Social News for Social Good: Building Buzz and Breaking Records with Digg Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Social News for Social Good
Building Buzz and Breaking Records with Digg
if there’s no buzz,
there’s no interest.
—Branford Marsalis
Jonathon D. Colman
Associate Director, Digital Marketing
http://www.slideshare.net/jcolman/slideshows
http://www.linkedin.com/in/jcolman
www.nature.org
Web Executive Seminar: Social Sites for Social Good | Jonathon D. Colman Slide #1 of 16

Social News for Social Good: Building Buzz and Breaking Records with Digg Tuesday, February 26, 2008
www.nature.org
Web Executive Seminar: Social Sites for Social Good | Jonathon D. Colman Slide #2 of 16

Social News for Social Good: Building Buzz and Breaking Records with Digg Tuesday, February 26, 2008
www.nature.org
Web Executive Seminar: Social Sites for Social Good | Jonathon D. Colman Slide #3 of 16

Social News for Social Good: Building Buzz and Breaking Records with Digg Tuesday, February 26, 2008
www.nature.org
Web Executive Seminar: Social Sites for Social Good | Jonathon D. Colman Slide #4 of 16

Social News for Social Good: Building Buzz and Breaking Records with Digg Tuesday, February 26, 2008
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flickr: ricko
Web Executive Seminar: Social Sites for Social Good | Jonathon D. Colman Slide #5 of 16

Social News for Social Good: Building Buzz and Breaking Records with Digg Tuesday, February 26, 2008
No Time? No Money? No Problem!
• Social news sites can help you get the word out fast
• They’re among the most popular sites on the web
• They have diverse audiences, not just kids in college
• They’re free for you to use
• Great at driving traffic as well as commentary
• Your partners/competitors are already using them
• Hold both short-term and long-term marketing benefits
www.nature.org
Web Executive Seminar: Social Sites for Social Good | Jonathon D. Colman Slide #6 of 16

Social News for Social Good: Building Buzz and Breaking Records with Digg Tuesday, February 26, 2008
About Digg.com
Breaking news, video, and amazing content from all over the world —
users find, post, and rate the best of the web’s newest content.
• 150th most popular site on the Web [ALEXA.COM - FEBRUARY 2008]
• Over 20 million unique visitors/month [COMPETE.COM - FEBRUARY 2008]
• 2.7 million registered users [ESTIMATED; JOHN GRAHAM-CUNNING]
• Demographics: 25-34 years old, international [QUANTCAST.COM - FEBRUARY 2008]
www.nature.org
Web Executive Seminar: Social Sites for Social Good | Jonathon D. Colman Slide #7 of 16

Social News for Social Good: Building Buzz and Breaking Records with Digg Tuesday, February 26, 2008
www.nature.org
Web Executive Seminar: Social Sites for Social Good | Jonathon D. Colman Slide #8 of 16

Social News for Social Good: Building Buzz and Breaking Records with Digg Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Results: Social News Campaign on Digg
200 visitors/day
“Typical” web feature
on nature.org
www.nature.org
Web Executive Seminar: Social Sites for Social Good | Jonathon D. Colman Slide #9 of 16

Social News for Social Good: Building Buzz and Breaking Records with Digg Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Results: Social News Campaign on Digg
20,000
visitors/day
200 visitors/day
“Typical” web feature “Typical” visitors/day
on nature.org on nature.org
www.nature.org
Web Executive Seminar: Social Sites for Social Good | Jonathon D. Colman Slide #10 of 16

Social News for Social Good: Building Buzz and Breaking Records with Digg Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Results: Social News Campaign on Digg
20,000
visitors/day
18,000+ visitors
in one hour
300+ visitors per
second
200 visitors/day
“Typical” web feature “Typical” visitors/day Everyday
on nature.org on nature.org Environmentalist
www.nature.org
Web Executive Seminar: Social Sites for Social Good | Jonathon D. Colman Slide #11 of 16

Social News for Social Good: Building Buzz and Breaking Records with Digg Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Results: Social News Campaign on Digg
76,000+ visitors
in one day
20,000
visitors/day
18,000+ visitors
in one hour
300+ visitors per
second
200 visitors/day
“Typical” web feature “Typical” visitors/day Everyday
on nature.org on nature.org Environmentalist
www.nature.org
Web Executive Seminar: Social Sites for Social Good | Jonathon D. Colman Slide #12 of 16

Social News for Social Good: Building Buzz and Breaking Records with Digg Tuesday, February 26, 2008
But Isn’t This Just “Empty” Traffic?
• Motivated much engagement on Digg: 2,200+ total “diggs” and
600+ total comments from Digg users
• Created “spillover” success in other social networks
• Drove many unsolicited links from other web sites and blogs (50+)
• Inspired links from elite blogs (1,000+ authority in Technorati), inc.
The Huffington Post, Cisco.com, Mental Floss, and LockerGnome
• Increased organic search engine findability, positioning
• Acquired new contacts we can turn to for future marketing efforts
www.nature.org
Web Executive Seminar: Social Sites for Social Good | Jonathon D. Colman Slide #13 of 16

Social News for Social Good: Building Buzz and Breaking Records with Digg Tuesday, February 26, 2008
How Much Work/Time Did This Take?
• Less than 5 minutes to create the actual Digg post
• Plus 2 hours to publicize the post to Digg contacts (via Digg
“shouts,” Facebook, Twitter, IM, etc.)
www.nature.org
Web Executive Seminar: Social Sites for Social Good | Jonathon D. Colman Slide #14 of 16

Social News for Social Good: Building Buzz and Breaking Records with Digg Tuesday, February 26, 2008
How Much Work/Time Did This Take?
• Less than 5 minutes to create the actual Digg post
• Plus 2 hours to publicize the post to Digg contacts (via Digg
“shouts,” Facebook, Twitter, IM, etc.)
• Plus 1.5 years to build up a credible, authoritative Digg profile
• Becoming a good member of the community, learning best practices
• Building reliable contacts, voting for their stories
• Creating network of links to/distribution for our posts
• Posting content other than nature.org stories (i.e., not spamming)
www.nature.org
Web Executive Seminar: Social Sites for Social Good | Jonathon D. Colman Slide #15 of 16

Social News for Social Good: Building Buzz and Breaking Records with Digg Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Conclusions on the Value of Social News
• Social news is not always the right tool for every marketing scenario
• Complements a strategy leveraging traditional online tactics
• Success can generate short-term (and huge) bursts of web traffic
• Engagement on social news sites will be high, but will be low on
your site (as measured in length of session, conversions, etc.)
• Becoming popular can drive coverage on elite blogs, web sites and
drive many new links, audiences to your web site
• Offers long-term benefits for search engine positioning
• Can take time to build up credibility and authority in the network
www.nature.org
Web Executive Seminar: Social Sites for Social Good | Jonathon D. Colman Slide #16 of 16