Tanya Ferrel put together a good summary of niche social networking sites here, if anyone is interested. http://www.kolbrenerusa.com/blog/index.php/2007/12/04/50-top-niche-social-media-sites-and-their-power-accounts/
It’s worth noting that this type social bookmarking/news takes an awful lot of work to build up a profile that can get anywhere near a decent amount of social media penetration.
One thing I learned is that it’s not wise to spread yourself across all the networks, and Digg is not God when it comes to social news sites that generate traffic.
And don’t spend all your time on social media campaigns at the expense of content – no point in getting people to come to your site if you’re neglecting to update it!
Great post, practically an eBook of its own.
I have a question about the “Develop a personal system” section. Regarding commenting, what is likely to give me visibility commenting in the social news site or commenting directly in the post? Or is there a negative perception attached to cut/paste the same comment in both places?
@ Stephanie
Yes, protecting your personal brand is important when you gain more visibility in the social site. Good point on not just stumbling anything people send to you.
@ Aaron
You’re welcome! The content on your blog is actually suitable for most social news websites, especially when you are able to land an interview with a famous or semi-famous/respected personality. Even now, some of the interviews you have are quite fascinating.
@ Patrick
I’m glad you found the articles here useful. You don’t need to write 50 blog posts before you start to engage in social news sites. In my opinion, the sooner you start using and interacting with social media users, the better. Your social media profile can grow alongside your blog.
@ wyt
I like Clannad… that’s why she’s there. ^_^
@ Michael
It’s always possible to add something new to social news sites. Your articles might contain opinions which resonate well with most social media users. Sometimes you’ll be surprised to see how many people think the same way. Write a good article and pitch an influencer to try…
@ Koka
Yes, networking sites are great sources of traffic and they are a remarkably easy way to get people interested in you because unlike social new sites, you don’t have to constantly source for content and submit it to them. It’s very easy to get the attention of others if you use specific personas (hot female etc.) as well.
@ Gerald
Great points… there needs to be a greater focus on creating quality content. After all, its easier to spend time creating an excellent article and then leverage the established brand of an influencer by getting him or her to disseminate it.
Participation in the social news website is a still a fun process and worth experiencing if you have the time.
@ Bob
I would suggest commenting on the social news site because it shows that you are participating IN the community by offering your opinions. Every comment is a chance to network with the user who submitted the news story.
It doesn’t make any sense to comment on the site itself because the submitter (and other users) won’t really connect your comment on the site with your avatar/persona/username on the social news site.
Cutting and pasting comments should be fine, really. I wouldn’t do it too often though.. it can become a little predictable.
@Everyone else
Thanks for your comments!
Thank you. I am new at this. I going to try this out!
Maki,
Thanks for the kind words, I’m definitely gonna try your ideas and submit some stuff in the future, let me know when you’re ready for the Q and A, ha!
Thanks for this comprehensive article… I would like also to add that selecting the right keywords when submitting a headline or a summary of the story or blog post is so important… social bookmarking sites getting indexed/crawled fast by search engines…because of the fact that they are news sites… and carefully selecting the right keywords will help even more…
And by fast I mean less than few hours…the news will be on top of the search engine results…
Great post!!
Hey nice article. Merry Christmas!!!
well,this is a must for all begineers.I am previously one and i know the importance of it
Very informative, a must read article specially for us newbies!
Nhick
http://www.itrush.com
Your post was a great read. Thanks for posting it helped kill some and gave me a little bit to think about.
- Dwayne Charrington.
dwaynecharrington.com
Maki – Haven’t been around for the past 6 to 7 months but it is good to see that the quality of your articles is as good as ever
I really enjoy reading your articles – you put a lot of work into them and I appreciate that. Keep up the good work!
Excellent article! I am in process of setting one of these up. I will print and read again and re-read, great tips! Thanks
Very insightful post. One of the challanges I find is determining where to focus my time and energy. With some many social websites out there it’s tough to narrow down the field. Thanks for the help!
I know this will be a shock to some but I just found you. I was at technorati trying to learn how to use the sight.
As you can I brand new to all this. I am still using wordpress.com because I have no idea how to set up the .org version…
I still cant get the little tags at the bottom of each post…those that say digg this or submit that…I think it is because they are java and wordpress does not allow jave script on there sight…
Anyway you were ranked as one of the top blogs at technorati…which in my mind makes you a guru…
All that to say this…I love your sight and this post helped me so much…I still dont know how to get the links at the bottom of my posts but at least I can now submit my material on digg…so I think that is a start…thanks for the info…
Its always a pleasure to read stories from you. It feels I use to get all my answer. In one of your previous stories I was able to grab an idea of building flagships and I am into and for past two weeks, I was in process of research on Social News and found this article with you. Thanks for your write ups!!!