I had never really grasped onto the social bookmark sites like Digg, Delicious and Stumble Upon. Part of the reason that it never caught on with me is that the first two had similar names and I didn’t see how it could help my business or my clients. Fast forward a couple years and Yahoo’s involvement with Delicious hasn’t materialized and Digg has faded away; but Stumble Upon is generating 1 billion stumbles a month.
Since there appears to be a clear winner in the bookmark sites let’s take a look at how it can help your business. Stumble Upon is essentially a remote control for the internet where you can select what types of sites you’re interested in seeing and then give them a thumbs up or thumbs down. It’s highly personable and much like channel surfing on television, quite fun.
You can recommend sites that you like, as well as, certain articles you’ve found helpful. Stop right there. Back in the day I used to Digg my articles too, you did also and you know it. If you’re just recommending your information then the community or administrators will either see you as a spammer or hold you in low regard. Either way, it’s OK to Stumble your articles occasionally, but too much and it’ll water down your purpose for being there.
Download the Stumble Upon toolbar and it’ll make things much easier for you. From there you can visit new sites specific to some or all of your interests. Anything the net has to offer is fair game to be Stumbled.
Join a Community
Whatever your interest, there are articles online about it and a community that is interested in it on Stumble Upon. From joining that community the slow trickle of a relationship and becoming a source of information will develop. Remember that little part about not only promoting your articles? This is where the payback happens. As you’re in the group, genuinely having fun and sharing information, when you have something new your Stumblers will be more apt to give it a thumbs up and share it to their community.
Stumble Upon is a slow, building trickle of traffic to your site. But you have to be in the pool in order to get wet. Sign up today, download the tool bar, Stumble a handful of sites, add one of yours and try, try not to get addicted.
