News Source: http://www.techipedia.com
Published: Nov 02, 2007 - 11:57 am
Story Found By: tamar 2027 Days ago
Category: Social Media
12 Comments
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News Source: http://www.techipedia.com
Published: Nov 02, 2007 - 11:57 am
Story Found By: tamar 2027 Days ago
Category: Social Media
12 Comments
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For so many of us that aren’t the "hot sphinners", the point of this article brings a couple of questions to mind."Understand the community. Know who you’re pitching to. Know what you’re getting into."If you are just doing it for fun, "pitching" the stuff you enjoy, find interesting or find informative rather than what you want to promote and it’s not getting attention... do you fit in?If you don’t fit in, should you conform or quit?The reality is that the elite of social media can get stuck in a repetion of simply checking out what their friends say and submitting stories. It becomes a collective where the same 25 people always are promoting (sphinning) what each other submits. 1. Understand the community = Find out WHO is important2. Know who you are pitching to = Suck up to who is important (the elite)3. Know what you are getting into = It’s not about what you like or what you find important. It’s about figuring out what everyone else likes and what everyone else finds important and maybe just maybe if you do this enough you’ll get to throw in a few things you actually like too and get to see them be considered important too.And that’s the nature of the beast.1. Get Famous2. ??3. Profit
"If you are just doing it for fun, "pitching" the stuff you enjoy, find interesting or find informative rather than what you want to promote and it’s not getting attention... do you fit in?"Not every site is for every single type of content. Would you submit an About page to Digg? Believe it or not, I’ve seen it done before.My post was prompted by seeing blog posts on Digg’s front page that don’t fit with the Digg culture. It was so heavily gamed that it was ridiculous. That is not what you want to do. That is not the type of reputation you want to get. This is especially true if you consider yourself an "SEO," because it then justifies the claims that "Digg is being gamed by SEOs."Furthermore, the same thing is happening on Sphinn. Again, that’s why I wrote my other submission.I disagree with your breakdown of my statements. 1. The "elite" don’t always respond to these pitches, especially in excess -- which is another thing that I tried to say not to do at SMX.2. Sucking up doesn’t buy you any more love than the next person who does the same thing. 3. Yes, there are niche sites that exist simply because people realized that their submissions didn’t fit on sites like Digg, Reddit, etc. If you want to succeed at Digg, learn what works at Digg.
I am so sick of hearing, elite this and a lister that and important player. As we say in the UK "my arse". Bullshit! There is no such thing as an A lister. Everyones vote has the same power.If you have no influence, then get influence. This site is about marketing, it’s about how to persuade people, if you can’t persuade, if you can’t communicate, then show some humility and learn.The same 25 people? What the hell are you on about?Don’t fit in? You’re a human being, what else does it take to be a member around here. There is no secret handshake, there is no top elite users controlling every vote who are also responsible for global warming.How come there are so many paranoics on sphinn, I’m the number 2 Sphinner, are you accusing me of being an elite, A lister? I got where I am by submitting quality stories, you may wanna try the same thing and stop whinging like a baby.I am so glad I am not a mod, I don’t have to be impartial. And I am not here to make friends so if I piss you off, tough.
@Lyndon:Everyone’s vote has the same power. Agreed.Everyone’s submission does not. (but you admit this saying get influence)I was stating real issues for new users. 1. Facing rejection and feeling like they don’t fit in2. Having to ask themselves, can I be myself and have a story go hot?3. My observation that social media is about forming communities within communities.All I did was take Tamar’s geniune approach and simplified it. (warped it one could say) I’m trying to show the very fine line between the short and long term and I’m really just laying out the formula to those that show up and they immediately want to "Promote their Website".I warped Tamar’s point into:1. Research who is important2. Befriend them (suck up to them, whatever)3. Submit stuff they find interesting.-then and finally then-4. Promote your website.And interestingly enough in the process you’ve really proven my point. My post obviously doesn’t suck up to the important people and you took issue with that and likely it’s really destroyed any chance I’d have of you sphinning something I submit. (luckily for me I don’t do that too much) I guess my point is that social media changes a website from a dictatorship into a senate. (where as some would have you believe its a democracy) And the goal is all about becoming part of the senate. (gaining influence if you will ;)What people need to understand about the senators (important people, elite, A-listers, etc)1. They did work hard to get there so it really bugs them if you make it sound like they didn’t.2. They don’t like being called elite, important, A-lister, etc b/c they associate that with not working hard.3. There is a secret handshake. They just don’t want to tell you.
G, I don’t think you understand the basics of human interaction.People are sttracted to powerPeople are attracted to sexy peoplePeople are attracted to people who can make them richPeople are attracted to people who make them laughSame online as in real life. In real life some people are more persuasive than others, some people are better networkers, and even dare I say it, better at making friends.It’s not about being an A lister, it’s about the effective use of social skills, if you don’t have any then you are stuffed.
*** The same 25 people ***I’m not watching votes that closely. However, there are only about 30 or 40 people that regularly comment on the stories here.More than 2000 of the members have made only one comment per person per several thousand stories submitted.
"I was stating real issues for new users. 1. Facing rejection and feeling like they don’t fit in2. Having to ask themselves, can I be myself and have a story go hot?G, you’re missing a really fundamental point.You are fixated on selfish goals:YOU being rejected.YOUR story going hotHow do you gain influence around here? Become a valuable contributor.You reap what you sow. Give and you shall receive. But you are fixated on "what do I get out of this thing" instead of asking yourself "How can I contribute to this community?"
Whining gets you nowhere. The same goes for Google by the way, look at the gazillion of whiners posting "why does Google ignore my site". If you can’t get votes at Sphinn or links for Google rankings, look at the content and your promotional techniques.
It seems to me that the folks who get out and socialize in real life have a real advantage over those who don’t. I’m sure you’ll notice that most of the people who get their stuff Sphunn go to the conferences on a regular basis, talk to a lot of people, shake a lot of hands and buy a lot of beers. I tend to generously vote for people who I’ve had some sort of interaction with or who have reached out to me in some way. New folks don’t get my attention as much, if at all. I’ve never met Lyndon or Tamar before but we’ve had a small dialog here and there on blogs and facebook, etc so I recognize your names as people who I like and always give the stories they submit a second look when other people’s stories are all but invisible. Search marketers are generally a very friendly bunch. Just start talking directly to people, make some friends and I’m sure they will start to notice you and your submissions.
"likely it’s really destroyed any chance I’d have of you sphinning something I submit. (luckily for me I don’t do that too much)"Wrong assumption there if you’ve made it about me. That’s certainly not how I operate. I <a href="http://www.techipedia.com/2007/negative-comments-and-social-media/">take criticism and I grow with it</a>. This isn’t a secret about me. Heck, most of the articles I Sphinn are from the upcoming page don’t show the submitters’ names because I’m subscribed to the RSS feed.
Thought I’d throw out my 2 cents on this topic.@gamermk: the only way to gain influence and attention to sites such as Sphinn, Digg, etc is to keep rolling out quality submissions. If you can’t find anything good to put out there, you should be actively commenting and voting on things that you find interesting. There is a real time investment to making one’s mark in such a community.@g1smd: only 30-40 comment on here regularly? Of course, because it’s a relatively new niche community. That’s a reasonalbe number relative to the number of registered and active users on here. Also, all this talk about A-List and Elite is garbage. Have either of you tried to branch out and talk to any of these A-Listers? Gone to conferences? Most people here are genuine, try talking to them. Other folks that you would not consider A-Listers are also knowledgeable and good folks to meet.Folks like Tamar spend a massive amounts of time on these social sites trying to find quality content. Social sites are spammed by garbage and adsense covered turds more and more these days. You want notariety? Want to have your avatar in lights? :)Freaking do something about it. Network. Write stuff that’s good. Find stuff that’s good. Filter through RSS like a beast.There is no magic formula or some As Seen on TV kit for this.
@halfdeck (and many others):You guys have to realize that my points really aren’t about me at all. They are however how a lot of people feel in social media. Honestly, if it was about me I’d be submitting a lot and I’d certainly be trying to actually promote my own sites which I don’t. (they don’t fit this niche) The reality is I’m just here for the chatter in the comments. That being said I really wasn’t trying to create a whiny tirade. I was just challenging Tamar’s article a little. I wanted to know her thoughts on these very real issues for new users. (I should note that my little jab was at Lyndon not you Tamar, but that being said he’ll more than likely judge my submissions based on their merit too)While I do think some of you are a little disillusioned (I’m certain you’ve got a similar opinion of me), it still was interesting to read everyone’s perspective on things although I don’t know how happy I am for suddenly being associated with "G" lol (Thanks L ;)