May 14, 2008
It’s midweek, time for another round-up of the buzz around the Yovia network!
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May 9, 2008
We’re ending the week on our usual eclectic mix of highlights from around the Yovia network!
It seems that the small blogger is stuck in his cubicle unable to climb the corporate digg ladder. Why?
Day to day the digg top stories come from the same blogs and websites with very large existing communities. Will there ever be a Cinderella story for the little guy and Digg? Honestly, my gut says no. Even if you reach the top, you run the risk of a ‘front page fascist’ reporting you as spam. My blogger conspiracy theorists think that the large existing community doesn’t want the small blogger to climb the digg ladder and destroy their reputation.
My advice is to find other avenues. Other social media and bookmaking sites such as “STUMBLEUPON” can drive as much if not more traffic than digg.
From one blogger to another your biggest concern always needs to be quality, regardless if your golden piece of content reaches the front page or not.
Israel F. Swanson
Community Development
I read an interesting article this past week about how social marketing is making more of interest in the marketing arena with advertisers. The article by Adage.com stated that, “While marketers may not be spending huge marketing dollars on social media yet, they know they should be using it to reach consumers.” Advertising Age also said a study, “found that 78% of marketers see social media as a way to gain a competitive edge, but fewer than 8% have budgets devoted to it.”After reading this I thought why and how this form of marketing still has not caught on. I think the biggest impact of this is because of the growing internet and the fresh social networks that are still developing. We as advertisers need to catch on to this aspect of marketing, because as things are changing within technology and the internet, the people around it are also changing. As advertisers we are always looking for the edge in advertising with being creative, but we also need to look at it as just simply engaging them in social networks.The article went on to talk about how it is an important way to build your brand, but people still aren’t sure how to use it properly. They states the question that, “Where should a marketer spend to reach its consumers — and how does a marketer know if its consumers use social media?” This is really the important focus of social marketing, because if you do it wrong you may never make a connection to your consumers and you could just be talking to the wrong people. Although, it is really important to get your feet wet with this form of marketing, social marketing can be highly effective. It engages the consumer, isn’t yelling, and it reaches them on an individual level.
By: Matt Hite
Yovia.com
Community Development Intern
Source article: http://adage.com/opinion?article_id=126828
Today’s Web has terabytes of information available to humans, but hidden from computers. It is a paradox that information is stuck inside HTML pages, formatted in ways that are difficult for machines to process. The so called Web 3.0, which is likely to be a pre-cursor of the real semantic web, is going to change this. What I mean by ‘Web 3.0′ is that major web sites are going to be transformed into web services - and will effectively expose their information to the world.
The transformation will happen in one of two ways. Some web sites will follow the example of Amazon, del.icio.us and Flickr and will offer their information via a REST API. Others will try to keep their information proprietary, but it will be opened via mashups created using services like Dapper, Teqlo and Yahoo! Pipes. The net effect will be that unstructured information will give way to structured information - paving the road to more intelligent computing.
Written By: Michelle Amos
This is a little piece of advice for the people who don’t promote themselves. If you have good content, and you know it, it is ok to promote yourself some. There are numerous people out there who seem to feel like promoting themselves is wrong. This is not the case, it is perfectly fine as long as you don’t cross that line into “shameless self-promotion”. As long as you aren’t the person who introduces themselves and begins pushing their stuff without regard for tact or decorum, you’re fine to do a little promotion. It is all about the conversation. It is perfectly fine, if in the course of a conversation, be it online, in person, or wherever, to tell someone else about what you are doing or what you are excited about.
So how do you apply this to marketing or traffic driving? Go ahead, take the first step and digg your own content. Give your article a Thumbs Up in StumbleUpon. It is MUCH more difficult to get an outside person to give the first digg or thumb than the second. It requires much more work to describe the article, select a category, verify the entry, and finally submit it than just rating it. By adding the first one, you are giving your approval, saying you like the content (which hopefully you do since it is yours) and adding a “face” to the piece. You could also think of it as asking for feedback so that you can improve you content. Getting the initial momentum will place the piece in front of a few people, and hopefully, if the content is good enough, approve it so that others can pass it on further.
Here is an example of someone trying too hard to promote their stuff, and coming across as shameless self promotion. This is at the top of many of their articles:
Hey, Stumbler! Don’t forget to look around before hitting the Stumble! button again 
http://www.holycool.net/2008/03/gun-egg-fryers.html
I looked around, it wasn’t that interesting. Since I gave them the benefit of the doubt and was let down they got a thumbs down instead of just moving on. In addition, this tactic is a little misguided. A ThumbsUp is more valuable than the two or three pageviews you will get from a new visit because a positive review will put the article in front of more people. It is the difference between three pageviews, or six more new visitors (and however many pageviews they visit). So, it would be more beneficial to say something like:
If you liked this post, don’t forget to digg it or give it a thumbs up. Thanks.
The reminders and mild self-promotions work, you just have to let people decide what they like. Don’t be afraid if people don’t like it that just means you need to change something, and try again. Eventually something will take off.
