1. The most recent change in Stumbleupon are the thumbnails of the sites that have been reviewed or stumbled. Previously they were screen shots of the entire page, which I had personally started to get use to, now the system is taking a snapshot of the main image on the page – this will now require more thought to attract attention.

2. Not too long ago there was quite a lot of fuss about a Stumbleupon user who got banned by posting threatening messages on other user’s walls. I think every SEO has probably come across these trolls before, the feature called “Flag this” now allows you to give a positive or negative rating to a users review. I have used this in both a positive and negative way but am yet to see any real positive responses.

3. Flickr given special treatment – when you come across a Flickr stumble in the future look on the right of the screen where the user whom discovered the page’s information will be. You will see the addition of “Stumble Thru Flickr.com” under “Share this with a friend”. In all honestly I’m not sure if this is new but I certainly haven’t noticed before.

4. Previously you could block users entirely in Stumbleupon if they were rude or for whatever other reason. If you look at your friends page and look at the bottom right of the page then you will notice a box where you can “unblock” blocked users, not entirely sure why you would want to do this but there you go. Also above that box you can search for friends by email address too, I was not aware of this either!

5. If you scroll down to the bottom of any Stumbleupon page you will see a link labelled “Directory” – if you click on this it will produce a list of alphabetic letters. From this you can find every member of StumbleUpon. If you look down the list you see that there is a small box to the left of your name, some are white, some have bits of blue, some have complete blue and some have complete green. I have looked through this and I can only determine this to be your Stumbleupon rank – Green being a power user or activity on Stumbleupon. Another thought is that the green represents being online, and the blue is based on reputation, I came to this assumption by looking at the number of pages liked, reviews etc. If anyone has any additional information on this I will update the post if it can be backed up.

And before people start saying “They’re not secret!” not everyone knows as much as you! Some people are beginners!

EDIT - I had some feedback from Howardtheduck on SU: 

You are right in #5 , Blue fills up as you get “fans” It turns all green if you become a “sponsor”. See, they are all green :
http://www.stumbleupon.com/sponsors.php

http://www.stumbleupon.com/stumblethru.php

This is something that has been on my mind for quite some time now and I wasn’t sure 100% if it was true or not, until now.

For those of you that know me I love StumbleUpon, it provides great on going traffic if you setup and maintain your profile correctly – see my post “Unofficial StumbleUpon guide”. Occasionally my blog posts would get stumbled by someone else for whatever reason but I considered SU a means of letting people know when I have a new post out, in case people have not subscribed via RSS.

Last month, one morning I typically wrote a post and used my usual means of promotion, or so I thought. Later that day I checked to see if any reviews had been made on the submission and to my surprise there was no listing visible. I thought perhaps there had been a mistake when I submitted, so I tried a different technique and looked on my profile again, still no submission – so what am I dong wrong? – Nothing at all is the answer here.

When I now try and submit my own blog content the process appears to work, when you later check it returns this result:

So why has this happened?

I suppose it’s to stop people gaming the system, which I don’t really consider it doing as the content is different each time. I have had friends get URL’s band in Digg before simply because they submitted the same domain too many times so I’m quite glad that the domains don’t get banned entirely.

If anyone else has started to have this problem too please use the poll below, it will be interesting to see the results:

Social media and social engagement is becoming more widely known to search marketers. Terms like “Power Users” and “Whales” are also part of the new age “lingo”. But what makes these top users any different from you and me? How much time is invested to get this status? An angle I don’t think many have explored for social activity is the amount benefits being at this level can bring you. Such as links to sites that are associated with you and interviews conducted by webmasters.

I have interviewed some of the most powerful users across the board, especially Stumbleupon, Digg, Mixx and Sphinn. I have asked:

Jansie SilentJay74 TheNanny612 Jeff Quipp Spostareduro

The 5 I have asked are top users in one or more of the four social sites I have listed, lets hear what they have to say:

Question 1 - How many hours a day do you spend on each social bookmarking website?

Jansie - Mixx.com, all day, as time permits, with breaks in-between work, as the mails come in, or if I find something interesting to post.
SilentJay74 - I would say I only spend in total about 3 hours a day off and on. I usually haunt Mixx.com. That is where I am most well known.
TheNanny612 - Well, I don’t have an allotted time I spend on each social bookmarking site. But, I do keep windows open constantly of my favorite social bookmarking websites that I frequent. And, since I spend around 19-20 hours online a day…. I guess I could be spending that much time on them.
Jeff Quipp- a) Digg (2 hours)
b) Stumbleupon (2 hours)
c) Sphinn (1.5 hours)
d) Reddit (10 minutes)
e) Mixx (1/2 hour)
Spostareduro – This is a funny question. Can I actually boil it down to a set amount of hours out of 24? Hmm..I’d have to say 23.59. It’s likely I’ll divorce before marriage.

Question 2 -Which is your most visited social bookmarking website?

Jansie - Mixx
SilentJay74 - I usually haunt Mixx.com. That is where I am most well known. I have been Social Bookmarking for over a year or so. I am also the co-host of Social Blend. It is a podcast about Social Media and Social Bookmarking. We also talk about Mixx.com a lot on the podcast.
TheNanny612 - My favorite Social Bookmarking website is Stumble Upon. It is the one I spend the most time on.
Jeff Quipp- No question, Stumbleupon. It holds the most potential for the vast majority of Clients, large or small. I also use Stumbleupon to help me keep track of everything my friends think is important in the industry that day. Lastly, I’ve reduced my TV time, and now dedicate that time to following my interests on Stumble.
Spostareduro – Oh, this is simple. Stumbleupon. I love the variation of personalities and interests there. Which can be found everywhere, but SU makes others seem more tangible, not just virtual. A home away from home (I’m a real nerd) If Sphinn were considered a bookmarking site, I’d say Sphinn because it’s there that I’ve gotten most of my niche education.

Question 3 - How long have you been using social bookmarking?

Jansie - My addiction started in 2007. I’m seeing someone about it though…
SilentJay74 – No Answer
TheNanny612 - Since July of 2007
Jeff Quipp- I set up my first account on Digg almost 2 years ago, but really only got into it seriously in the last 8 months. In the last 8 months though, its been a full-time job!
Spostareduro – I’ve been actively involved with social bookmarking for probably a solid 2 months now. (give or take a week or 2) I opened a few profiles a few months back, but didn’t pursue them at that time.
Question 4 - Do you have a preferred choice of content to submit?

Jansie - Yup, SEO stuff, totally off the wall comic stuff, self-submissions, for shameless link-building.
SilentJay74 - My preferred choice of content is tech news and crazy videos.
TheNanny612 - Depends on the social bookmarking site I am on at the time. They all have different content that works well on them. Any niche will do well on StumbleUpon as long as long as the content is good. Sphinn, another of my favorite social bookmarking site, is a social bookmarking site for SEO, Marketing and Social Media….. so of course that is the content I submit there. The community members of Sphinn are major players in SEO and marketing, so the content you submit there has to be excellent otherwise it won’t do well.
Jeff Quipp - I’m a science and technology junkie, so I love to read and submit about that stuff. These topics also have a relatively large following on social media sites, and really good potential to go `hot’.
Spostareduro – At first I began submitting mostly SEO/M articles. Because I was trying to keep up with SEO education for my site. (Learning SEO Basics) Then as I hung out in Sphinn which has a vast amount of SEO/M as well as Social Media news, I began obsessing over SM. Now I’ve expanded into allowing it to be more of a multipurpose zone. A place where I can express my human side..laughter, art, love of music, poetry, fellow bloggers, environmental concerns and sometimes even pain.

Question 5 - Are there any social bookmarking sites you don’t like and why?

Jansie - Not really. Not like is too strong.
SilentJay74 - . Right now I would have to say my least preferred Social Bookmarking site is Digg.com. A ton of things have been happening at Digg and they have been banning well known users who also happen to be friends of mine. What some Social Bookmarking sites don’t realize is that there is a sense of community, and you don’t want to hurt your community or make changes without consulting them and getting community feedback. Mixx however understands this and is extremely involved with their community. I guess that is why I appreciate Mixx so much.
TheNanny612 - Not really. I don’t participate in all of them…. I just can’t. I don’t have the time in the day to enjoy them all. I have a few favorites and stick with them. I can’t say that I don’t like one or the other. I seem to stick with my favorites because I don’t have the time for others at this point.
Jeff Quipp - Reddit … the user interface seems juvenile and uninspiring. Its not designed for ease of use. While I like the people there … its designed for machines, not people.
Spostareduro – I have a difficult time finding enjoyment in Reddit.

Question 6- Have you ever been banned from any social bookmarking sites and why?

Jansie - Well, there was this one time when I got flamed. It’s almost as bad as a ban. I promise!
SilentJay74 – No Answer
TheNanny612 - Nope.
Jeff Quipp - Yes … not necessarily because we were engaging in anything blackhat, but we wanted to test the constraints. IT WAS INTENTIONAL! People learn in two ways; (1) by failing, or (2) vicariously by watching others. We didn’t have the time to watch and learn.
Spostareduro – Why would someone wan to risk that?

Thanks for all who took part, some interesting answers there.

Gone are the days of directory submissions, article submissions and reciprocal links. It’s now 2000 and great (2008) and the way websites generate natural links is more important than ever.

Link builders have to evolve with the times; they should have a strategic and creative mindset behind them now. If you work for an agency or website design company you have to let the higher management know this. Links can not be bought by the number any more, this will not work effectively.

So what of the old link building methods, why don’t they work anymore?

Firstly I’m not saying stop any of your on-going link building methods, for example submitting links to directories will not harm a websites performance in the slightest. However if you want to achieve the same kind of SERP movement as was available through 06 and the beginning of 07 then a new link building strategy must be created, this should be your social media strategy.

There has been an on going debate between seo gurus discussing if social media work is technically classified as seo. I have previously blogged about the subject does seo include social media if you’re interested to know my opinion. What I’m implying here today is that link building has now morphed into social marketing.

So how do I build links in 2008?

The graph below is a basic description on how quality links are generated through link bait and social marketing.

Using social media platforms to link build is a clear and effective method to achieve more search engine visibility for the content on your site. Making the content on your site more visible will open up new opportunities in terms of link building. In stead of the search engine seeing directory links and duplicate articles etc, they will see users bookmarks of your URL with a possible review. Webmasters and bloggers will usually get their information or news for their own blogs from social sites. It’s these links that are valuable, because they are usually high quality and will help with traffic and SEO positions. (Providing you have planned which keywords to use in your content title).

The root to success of this strategy should be the content that is promoted (link bait), this must be high quality and “link able” – this is where a cost might incur on your clients side.

Metrics and Deliverables will change

Previously keeping a note of submissions as well as new purchases of links may well have been included in your metrics. Your agreement with a client could have previously been based on a number (100 new links per month). All this should change! Show the following metrics:

1. Traffic per link bait
2. Social bookmarks per bait
3. Links gained (site/link analysis required)
4. Search traffic gained as a result of bait
5. SERPS analysis and benchmarking for keywords targeted

Your deliverables will obviously be unknown to start with but you should measure the overall link increase per bait and per month, this will give you some averages.

Of course this method of link building is not cheap and it does require a lot of time and effort, the results however are better than any other link building strategy on the table.

P.S – In regard to one of my posts (25 websites every seo should know) as to why I included so many social sites, link building is part of seo, without it you would not be able to achieve good search positions. Link building will eventually be based around social marketing – hence my inclusion of so many social sites.

I have never really opened the gates to a good old fashioned rant on Seounique before, so here goes!

Have you ever wondered why your interesting blog posts or link bait you pay hundreds of bucks for never makes it big on social media sites? You start asking yourself questions like; is my avatar too offensive? Is my title not “catchy” enough? Or is my blog just worthless?

Well the flat out answer is no, no and no! It doesn’t matter how ultra juicy your story or post may be, it’s all about whom you know and what kind of reputation you have. Unfortunately this seems to be the case in every social media environment, although if it wasn’t the case then the quality of the stories making “published” status would probably vary.

Now if you’re reading this for the first time, don’t panic, and whatever you do, please don’t think you can cheat the system. If you’ve read a blog post explaining that you need to build a reputation to get submissions noticed – don’t be an ass!

This is just one example of someone clicking the Sphinn button as many times as possible for as long as possible. This is not an isolated incident by any means and I’ve seen plenty of users do it, I imagine this happens across the board so this is by no means a punt at Sphinn.

What these people are doing:

1. Reducing the quality of stories by voting rubbish stories
2. Not achieving anything because your reputation will look false
3. Thinking a number is better than the interaction
4. Giving their brand a bad name (if applicable)

So I urge all you geniuses out there to stop trying to look good, its not big and not clever and it’s a waste of your time!

Rant over lol!