Presentation gave by Guillaume Bouchard, NVI, at Pubcon 08 in Vegas

1. INTERACTIVE STRATEGY - 55, AV. MT-ROYAL W., SUITE 999, MONTREAL (QC) H2T 2S6 T 514.524.7149 NVISOLUTIONS.COM SOCIAL MEDIA: The Big Sexy Buzz

3. MAIN PRINCIPLE > Catalyzing Natural Link Growth REALISTIC ROLE > Producing Link-Worthy Content > Taking Luck Out of the Equation INTERACTIVE STRATEGY – NVISOLUTIONS.COM

4. SOCIAL PLATFORMS Digg .com > Onsite voting > Tough to succeed > Can get “buried” > Large traffic spike > Success: home page StumbleUpon .com > Toolbar voting > Not as tough to succeed > Can get down-thumbed > Lower total, more gradual spike > Success: recommendation surge Worth a look - Propeller.com AOL.com showcase - Reddit.com Intelligent, savvy crowd - Mixx.com Do-follow links - Buzz.yahoo.com Yahoo.com showcase INTERACTIVE STRATEGY – NVISOLUTIONS.COM

5. DIGG Then and Now > Way more votes required > Less “illegitimate” content > Hot in any upcoming ≠ home page > Recommendation engine STUMBLEUPON Strategies > Sending a page to a friend forces a view > Should be tagged with popular categories > Reviews increase chances of views exploding INTERACTIVE STRATEGY – NVISOLUTIONS.COM

7. CONTENT - STRATEGIES Give Quality > They like to laugh, but deride FAILed attempts at humor > They appreciate hard work, but deride build-content-quick schemes > They like learning > They tend to follow their community’s (dis)approval > They do not like spam, or SEO & marketing, for that matter Save Time > They don’t want too much text > They want to be able to skim and get the basic idea > They don’t like having to click unnecessarily > They resent when your server can’t handle their visitorship > They like being able to vote right away INTERACTIVE STRATEGY – NVISOLUTIONS.COM Approval = Perception of Quality and Enjoyment Time Taken to Enjoy

8. CONTENT – SEO CONCERNS Keyword Use > Blog titles for backlink with great anchor text > Page titles can have more keywords Interlinking > Wait until after the push to interlink strategically > Post regularly to dilute 301 Redirection > Resist the temptation; let the content be INTERACTIVE STRATEGY – NVISOLUTIONS.COM

9. PLATFORM - TRUST Both Digg staff and users value trust. Unfortunately, trust isn’t easy to earn. The numbers > Trusted domains account for +90% of home pages > Of non-trusted domains, 30% are images, 10% are videos > ~100-125 stories hit the home page every day The (frightening) bottom line... > Only 6-8 text articles with juicy text from non-trusted domains are likely to hit the front page of Digg.com per day > This means you either need to work for trusted domains or we should all coordinate ourselves to share a piece of the pie ;) INTERACTIVE STRATEGY – NVISOLUTIONS.COM

10. PLATFORM - OPTIONS INTERACTIVE STRATEGY – NVISOLUTIONS.COM Platform Type Pros Cons /blog > Direct Domain Links > Established trust / pagerank > Brand Extension Via Community > Content Limited by Brand > Flaggable as Spam (Nearly Inevitable Digg Ban) Client Owned External Blog (new domain) > Content Freedom > Not Non-Trusted > Link Exchange Potential > “Wasted” Link juice > More Involved Development (New Brand) > Optimization Increasingly Suspicious Over Time SEO/SMO Company Owned External Blog > Ultimate Content Flexibility > Content & Link Variety Means Less Suspicion > Subsidized Asset Building > New Income Stream > Tough Sell > Development Costs > Zero Client Brand Extension

11. SUBMITTER > Domains are trusted, but so are people. > Less likely to be buried > Immediate friend votes > Strong accounts natural to combine with “shout” > + 30% of home pages are from top submitters > Some top submitters will eventually find out you work for a client as you ask them to submit or vote often for the same sites; they can bypass your company and contact the sites directly (sweet!) INTERACTIVE STRATEGY – NVISOLUTIONS.COM

12. CATEGORY > Different categories, different voting requirements > Proportional home page breakdown by category > Still a news site, after all  World & Business is very likely news  Sports is 50/50  Lifestyle is less likely and more random INTERACTIVE STRATEGY – NVISOLUTIONS.COM

13. VOTE SOLICITATION Solicitation > Exchanges > Instant Messaging > In-Site Communication Services > Vote on lots of stories Average time to hit > ~12-15 hours of work # of votes to hit the home > Less than 50: 10% > 50-100: 40% > 101-150: 30% > 151-200: 9% > 200+: 11% Less votes on weekend… but less help around… INTERACTIVE STRATEGY – NVISOLUTIONS.COM

16. SOCIAL MEDIA METRICS - LINKS > Generally peak between 1-3 months after the push > Content determines Digg success, but also backlinks > Successful on Digg vs linkability > Time of day hitting the home page Of course, whichever totals you want to work with are up to you… INTERACTIVE STRATEGY – NVISOLUTIONS.COM Levels of Success Total Y! Site Explorer Links Total Y! Minus Social Sites (-site: command) Total Minus Social Sites & Repeated Domain links Minimum Success 100 – 300 15 – 50 1 – 5 Good Success 500 – 1,000 50 – 100 6 – 19 Strong Success 1,000 - 10,000 100 – 200 20 – 50+

17. SOCIAL MEDIA METRICS - TRAFFIC > Digg traffic gets a much sharper spike than StumbleUpon > You can try multiple pushes on StumbleUpon > Time of day hitting the home page After the spike, traffic tends to level off slightly above the pre-push mark. INTERACTIVE STRATEGY – NVISOLUTIONS.COM Levels of Success Digg Spike Total Visits StumbleUpon Spike Total Visits Minimum Success 500 - 3,000 100 – 1,000 Good Success 3,000 – 50,000 1,000 - 15,000 Strong Success 50,000 - 200,000+ 15,000 - 75,000+