WEB BUSINESS SOLUTIONS

A recent post on LED Digest raised the issue of organised voting up of content on social media sites. One subscriber had suggested that LED readers might be able to devise a system where each subscriber could submit and vote on other subscriber’s content. So in response to that, another subscriber designed and put up a page which he named SICoop (The Slightly Inappropriate Co-op for Shilling Social Media Sites.)

This concept of organised voting up of social content isn’t new but you need to be very cautious about how you execute it and participate in it. Most social media sites track your participation. The sites you submit and vote on, comments you make, groups you join and friends you make, are clearly visible to the entire community.

The first site listed to be “shilled” was the SICoop page itself. So, if you were to submit this “Shilling Social Media Sites” page to social media sites, what would that say about you as a member of that community? Once you’re marked as a spammer the damage is done and there’s no turning back. Take the second URL I saw listed on SICoop. What is that? Seems to be nothing more than a copyright notice and legal mumbo-jumbo. Trust me, NO genuine social media user is going to submit that to StumbleUpon, Propeller or any other social site. Submit it to Digg and you’ll likely get banned. Or worse, your domain will be banned and no one else will be able to submit any of your content.

There’s no shortcut to success on social media sites. You have to gain an understanding of how they work and become a trusted member of the community. These guys aren’t stupid. They can spot spammers and attempts to manipulate them a mile off. If you vote up a page which exists for no other reason than to game their system then you’re just asking for trouble. A StumbleUpon “I like it” click is very powerful. It truly is a personal recommendation, unlike a link in the eyes of search engine. When a SU user checks out your recommendation, and they like it, they’ll check out other stuff you’ve voted for. If they like what they see they’ll check out your profile (with links to your site) and become your “fan”. They’ll start to trust you. But submit a site for “shilling social media sites” or a copyright notice, that trust will evaporate. They’ll start clicking the thumbs-down button and before you know it you’ll be shown the door.

It’s quite OK to network with other members of a community such as LED Digest. LED is one of the best old-style email discussion lists out there and I read every issue. But I’m not going to risk my reputation on SU by voting on a page just because it was written by another LEDer, and I wouldn’t expect anyone else to do the same for me. However if that member were to post a good article on their blog – whether it be about web hosting, SEO, marketing or any aspect of doing business online (which is what LED is all about) and I’ll gladly vote for it. The concept of LED users helping each other is fine, but you have to be smart about how you go about it. Simply putting up a page where you add your URL to the voting list isn’t the best way to achieve the desired results and could do more harm than good.

I recently joined a membership site called Social Power Linking where I’ve learned an awful lot about social marketing. Part of that membership is a “buzz” group where they are setting out to achieve the same thing as SICoop. I haven’t actually participated in it yet (not sure if I really want to yet), but there are very strict rules on how it operates and ethical standards are maintained for the good of the community. The guys who run it have been doing this for years, successfully, and really understand social marketing. One thing I have learned from SPL is you do NOT want to shill social media sites.

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