There is a good discussion going on at Sphinn surrounding a story put out by SocialNewsWatch.com. The title of the story is “SEO Spammers: Leave Social Media Sites Alone!” and it is interesting the different takes from Sphinners on the topic.
Not just that, but the folks who are upset about how the title, without reading the whole article, could back up Diggers’ opinions about SEO which are not flattering to the industry.
My take is who cares how the “industry” of SEO is viewed as by Diggers?
The point is to get them talking because all the A List bloggers in many niches care about conversations. Postive or negative.
Attention is all that matters.
Digg users are no one’s target market. Or they shouldn’t be. Digg is a star-maker, and that’s it. Everyone (in my niche and several others) reads it. Getting the the front page with a stunt, a negative piece, or whatever kind of bait is good business.
Not because you got 1000 diggers to come to your site and buy nothing, subscribe to nothing, and leave snarky comments on your post. Because influential bloggers read Digg and other social news sites. If they pickup your story for their blog, you’ve hit the big time. Maybe just for a moment in time, or maybe it really sets your site off and sends your traffic through the roof of the people who DO matter to your business.’
All the link building you’ve done by hand in the last 6 months could be eclipsed by the links, rankings, and new direct traffic one front page story on Digg or other sites like it generates for you.
Again, not because the social mavens on those sites visited and subscribed or bought anything, but because getting on the front page means getting in front of incredibly influential bloggers you could work a whole year to even get a response from otherwise.
All bloggers are news junkies.
None more than big sites that have taken off and have over a million visitors per month. They need the best scoops they can possibly get to stay cutting edge and on top. And they use the social news sites as a way to find those scoops.
So who the hell cares what the misfits at Digg think about a piece as long as they are talking it up, or down. It doesn’t matter. The attention from them breeds attention from influencers whose opinions do matter to you. If you did a good job, they’ll reward you by telling their readers (who are your best prospects) about it.
That’s all you need. Once the right people are coming to your site and they see that you are offering something they want, you have yourself a bunch of new readers/customers. Most of whom have never heard much or anything about a site called Digg and who will never see the story that launched the post that brought them to you.