StumbleUpon

Previously we discussed the online community that is Facebook. Today StumbleUpon is the subject of our discussion.

StumbleUpon is a social networking media service that allows you to save websites you like, add new websites to the directory and surf websites that StumbleUpon thinks you'll like, based on your previous activity. When you create an account you select from various tags, letting StumbleUpon know what you're interested in. When you click the “Stumble” button on the StumbleUpon toolbar it will randomly take you to websites it thinks you'll like.

Submitting pages to StumbleUpon is simple, when visiting a page you fancy you merely click the “thumbs up” button on the StumbleUpon toolbar and a pop-up window appears where you can enter the page's details. You can assign a topic and tag your submission, which allows StubleUpon to categorise your submission and relay it to the appropriate audience.

When link baiting using StumbleUpon it is important to have a relevant topic and tags in order to attract the audience that you desire. As with most social networking media the links are nofollow links and the regular rules of appealing to a human audience, rather than pandering to search engines are applicable.

Promoting your content is simple, as it will be served to more StumbleUpon users depending on the frequency at which the page gets thumbs up. Getting friends and associates to promote content for you is simple, once they've installed the StumbleUpon toolbar all they need to do is visit your page and click the “thumbs up” button, there is no logging in, passwords or forms to fill out, which will make it more likely that your busy acquaintances will make the effort to rate your page.

Remember that the conventional truths pertaining to the world of the web apply, so beware of spammy or overly controversial content yet again, as there is also a “thumbs down” button that will kill your exposure if it gets clicked by enough visitors.

That was StumbleUpon in a nutshell, next time we'll take a look at Del.icio.us