When Alexis speaks, Redditors listen.

From Mashable:

We’ll start things off with a real-life social media parable about how the biggest and most effective forces on the web usually take shape by accident. Alexis Ohanian of Reddit.com tells the quick and hilarious story of how the social web provided some unexpected help to Greenpeace in halting the Japanese whaling industry. Internet marketers take note: The meme is all powerful, and it cannot be controlled.

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Learn more about Social Media Marketing on this blog.

Not sure whether to applaud them for attempting to get creative or to scorn them for being unoriginal. Companies have put “ads” in their source code before, sort of an Easter Egg for us geeks to find, but this one is both scary and strangely intriguing.

It’s an advertisement leading to HellIsNigh, a promotional site for the Dante’s Inferno game coming out later this month. Rather than pass judgment on whether or not it will be effective, I will say that I’m happy that Digg is making an effort at thinking outside of the box.

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Read more about Social News right here.

I wouldn’t have expected it, but it’s true. One of my most important “jobs” occurs every Thursday at 7:00 pm PST. The Social Blade Show has become an important part of what I do and how I do it and as a result, it is with great pride that I announce we are a finalist for a Shorty Award.

Never in my life have I “campaigned” for an award, especially a web award. This time, it’s different. It’s personal.

It’s for keeps.

OK. Maybe it’s not that serious, but it’s still “pretty darn cool” enough to ask you, oh loyal Social News Watch readers, to hop on your Twitter and vote for us in the News category. Here’s the link: Social Blade Show Rocks the News World and Doesn’t Talk Much About Twilight. You know what to do.

It should be noted that if we win, I will donate all of the proceeds plus $100 to the charity of someone’s choice. If we win, we’ll select the charity based upon some awesome contest that Erin or Patrick will come up with.

More to come on the Social Blade Show Blog, but otherwise, get out and vote. It’s of paramount importance.

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Read more about Social Media Shows on this blog.

We all are in need of tips to try and begin utilizing Social Media to its fullest potential and although it is ever growing and changing, certain things remain the same.

Here are your five C’s to Social Media, that can be applied to Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and any other Social Networking site that you use for personal or professional gain.

1. Connect- Your first pursuit with any Social Networking site is to find people to connect with. Friend and Fan those you are already aware of that use Social Media and then branch out. Don’t just randomly add people or friend those back because they have added you. Instead, check out their page and see what things you may have in common. This will cause you to have a more positive and long-lasting relationship with people, instead of numbers.
   
2. Communicate- After connecting, you need to reach out and communicate. Don’t wait for people to talk to you. Instead strike up a conversation, whether it is in 140 characters or more. This shouldn’t be too difficult since now; you have made connections with people who interest you in some way. Just remember to ask open ended questions and to keep the 5 W’s close at hand. People tend to respond better when statuses begin with What, Where, Who, When, Why and even sometimes How.
3. Consistent- Now that you have made some friends and you are now chatting with one another, it is time to remain consistent. You need to keep in touch and it’s not just on occasion, you need to continue connecting and communicating. People will now expect it from you and will move on quickly if you don’t. If you don’t ask questions or respond, people will lose interest. Step up your game by promoting, sharing photos or videos, giving tips and lists or something as simple as leaving comments.
4. Constructive- Think before you type. Being online will not shun you from criticism or negative feedback, and whether it has to do with business or pleasure, you need to respond in a constructive manner. Yes, you will have your share of trolls (People who leave negative comments just for the sake of it) and those who are perhaps genuinely upset. This could be due to what was said or perhaps something in which your business did or did not do. Regardless of the reasons, you must take them seriously and not personally. Respond in a professional manner and always follow through. Just because it was a negative feedback doesn’t mean that the outcome has to be as well. Since Social Networks are public, you can always redeem yourself in your response.
5. Care- This is one of the most important things you will need to do while utilizing Social Media, it is sometimes the one that is forgotten.. Care about what you do, promote, say and who you are in contact with. This doesn’t mean that you have to like everyone, just care that they like you. When using Social Media, your content must be of importance to you, your presentation must matter and even the smallest details should come upon your care radar. Don’t think people aren’t watching, they are, someone always is, and that someone should always be in the fore front of your mind.

Whether you are new to Social Media or have just lost your way, give these five C’s to Social Media a try and watch the sixth C of Social Media grow, which is Community. These basic, yet important facts will be the life saver to you expanding your brand as a person or a business. Remember them the next time you use your Social Networking sites and be sure to share this with your Social Media friends.

Erin Ryan is a Social Media Devotee, who is very active on various Social Networking sites. By day, Erin is a freelance image designer for various online stores and is currently a Social Media intern. You can contact her via Twitter http://twitter.com/4u2wear2

When Imgur.com first hit the scene a year ago, it quickly became the “hip” way to post, host, and share images on Reddit. Digg took notice and it soon became the most popular image site there as well.

A year later, one thing is certain – Imgur’s numbers as a result are nothing short of amazing. While these numbers are nothing compared to more well-known image sites such as Flickr, Photobucket, or Imageshack, it is still impressive considering that the traffic is almost entirely social media driven.

Click to see the full view.

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Read more about social news on this blog.

Digg has moderators, as they have acknowledged in the past. For those who believe that the moderators are screening the stories before they’re allowed to hit the front page, I can say that either they were asleep on the job or it just isn’t true.

What is your government tweeting now?

That’s the question that GovLive tweets asks on their new website. With over 500 hand-picked agencies so far, it makes for an interesting way to see what “The Man” is saying in social media.

Chris Bennett says the site offers the “official tweets from over 500 government agencies that can be sorted by county and state. We hand-compiled this list and are still adding new agencies. It’s not as sexy as a service of confirmed celebrity tweets, but we hope a tad more useful.”

I would say so. Sorry, Ashton.

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Read more Twitter News on Social News Watch.

The statement could be pushed over to just about any true Web 2.0 site where voting and popularity determine the success of a piece of content. Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace – overrun by spam. Mixx, Propeller, Yahoobuzz – spam havens.

For social news powerhouses Digg, Reddit, and StumbleUpon to be so changed by the presence of gobs and gobs of spam hits a little harder. They are the sites where I started my journey in Web 2.0. They are the shiny beacons of user-controlled, traffic-generating goodness that made mainstream media look to the people for their opinions and discoveries.

They are, for all intents and purposes, shells of what they should be, and spam is to blame. Perhaps more importantly, how they handled spam over the years has caused them to close their networks in one way or another through a series of witchhuntesque spam countermeasures.

…and spam is to blame.

Digg Paranoia

Many people go out (in this case, we’ll call her Blogger Sue), create a wonderful site or blog, put their heart and souls into the content (some even pay for strong content) and prepare their servers for the onslaught of traffic inherent with a Digg front page story.

One try, two tries, ten tries later, nothing. They’re lucky if they get 100 total visitors combined to their 10 stories.

They look at the stats. According to Di66, 2203 of the 4011 stories to hit the front page in the last 30 days came from 100 websites. Out of hundreds of thousands of submissions per month, 100 website control 55% of the Digg front page.

Blogger Sue notices something. It’s not just the domains. It’s the users. The top 100 users this month have 2197 front page submissions, again over 50% despite millions of unique visitors per month. That’s the ticket! She makes friends with a couple of top users, asks them to submit, and again waits for the traffic onslaught.

Again, she is disappointed. After several failed attempts, her site has been flagged for what some call “autobury” or “spam protection” because the Digg algorithm watches for new sites getting too many Diggs and prevents them from hitting. In any given month, new sites will account for less than 1% of the total front page stories.

Digg has trust issues. It trusts certain users and certain sites. The rest are spammers pushing spam. While on one hand you can’t blame them, as Digg is often considered the crown jewel of a traffic-driving strategy (and therefore gets spammed to death) but on the other hand there really needs to be a way to make it more fair for both new users and new sites. We have ideas, and we’ve offered them, but thus far nobody at Digg has asked our opinion.

Reddit Elitism

Reddit is the most open of the social news sites in that great content can hit the front page regardless of the submitter. Well, almost regardless. As long as the submitter is either brand new or well “vetted” by an algorithm actively pursuing spam and as long as the domain hasn’t been banned within a subreddit or by the entire site, then Blogger Sue can create an account, submit a post, title it appropriately, and have a chance of doing well.

There are 3 problems with Reddit:

1. If you get banned in a subreddit or the site itself, you may never know. You can submit and submit and submit and nobody will ever be able to see your submission. This can be done by getting banned in enough subreddits or algorithmically based upon a series of criteria that few understand.
2. The Subreddits, while they were a great idea at first, have partitioned into “traffic or no traffic”. There are a handful of subreddits that gained popularity early on and have continued to gain in popularity simply because they’re popular. The others are worthless and there it’s almost impossible to get traction into a small subreddit.
3. The moderators. Too much power for the “trusted” few who have control over the strong subreddits. They can (and in many cases, have) banned users or domains based upon simply not liking someone or something. There are subreddits where respectable, completely non-spammy domains are blocked because they weren’t liked by an individual.

There are solutions at Reddit as well, but again, nobody seems to be looking for them. The offer, as always, is on the table.

StumbleUpon Contradictions

There are a dozen people in the universe who have figured out how to properly promote via StumbleUpon. For the rest, it’s hit or miss. Do we Stumble a lot or not? Subscribe a lot or not? Discover a lot or not? Should we share? Not share? Tweet? Su.pr?

Why did Blogger Sue stumble one decent story that got 30,000 unique visitors in a week, then stumble a great piece of content from the same domain that got 30 views?

StumbleUpon has been successful in driving traffic to quality sites, but has also been victim of filters that keep a TON of content out of the mix.  There are stories that are served up thousands of times before the algorithm realizes the content sucked, while other pieces of content that are gloriously powerful aren’t served to a single person regardless of who discovers it.

With StumbleUpon, I have no advice because I don’t understand it enough to offer any. Sorry guys.

What is the Future of Social News?

Digg.

Reddit.

StumbleUpon.

They are the present and will likely be the future as well. Still, there are things on the horizon that have potential. Tying in conversation within other networks is an option. Judging quality through batches of moderators vetting content is another. Someone will come up with a solution, then thousands will figure out ways to game and spam it.

That’s the nature of the beast, which is why I still love these sites, regardless of whether they’re dead or not.

… and spam is to blame.

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Read more about social news on this blog.

Lee Garnett from ncomment did it again. We knew that the first comic was absolutely amazing, but this Part 2 took it to another level.

Click the image for the full comic (but check out part I first if you haven’t already).

How awesome is that!

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Read more about social news on this blog.

The people over at OnlineEducation.net put together this truly enlightening infographic bringing the Internet into an understandable scale. Enjoy!

Created by Online Education

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Find more Internet News on this Social News Watch.