The Linkerati Effect

Beyond news sites and information aggregators is the world of social news. What is a social news site you ask? Besides presenting very buzzworthy content, these sites put the power in the hands of the users by “voting” on content and allowing content to become “popular.”

A Couple Examples

You don’t want your story “buried” on this website as it is all the rage in this space. Digg has a highly sophisticated algorithm in determining which content makes the front page. It is by far one of the most if not the most well known social news website. If you are looking for more traffic and/or links, Digg provides you with the opportunity to reach the front page, even if for the shortest amount of time. This can drive lots of traffic to your story potentially making it headline news.

Allowing the opportunity to remain “pop” for longer than Digg, stories can be voted up and down and comprises of several sub-Reddit categories ranging from technology to funny news. One of the most important factors to gaining popularity on Reddit, appears to be the speed of voting on your content. The faster a story is voted upon, the more importance is placed on that particular story thus making its rank higher.

So in Conclusion…

These are just a couple examples of two of the leading social news sites. Digg and Reddit are alternative options to take advantage of to create pop or buzz worthy content. Accomplishing prominent positions on these sites allow for the opportunity of viral content as well. And remember to always keep your audience in mind with each site as many of these communities tend to have highly active participators.