I am NOT Digg

April 18, 2008 · Comments

digg-logo The benefit of having a large following on Twitter is that if I ask for someone’s attention, or point them towards something that I think is worthwhile, it drives a reasonable amount of traffic towards whatever I point out. I enjoy pointing out the occasional post on a friend’s site, and sharing something I’ve discovered out and about. At other points, I really don’t mind putting up the occasional interesting link, or getting the word out for a friend who requests it from me. If you’ve ever asked me to get the word out on something, please don’t read this post and think, “Wow, I’ve really put Chris out.” This is for a certain minority of folks who’ve cropped up recently.

I am not Digg.

Digg is a mechanical platform that uses the efforts of a crowd of people to promote interesting links, and get traffic to the ones voted most worthy by the community. The key points in this definition are “mechanical” and “crowd.” I, Chris Brogan, am neither mechanical, nor a crowd.

As such, it’s sometimes hard (becoming harder) to keep up with the sheer weight of people requesting that I link things for them.

I asked the question in Twitter today, whether anyone could cite whether my pointing towards something was even useful, from a stats perspective. Most folks couldn’t answer, and several wanted me to test it out by pointing to their site. So, for the most part, some folks who have asked for this don’t even know if it’s making a difference.

Beth Kanter said that there was a 30-something percent difference in traffic on efforts where she used me to get the word out, so thanks, Beth.

Where it gets tricky is scale. I’m one guy, with at tonight’s count, just over 6500 followers on Twitter. I’m happy to put out the word on something amazing you’ve done, or something you think is really meaningful, or a cause that really needs doing. But please continue to bear in mind that I’m one guy, with a day job, and a lot of other projects, and a writing schedule, and two kids, and I’m not a mechanical platform run by the voting of crowds.

I think Twitter is a great tool for promoting what’s useful, sharing what has our attention, and driving awareness of causes and information that’s really important. I’m sure you do, too. While you work on growing your network by building meaningful relationships and sharing useful information, I’m happy to help you from time to time. Very happy to help.

But I’m not Digg.

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  • Chris,
    You're a fabulously generous guy with a magnetic personality. Great character like that attracts folks who consciously or unconsciously want to be associated with it.

    We all have moments that we get so goal-oriented that we forget that someone we're talking to is another person. That's what makes saying "no" so hard to do. The sad part is that one's who realize that they do that are the one's who really do care.

    I've written my version of this blog post 1000 times myself. Would that we could do all we aspire too for all we aspire to do it -- but then we'd be able to do more than other humans. . . . don't think we got those super powers. :) At least, no one I know did.

    It's hard thing to admit that you can't give away as much time, money, friendship, or attention as you might want to give. But it's a fine thing to value yourself and hold tight to the idea that what you do give is given freely not because folks you didn't know were tugging on your coat.

    You're not digg. You're a person -- worth so much more.
  • Great post Chris,
    you already do a lot for the community and I always wonder how you achieve to do all the things you do and still have a family life. No one should expect you to link or do whatever, but I know by experience that you do it generously, even without asking.

    You help a lot by doing it, but I know you know you're not obliged to. Right?
  • Maxine Appleby
    Enjoyed the post .. you may not be digg but you're fun to follow :-)

    -M
  • Linda Sherman
    When I am explaining Twitter to my friends, I always include a reference to Chris Brogan. You are a lovable moving force.
  • I guess I must have missed your question on Twitter. But well, your pointing to my blog (before Twitter came about) did help a lot. Maybe it's because I had just started blogging and had few readers, but yeah. Your promotion did help a lot. I think more than half my subscribers now have come from you. And on top of that, you've helped connect me to lots of awesome people.

    Just thought I'd share. You might not be Digg, but what you do for the community - connecting people and all - is amazing.
  • I have about the same number of Twitter followers as Chris does so I'll share this info to give an idea of the traffic that can be generated by a tweet. I find Twitter sends out a short burst of fairly significant traffic - about 50 to 100 clicks (according to Tweetburner). This quickly fades as the tweet disappears from people's incoming streams. Some links may continue to generate clicks if other twitter users share them and pass them around. You can see what clicks some of the links I've shared using Tweetburner's Twurl (url shortener) have gotten here: http://tweetburner.com/users/bloggersblog

    Note: Sometimes Tweetburner doesn't pick up links or doesn't properly associated them with the person who tweeted them. They are still trying to perfect it.
  • Hi Chris,

    Now I feel bad because I saw that question on twitter, but didn't answer it. You tweeted a link to one of my posts (I didn't ask) and a couple people stumbled it after that and I had 5X my normal traffic that day. I like to call it the Brogan affect.

    You're a bridge and so very generous with your help and praise that some of us might have fallen into the habit of taking that for granted. Thanks for this post as a reminder that blogs, twitter, etc. are about people and relationships, not about selling and marketing (except in the sense that those involve people and relationships)
  • Alison
    Hi Chris!
    You are tremendously nice to share information of ALL sorts with the many of us who appreciate your insights and interests...I saw some try to "turn you into Digg" this week and I totally get where you are coming from...

    Just wanted to point out another example of your impact, however, I believe it was part of the frozen pea fund but your tweet inspired a record breaking # of donations in one day...(I'm not an owner of the project, just a supporter so my data is certainly not exact, but I followed the progress that day on twitter and it was inspiring)
  • Chris,

    Thanks again for your help with that campaign. I really appreciate your generosity and leadership and try to emulate it.

    And, I know what it is like being only one person - and asked to get the word out on good causes for friends versus people thinking I'm Digg for Good.

    That's why when I ask you or anyone one of my friends to promote something, I always make sure to return the favor to you or engage or help the people who responded whenever I can.
    http://beth.typepad.com/beths_blog/2008/04/spam...

    I hope that the minority you're talking to here understand that it is about people to people relationships..
  • Chris: One more point ...

    That 30% was 30% of 81 donors. And, we were asking for $10 bucks for a great cause. And .. every single one of those people who contributed were thanked (if I didn't goof up from the volume and miss someone) - and have engaged with many of those folks to learn about them and their work.

    It's about people-to-people relationships - and that's the criteria I use when I'm asked to link to something. I don't just link, I relationship - and if it is just an empty request (repeatedly through different channels that says "link to me" or "write to me" - without any regard for me as a person or reciprocating .. than I won't be as likely to link it unless I have some spare time - which is increasing rare these days.
  • compassioninpolitics
    I don't have stats that are quite as compelling at Beth's, but you tweeted one of my posts which critiqued Web 2.0 and I seem to remembering that it sent 30-50 visitors in my direction.

    PS. Thanks
  • Digg has it's place. So does StumbleUpon, Facebook, MySpace, FriendFeed, Twitter. Blah, Blah. Each is its own social network. And each community should be respected.
  • jon
    Gotta watch twitter more closely.

    every big day on my blog has been a brogan day. not every brogan day has been a big day. I have responsibility for quality, for thoughtfulness, for contribution to life and to the conversation. Some of what you have pointed to isn't those. It just reflects our connection. It always amazes me when you point to something I think is pretty narrow in significance.

    However, you are both a connector and a maven. You have built the network, but you also have built an expertise. Because people look to you as a maven, people (okay, we) jump up and down waving so that we move into your pool of expertise and are pointed out by you.

    I'm guessing that this is who you have been even before technology. This world, however, which is expanding the potential, also stretches you. We love it, but thre are more of us to love the same you.

    So please take car of yourself. Thanks for reminding us.
  • @Barbara - you missed my point. I'm not crapping on Digg. I'm saying that 40 people a day asking me to point to their stuff on Twitter isn't scalable.
  • Of course you're crapping on digg, Chris.

    As you should... as many of us should (and do on a regular basis) who are not a part of the digg community *because* they do not appreciate it or find value there.

    I'm crapping on *you* putting Twitter in the same category as digg. Twitter is so totally and wonderfully different than digg. The two are *totally different* social sites.

    (Enuf of you getting me to type the word crapping!)
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