We've seen both success and failure at getting articles Dugg in the past for SEOmoz and other sites we write for, but this is the first time we've tried to incorporate it as a complement to a PR blitz. What I've noticed as we work to create this is the process is very similar to creating the press release itself. We know our target audience, we know what they like, we know what tends to get their attention, and now we have to spin and package our client's product to appeal to them. So how do you go about Diggifying something that wouldn't normally be Diggable?
- Trying to Digg the normal landing page for a feature seems way too spammy, so we're creating a carefully targeted blog post about the feature and its unique, "wow, that's cool" aspects. Obviously, this will link out to the feature itself.
- Creating a headline for the Digg submission is tricky business. In other Digg efforts we've found that the headline and description can make or break a Digg submission. Since you only get one shot, it's important to be very strategic about the headline you use. Certain formats such as how to's, top tens, and others tend to be very popular--sometimes too popular in that they could send up spam flags.
- Timing your submission to Digg is also key. Once again, you only get one shot, so it's important that you make the submission in order to control the content of the headline and description. If Digg user '8thGradePimp' scoops you and uses a mangled, worthless headline, you're sunk.
Just like any publicity effort, Digg's very fickle and never foolproof, but if you can manage to get Dugg and make the front page, it could certainly be a juicy piece of artillery in the PR arsenal.
Since we're just beginning to experiment with this tactic as a PR tool, I'd love to hear what you guys think. Do any of you use social media sites as PR tools? What sort of success and/or problems have you found with the tactic? Is it something you'll attempt to use in the future?
This is a very interesting thread. I've had some success with "technical" SMO releases specific to certain industries.
Has anyone had experience creating link-bait SMO releases with geo-targeted focus?
I think demographics plays a big role here. I know it's probably incomprehensible to 20 somethings but I don't use any social media sites. No Digg, no MySpace, nothing. I read 3 blogs: this one, the Boeing blog, and a Jacksonville real estate blog. I had a LinkedIn account for two years but my peer group apparently thought that signing up was the finish line. (Had an account, since deleted by me since there was no point to it.)
I'm in my 40s and if your customers' demographic is me then you are probably wasting time and money trying to reach us with social media.
Dave, if social media is not it ... what would you recommend to reach your demographics?
I think when gamin SMO sites, you must consider the reader. Digg readers are quick to strike down anything they think is useless/repeated/flamed.
In contrast, reddit readers *seem* to be more tolerant of users who might have mistakingly submitted a story, or posted something that the community thought wasn't worthy.
Point is, I believe any time you pitch the idea to a client, you need to first determine which Social Bookmarking sites would be best to appear on.
Just my $.02
I'd love to see an article sharing which SMO channels are most appropriate for what types of releases! m
I think that any "campaign" still has to be authentic.
What the client's desired outcome is cannot be guareented. They might want to get to the front page of Digg it, but no matter what degree of sophisticated manipulation is employed, there are still too many variables to consider.
Something that is diggable will get dugg because it is worthy. This worth is determined by the end users who have finially been given back some of the power that the media has wieded. If a campaign flops and something gets burried, then that is because it is either before or after the fact, but bottom line...people don't like it.
Better to release the information and let it run it's course on it's own merits. Let it be real. Let the inner workings of humans and their machines self determine their own headlines and report back what works for them. A qualtity piece of real news distributed directly to the bloggers who care via Blogg.io will get picked up by other blogs and SM sites based on the mertits of content and public relevance.
There are many parallel distribution sources all with a separate unique audience. For maximum traffic you'll need to write separate "releases" or blog posts aimed at each social media site with a slightly separate topic / theme. Just my humble opinion, but for Digg I'd go sensational and tech / geek oriented. For Netscape go political or cultural, more like a comment about society or philosophy. For reddit, mix a combination of the two. Stumbleupon works well if you stumble the best looking page, as it really appeals to people's initial visual outlook of the content. That's just my take. Also don't put them all up on the same day and make sure each submission is on a different topic, like highlighting a different feature or take.
I'd definitely still do multiple real world press releases as well. They pick up a lot of good links and get your information to the hands of some good editors that don't regularly monitor digg, netscape, or reddit. Plus depending on the pr wire you use it may have A LOT of aggregators, meaning you'll get that release duplicated all over the place and pick some good links and if the title has a nice long keyword string with low competition sometimes I can fill up the top 10 results all with variations of the same information. It's cool and not spam. You're making news by definition. All marketing involves manipulation somewhat.
I was just commenting on Neil Patel'sblog about this very subject.
"What we have learned with Social Media Marketing that is added to a "traditional" campaign, that already has good tracking capabilities can be complimented by Social Media and tracked the same way."
But more to the point on this post, Digg is not the be all end all of services. The work we have been doing involves coordinating PR and advertising campaigns with reputation management and inducing social sphere viral marketing within targeted groups.
Judging by the headline, I thought this article might be about the recent end of free submissions on PRweb. Nevertheless, I would think the fruits reaped by a campaign in a medium such as Social Networking can only limited by it's strategy and execution.
I don't think "who're" is a word.
It's a contraction of "who are". Standard English grammar... :p
Thanks for the backup, Shanada.
No prob :)
Until solid stats and risks can be calculated many agencies will avoid this sector. If successful you will get noticed on a much broader scene but then you may also become the punch line to so many failed viral marketing gags.
https://www.seomoz.org/blogdetail.php?ID=1616&...
A related observation made last month
The issue with trying to use digg as a PR tool is that the community is savvy to such things. To be successful at utilizing digg for this purpose, firms have to understand the community and have others submit there information.
Anything seen as self promoting and not in the digg genre will be buried as spam and hence banning that firm from from submissions.
And I agree with visser - do the wrong thing and you get to be the joke of the community.
My feeling is that the difficulty is to present material that is gratuitously self-promotional in such a way as to make it look organic.
Visser does have a point although I wouldn't suggest banking your entire PR campaign on Social Media. As such, there's no real harm in trying to do a viral marketing piece; it will either hit or miss. If it misses, your negative exposure on the release is inherently limited by the fact that it clearly didn't get much visibility.
I've observed alot of success in social media marketing. Comedian Jim Gaffigan comes to mind. He uses MySpace, which is helping him gain votes for Comedy Central's Standup Showdown contest. He provides his e-newsletter subscribers with code for their pages, advertising the contest and asking for their votes.
Actually, MySpace is a great tool. Mostly for the entertainment industry, but I've seen other industries, including a tanning salon, use it.
And obviously, we've seen companies use YouTube. Like everything else, it's all about content (which is all about the consumer).
I see that the discussion is pretty much confined to digg in this case, however, people are making substantial effort towards reaching out through similar means... and we know almost every next day we are having a new kid on the block that dishes out similar concept like digg or del.icio.us .. Would like to know your take on this whole concept of Social media optimisation.
I checked wiki for some more information and it just serves 18 rules set forth for SMO https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Media_Opt...- anyone to add ?
*shudder*