By Richard Dennis (http://RichardDennisNetworking.com/)
INTRO
Let’s say you want to
find an online resource for interior decorating.
OK. You can search
Google for "interior decorators" and get a list of the
ones who have paid the most money to have their website
optimized so it ranks high in your Google search.
Welcome to cyber
sludge.
Or you can go to
StumbleUpon and get website recommendations & reviews
from dozens or even hundreds of other consumers who have
been surfing – for whatever reason – sites of interior
decorators.
Which choice excites
you more?
It gets tougher and
tougher to find what you want from an online search.
Seems like it's 90% low-quality, generic, outdated
content. And it's worse for inexperienced searchers who
don't know how to ask precisely for the results they
want.
The purpose of
StumbleUpon is to give you high-quality, specific
content that you would never have thought to search for.
One click gives you a website recommended (and often
reviewed) by another SU member with similar interests to
yours. Then you can rate that site for relevance, so the
system understands what you want better, making your
next "Stumble" more targeted & more productive.
In a nutshell, SU will
…
-
Inform and entertain
you.
-
Help you learn more
about online communities which interest you ... which
takes some time & commitment on your part.
-
Give you another
potentially effective marketing tool … if you use it
right.
HOW IT WORKS
Just install the
StumbleUpon toolbar extension into Firefox or Internet
Explorer. Then start stumbling.
The toolbar automates
website reviews, creating a social network of people
with similar preferences who exchange content. It's like
if you belong to a club of thousands of detective book
afficionados and you're looking for a particular Agatha
Christie book ... some other member is bound to have it.
And their resource recommendations are just one click
away. To me, that is very exciting and WAY more
appealing than a Google search.
So SU displays
websites that mirror your interests. If you like a site,
click on "thumbs up." If not, "thumbs down." The more
you vote, the better StumbleUpon understands what you
really want.
Each time you request
a topic or rate a website, your user profile becomes
more focused on who you are and what you want. Two
things happen. You get connected to more focused,
like-minded people, and those people get exposed to the
websites you find most useful in your common area of
interest. Anyplace along the way, you can specify others
you run into as "friends." And new content will be
pointed out to you based on who your friends are and
what interests them … which means YOU get to leverage
all the time and thought THEY have put into your
favorite subjects.
I don’t know about
you, but THAT idea really gets my juices flowing!
StumbleUpon's unique
voting system means that when you recommend a website,
it's posted to your personal profile, classified,
instantly available to others with similar interests.
Feedback from others in the network quickly distributes
good content and squelches the spread of poor quality
resources. This social moderation stomps out spam in a
hurry.
StumbleUpon lets you
find more of what you want, faster, and connect with
more like-minded people who may develop into great
resources – may even develop into REAL friends – for
you.
StumbleUpon is free,
and is supported by advertising. If you want to do away
with the ads, you can pay a yearly fee.
As for the sites you
love that you've bookmarked over the years ... bookmark
them again with the SU toolbar. As you do, StumbleUpon
gets a deeper understanding of what pages to show you.
GETTING STARTED
-
Go to http://StumbleUpon.com/.
Click to install the toolbar you want, either for I.E.
or Firefox.
-
Go to http://reviews.stumbleupon.com/
and check to see if StumbleUpon already lists your
website. If not, go to your website & use the new
"thumbs up" on your toolbar to review your site.
You'll get a pop-up asking you to categorize the site,
describe it, and give some keywords. Once that's done,
your site will show up for other users with similar
keyword interest, when they use StumbleUpon to surf.
-
Tell StumbleUpon
your interests (baseball, cooking, Dr. Phil)
-
Click the "Stumble"
button on your toolbar. You'll go to some website
related to your interests.
-
Give that website
"thumbs up" or "thumbs down". Or don’t rate them –
it’s your choice. Each rating you give helps
StumbleUpon decide what to show you next time you
stumble.
Models
SU publishes a list of
"Top Stumblers"
http://www.stumbleupon.com/topstumblers.php
It may be worthwhile
for you to go to their SU page and learn a little bit
about them, what they do, why they do it, how they do
it, etc.
Here's what SU says:
"Top Stumblers are
our most active and helpful community members. These
members frequently suggest new sites to be included in
our database, and frequently rate new sites they stumble
upon.
"When you submit a
site, it is shown to other stumblers (for evaluation).
If those people like your suggestion (by rating it
I-like-it! often) your community 'Karma' will increase.
"Your Top Stumbler
rank will also increase by frequent rating. You do not
need to rate every site you see, but if it stands out as
particularly excellent (a website you really like) or
bad (you don't like it, or it is spam), make sure you
rate it. This regular participation will increase your
Top Stumbler rank.
LEARNING
For years, I have
frequently entered a search term in the Google search
box, along with the word “forum” or “review.” What’s
really valuable to me is what other users think and
their experiences with a product/service.
Mitchell Harper (http://www.HarpzOn.com)
says he clicked "Stumble" 150 consecutive times and
never got the same website ... but he DID find 20 sites
of great interest which he had never run into before. SU
is like a vast network of reviewers of subject matter in
your area of interest, all vying to suggest the most
useful stuff to you. That is WAY more valuable and
time-saving than standard search.
You can idly Stumble
while you're on the phone. You'll quickly find out it's
not mindless surfing. Instead, if you really use the
system, marking the sites you like and don't like, you
will get stuff more and more targeted specifically to
you, which you would never have found otherwise.
Could SU actually
threaten TV in time? Maybe. Spend some time on Stumble
Video and think about how this might change the way
people control their entertainment.
PROMOTION
You can actually
advertise your website to a huge targeted group of
prospects for only 5 cents per impression. Your site
will go into the rotation for those with a particular
interest just like any other relevant website. Check
conversion closely to see if the results justify the
cost. These visitors may share your interest, but they
may not targeted buyers as much as Google AdWords might
yield..
SU tells you the age
and sex of users who liked your webpage.
With good planning,
you can use SU to virally drive a continuous flow of
traffic to your website.
And with good
strategizing, you may even KEEP those new visitors (it
takes a real focus on providing value).
Obviously, you can get
a lot of visitors. Also, you have the potential for a
lot of high SEO-value, one-way backlinks from the
websites of your StumbleUpon visitors. That by itself
may be reason enough to keep Stumbling.
How to get the most
out of your traffic
… and how to get MORE
traffic
When your site comes
up in a Google search, you can get very targeted traffic
who want the specific keyword phrase they searched. SU
has over 4 million members worldwide, and you'll get
people who have similar interests to yours - maybe very
similar - but often not quite so targeted as buyers.
As a result, CTR for
advertising on your site probably won't be as strong
with StumbleUpon users as with Google searchers.
Some users report the
best SU results come from the categories Video, Humor,
Web 2.0 and eclectic websites.
SU users decide at a
glance whether they like your website. Hot design and a
lot of unique, interesting content are critical. Do you
have exclusive stuff? That's important, too.
To convert SU visitors
into loyal subscribers, you need:
-
Quickly visible RSS
AND email newsletter subscription forms
-
Memorable url or
graphics ... or both.
-
Unique, strong,
quality content.
-
Good incentives:
free MP3s or ebooks or videos, etc., ONLY to
subscribers.
If your StumbleUpon
page is a Wordpress blog, get the
"What would Seth Godin
do" plug-in
This plug-in invites
new visitors and subscriptions to your feed. Make sure
every blog post includes a signature file offering something
in exchange for contact information.
To get the greatest
number of Stumblers to your website, you need a lot of
them giving you a "thumbs up." So go Stumbling yourself.
Look at a lot of sites.
What is it that causes
YOU to give a "thumbs up" on different sites? (Write it
down.) What is it that causes YOU to give a "thumbs
down" on sites? (Write it down.)
What is different in
the content between the good sites and the bad sites.
(Write it down.)
Continue this exercise
forever, constantly developing your own set of
SU-maximizing criteria for your website.
The more you use
StumbleUpon, the more friends you will find. That sure
can't hurt in spreading your website's popularity. Do
what you can to get more profile views and "thumbs up."
Figure out ways to
encourage others to submit & review your website. As an
overall game plan to generate the most site visits,
maximize your # of friends, Stumbles, & profile reviews.
You get 5 tags per
item submitted to StumbleUpon. Maki at
http://doshdosh.com/ suggests broad tagging: "For
example, some tags which have worked for me are 'weblogs',
'internet' and 'money'." In any type of search scenario,
more searchers will target broader tags than the more
specific ones. You're getting less qualified visitors,
but you may get a lot more potential conversions.
NETWORKING
Using the "Send this
page to" icon on the SU toolbar, you can send any
webpage to both your SU and non-SU friends. Your SU
friends will see it next time they Stumble, and your
non-SU friends will be introduced to SU.
When you find a site
you love, it's so easy to click the email option to send
it (with any comment you want to make) to one or many on
your email list ... and has that added advantage of
exposing them to SU. You don't need to go to your email
utility. This feature really increases and speeds up the
"virability" of SU.
I'll tell you, this
feature really turns me on. I often get so caught up in
my online work that I don't do the actual networking
with others nearly as much as I should. But with SU,
anytime I see a webpage that makes me think of one of my
friends, in just a few seconds I've emailed it to them
with a comment. They know I'm thinking about them. And I
can let them know that way more often than I ever would
by regular email or (shudder!) the phone.
As always online,
don't make yourself a pest. Don't send a bunch of your
own stuff out and ask for votes or reviews or fans.
Instead, share your thoughts and opinions with others
who have the same interest. Just send the really, really
excellent stuff you run into. And that definitely
doesn't include every article YOU write, or all your
lead capture pages. If you use SU as an easier way to
spam, your friends list will decrease fast. (You'll
definitely be gone from mine.) And SU has strict terms
on usage. They'll purge you entirely if you use SU to
spam.
Most of the good
websites you find are still only of interest to a few
select people on your list. Send it only to them ... not
to whole list.
And be sure to always
add your own brief comment. Think of it like you're
doing direct mail. The personal touch of adding a
post-it note to your letter increases the chance that
the recipient will really connect with you. As far as
your comment ... you may really want them to Stumble
your webpage, but let that just be implied, not stated.
Otherwise, you'll be thought of like the telemarketer.
When someone sends you
an SU page with a comment, acknowledge them.
Use the "comment"
device to point out some feature of the page & ask their
opinion. If you are part of a Mastermind group, this is
a quick, easy way to share pertinent information.
BACK OFFICE
For best results,
spend time on "your" page:
-
Personalize the
page.
-
Join communities
related to your business. (SU has 100s of groups.)
-
Add pages to SU from
your own website that will really inform & entertain
those in your community.
-
Blog regularly - 1
or 2 sentences, linking back to your website.
-
Your reviews will go
to "What's New" in your Friends' SU back office
Mutual Friends - you
are on their friends list and (obviously) they are on
yours
Fans - you are on
their friends list ... decide whether you want to add
them to yours.
Under “Preferences”,
click on the boxes specifying your areas of interest.
Under “Public
profile”, fill in your background information.
GAMING THE SYSTEM
As with virtually
every good online tool, you have a cottage industry of
people trying to beat the SU system. One example: you
can pay some vendors to have people give your website a
"thumbs up" on StumbleUpon. But unless your content is
good, that should only have a short-term effect.
As you consider how to
use SU for your marketing purposes, keep one thing in
mind: all of these social networking sites want their
visitors to come back again and again. For that to
happen, their target is to provide the quickest, most
useful, most relevant targeted responses possible.
What that implies is
that they will work hard to stop people from "gaming"
their system. So if you keep Stumbling your own website,
or if you work out some big "I'll Stumble yours if you
Stumble mine" deal, or any other
too-complicated-for-my-brain scheme, you've got to know
that SU is using every trick it has to root out what it
considers "cheaters" and stop them from messing with the
system.
My conclusion: The
best way to spend your time is to just 1. Stumble the
sites you like and 2. Focus on your own site's content.
Give your visitors the best possible experience when
they arrive.
OTHER RESOURCES
TWO Treasure Troves of
StumbleUpon Ideas & Strategies:
-
Ultimate
StumbleUpon Resource
-
A
Comprehensive Guide to StumbleUpon
This tutorial was provided By Richard Dennis
http://RichardDennisNetworking.com/
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Suggested Reading:
The Dollars & Sense of Online Communities
