Paul Levinson wrote a great piece on what he called “The Deeper Digg Effect.”
Far more significant than the quantity of Diggs that landed me there are the deeper secondary effects – for example, picked up on Wired.com, where Chris Kohler not only linked to my blog, but said it describes in “hilarious detail” how I was brought onto CNBC. Since Digg operates on the Web, everything that happens on it has the power to galvanize every other part of the Web – YouTube, Wired.com, StumbleUpon, podcasts. And since each of these, in the embodiment of hyperlinking, connects to a myriad of other interconnected engines and elements on the Web, as well as older media centers that operate partially offline – like conventional television, radio, and newspapers – the potentials are enormous.
He is discussing an often ignored benefit of social networks. The real boost you get after scoring on Digg is not the first wave of traffic, it’s the third, fourth and fifth waves that are important. Every time a Rudius author is submitted and is dugg significantly, a whole slew of PR and link offers come through from other sites. In the last Ebner push, he garnered and enormous about of votes. And yes, the traffic was important, but Diggers are notorious for not sticking around. But many of them reposted the link on the Myspace blogs and Livejournals; which in turn recruited 5 or 6 six friends to come over. Those are the valuable referrals, because they’re genuine. Who do you trust more, Digg or your real-life friends? Not to mention the radio interviews that followed.
It’s easy to get distracted by the first traffic spike, but that’s not the end all be all. Be a little patient and wait for the next one. Those are the people you need to woo and thank for their support. Someone who has linked your site after finding it on Digg is a ripe, potential contact for your site. Do not let that go to waste. Comment on their posts, drop them an email. If they’ve started a forum discussion based on you, you ought to join in. It’ll pay big dividends, trust me.
EDIT: Ironically, Paul’s piece is doing well on Digg. Vote for it here.
