Reddit is a powerhouse, and has managed to maintain and build on its identity even with such massive growth.   For many reasons it represents a new evolution we’ve yet to see in other online communities. What follows is an overview of just what makes this site so remarkable.

Consider, as you read on,  the potential of Reddit and sites similar to it that aggregate and organize the content of the Internet to become more than just places to be entertained or to learn. The reality is that Reddit is beginning to shape and influence the world in ways that are only now becoming apparent, bringing a higher order of organization to content online, and allowing for an evolution in the potential of collaboration.

So, without further ado, here are our top 19 reasons why Reddit is so unbelievably awesome.

1. Being on Reddit is like sitting in a group discussion of thousands of moderately intelligent people, interested in the topic at hand.

The users with the best input have the loudest voices and take turns while not speaking over each other. This is the result of the voting based comment system that floats the most voted for comments to the top of the thread. Many front page submissions regularly have more than 1,000 comments with some submissions reaching over 9,000 comments (yes, really). Like this submission which asked, “What stupid question have you always been too embarrassed to ask, but would like answered?”

Questions range from the silly, (What is on the other side of a belly button?) to fascinating, (Is there anything resembling rhyming in American Sign Language?) to incredibly puzzling (What do you see when you look through a one-way mirror directly towards a regular mirror in a naturally lit room made of mirrors?).

2. Reddit is a magnifying glass of the Internet.

Reddit is arguably the largest social news aggregator.  Without Reddit,  countless great sites, blogs, articles, journals, videos, images and other pieces of online content would go unnoticed and unshared, lost in obscurity and never given the ability to be seen by tens of thousands.  Reddit enables the individual, and gives literally anyone who has something interesting enough to say the ability to reach millions.

While the same could be said for news aggregators like Digg, Mixx, and countless other clones, what sets Reddit apart is its size.  With millions of active users who submit thousands of pieces of new content each day, there is no place like Reddit for finding the newest and most interesting stuff online.  The title of Reddit’s home page is “the front page of the Internet,” a title many would argue it has decisively earned.

3. Reddit allows for intense and evolving communities of special interests.

Reddit has amongst its ranks some of the most active niche communities available online. The size of some subReddits rivals or exceeds the size of the largest mainstream forums and groups about the same topic, making these subReddits the largest gathering places on the Internet for many topics.

Many of the following are among the most active places online for their given topic:

1. (Atheism Topics) Atheism – 453,000+ members
2. (Marijuana Topics) Trees – 180,000+ members
3. (Fitness Topics) Fitness – 120,000+ members
4. (Female Centric Topics) TwoXchromosomes - 71,000+ members
5. (Mens Fashion Topics) MaleFashionAdvice - 67,000+ members
6. (Dubstep Music Topics) Dubstep 40,000+ members
7. (LGBT Issues Topics) LGBT 36,000+ members
8. (OWS Topics) occupywallstreet – 30,000+ members
9. (My Little Pony Cartoon Topics) mylittlepony 19,000+ members

4. Reddit is highly collaborative and easily spawns or expands collaborative efforts.

Group projects, concepts, and ideas can grow and be possible through the cooperation of like-minded people.

One example of how Reddit does this exceptionally well is RedditGifts.com – an initiative spawned on Reddit that has become the largest ever gift exchange program. This last year more than 39,000 Redditors exchanged gifts with each other. In total,  $1,073,939.88 in gifts were exchanged with an average gift price of $25.68.

Another great example was when the Reddit community collaborated to influence an online poll being used by Greenpeace to name a whale that was part of its Great Whale Trail Expedition, an initiative to raise awareness about whales threatened by the Japanese Fisheries Agency. The whale’s name was to be chosen in an online poll with the name with the highest number of votes being chosen. The selection of names were a mix of meaningful unique words like Anahi and Kaimana, with an extra silly name put into the mix as an afterthought. The name: Mister Splashy Pants.

The poll was made known to the Reddit community, and from there Reddit took charge. They easily influenced the poll, and Mister Splashy Pants won by a solid margin.

5. Reddit Helps Determine The News Cycle.

It is quite clear that reporters, journalists, and editors in local, regional, national, and even international regularly read Reddit. It is no coincidence that that stellar story seen on Reddit this morning was featured on Rachel Maddow that same evening.

Some examples of how journalists use and recommend Reddit:

1. Reddit a Fire Hose of Internet Ideas
2. Use Reddit to Find Story Ideas
3. How Reddit Controls the Internet News Cycle

6. Reddit is the ultimate investigator.

The term “Human Flesh Search” is the term used when a large group of individuals collaborate on digging up information on one specific topic or person.  Through the power of a common goal and crowd-sourced effort, some absolutely incredible feats of detective work can happen. Reddit has proven itself to be among the most powerful “human flesh search” engines that has ever existed.

Just a few examples include:

1. Reddit users tracking down the birth family of an adopted Redditor
2. Reddit uncovers a long lost childhood mystery
3. Reddit helps find incredibly obscure video
4. Redditors find individual responsible for Wikileaks DDOS

7. Reddit is a meme maker and trend setter.

A meme is defined as:

“An element of a culture or behavior that may be passed from one individual to another by nongenetic means, especially imitation.”

On Reddit, original content that resonates and lends itself to imitation is created all the time,  in large quantities. Because of this, Reddit has become the birthplace to many new memes, some of which have gone on to reach near mainstream recognition.

Examples of memes started by Reddit:

1. Troll Quotes
2. Cuil Theory
3. If you watch x backwards, it’s about y
4. Birthday Dog
5. Anti-Zombie Fortress
6. I’m with Coco
7. Zach Anner
8. Waffles? Don’t you mean Carrots?
9. Bearsharktopus
10. Keanu Reeves
11. Inglip

8. Reddit is a life saver (literally).

One of the most impressive sub-Reddits is the community at r/suicidewatch. These selfless people are there to talk to those who feel they have nothing left to live for. The community is certainly responsible for saving lives, though it is uncertain how many.

With nearly 9,000 subscribers, this community is arguably one of the largest groups in the world dedicated to suicide prevention. It is most certainly the largest 100% unfunded, 100% volunteer suicide prevention group in existence.

Here is the story of one Redditor, who planned to die and was saved by r/suicidewatch in the most dire moment.

9. Reddit is an idea engine, giving birth to new ideas constantly.

Reddit is a naming machine, and its users know it.  Although the Reddit community is often astutely aware when they’re being used for crowd-sourcing, nobody seems to mind helping people come up with names for things.  Reddit has helped people name everything from pets, to bands, to even kebab shops.   Reddit is especially good at quips and puns, as evidenced by a thread about Naming a Bar.

Another good example of Reddit’s penchant for creating and sorting ideas, you’ll find it in their treatment of inventions.  If you’ve ever had an idea for the next “great invention,” you’re not alone.  Redditors have waxed eloquent a number of times about their invention ideas that would change the world.  To be fair, Redditors are also pretty honest about the practicality of their ideas as well.  As evidenced by this thread discussing the phenomenon of invention ideas that seemed great at first glance, but quickly fell apart under scrutiny.

10. Reddit includes experts from nearly all fields, vocations, talents, and specialties. Many of whom share their inside knowledge freely.

Though the exact number hasn’t been released, there are undoubtedly several million active Reddit users contributing to the more than roughly 20 million daily page views. Among these users are a sizable number of very noteworthy Redditors. Some are highly-trained experts, well respected intellectuals, actors, celebrities, sports stars and many more.

Just a few of the known Reddit celebrity accounts can be found below:

1. Louis CK
2. Wil Wheaton
3. Ken Jennings
4. Felicia Day
5. Zach Braff
6. Neil deGrasse Tyson
7. Don Lemon
8. Joe Rogan
9. Jimmy Kimmel
10. Steve Vai
11. Stephen Colbert
12. Scientists and engineers at NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory

11. Reddit allows for in-depth discussion over topics that otherwise would never ever be talked about in a group way.

In many ways Reddit can be like hanging out with a bunch of friends. While this often leads to long threads on the pointless and inane, sometimes it yields really interesting discussions over topics that many have contemplated, but never discussed in a public forum.

Here are a few examples enabled by Reddit:

1. Cuil Theory
2. The Merits of Sitting or Standing

If you’ve never experienced the joy of a “group joke” where everyone contributes to an ever-increasingly absurd list of pun’s, you’re missing out.   Reddit is famous for pun threads, and they tend to emerge in the most unexpected places.  One great example of this happening can be found here.

12. Reddit provides an unparalleled opportunity for research into sociology, groupthink, hivemind, memology, and self-selected groups.

Because of the ability of Reddit to form large groups of like-minded individuals in subReddits, an opportunity for studying these groups has been created.  For regular readers, it becomes obvious that the “personality” of different subReddits is not the same across the board. Some subReddits become known for certain types of behaviors or attitudes. Although there haven’t been any academic studies of these communities, members often take the time to set up surveys to quantify themselves, often with very interesting results.

One example was a demographic survey done in r/fittit, the most popular fitness based subReddit.   One interesting takeaway from the survey is that 50% of the community is single.

Another, more specific example can be found in the subReddit for transgender people r/asktransgender. Members of this community set up a survey themselves to document their demographic and psychographic profiles. The result of which were then compiled into an infographic report based on a on a large sample of transgender individual that provides very interesting insights into this niche community.  One interesting takeaway is that of those surveyed, 14% consider themselves “heterosexual” meaning they are attracted exclusively to the gender opposite to the one they identify with.

13. Reddit is a virtual confessional. It prompts people to tell their secrets.

On Reddit, you can be 100% anonymous if you desire. At the same time, if you have an interesting story to tell, you can get a great deal of exposure. This has led to Reddit being used as a sort of confessional: a place where deep secrets can be told to a larger audience.  The r/ama subReddit has been home to many confessions including the following stunners:

1. 9,000+ people telling their darkest secret desires
2. Several admitted psychopaths
3. A military whistleblower
4. Redditors who have killed somebody

14. Reddit is like always having the wittiest, funniest people in the room.

Collective intelligence determines the best comments and they rise to the top of all threads.  Because of the way Reddit is set up, comments can become content that is voted on and recognized on its own merit. In many instances, user comments have become some of the most talked about and engaging pieces of content on Reddit.

A great example of this is a response that was posted in response to the askReddit question:  “Could I destroy the entire Roman Empire during the reign of Augustus if I traveled back in time with a modern U.S. Marine infantry battalion or MEU?”   User Prufrock451 posted a response in the form of a short story.  The community liked the story so much, it resulted in Prufrock (real name James Erwin) continuing with the story and beginning a subReddit dedicated to the expansion of the idea. The subReddit currently has more than 8,800 people subscribed. Even more spectacular, management at Warner Brothers took notice of the short story (likely because someone internal is a Redditor) and the massive interest it garnered on Reddit and bought the rights to make it into a film.

15. Reddit can celebrate individual victory or achievement in a BIG way.

When someone accomplishes something great, getting accolades or getting noticed beyond your friends can be hard. On Reddit, when someone does something spectacular, it is often recognized in a big way.

One great example can be found in a post on a man who built a scanning electron microscope from scratch.  Reddit’s reaction can be seen here.  Another example is a great demonstration of how kind-hearted the Reddit community can be (if their love for dogs and kitties didn’t already make this clear).  Redditors are some of the first to applaud those who are kind to others.

16. Reddit can be a source of power and revolution for the people.

17. Reddit encourages interaction in a completely unique way

One of the unique aspects of the Reddit community is the idea of “karma.”  Karma is a system of points that are given or taken away from users based on how much the community likes or dislikes the content they submit or the comments they make. Although “karma” is worthless in a monetary sense, it has a social value for Redditors. The more karma a user has, the higher regard or esteem they are generally shown within the community. Gaining high levels of karma has become important to many Redditors and is an incentive for participation.

Karma is a really interesting case study in “social currency” and has clearly demonstrated that non-monetary incentives can indeed spur real community growth.

In addition to encouraging participation, karma also influences the behavior of Redditors. By having something to gain or lose through their interaction, Redditors monitor and modify their behavior in ways similar to how they might in real life. Instead of dealing with social ramifications for bad behavior, on Reddit, they deal with consequences of karma.

This system of social accountability is somewhat unique online, and Reddit is certainly a great example of how this sort of system can help sculpt the behavior of an online community.

18. Reddit is perhaps the best existing example of an entirely Internet based culture.

Large enough to have created an ethos that transcends single topic areas, this is different than forums or other communities because the constituents of the group aren’t bound by anything extremely specific.

As mentioned, there are individual subcultures that exist in subReddits, but Reddit users have a specific ethos that is more or less true of the large majority of Redditors. There is such consistency between users opinions on topics that Reddit can generally be characterized as having taken on specific positions on controversial issues.

Briefly, on a whole, Redditors are generally:

1. Anti Religion, many Atheists
2. Pro LGBT rights
3. Pro Marijuana Legalization
4. Supports Occupy Wallstreet
5. Supports Wikileaks
6. Loves Technology/Gadgets
7. Pro Education Reform
8. Pro Church/State Separation
9. Anti SOPA & Protect IP, Anti RIAA
10. Pro Geek Culture

The Reddit zeitgiest can be so consistent and homogenous that it has become the subject of some amount of lampooning. EncyclopediaDramatica has done a particularly scathing and funny (though often times true) review of Redditors.

19. Reddit is kind and generous.

Reddit has done literally hundreds of good deeds. Some of them small, some of them very large. Here are links to some  “good deeds” big and small:

1. One Redditor Finds Another’s Long-Lost Art
2. Reddit Community Saves Small Business
3. Reddit Buys Young Woman A Hearing Aid
4. Reddit Helps Make Dream Come True for Dying Man
5. Reddit Correctly Diagnoses Fellow Redditor’s Cause of Severe Depression, Saves Her Life
6. Reddit Brings Family Music Heirloom to Life
7. Reddit Helps Pay For Member’s Mother’s Funeral Costs
8. Redditors Give Girl with Huntington’s Disease Given Shopping Spree
9. Reddit Community Donates Over $185,000 to Haiti Relief

Conclusion

While the future of Reddit remains unknown, its example has clearly shown the benefits of crowdsourced content curation. The Internet has a tremendous amount to offer in terms of sheer content, but the value of that offering is multiplied exponentially when that content is organized and rendered by a motivated and thoughtful crowd. In the future, we will likely see many permutations of the system pioneered by Reddit, likely with great benefit to us all.

For the reasons outlined above, and undoubtedly countless more, we would argue that Reddit is indeed the most influential site online.  What do you think?

Do we really need another social network to waste hours of our lives? Better yet, how has a network that is still invitation-only managed to get 2.7 million users (and that is just those who are signing in with Facebook)?

Pinterest is a social bookmarking tool used to “pin” images found around the Web into categorized collections, or boards. Think of it like an interactive, shareable scrapbook. Like any good social network, you can follow other users, share their content, make comments, and tag users. Similar to a Twitter stream, you get real-time updates of what the people you follow are pinning.  You can also easily share your pins on Facebook and Twitter.

While there aren’t a lot of brands using Pinterest yet, I expect that to change very soon. The audience on Pinterest is different from the major social networks because most people use it to find inspiration, whether they are hosting a party, getting married, remodeling their bathroom, or looking for a recipe for dinner. In other words, many are using Pinterest to help guide their buying decisions. If a user finds something they like on Pinterest, there is a good chance they will at least click the source link and, at most, make a purchase.

Why People Are Obsessed

Pinterest combines two of the most compelling elements of social media: visual content and sharing who you are. Oh, and everything looks really pretty…

HOW IT WORKS

Although Pinterest is still “invite only,” you can request an invite on the site with a pretty quick turnaround for access. You can also login using your Facebook or Twitter account for instant access. The Pinterest user interface is extremely intuitive — so much so that I think the quickest way to “get it” is to join and from there it’s very self-explanatory. But, there wouldn’t be much to this post if I told everyone to just go join Pinterest…

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Before I get into how this social network can be beneficial for brands, here’s a quick overview of Pinterest’s features:

PINS

A pin is an image or video, either from a website or uploaded from the user. A description can (and should) be added to pins.

BOARDS

Pins can be organized by topic, called boards. By default, Pinterest starts users off with a bunch of boards, but these can be deleted or renamed to suit a user’s interests. Within my pin boards, I’ve created collections of everything from recipes I want to try to countries I’ve visited to ideas for organizing my home to nail polishes I think are pretty (don’t judge me).

FOLLOWING

Like Twitter, you can follow anyone, even if they aren’t following you back. You have the option to follow all of another user’s boards, or you can just select certain boards to follow. You can sign up using your Twitter or Facebook account, which makes it easy to find all of your friends already using Pinterest.

REPINS

Repins are the “retweets” of the Pinterest world. Repinning is sharing an image pinned by someone you follow or found while browsing Pinterest, and then adding it to one of your own boards. Repinning gives credit to the person who first pinned the image. You can also edit (or add to) the description when you repin something. Source links also stay on the pin no matter how many times it is repinned. You don’t need to be following someone to repin from them.

LIKES

Liking a pin just adds it to the “Likes” on your profile, but doesn’t add it to one of your boards. Again, you don’t need to be following someone to like their pin.

PINNING FROM THE WEB

You can add a “Pin It” button right into your browser to easily pin things you come across on the Internet (this is currently only available for Chrome).

You’re given a choice of which image to use from the page you are pinning:

You then select which board to add the pin to, and can add a description:

The source link is automatically pulled in:

SHARING

Anytime you pin something, you can easily share it on Twitter and Facebook:

There are also share buttons alongside any pin you click on:

BENEFITS FOR BRANDS

On the surface, Pinterest may seem too niche to benefit a wide range of brands. As with any network, once Pinterest grows there will most likely be features added specifically for businesses (promoted pins? sponsored boards?). For now,  there are 3 main benefitsfor brands using this network….

1. Get Seen

Pinterest levels the playing field for smaller retail businesses that don’t have the budget or resources to compete in search results. If I search for jeans on Google Shopping, I’m going to see Levi’s and a bunch of other brands I already know sell jeans. “Discoverability” is a word I’ve seen thrown around a lot regarding Pinterest. Meaning, Pinterest helps people find new products/brands/styles they would normally not come across by plugging keywords into a search engine. Chances are, the people I choose to follow on Pinterest have similar taste to me. I know I can check out their pin boards and probably see pins of jeans that would suit my taste. If I do a search for jeans on Pinterest, I know I’ll find trendy options and smaller brands I don’t know about, or even a DIY project for turning an old pair of jeans into a mini skirt. If I search for jeans tomorrow, I will see something new since results change as new pins are added.

2. Building Links

Anytime someone pins something from your site, it automatically pulls in not just the image from your site, but also a link. There is a chance for that pin to be repinned multiple times (even hundreds of times, in some cases), building up a healthy amount of backlinks. Here’s a great post that makes the case for linkbuilding on Pinterest. You can see if people are pinning things from your site by replacing “yoursitename.com” in this link with your URL:  http://pinterest.com/source/yoursitename.com/

3. Brand Advocacy

If people love your products and they’re on Pinterest, they will not only pin your stuff, but they might dedicate an entire pin board to your brand.  True story: I have an entire board dedicated to Essie & OPI nail polish (again, don’t judge).

Need proof people are voluntarily hawking products? Just look at some of the Diet Coke-related things I’ve seen:

TIPS FOR BRANDS

1. Follow, Repin & Like others  As with any other social network, you need to share the love. This is also the best way to zero in on influencers and encourage them to follow you back and repin your pins by frequently sharing their pins.

2. Encourage employees to set up their own accounts Build clout as an industry authority by letting your staff showcase how passionate they are about your field. For example, this Kate Spade graphic designer has a few pins of her company’s products, but more importantly she demonstrates she’s a tuned in part of the fashion community by being active on this network.

3. Create boards BEYOND your products and your brand… …yet still related to your industry. For example, a home decor company could pin do-it-yourself books and a bakery could pin some favorite kitchen gadgets.

4. Add a Pinterest icon Let your audience know you’re here by adding a Pinterest icon to your other on-site social buttons.

5. Incorporate a “Pin It” button Even if you aren’t going to set up a profile on Pinterest, you can still get your brand involved by including a “pin it” button on your product pages or blog posts. You can also add the button to blog posts using the WordPress Pinterest plugin.

BRANDS ON PINTEREST

Who’s already here? Some major brands using Pinterest include:

• Real Simple
• Nordstrom
• HGTV
• Etsy
• Better Homes & Gardens
• West Elm
• Cooking Light
• Bergdorf Goodman
• Williams-Sonoma
• Whole Foods
• Bon Appetit
• Paula Deen

CONCLUSION

Currently, this community is best suited for retail, lifestyle, food, home decor, design, publishers, and travel brands. Only brands with visually-appealing content have something to offer the community.

If irrelevant brands take over, Pinterest’s intimate feel could be sacrificed. Self-promoting brands risk being shunned by Pinterest’s tight-knit community and it’s stated in the Pinterest ethics that self-promotion is discouraged. Anytime a new social networks comes along, it is tempting for businesses to jump in. Given that Pinterest is toeing the line of a niche community, this network is not — and never will be —  for everyone.

Brands that find the most success on Pinterest will be the ones that put aside self-promotion and add value to the community in a way that is unique to their business.

Do you think Pinterest is just a passing fad or do you think it has staying power? Do you think the “Pin It” button will become as ubiquitous as the “Like” button?

Users with technical courage followed the hack instructions on Techcrunch and updated their profiles to the new format.  The new format for users was said to take about a week until everyone was to be updated, but we are still waiting.  Does this mean that fan pages will take longer to update? Or will this change hit out of nowhere, like the last time everyone flipped out about the new fan pages?

Much like Hurricane Irene, there will be backlash to these changes.  Months and years of strategy might be washed down the drain.  However, like Irene, if we prepare for the changes with the information we know, we could be back on our feet in just a few days.

We can’t be 100% sure of how or when the changes for fan pages will occur.  But we can make some educated guesses on the best ways to prepare for upcoming Facebook changes. Below are 5 tips for preparing your fan page for the anticipated changes.

1. Modify Wall Posts and Engagement

The above posts might be more prominent if the new page layout is identical to what we’ve already seen released on personal profile timelines.  Updates will appear larger and won’t flow down the page as quickly as in the past, making it important for photos to be high quality.  Additionally, brands may not be able to set the wall to show “brand only” posts.  Zuckerberg mentioned something along the lines of disabling the feature to “hide” what the fans are saying.  The brand needs to stay in control of the page. Make sure the wall is full of diverse types of content and not just fans talking.

2. Organize Photo Albums

The build up of wall photos that brands post get lost in the “Wall Photos” album. This is unorganized and will most likely be a big undertaking to organize later.  The new timeline layout will encourage fans to look back through the brand’s Facebook history, of which photos are a big part.  Brands that have already organized albums and will have a seamless transition when changes take place.  Create new photo albums and place photos from the wall into the new albums.  Fans are not likely to browse through “Wall Photos” but will take the time to look for things they are interested in within organized albums.

3. Revise Facebook Engagement Policy

The new algorithm of the Facebook main feed is different for each user now. Users are able to set who they want to see on their main page for a more personalized experience.   However, the ticker on the right hand corner is always moving and brands should take advantage of this.  In the past, many social strategists would advise brands to post to the wall and comment when it is important, so not to inundate the community.  Because there is so much activity on the news ticker, this is now the other way around.   If you want the brand to stick out, you must update and comment as much as possible. But to do that, the tone of the brand and the messaging must be on point and always approved.

Keep in mind, it important not to go crazy and post a million times a day.  Users can still “hide” the brand, or even “unlike” the page, if it gets too noisy.  Post just enough to get noticed and not lost in the crowd.

4.  Prepare New Creative Assets

Brands loved when they were able to make their profile images longer.  They would change the image often, for holidays and other campaigns.  If Facebook decides that brands will get similar pages that the users have, we will be given new creative spaces.  Cover art can be changes as much as possible and gives us more width to brand our pages with.

5. Revise Your Monitoring

The Facebook insights metrics that we all came to know and love are still there but now compiled into the number of people “talking about this” which is now live on the page for anyone to see. This provides a quick way for administrators to look at the page insights all wrapped up into one number.

Here is what it means when you are counting the people  ”talking about this”:

• Liking your page
• Posting to your wall
• Liking, commenting or sharing one of your page posts or other content on your page such as photos, videos and albums
• Answering a question you posted
• RSVPing to one of your events
• Mentioning or tagging your page
• Liking or sharing a check-in deal, or checking in at your location

Conclusion

Like you, we are anxiously awaiting these updates and can only imagine how they will negatively or positively affect the brand fanpages.  No matter what happens, we will adapt.  We will learn new ways to interact with our audiences and increase engagement rates.  Change is inevitable on Facebook and we are prepared and ready for you, Zuck.

Maybe it wasn’t ‘hard’ to draw the rage guy, but you get the point.

Users aren’t clear on whether they still own the copyright to their rage comics, original memes, and other UGC once it’s been published to social sites like Reddit, Digg, or Fark. And sometimes, networks are defenseless against other parties re-posting and recycling their network’s goods.

Wait . . . isn’t that the goal of social networks (sharing, social diffusion, etc.)? It’s clear why this topic is so tricky. Let’s go network by network, and review the Terms of Service and all of those boxes you click accept to without reading, to find out if your content is free game.

TOS

Except as expressly provided otherwise in the Privacy Policy, you agree that by posting messages, uploading files, inputting data, or engaging in any other form of communication with or through the Website, you grant us a royalty-free, perpetual, non-exclusive, unrestricted, worldwide license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, translate, enhance, transmit, distribute, publicly perform, display, or sublicense any such communication in any medium (now in existence or hereinafter developed) and for any purpose, including commercial purposes, and to authorize others to do so.

LAYMAN’S TERMS

You are sharing with the world. Though you retain a copyright, the content becomes public.

TOS

You retain your rights to any Content you submit, post or display on or through the Services. By submitting, posting or displaying Content on or through the Services, you grant us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license (with the right to sublicense) to use, copy, reproduce, process, adapt, modify, publish, transmit, display and distribute such Content in any and all media or distribution methods (now known or later developed).

LAYMAN’S TERMS

You maintain copyright, but agree to unreservedly share the content with Twitter.

TOS

You own all of the content and information you post on Facebook, and you can control how it is shared through yourprivacy and application settings.

For content that is covered by intellectual property rights, like photos and videos (IP content), you specifically give us the following permission, subject to your privacy and application settings: you grant us a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide license to use any IP content that you post on or in connection with Facebook (IP License). This IP License ends when you delete your IP content or your account unless your content has been shared with others, and they have not deleted it.

LAYMAN’S TERMS

You maintain ownership of content, but grant unreserved rights to Facebook, and accept that other users will maintain the content even if you delete it on your end.

TOS

For clarity, you retain all of your ownership rights in your Content. However, by submitting Content to YouTube, you hereby grant YouTube a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sublicenseable and transferable license to use, reproduce, distribute, prepare derivative works of, display, and perform the Content in connection with the Service and YouTube’s (and its successors’ and affiliates’) business, including without limitation for promoting and redistributing part or all of the Service (and derivative works thereof) in any media formats and through any media channels. You also hereby grant each user of the Service a non-exclusive license to access your Content through the Service, and to use, reproduce, distribute, display and perform such Content as permitted through the functionality of the Service and under these Terms of Service.

LAYMAN’S TERMS

You maintain copyright, but agree to unreservedly share the content with YouTube and users until you delete the content.

TOS

By creating and posting content to Digg, you warrant that you own all rights to the content, agree that the content will be dedicated to the public domain under the Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication, available at http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ and that you will not object to the use of the content by Digg in any context. To clarify, the above does not apply to the content on external sites linked to by the original submission.

LAYMAN’S TERMS

You maintain copyright, but agree to share it with Digg.

TOS

You agree that you are solely responsible for your own Submissions and affirm, represent, and/or warrant that you own or have the necessary licenses, rights, consents, and permissions to use and authorize Fark.com to use all patent trademark, trade secret, copyright or other proprietary rights in and to any and all Submissions to enable inclusion and use of the Submissions in the manner contemplated by Fark.com. You retain all ownership rights in your Submissions. However, by submitting the Submissions to Fark.com, you hereby grant Fark.com a non-exclusive, royalty-free, sublicenseable and transferable license to use, reproduce, distribute, prepare derivative works of, display, and perform the Submissions in connection with Fark.com and Fark.com’s business, including without limitation for promoting and redistributing part or all of Fark.com (and derivative works thereof) in any media formats and through any media channels/outlets.

LAYMAN’S TERMS

You maintain copyright, but agree to unreservedly share the content with Fark.

TOS

We do not claim ownership in any “Content” (which means any and all postings, e-mails, messages, recommendations, comments, text, files, images, photos, video, sounds, works of authorship, feedback, bug reports, or other materials) that you post on, deliver to, or otherwise make available to the Services, but to be able to legally provide you with and promote the Services, we have to have certain rights to use such Content in connection with the Services, as set forth below. In return, we also grant you certain use rights to the Content that we (or our licensors) own and use to provide the Services to you and other Users, as set forth below.

By posting any Content on the Services, you hereby grant to us an unrestricted, irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, fully-paid and royalty-free, license (with the right to sublicense through unlimited levels of sublicensees) to use, copy, perform, display, create derivative works of, and distribute such Content in any and all media or distribution method (now known or later developed) throughout the world. Additionally, by posting any Content on the Services and making your Content available to others (“Third Parties”) via RSS distribution, you hereby grant to all Third Parties an unrestricted, irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, fully-paid and royalty-free, license (with the right to sublicense through unlimited levels of sublicensees) to copy, display, and distribute such Content in any and all media (now known or later developed) throughout the world. No compensation will be paid with respect to the Content that you submit, upload, post, transmit or otherwise make available through the Services.

LAYMAN’S TERMS

You maintain copyright, but agree to unreservedly share the content with StumbleUpon.

TOS

Your Member Content is yours; AVOS does not claim any ownership rights in your Member Content. By posting, submitting or transmitting any Member Content on or through the Service, you grant us and our third party service providers and partners a worldwide, non-exclusive, transferable, royalty-free license (with the right to sublicense) to use, copy, reproduce, adapt, modify, distribute, transfer, publicly display, publicly perform, transmit, broadcast, access, view and otherwise exploit such Member Content in any and all media or distribution channels (now known or hereafter created).  For example, this license allows us to make your public “bookmarks” and comments available anywhere and everywhere in the spirit of the Service i.e., for use by other Members, our partners and via other media platforms.  No compensation will be paid to you with respect to your Member Content as a result of your posting, submitting or transmitting Member Content through the Service.

LAYMAN’S TERM

You maintain copyright, but agree to unreservedly share the content with Delicious.

CONCLUSION

Regardless of the forum or the TOS agreement signed, if you are lawyered-up, there’s still a chance that your UGC can be protected. For example, if a third party wrongfully posts your original content, then the TOS have been violated and are nullified in many cases (think stolen sex tapes).

However, under ordinary circumstances, a good rule of thumb is that if you posted it for free, it is free for general use. Also, under most TOS above and elsewhere, you grant explicit rights to the social network to use the content any which way they please.

Below I have listed the various social networks to consider when putting together a content promotion strategy.

Popular Social Networks

The sites below are the top social networks with the most active users and highest traffic. Theses networks accept more general content. They can generate thousands of views and hundreds of links to your content.

Digg

What’s my audience?

Mostly a male audience between the ages of 18-49. This network was one of the most popular social news aggregates. Many top social media influencers and bloggers monitor this site for stories and content to share. Even though the site is no longer what it used to be, don’t count Digg out.

What types of content do well?

• Infographics
• Lists
• News Stories
• Comics

Reddit

What’s my audience?

This network has become the largest social news aggregate. The audience is typically male between the ages of 18-49. A majority of the site is very tech savvy and very aware of social content promotion. The site is monitored by many top social media users, bloggers, and news sites. The best past of Reddit are the sub-reddits that allow you to target your content based on the subject. Using sites like RedditList.com and MetaReddit.com,you can easily determine the best locations to place your content.

What types of content do well?

• Images
• Comics
• Controversial or thought-provoking articles
• GIFs
• Memes
• Videos

StumbleUpon

What’s my audience?

There is a mix of female and male users, between the ages of 13-60. The user on this network are not very tech savvy but activity on this network is very high. You will find a wide array of users on this network. One of the best features of this network is tagging your content. If you tag your content correctly, you easily place it front of the demographic that is interested in your niche topic.

What types of content do well?

• Evergreen
• Resources
• Videos
• Comics
• Art
• Lists
• GIFs

Delicious

What’s my audience?

This site has a mixed audience of males and females. The demographic is a little older that other networks. This audience is mostly looking for resource posts. The popular RSS feed from this network is used by many popular twitter and social site aggregates (JimmyR.com, PopURL, etc.). So you many not see a lot of direct traffic from this network, but you will see referrals from sites that aggregate their feed.

What types of content do well?

• Evergreen
• Videos
• Guides
• Lists

Moderated Social Networks

These type of social networks are based on user-submitted content, and editors/moderators judging and then approving that content. These sites tend to have much higher quality content since a human/community has to review it. You can see great results if you are able to have your site included on one of these sites.

FARK

Fark is a social network where you submit news stories with catchy titles. They love puns in titles and have a very active front page. All content is judged by editors and if it meets their standards it’s posted to the homepage.

What types of content do well?

• Mainly news related content

Drudge Report

Drudge Report is run by one person that posts links to top news stories, breaking stories, and very controversial stories. You can anonymously submit content and he will decides if he will include it. Placement on this site can send 100,000 visits in hours.

What types of content do well?

• Political Content
• News Stories

Ebaumsworld

Ebaumsworld has been around for a very long time and has gone through a lot of changes througout the years. The site won’t send you a massive amount of traffic but a front page will bring you anywhere from 1,000 to 5,000 views. The site is also used by other humor sites for content discovery.

What types of content do well?

• Humorous Content
• Shocking Content

Topix

These are local forums where you can share local news and breaking stories. This site is moderated and makes it easy to target specific geo-locations. This is great site to get discussions going around your content.

What types of content do well?

• Geo-specific new stories or content

Niche Social Networks

These social networks won’t send you 100,000 views but they offer the benefit of a targeted niche audience. For example, the investing social network Tipd.com only has a few thousand member, but a few hundred of those people are some of the top financial bloggers on the internet. You could see better results from just focusing your efforts on this network than going after all of the top networks.  Remember, you have to experiment to figure out which sites are really worth your time.

Business

Tip’d – Finance

Feed The Bull – Investing

Motley Fool Caps – Small Cap Investing

Pfbuzz – Personal Finance

Sphinn – Internet Marketing

Killer Startups – New Biz

YCombinator – Startup News

Products & Commerce

Dealspl.us – Deals

SlickDeals.net – Deals

Dealigg – Deals

Leisure/ Entertainment

ArmchairGM – General Sports

Yardbarker – General Sports

AutoSpies – Auto

N4G – Gaming News

WeHeartGossip – Celeb News

Chictini – Woman’s Style

Stylehive – Style Bookmarking

Eco-Friendly/ Wellness

Care2 – Better World

Mind Body Green – Green Living/Yoga

Art & Design

Design Float – Design

Design Bump – Design

Programming

Stackoverflow – Programming

DZone – Programming

dotNet Kicks – .NET Programming

Tweako – Computing

Conclusion

With experimentation you can discover the right niche networks for your content. If these networks don’t match your niche, consider looking through this master list of Social Bookmarking networks. Please share the hidden gems you have found in the comments below.

Bloggers start and develop in an industry that’s already saturated. And when you’re super talented and authoritative in the area that you’re blogging about, you need to put yourself out with self promotion and hope others find you promotion-worthy as well. The only problem is that as a great blogger, you’re mixed in with all these so-so bloggers and ones that won’t even peek out from behind their persona mask.

When you’re doing a search query for something and you get a bunch of results that all look the same, you’re more likely to just start clicking from the top (so long as it’s relevant) down the page until you find what you’re looking for.

Nothing is there to distinguish a good blog post from just another one in the mix.

If I was searching for Android Fragmentation (I have no idea what that is but this results page was an awesome example of the markup at work) I would definitely be more apt to click the posts first that have a bio picture next to them. You’ll notice that there are other sources that could have great information on Android fragmentation, but they’re less likely to get clicked because of the generic looking result.

What increases CTRs? Credibility. Relevancy. Trust. Placement. And now, authorship.

There are two ways to distinguish yourself to users and to the search engines; you can use both the rel=”author” markup, and the rel=”me” markup.

Rel=”Author Markup”

One great way for bloggers to take ownership of their posts and gain credibility in the space is to use the rel=author markup, which would look something like this:

<a rel=”author” href=”http://www.blueglass.com/team/selena-narayanasamy" title="My BG Post">Selena Narayanasamy</a>

This doesn’t have to point to an actual author page, an about page will be just fine. The rel=author markup HAS to be pointing to another page on the same domain though- you can’t use this to point off-site.

The idea is that this creates a relationship between the blogger and their author/about page- which then allows Google to pull their bio picture in to the SERPs when showing their post in the results. Having a real life person next to a result can increase the CTRs and in the long run, might have a good shot at becoming a ranking factor.

The more posts that bloggers publish with high CTRs could potentially start showing up higher because they appear to be a trusted and popular search.

Rel=”Me”

Rel=”Me” is sometimes confused with the Rel=”Author” markup. The main difference with the Me markup  is that you use it to link to an external site that’s also yours.

<a rel=”me” href=”http://plus.google.com/113536282425581949756/about">More about Selena"</a>

This establishes that there is a link between your post and other external sites that also have your name. This way, you can make sure that your social profiles are linked to you as an author as well. And others won’t be able to lie and link their posts to your profile to ride the coattails of your credibility without your permission.

In order to do this, we’ll need to get a reciprocal link from our Google + profile letting the engines know that they can trust that these two are connected.

This way, I can’t try to write a post and say I’m Annie Cushing by pointing to her Google + profile. She would have to agree that I’m her [and good luck with that one].

This is a little trickier than the “Author” one. We’ll use Google + as an example since we’re already on the subject… let’s say that you’ve added the Rel=”Me” markup to your post using your Google + profile as a site that’s also owned by you. You’re going to have to go to Google + and confirm that this is, indeed, you.

When you’re on your profile page, go up to the top right and click “Edit Profile”

Once you click that, you’ll be taken to a place where you can edit the links in your sidebar. Click that.

Once you’re in there, you’ll see that there’s an option to add a custom link. You need to do this in order to set this up. You’ll then see a box that has an option you can check called, “This page is specifically about me.”

After you enter in all the necessary information (your website name and your website URL) and Google + can now reciprocate that this is, indeed, me marking myself as the author of that blog post.

Utilizing both of these tactics will not only help get your posts visibility in the SERPs, but can also coin you as a credible author. It’s easy to have a pen name. It’s easy to write a post. It’s harder to stand behind your name with a strong and compelling post- taking full ownership of it.

It’s also easy to remember someone’s name when you’re reading a post, but it’s harder to forget their face. It’ll also encourage them to search up more posts written by you because you’re pretty much burned into their brains now.

If you’re interested in how to work the Rel=”Author” markup with WordPress, there’s a great and concise post by Yoast about Highlighting WordPress Authors in Search. And of course, you can check out the Authorship markup video with Matt Cutts.

Being resourceful is critical to getting the job done. As web designers and graphic designers we are constantly looking at the latest tools and tips on how to push our craft and better our workflow.

This list is some of the tools and resources that I have been incorporating into my processes, whether it is something that is inspirational by way of geeky interviews that talk shop about hard/software used like The Setup or a website like Designers MX and Stereomood that fuel my creativity by stimulating my ears with fresh music. Dive in and please feel free to let me know what tools or resources help you and how by posting a comment!

Lorempixum

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet. What? If you are a graphic artist or web designer and have to use dummy text or filler (or meat and filler) on a daily basis- you know. Lorempixum is that but with images and photos; a genius idea that allows you to specify what type of subject and size you want your filler image to be and it will generate an image for you to use. They even have a bunch of preset settings to choose from.

Little Big Details

User interface, the space where interaction between humans and machines occur, is everywhere. The Internet makes us, as users, appreciate the beautiful- intuitive- simplicity of a great interface, or leaves us feeling deeply annoyed and lost. I am always inspired by creative design in this area and Little Big Details is a Tumblr that shows off amazing examples to learn from and be inspired by. Definitely worth a follow.

The Web Font Combinator

The Web Font Combinator is a cool name for a site that lets you preview web font combinations and sizes instantly. Simple, helpful and to the point (or should I say pixel). Currently this tool only uses fonts supplied by the Google Font Directory, as well as a handful of common system fonts.

The Setup

Get your geek on at The Setup and read cool interviews with industry creatives and vanguards from all walks of life. They talk shop and get asked all the right questions from ‘setup’ of hard/software to inspiration. I love this: “Despite appearances, the site is not actually sponsored by Apple – people just seem to like using their tools. We’re a fan, too.”

Designers MX

Music is on almost 70% of my day when I am pushing pixels on the computer. It drives me when I need that boost and it puts me in that zone where I seem to loose track of time and look up at the clock and see that I have just spent the last 2 hours in Photoshop and forgot to blink. Designers love to make mixes of music. Designers MX asks creative leaders what music fuels their creativity. I love this concept and it is a great way to discover new music/ideas!

Stereomood

Piggybacking on Designers MX, here is another way to get inspired by music. The genius idea behind Stereomood is that you can pick a playlist to listen to based on your mood or emotion. Feeling happy, they have that. Feeling sexy… yep, that too.

What Web tools or online resources inspire you or make you more productive ‘on the reg’? I would love to hear!

I know you’re thinking, “Great, another social network I need to use. Why should I waste my time?” Well, since Google is king of search, it might be wise to keep your eye on their social network curveball. With features from friend recommendations directly built into Google SERPs to automated Google alerts using “Sparks,” there is definitely potential for this network to grow into a strong social media contender: a new medium for social content promoters.

Below I will review the good, the bad, and the ugly features and concepts surrounding this budding network. How will content promoters be able to leverage this network to build exposure, traffic, and links to their social content? How will businesses use this new network to create brand exposure and get their name/product out there?

The Bad

On Page Sharing

Unlike its predecessors, Google Plus only has one feature for sharing an article when you are off the site: the “+1” button. Once pressed, the +1 will share the story under your +1 tab, but does not show (or stand out) on the live stream. This makes it hard for a social media user to come to your site and share your article while including a blurb and thumbnail. So that +1 gets lost in a stream of never-ending, and similar looking, activity updates.

Image: Credit

While we wait for Google to (hopefully) release a button for this in the near future, the guys over at State of Search have put together a great walk through on creating your own Google Plus share buttons.

Noisy Streams

One of the biggest features Google Plus is missing, is the ability to filter and control your feed. I noticed I am following around 100 people, but the same 5-6 people flood my daily feed, because:

• If someone comments on their posts, their post shoots back onto my front page repeatedly.
• If a share gets a high number of +1s, it sits on my stream page for more than day.
• When the post is shared by multiple people in my stream, the same piece of content appears multiple times on my stream. Before I know it, I end up seeing the same people, incestuously sharing the same content.

The lack of exposure makes it hard for users with small follower bases to get their content out there. The one benefit (and negative) of their current system, in terms of content promotion, is the ability to create prolonged exposure for your content. Since the system moves shared content to the top based on comments and +1s, in theory one could keep pushing their article to the top of streams by adding more +1s, and seeding comments throughout the day.  This would allow your content to continue to appear in a person’s stream over and over for multiple days.

The Good

Using Google+ Posts to Rank Content

Image: Credit

In my research, I found some great articles explaining how to index a Google Plus post and what metrics will affect your placement and exposure. There are obvious social signals, such as +1s, comments, and shares that will affect your placement. With Google ending their agreement with Twitter, they are looking to replace it with their own in-house system. Google Plus will most likely be that system, and SEOs and SM marketers will want to leverage it to:

• Share and build exposure to their content.
• Leverage their success from their Google Plus social promotion to index organically.

Using resource link bait, in theory, a user could promote their content via Google Plus, getting likes, comments, and shares. Google will take those social signals into account when placing the share and content into their SERPs. The social signals could equal higher placement. When a user does a search for a resource around a specific niche, they could be provided with your content share. You will end up seeing social exposure from your promotion, and organic exposure from your improved SERP placement. Again, this is all theory, and Google plans to make a lot of changes as their networks grows.

Google+ Recommendations in SERPs

As many Google Plus users have already noticed, when you search via Google, you are seeing recommendations beneath search results. Google is using friends from your social network as a metric for authority and quality in the SERPs. If someone in my social network recommends it (and I trust them), then I would definitely check that search result out first, no matter its placement on the page. This could be a game changer in terms of organic SEO, since placement can take a backseat to a friend’s recommendation.

This is where content promoters can step in and clean up. When Google Plus released, I was able to get in and play around during the initial phase. As part of my testing, I hit the +1 button many, many times, on many pieces of content. Not until later on did I find out from my co-workers that my face was appearing everywhere in their personalized search results. Not realizing it, I was spamming my co-workers with my recommendations. Every time they searched, a little box with my face would appear telling them I “+1′d this.”

In theory, one could create content, promote it on Google Plus, and garner tons of +1s and interaction. They will receive a boost from the social signals, but if they are in enough users’ circles, those users will be seeing many recommendations for the content. So if one could determine the user demographic for their content/product, they could go out, and then mass follow those people, hoping to get a courtesy add back. Then, by promoting their content/product and using the +1s, one could make that demographic think their product/content is much better than anything on the page, because of the number recommendations.

Leveraging Google Plus Hangouts

One of my favorite features of Google Plus is the simple hangout feature. People have started coming up with some creative ways to use Google hang out. From live concerts, to the ability to speak directly to large brands.

Instead of creating interactive video infographics, a company could  go out there and teach a free class. For example, taking the same media assets as a video infographic, a company could setup live hangouts where they could provide simple explanations of how debt works, or how credit cards work, using live examples, drawings, etc. They could use viewer feedback to improve their information after each hangout, eventually putting together a complete guide, which could be used for more traditional content promotion.

Sites like Hangout Party are starting to pop up allowing people to post their upcoming live streams and letting users easily track down and join hangouts their interested in. There is so much more that can done with this, and you should keep an eye on it as Google begins to roll out their business pages.

Google Plus Image Tagging

Similar to Facebook, Google allows users to tag specific images. When it comes to social promotion, one of your major goals should be getting your content in front of social media influencers. The select groups of users that have the ability (and reach) to help make your content popular. Since you can use third party sites to find those influencers on Google Plus, you can use circles to build influencer groups for various niches.

In theory, when your are promoting content you think they would find interesting, you could tag those users when you post your image (infopgraphic).  This method allows your content to stand out from the thousands of posts in a noisy Google Plus stream.  Overimplementing this strategy, will probably get you removed from the service.

Leverage Google Plus Sparks

There hasn’t been much information released on how Sparks work, but from my research it seems similar to Google News. Sparks allows a user to set categories to follow, which will automatically update their stream based on Google’s new internal social algorithm. I would assume the algorithm uses social signals from Google Plus with a mix of data from Google News to determine timeliness and authority of the content it is showing.

In theory, if you are a news organization that has been optimized to be included in Google News, and you are  promoting your content on Google Plus, you can not only build exposure from your promotion, but could also build exposure from the feed, which target users interested in that content. This is definitely a feature that will grow, and will be very useful to content promoters, in terms of secondary exposure.

The Ugly

Re-Share Post Feature

The re-share a post feature has to be the most annoying part of Google Plus. Unlike Facebook, where shares of the same content (and some cases similar updates) are grouped together, Google Plus just reposts the share right above the old share. So if I have ten friends that re-share the same post, my entire stream is flooded with that one post. As a content promoter this is great because I get massive exposure, but from a user perspective, people will get very tired of your content, quickly.

Email Spamming Out of Network

Image: Credit

This is starting to die out, but during the initial release of Google Plus, users were given the option to share with people not on Google Plus by allowing mass emailing to people in your address book. This feature flooded people’s email accounts with every single update a person made.

Unfortunately, one could add a massive amount email addresses related to their specific niche, and using Google Plus as their mail server, spam thousands of people with their content. Hopefully there is limit to the number of email shares once can send.

SPAM: Follow & Unfollow Bots

It was just a matter of time before someone figure out how to create a mass follow/un-follow bot to crawl through Google Plus. Below is a video of an ethical programmer who created such a tool. Basically his tool goes out, auto adds tons of people hoping out of 5,000 users, some of them will follow him back. Within 24 hours, he removes all of those people and goes out does it over and over.

CONCLUSION

Though Google Plus has many excellent features that have yet to see the outside of their potential, there are many kinks to be worked out. We will continue to observe, test, and see what will work. Google has a long way to go before they will be a viable promotion medium, but there is a lot of potential with their current features.

‘Newswire‘, a real time Top News section on Digg that ‘allows users ‘to be editors’ and help choose the Top News instead of just reading it.

The ‘Newswire’ section is definitely interesting, but really seems like another attempt to get users into participating more in the curating process, which historically the mass majority of Digg visitors have not done. Past efforts with the Upcoming Section, the Recommendation Engine, and the My News section have really failed to ever get even a small fraction of Digg’s users to do more than just read the Front Page, but this looks like a pretty good effort to finally get people more involved in the voting and commenting process.

Of course, almost all of the features they have put into the section, are aspects that Digg has had all along in the core functions of the site and the various sections like my news, upcoming, and search.

They have finally added real time viewing, which reminded me of Twitter’s search, and took all the various filtering features that were spread across the site into one spot.

There is however, one massive change that is being introduced that has never been visible on the site before, which is to visibly show everyone who has ‘buried’ a story. Digg Labs, before they ended the Labs project, used to show you a claimed ‘small subset’ of bury data, but it never carried the user’s name before.

Reddit has always had an option to turn your voting activity public, but it is not on by default, and until now only StumbleUpon would opening show negative votes on a users profile.

Another interesting addition, that was not mentioned on the Digg Blog post, but is easily seen in the footer, is the Top 100 News page, which based on the lack of formatting and the links not working, might be a section they did not mean to put up live yet, but is there none the less.

It will be interesting to see if the ‘Newswire’ section will help to influence more users into participating in the voting and commenting process, but I have a feeling it won’t change too much. It will also be very interesting to see how the users feel about having their ‘buries’ shown publicly to all, knowing that Digg already has issues with bury groups as it is.

Let me know below in the comments what you think about these changes!

In the past, brands were late to the party. With both Facebook and Twitter, early-adopting users dove in head first with the average user showing up months or even years later. Eventually, along came the businesses.

Showing up too early can be problematic due to lack of a plan and little understanding of the new platform. A few other cons of early adoption include:

No measurable worth. In the beginning stages of a social network, it’s too early to really know its benefits.

Constant revisions. As bugs are fixed and the design is tweaked, a feature that initially attracted you to a new network may be changed or taken away.

No audience. If your customers aren’t already on the network, you’ll  be talking to yourself.

Lack of popularity. If the network never catches on, managing a new profile and learning the new platform is time wasted (and in turn, money wasted).

But, I know how hard it is to resist a shiny new social space. If you insist on joining every new craze in social media, below are some “dos” and “don’ts” when creating yet another social profile for your company.

DO…Watch and Learn

Wait until others have proven how a network would bring value to your customers and target audience. Unless your company is a proven social media trailblazer, sit tight and watch how the pioneers use a new network.

DON’T…Expect to Do the Same Thing with Different Results

Simply showing up early is not enough to attract and engage a huge following. The health of your other social profiles is a good indication of whether or not to proceed with a new network. If your social presence is suffering on other networks, a new environment is not the answer to your social media woes.

DO…Experience a Network as You

Starting out on a network as an individual is a cost-friendly way to navigate a new social space. If you experience the pitfalls of a social network at the personal level, it’s easy to imagine how those issues would be magnified at the company level. This is also the best way to get a user’s perspective, which is essential when planning a strategy for a given network.

DON’T…Abandon Other Networks

Chris Brogan's Facebook profile picture after he left for Google Plus

Don’t leave current networks that have been good to you for a prettier, younger network. This is especially true if you have a solid following on other networks; don’t expect them to migrate with you to new territory. Be prepared to maintain old social profiles in addition to the new.

DO…Reserve a Custom URL

When possible, join a new network just to reserve a custom URL or username, especially if your business is a common word. You can always come back and delete the profile if you later decide the network isn’t a good fit for you or your company.

DON’T… Set It and Forget It

Using any social network purely to churn out automated feeds is tacky.  An actual human should be updating social profiles, especially when starting out on a new network, with any feeds included as a secondary way to push content. Make sure your company has the manpower to manage another account.

Conclusion

Regardless of when you decide to join a new network, evaluate your reason for being there. Too many companies spread themselves thin across multiple social networks just because they exist, not because they add any value to customers. A quality presence on one or two social networks is far more valuable than many poorly-maintained social profiles.

Do you think early adoption is a good idea for businesses?