In one of the comments I got last week on my post about the Eight Meaningful Measures of Social Media, blogger Geoff Livingston asked me what I thought about Digg.
While not quite a measurement tool, Digg does have its value. Aside from a huge bump in traffic, if you have built a content-rich website, you might also get some new subscribers. However, you better have a beefy server or Digg could shut you down.
Darren Rowse wrote a great post with tips on building a digg culture on your website, so I won’t repeat all of that here, but I do recommend that you read it. Scott Karp has a differing view saying:
“…Mounting evidence suggests that Digg traffic in particular is less like networking with like-minded individuals at a social event and more like getting attacked by a pack of wild dogs, who leave nothing of value in their wake, other than lessons learned on closing comments and crashed servers.”
He posts some stats to back up this view.
However, I will share a story that I found via Wordy Mouth, about how a soldier found out he was shot when he found his crushed iPod in his body armor that has managed to rise to the top of Digg and into the mainstream media.
The photo of the destroyed iPod that headlines this post, was posted by Nik after it was sent to him by a buddy in Iraq. It went on to garner thousands of views and was featured in the tech press and then on Good Morning America. Not surprisingly, Apple wants to give the soldier a new iPod. I would too if I were representing the company. Nik posts an update about what he calls the Digg effect on his blog (keep trying if you can’t get through, remember what I said about crashed or busy servers?).
While I have not had the headrush of being Dugg to the front page or even the top of a category in Digg, I have had really nice traffic bumps and success with two PR-related communities. The Digg community for public relations can be found at CrispyNews NewPR Popular Stories and the Fark of the PR world can be found at the Spin Thicket.
