Social News for Social Good: Building Buzz and Breaking Records with Digg

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www.nature.org Web Executive Seminar: Social Sites for Social Good | Jonathon D. Colman Tuesday, February 26, 2008 Slide #1 of 16 Social News for Social Good: Building Buzz and Breaking Records with Digg 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

description

A presentation on web marketing and social news media for nonprofits that I'm giving at the National Press Club in Washington DC as part of the Forum One Communications seminar, "Social Sites for Social Change" on February 26, 2008. You can learn more about Jonathon Colman at http://www.jonathoncolman.org/

Transcript of Social News for Social Good: Building Buzz and Breaking Records with Digg

Page 1: Social News for Social Good: Building Buzz and Breaking Records with Digg

www.nature.orgWeb Executive Seminar: Social Sites for Social Good | Jonathon D. Colman

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Slide #1 of 16

Social News for Social Good: Building Buzz and Breaking Records with Digg

Social News for Social GoodBuilding Buzz and Breaking Records with Digg

if there’s no buzz,there’s no interest.

—Branford Marsalis

Jonathon D. ColmanAssociate Director, Digital Marketinghttp://www.slideshare.net/jcolman/slideshowshttp://www.linkedin.com/in/jcolman

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www.nature.orgWeb Executive Seminar: Social Sites for Social Good | Jonathon D. Colman

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

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Social News for Social Good: Building Buzz and Breaking Records with Digg

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www.nature.orgWeb Executive Seminar: Social Sites for Social Good | Jonathon D. Colman

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Social News for Social Good: Building Buzz and Breaking Records with Digg

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Social News for Social Good: Building Buzz and Breaking Records with Digg

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www.nature.orgWeb Executive Seminar: Social Sites for Social Good | Jonathon D. Colman

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Social News for Social Good: Building Buzz and Breaking Records with Digg

flickr: ricko

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Social News for Social Good: Building Buzz and Breaking Records with Digg

• 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

No Time? No Money? No Problem!

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Social News for Social Good: Building Buzz and Breaking Records with Digg

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]

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Social News for Social Good: Building Buzz and Breaking Records with Digg

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Social News for Social Good: Building Buzz and Breaking Records with Digg

“Typical” web feature on nature.org

200 visitors/day

Results: Social News Campaign on Digg

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www.nature.orgWeb Executive Seminar: Social Sites for Social Good | Jonathon D. Colman

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Social News for Social Good: Building Buzz and Breaking Records with Digg

“Typical” web feature on nature.org

200 visitors/day

“Typical” visitors/day on nature.org

20,000visitors/day

Results: Social News Campaign on Digg

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www.nature.orgWeb Executive Seminar: Social Sites for Social Good | Jonathon D. Colman

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Social News for Social Good: Building Buzz and Breaking Records with Digg

Everyday Environmentalist

18,000+ visitors in one hour300+ visitors per second

“Typical” web feature on nature.org

200 visitors/day

“Typical” visitors/day on nature.org

20,000visitors/day

Results: Social News Campaign on Digg

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Social News for Social Good: Building Buzz and Breaking Records with Digg

Everyday Environmentalist

18,000+ visitors in one hour300+ visitors per second

76,000+ visitors in one day

“Typical” web feature on nature.org

200 visitors/day

“Typical” visitors/day on nature.org

20,000visitors/day

Results: Social News Campaign on Digg

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Social News for Social Good: Building Buzz and Breaking Records with Digg

• 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

But Isn’t This Just “Empty” Traffic?

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www.nature.orgWeb Executive Seminar: Social Sites for Social Good | Jonathon D. Colman

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Social News for Social Good: Building Buzz and Breaking Records with Digg

• 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.)

How Much Work/Time Did This Take?

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www.nature.orgWeb Executive Seminar: Social Sites for Social Good | Jonathon D. Colman

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Social News for Social Good: Building Buzz and Breaking Records with Digg

• 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)

How Much Work/Time Did This Take?

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Social News for Social Good: Building Buzz and Breaking Records with Digg

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