Thursday, September 8, 2011

Do You Stumble?

There are os many ways to utilize social media today. It can get really confusing to try and learn about all of the different sharing sites available. Fortunately, my pal Liz, the creative genius behind a Belle, a Bean, and a Chicago Dog, and the super knowledgable Eli Rose knows a little sumthin' sumthin' and is willing to share!

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The importance of regular social sharing seems to be at an all-time high. It's how we bloggers promote our blogs and other events we're hosting. It's how we network and "pay it forward" to others. It even matters in the eyes of Google and Bing whether or not someone has tweeted or Facebook "Liked" our posts.
And as if Twitter and Facebook weren't enough, we now have been hit with the one-two punch known as Google+ and Pinterest.

Adding to that dizzying list is a slightly different element of getting social: social bookmarking sites. These are sites like StumbleUpon, Digg and Reddit.

But where do we draw the line as to what sites we're going to put effort into? And, really, what sites are the best to focus our efforts on?

In my opinion, it's StumbleUpon. In fact, StumbleUpon is now considered the #1 traffic referrer, outpacing even Facebook.

Getting started on StumbleUpon is much like getting started on any other social site. You need to create an account, choose a username and sift through your other social media and email contacts to find and connect with followers. Then after doing so, I highly recommend downloading the StumbleUpon toolbar to your browser.

StumbleUpon is basically a giant database that houses articles that have been given the thumbs up by someone else. The act of clicking the "I Like It!" button is how a particular article is added to its database.



You can peruse "liked" articles by clicking the "Stumble" button seen in the photo above. But if you are a blogger, you'll probably use StumbleUpon in a different manner: to drive traffic to your own site.

If you have a post you'd love stumbled, you can use the "Share" button on the toolbar as a way to notify your followers that you'd like for them to thumb it up. Your post link is then sent to those you've shared with, and they can view your article and decided whether or not to "like" it.

The more "likes" it receives, the higher the chance that article will be presented to others who are stumbling through the database using the "Stumble" button.

Basically, more "likes" means a great chance at exposure, which greatly increases your pageviews.

While we all want our content to hit it big on StumbleUpon, it's important that we give numerous thumb ups to others' articles and photos from around the web. A good rule of thumb is to thumb up your own post 1 out of every 10 "likes" you give.

Once you get accustomed to doing so, you'll find that clicking that "I Like It!" button becomes second nature to you. And if you connect with a good group of stumblers, you'll find that many will gladly reciprocate the thumbing up you're doing for them.

Do you use StumbleUpon? Come find me at BelleBeanDog.

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Liz is a 30-something marketer and mom to 2 girls and a dog. She writes about parenting, marriage & life in general at a belle, a bean & a chicago dog, tweets from @BelleBeanDog and helps small businesses & bloggers use social media at Eli Rose Social Media.

22 comments:

Kimberly said...

I have an account but I'm still trying to remember to use it ;) my bad..

Liz said...

Thanks for having me!

Julia Munroe Martin said...

I really need to do this! (And you told me to already I know, but....as you say, dizzying!) Great reminder, post!

Unknown said...

I need to figure Stumble Upon out - and start a group that we stumble a good post by another person in the group. I'd much rather have someone else stumble my posts once a week than do it myself.

Kristi {at} Live and Love...Out Loud said...

I receive traffic by way of StumbleUpon on a daily basis. I've had some incredible success with it too. One of my posts was Stumbled (liked/thumbs up'ed) 1,477 times within the first hour. It was crazy-amazing! Thanks for sharing this Liz. Once you get the hang of StumbleUpon, it's really simple to use and a great tool to share content around the web and increase traffic to your site as well.

Anonymous said...

Thank you! i've had an account for a while (I think you've found me there) but I didn't really get it. I'm on it now though:)

Thanks!

Grumpy Grateful Mom said...

This was so helpful for me! I signed up for an account months ago, but have never used it. I didn't understand how it worked.

mypixieblog said...

WOW! This is really good to know... I'll definitely check it out a bit more thoroughly now. Thanks :)

Jamie said...

No surprise this was helpful! I stumble things whenever I notice the button on the blog I'm reading - but is that enough? Should I be actually going to StumbleUpon and doing things there?

Amy J said...

Good to know about this. I am on StumbleUpon, but I had no idea how to really use it. Good advice!

Andrea said...

I have an acct, too, but I don't use it. It just hasn't seemed very user-friendly to me. :)

Anonymous said...

I wasn't understand the thumbs up like until I read this.

Barbara said...

Great advice Liz! Like everyone else I have an account but never knew how to use it!

Poppy said...

Liz you are such a know it all. That was a compliment. Thanks for sharing.

Hopes@Staying Afloat! said...

This is so helpful! Thank you! I will try setting up an account and just start slowly!

Anonymous said...

Great post and so helpful. Someone mentioned to me about this, but I really didn't know how it worked. Thanks for sharing this!

CraftyMummy said...

Great summary, Liz! You know I love to stumble already. Its a fabulous way to find more blogs too.

Venassa said...

I have an account, and even use it, but until I read this I wasn't really sure how it worked. Thanks for helping out :)

Katie Hurley, LCSW said...

Oh Liz...you make it all look so easy! Fine...I'll join and start begging for more friends. Isn't everyone sick of me yet??!!!!

Unknown said...

This was great! I have Stumbled only a few times. I get overwhelmed! I will try to change that. Thanks for the wise words!

Ducky said...

Sounds like something I should probably be a part of. I'm having trouble finding the time to poo...when am I ever gonna find the time for this too?! LOL Thanks for the intro and breaking it down for peeps like me.

Unknown said...

Okay. Signing up right now then.

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