Moreover, almost no users (less than 1%) use Social Media and do not use search, while the search beats the “search+social media” combination 50 to 49 percent. Only 45 percent, though, use search throughout their research with 26 percent stating that they only use search in the beginning of the process.

The study also shows that customer reviews are something customers are looking for – making the recently reported idea of “SearchReviews.com” pretty viable. 30% of the responders said reviews are the most important thing to them. Social networks were selected by 17% of the users, and video sharing finished third with 14%.

Notably, the study only researched COMPLETED buys. So, maybe social media is simply good at preventing future purchases? After all, reading a page of negative opinions about a product can drive you away from it, and sometimes the whole idea of purchasing a certain accessory can become obsolete…

Share with social media

Pope Benedictus XVI praised the prospects offered by the new technology saying that “if used wisely, they can contribute to the satisfaction of the desire for meaning, truth and unity which remain the most profound aspirations of each human being”, and emphasized that digital communication is a form of sharing.

His Holiness also warned about misleading by creating a “fake” personality in quest for “followers” and “friends” and stated that “there is the challenge to be authentic and faithful”. The Pope invited the Christians to join the global network as relationship is the fundamental need of a human being, and concluded his address with Apostolic blessing to all those that “make good use of their presence in the digital world”.

Share with social media

Why should you care about StumbleUpon’s friends limit?

At StumbleUpon, whenever you stumble and review a page/image/video, the link and your comment are displayed on your friends’ homepages. Therefore, having a large amount of StumbleUpon friends can help you spread the word about your own sites and/or sites that belong to your partners or friends. This is why you want to be added as a friend by as many stumblers as possible. However, StumbleUpon used to have a 200-friend limit for all accounts. Such limit obviously harmed StumbleUpon’s networking potential.

Now that the limit is about to end and stumblers will be able to subscribe to as many people as they want, you can add everyone and everyone can reciprocate. But it doesn’t necessarily mean that everyone should subscribe to you, nor that you should reciprocate all subscriptions.

How to build a strong network via StumbleUpon

Personally, I believe that if you plan to use StumbleUpon as a promotional tool for your websites, the first step to take is watching your own stumbling habits. Try to refrain from stumbling things that have nothing to do with your industry. Apply niche concepts to StumbleUpon; save your thumbs up and reviews for web content that relates to your sites. By doing this, you won’t always be added by as many people as you’d like, but you’ll be much more likely to attract the right StumbleUpon subscribers: the ones who care for your site’s topic. They’ll arrive to your profile, see what you usually stumble and add you because they’ll recognise you as a source of good, interesting links.

Resist the temptation to add every single stumbler you find. Subscribe to the ones who belong to your industry, because it’s going to help you keep track of news and tutorials, besides giving you ideas to produce more content of your own. Also add stumblers who might be part of your site’s target-audience; if they visit your profile and reciprocate the addition, you may end up converting them into site visitors. And never forget to reciprocate when webmasters in your niche and/or potential site visitors take the initiative to add you first. Always send them a polite “thank you” note to let them know that you appreciate it that they’ve subscribed to you.

How not to promote your site at StumbleUpon

• Do NOT stumble every single piece of content your produce. You’ll be seen as a spammer — and within reason. As recommended above, you should stumble and review pages, images and videos that relate to your site’s niche, but that doesn’t mean promoting your own stuff all the time. Occasional self-promotion is okay; daily self-stumbling is not.
• Do NOT use the “send to” feature all the time. You’ll be seen as a spammer etc. etc. Moreover, it’s generally assumed that your friends’ stumbles don’t generate as much traffic as spontaneous thumbs up given by people that don’t belong to your network. So, if you abuse the “send to” feature you’ll be just punishing yourself.
• Do NOT rely solely on stumbles to drive traffic to your site. Building a network is a must-do activity for any webmaster who has solid, long-term plans. Instead of counting on the spurs of traffic that StumbleUpon can send you, think about building relationships and branding yourself and your sites. By doing this, you won’t simply get hits; you’ll win loyal visitors and even reinforce your linkbuilding tactics.

There’s much more to be said about StumbleUpon and its traffic generation capabilities. I’m going to wait and see how the recent changes will affect stumblers. Then I’ll write more on the subject and possibly share more tips to help you improve your stumbling strategies.

Share with social media

Despite the fact that Google gave up on the Digg deal (for good or only temporarily?), the googlesphere is still excited about this topic. But…

Does Google need Digg?

Is Digg an essential tool for Google’s Internet dominance arsenal? It doesn’t seem to be the case.

* Google is already used by the vast majority of websurfers. Digg, despite its popularity, still looks like a small club dominated by a few privileged members.

* Digg lacks diversity; most links on it are of a geek-oriented nature. Google, on the other hand, can lead users to any type of site they want to see. This efficiency is the reason why it rules the search engine market.

Do Google users need Digg-like features?

How would those impact our search experience? Would such features give us the power to find more (good) sites in less time?

* Perhaps Google intends to use our own votes as a basis to bring us more customised results over time. However, isn’t it what our search history is for? At least, this is what’s been implied by a post at Google’s Official Blog.

* If you think a social voting system could effectively reduce manipulation of search results by suspicious webmasters… forget it. All social media sites are manipulated in some way (bury brigade anyone?). Why would a “social Google” be different?

Let’s see how the whole Google-Digg (or “Giggle,” as suggested by some good-humoured guys out there) case will evolve — if at all. Whenever I find any substantial news on this thought-provoking subject, I’ll write more about it.

Share with social media

1. Organize your feeds

As time goes on, you’ll discover lots of interesting sites that you’d want to subscribe to. If you just dump them all without any system in your RSS reader, it will quickly turn into chaos. Organize using folders to segregate your work-related feeds from personal interest feeds. Your work-related feeds should further be categorized into either the several niches that you follow, or by first tier and second tier blogs depending on their relevance. Choose what works best for you.

2. Pick the best sites

Select only the most relevant blogs for your purpose – 10-30 is good for starters. Keep in mind that you need to look for content significant to your niche, brand and competitors. However, you don’t have to limit yourself to blogs. For tweets, Summize can be a great source with its fantastic search engine. To listen in to forum conversations about your product, you can use Omgili to look for keywords and then subscribe to the search results.

3. Read only what you need

Separate the wheat from the shaft. If you’re like me, there’s a great temptation to read everything out of curiosity. That’s fine, but it can waste time, which means wasted money, especially if the feeds you’ve subscribed to aren’t that targeted to your niche. Use the search feature of your RSS aggregator to look for articles with pertinent keywords. Read only what you need so that you’ll be able to attend to other aspects of your work. Also, attend to your feeds only twice a day – once in the morning when you start your day, and once when you’re ready to call it a night (of course, you’re free to adjust this depending on your sleeping pattern).

4. Collate and share

Everyday, collect the most interesting feeds you’ve found and share them with your business partners. Listening in on these web-wide conversations is a good way to stimulate your own internal discussions which, hopefully, will give birth to some exciting new ideas for your company.

Do you have any RSS techniques of your own?

Share with social media

A study reveals that over the past year, over 80% of social networking site users have “received unwanted friend requests, messages, or posts on their social or professional network profile.” These friend requests, of course, are just ways to point users to phishing sites, malware sites, or unwanted ads. There may be a lot of money to be had this way, but it ruins the very platform that feeds it.

The disenchantment over MySpace and consequent mass migration to Facebook over the spamming problem, among others, should be enough of a reason to pause and reflect. The study also says that about 2/3 of respondents would consider switching to other social networks if the spam became too invasive. In another study, 39% of baby boomers, an affluent market, said they shy away from social networks because of privacy concerns.

Social networking users signed up to connect to other people, not to be scammed or shown unsolicited ads. It’s highly possible to make money off of these types of sites, but the marketing approach should be tailored accordingly. I’ve read someone comparing it to a “gentle courtship”, and I suppose that’s a good way to put it. There are plenty of Internet marketers who’ve had success by being genuine and forging relationships with people in Facebook. Two good resources for this are Facebook Payday and Why Facebook?. Try and have a look at them. They may give you some fresh ideas.

Share with social media