Comments on: Who’s really reading social media?

By: Robin

Robin — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 01:52:10 +0000

Yeah, I think that Tad has identified a big part of it. Certainly it’s often the case that I’ll see the same story up on Sphinn, Mixx etc. I don’t blind vote for anything, but it’ll look that way at times because I’ve linked through earlier in the day from a different social media site. Sure there’ll be some blind voting too (particularly on the larger sites like Digg), but for more specialist subjects I think the likelihood is more that the article has been read from another source.

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Sun, 13 Apr 2008 22:07:10 +0000

[...] Who?s really reading social media? - [...]

By: James Duthie

James Duthie — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 21:23:23 +0000

That’s an interesting point Malte. I certainly hadn’t considered that, but I’m not sure what benefit that really provides the user…

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Thu, 10 Apr 2008 11:07:59 +0000

[...] Who’s really reading social media? [...]

By: Malte Landwehr

Malte Landwehr — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 05:39:35 +0000

It is not necessarily friendship that caused those votes. Some people just vote random stories in order to look like hyper-active users.

By: James Duthie

James Duthie — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 11:17:33 +0000

Hey Tad, Dave Harry made a similar point in the Sphinn thread and it was something I hadn’t considered. I think it partially explains the problem, but I still believe there is a significant amount of blind voting going on.

By: Tad Chef

Tad Chef — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 16:55:46 +0000

With Mixx it’s a special case. People who read SEO blogs are on Mixx, Sphinn, StumbleUpon, Digg etc. so maynof them already read the story. Some will even be your regular blog readers.

Compare it to Digg: You get 50 votes and 50 diggs but 15 people have buried you, now guess who did not visit your SEO site…

By: James Duthie

James Duthie — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 10:48:54 +0000

Hey Ronny. That’s ok - everyone’s entitled to their own opinion. Would be interested to hear your thoughts on the topic.

By: Ronny Rabe

Ronny Rabe — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 09:02:10 +0000

I don’t mean to be too in your face, but I’m not sure I agree with this. Anyhow, thanks for sharing and I think I’ll come to this blog more often.

By: James Duthie

James Duthie — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 03:20:29 +0000

@ Tanya - Thanks for your detailed thoughts I guess opinions towards social media are driven by objectives. If you’re just there for fun then perhaps blind votes are ok. But from a personal perspective my fav community is Sphinn, which is the domain of professional online marketers. This is a social media outlet with credibility and serious news and conversations. So I’ve got a different take on things.

And just for the record - I’m not dissing social media. I generate most of my traffic from it, so would never bite the hand that feeds me… Just trying to generate discussion and debate.

@ Wayne & Kyle - seems like we’re all on the same page. Perhaps that’s because we’re all Sphinn members… I suspect the more serious social media users have different perspectives. But there does still seem to be plenty of blind voting going on at Sphinn… so I don’t think we’re in the overwhelming majority. But perhaps that’s because figures such as Maki, Shana, Jeff, Marty & other Sphinn gurus have such authority in the field that the community has developed blind trust in their work.