News Source: 1
Published: Oct 18, 2007 - 04:32 pm
Story Found By: Lyndon 2043 Days ago
Category: Social Media
Networking means developing trusted relationships with people who can add value to each other. If you think it’s just about getting your stories voting on you are missing out.
Grubbing for votes ultimately means you are weak, it means that your personal brand is not powerful to carry a story to the front page. It also means that anyone who votes on a poor story tarnishes their own brand and demeans themselves in the eyes of their peers.
People know what you vote on here, if you vote on crap you will be known as a crap merchant. Not bothered about that, fine, no problem. But if you want to build a trusted brand which may be involved in future joint ventures, then you better make sure your actions reflect the image you want to portray.
Now I am not against a bit of vote grubbing, I have even done it myself a few times. But I can count the times on one hand. I reached the top of Sphinn simply by submitting quality stories, because I want to be known as someone who is associated with quality and it seems to be working.
My advice, if someone will not vote for your story unless you ask them, then maybe there is something wrong with your submission.
This is a rant inpsired by some crappy shite that has made it to the front page recently. I would like to keep Sphinn a place of quality.
Thank you for your time.
19 Comments
Comments
Cheers... to a meatier Sphinn.
Hopefully as the community grows the number of votes will increase and people will realise they’ll never be able to beg enough votes. I’ll admit I’ve occasionally asked a few people for sphinns to help get a story started or pushed it popular, but I always hope those people vote on quality rather that to get sphinns in return!
People need to think back 5 years and see how networking was done then and apply that to there networking now. Face to face, chat rooms, forums, instant messaging, telephone, etc. are all used to instroduce yourself to the people in your industry. Begging for attention or a glimpse at the spotlight will not go far. The attention you get will be from a negative eye and the spotlight you see will fade rather quickly. I am not a big influence on the community here as are some others, but at least take the advice of hard work and determination will get you farther then complaining.
Whew... glad U ain’t raggin my arse Lyndo - cause my crap never get’s onto the front page and no one has asked me to ’Sphinn’ anything, man I suck! I am but a social butterfly that has too many feeds going... if I don’t report it on my site.. I put it here... while I am here I hit the odd story that looks of interest... a ’brand’? If I am ever one, it won’t be by design.....Oh, did you notice that I was starting to wonder if your were actually a SMM Bot?? (see todays Beer Break)... yer makin me dizzy watching you man... huff puff.... Anyway, nice rant :0)
I am just learning about social networking. As usual you come through with some great thoughts and discussions.Thanks,Mack
Lyndon - you raise valid points without a doubt. We want to keep the stories clean, and the most valuable content front and center.Question --> do you feel the same way about other social sites? ie: digg
I wouldn’t think so. Digg doesn’t really target a specific crowd ( IMO of course ), and digg is far too corrupt to change now lol.
In related news, Lyndon’s email inbox is now only half as full as it was prior to this post...
*** it means that your personal brand is not powerful to carry a story to the front page ***I vote on the usefulness/accuracy of the story/discusssion/news item, not on who posted it.
"My advice, if someone will not vote for your story unless you ask them, then maybe there is something wrong with your submission."I expected a few people to retort: "My advice, if someone will not vote for your story, pay a few bucks."I’m sure "paid Sphinn" is just around the corner, if it hasn’t begun already.Seriously though, just because people don’t vote for your story doesn’t mean its bad. It does mean that the submitter may not have enough trust with the community, but there are plenty of good posts that only interest a minority of people here for one reason or another. People also may vote up meaningless fluff just because its a good distraction from work.At the end of the day, we all have different tastes. None of us can rely on any submitter to to bring us the cream of the crop. To find it, we all gotta do our own digging (and I don’t mean Digg).
Lyndon, don’t hold back...name names....say posts...let it out bro...get specific! :)
Not everyone spends all day watching Sphinn, so asking for a vote can also be raising awareness. "hey, not sure if you saw my last post, that is just a few spinns away from the front page..."I get those, and sometimes appreciate them. They helped build the personal relationship (or wreck it, if the post is junk).
Hmmmm. I like the idea behind this post Lyndon - that quality should always triumph. The paradox of the Sphinn/Digg/Propeller/Reddit, etc system is that (quality+network)*marketing = triumph. Ipso facto the only way to make Sphinn 100% quality is to divide triumph by marketing and subtract the network, or in other words, "write your own blog". Ok, that was too clever by more than a half (or less depending on your level of punchiness).Great post as usual Lyndon!
Sphinn is the bank robbers bank.What I mean by this is the people here spend their time persuading, promoting, seducing in their respective sectors. We know the tricks. We get it. We are the most savvy audience when it comes to marketing.Stuff that works on other site will be seen as transparent here, and no one likes to be gamed.I have no problem with my attention being brought to an interesting story and am constantly sent good stuff which I appreciate. But people here know what is going on, and you will be judged on the quality by your peers.A place like Propeller you can get away with these kind of tactics, I notice a number of people here regularly get the front page with poor quality stuff, and I have no problem with that. I see Sphinn as the clubhouse for the gang. The Hole for the Hole in the Wall gang, the Oak tree for Robin Hood and his bunch of merry men.This is more about quality control than it is about spamming a friends list.When you vote for crap, you’re saying that you want to be associated with it. No names Marty, by their votes ye shall know them.
So it seems like you are advocating a "Sphinn It Down" button?
I don’t think the community as a whole wants it to come to a "Sphinn It Down" button, because equally that can be manipulated also. Maybe I should blog this. I have a lot of mixed feelings about the future of sphinn.
I agree with you wholeheartedly, Lyndon, and I am going to assume I know who you refer to as well. As a moderator on Sphinn, it’s a strange position for me to be put in when I get asked to Sphinn stories. I’d rather determine quality based on my own evaluation rather than having people try to make the decision for me. The same goes for any other social network.It’s hard in this industry where everyone is close to each other to some extent, because you wonder how far you will go to stay friends with so-and-so. Will they be offended if you decline their request? I’m sure they will. How do you keep your friends in the industry while clearly trying to only be associated wtih superb quality and not meager quality? It’s a hard issue to grapple with. I haven’t the slightest clue how to work it out myself.
I would expect my friends to tell me if I am pushing sub standard content. But then I want to be known for quality content, not everybody does.
Excellent post, and one I will certainly be taking away to clients. SM is not about just throwing content up and expect it to explode...The phrase about improving a website, rather than promoting it stays in my mind... always.Si