Digg

In my job as one of Discovery Channel's Social Media Editors, bloggers ask me one question more than any other, "How do I get my post on the front page of Digg?"

It's an interesting question. However, I think the broader idea of how to be successful with social media, whether it be Digg, Reddit, Twitter, Pinterest or whatever's coming out tomorrow, is a lot more important. And the answer is a lot more useful. So what is the magic formula?

Well, it's a unique balance of experience, luck and midichlorians. Actually, it's really only the midichlorians.

Okay, while there is no real formula (sorry!) for success, there are a few things a writer should keep in mind. First off--as it has been said time and time again--content is king. Of course, knowing a network's audience, like Digg vs. Stumble Upon, is also helpful, because users on these networks all have distinct needs and interests. Sure, there will always be stories that blur those boundaries, but what is successful on one network rarely finds equal success on another. Lastly, and I apologize for how nebulous this tip is, but sometimes it just happens. So count your blessings when it does.

I say that in reference to one of my most successful blog posts ever which received over 2.5 million page views in just a single day. I'd only been blogging for just a few months when I had written it, and looking back now, boy is it poorly written--it's downright embarrassing. I was googling for a yurt to camp in and I'd come across this story of a 12-year-old boy who made yurts out of trash for the homeless. It was somewhere around 3 am, and while I was unsuccessful in finding the perfect yurt for my holiday, this story was a decent consolation prize. I had the post up quickly and by the time I woke up the next morning it had hundreds of Diggs and some-50K page views. Yahoo picked up the story a few hours later and featured it on their front page. By mid-day I had my first story with over one million visits. All of this just because I was googling for a yurt to camp in.

But, seriously, let's focus on a more obtainable approach like the network at hand and is your content a good fit for it. And honestly, is your content even good.

Let's start with Stumble Upon, because the site is a great traffic driver over the long haul. It is especially good for evergreen content, for example, like the types of articles found at How Stuff Works. Stumble Upon can deliver 5,000 page views one day and then randomly deliver another 300,000 six months down the road. The social bookmarking site has what can only be described as a visceral-like response to the interwebs, one day it's gardening and the next day it's bacon; okay, fine, everyday is bacon. But you see my point. Digg tends to be a bit more newsy, niche and of course geeky. And while timeless content has a place on Reddit, like food porn for example, the audience itself is a bit nerdy and highly engaged. Since Digg and Reddit tend to be more about breaking news, traffic there tends to be a short spike over a couple of days at most.

Being mindful of these three networks can be a huge social media win for a writer. But keep in mind, new networks are forming everyday. My recipes are already seeing a significant boost in traffic from Pinterest.

Another great opportunity for success is when sites like Digg or Reddit intersect with your personal networks, like on Facebook or Twitter. For example, the Digg Social Reader has already seen 2 million impressions within just a few weeks. The reader allows your Facebook friends to see what stories you submit, comment on or just plain Digg.

Now, as I said, content is king. But what does that really mean? Well, we all know a good story when we hear it. The difficult part is how to tell it. Let's consider a few different format models like the long-form post, slideshows and infographics.

Till this day, my favorite format is still a well-executed long-form post. The interactive nature of the web transforms this print-based format into something extremely powerful. It is also fairly easy to execute. Here is my formula: start with a simple one-line lede (like I did in this post), and use related photos and video to break up the text. Section headers can also help with that. My post here on a disabled woman who received a prosthetic mermaid tail is the perfect example, as is this one, on a jet-powered Batmobile, which received page views well into the six digits.

Slideshows and infographics can be great ways to tell a story too but you really have to be careful. Readers can feel "gamed" when there is a huge disconnect between the story and the format. Seeing how sites have abused slideshows over the past few years is just one example. I believe the worst one I ever saw was on men's beauty products and each photo was stock! This is not slideshow-worthy! Hell, this is barely post-worthy.

When considering the slideshow format, I always ask myself two questions. One, do these photos tell a story by themselves or do they need copy. Two, what value will the slideshow format add for the reader. If your only reason for doing a slideshow is a page view grab, then you are doing it wrong.

You must always think of the reader's experience when creating content.

Of course, the few things I mentioned above are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to success with social media. One could very well write a book about all of it but the book would out of date even before it even reached the printer. But if you are like me, you cannot get enough of this stuff, so feel free to chat me up on Twitter anytime (@jerryjamesstone) to talk about it more.

Happy Digging!