This document discusses strategies for Gavin Newsom, a California politician, to effectively use the social news website Digg for campaigning purposes. It notes that no politician has successfully used Digg as a campaign tool before and outlines how Newsom could build friends and followers on Digg to spread content and gain exposure. The document provides tips on posting, commenting, and networking frequently to drive traffic to stories and increase visibility on the site.

1. Campaigning
Gavin
Newsom for
California
Through
By: Roberto Araujo

2. Facts on Digg
 o politician or
N  igg has an
D
celebrity have, until average of 35
now, been able to million viewers
effectively use Digg as every day
a campaigning tool
 75% of the stories
 9% of its users are
8 make it to the front
from the US, followed page within the first
by many other English 12 hours. Less than 5%
speaking countries of the stories make it
to the front page
after 24 hours of
being posted.

3. Realities on Digg
v
i  riend’s lists
F “The importance of being one of
the first one to digg a story is the
s (VERY IMPORTANT)
Your friends will be the
exposure, everyone who will look
at that story will see and
i first ones to take care familiarize with the submi>er's
b of your submissions picture and be likely to explore his/
her profile.” (more friends)
i
l
i
t
y

4. Realities on Digg
 Digg your
friends
stories. Try
to comment
first on
stories you
think will hit
the front
page, this
increases
exposure &
increases
chances of
acquiring
friends.

5. Realities on Digg
 Add anyone who
dugg our
stories as our
friend. If they
check their
“befriended”
tab they’ll
probably add us
too. This works
well with newer
users who have
less friends.
Make them feel
wanted

6. Realities on Digg
 To be on the top of the diggers, you need to be on top of things…
• Having a RSS Feed or Alert and constantly searching @gavinnewsom or
Gavin Newsom to see what the latest news are.

7. Why should Gavin Newsom Digg?
FB GN friends = 54 thou.
 Capability to invite 1% = 540 potential
FB friends is very (mutual friends)
valuable tool 10% = 54 potential
potential votes

8. Why should Gavin Newsom Digg?
 f we get enough friends who regularly dugg our stories, our
I
name will be promoted farther.
 Stories at their original site may have a DIGG count
widget next to it. If GN submiDed that story, digger will
redirected to our Digg account.
 N Digg will be a host for GN related news
G
 igg is green, local and selecEve
D
 e will be able to see what people think on certain specific topics (comments)
W
Great Public Relations tool

9. Digg Tools
• Digg tools available:
– Neaveru: shows staEcEcs about friend diggs and
comments.
– DiggstaEsEcs: among many stats, will tell you which friend
have dugg at least 10 of my submissions and which not.
Also, which user in the Digg community (other than my
friends) have dugg 5 or more of my submissions.
– SocialBlade: shows trend (daily, montly, weekly) of diggs,
comments, % of friend’s diggs, graphs and my own
numbers of stories dugged.

10. Conclusion
 Digg will be another great GN PR tool
 More and more people are looking into Digg
(35 million a day)
 Great Journalism material resource
 Never been effecEvely used (Obama,
Richardson)
 Digg widgets all over GN social media

11. Testing
– Linking Gmail/Facebook or any
friends. (GN: FB invite friends
for new Digg accnt. Opened)
• Very important to find those reliable
friends.
• Reliable friends = DIGGS!!!
• + Diggs = + exposure

12. What this means…
• Why one digg per hour:
– Friends list (exposure)
– Digging friends (hoping for return favor)
– Commenting on Friend’s Diggs
– Story was timely and posted quickly
• Who is rcaroman?
• New user (been a user for only a day)
• What is he looking for?
• Any digging history?
• Any mutual friends?
• Conclusion:
• Rcaroman in spite of it all got one digg per hour
• Hardly seen– GN digg account highest digg story
have 12 diggs (from a vid. 4/28/09

13. Testing
• Step One: Open a Digg account
– Rcaroman- Opened Wednesday 6/24/09
• Step two: Adding Friends
– Picked up friends from: gmail,
hotmail. Link it to my Facebook
(ended up with 6 close friends on
digg)
• Step Three:Posting a digg
– Gavin Newsom: A Model for
Universal Health Care Coverage –
15 diggs/15 first hours

14. End
Logged out