Everyone loves traffic.  It’s a huge, huge ego issue.  Hubris even.

I personally want as many people to enjoy and congratulate me on my pointed insights as possible.  The more influential people that do so, the more I can tell myself how great I am.

This is where people get into trouble with StumbleUpon.  People just want to see that traffic bump.  They know it won’t last long, but it’s so good when it’s there.  Don’t get me wrong, I love Stumble.  I’m approaching 8,000 thumbed up websites.  But I feel like there is an inherent misunderstanding going on when it is used for self promotion.

Stumble Upon users are notoriously fickle and immune to advertising.  They are in it for their quick fix.  If they run into something that is outside the purview of what they are looking for (which they have no idea what that is), they will Stumble away, or even more horrible, give the site a thumb down.

We have a couple articles that we’ve played around with for promotion on StumbleUpon, and it’s interesting to see their numbers.  Even pages that have StumbleUpon users going so far as voting on subjects will receive relatively low numbers in terms of ‘thumb ups’.

While it may be fun to self-promote with StumbleUpon, be wary.  It’s users do not care about you or your products unless they are highly eclectic.  Rarely, very rarely, even when I find a site I think is genuinely interesting, do I save it for return.  Your mind isn’t in it for the cool find, it’s more so in it for the quick fix of “cool, entertain me”.  While you may want a quick fix to lagging traffic, keep in mind that your StumbleUpon detour will likely end in unreturned feelings.  I would say that on the overall, maybe 5% of any one blog is actually going to appeal to Stumblers.

If you want to play around with StumbleUpon for pure link building strategy, you must create something worthy of linkage… linkbait if you will.  Make it quick and dirty fun.

StumbleUpon, for most, is that girl that you tried too hard with and ended up rejecting you.  Don’t be that guy, choose the stuff you promote carefully.

This morning, Liberty Interactive Marketing went to listen to Charlene Li of Groundswell speak on Social Media Strategies.  I’ll highlight a few key takeaways/considerations to social media in this post but first I’ll define Social Media and why all the buzz about it.

What is this Social Media thing?
I like to define it as utilizing social platforms and networks to connect and share with people who have similar interests, needs, wants, etc. as you do. Some of the most popular social platforms and social networks are Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, StumbleUpon, and MySpace.

Why is there so much buzz around using Social Media for Marketing and Advertising?
Well, good question. I think the first thing to keep in mind is the strategy behind Social Media is unlike traditional advertising and online advertising.  It has it’s own methods and metrics to define success.  If done correctly, you can create a successful dialogue with consumers to help support their needs and fulfill information voids.  Results can lead to increased loyalty, brand awareness and visibility for your company.   It’s essentially brand building, marketing, and PR all wrapped into one.

A few key takeaways to doing Social Media right:

1. Understand your audience. Who are they, where are they, what are they talking about?
2. Start small. Define a small goal on how to reach your audience. Then have a big lofty one.
3. Define metrics for success and the tools to use. How are you measuring marketing effectiveness now? Understand the metrics for each type of Social Media phase and platform.
4. Give up control. Understand that you must be willing to lose control and listen to what people are saying, learn from them, adjust. Be honest, be helpful, be there!
5. Invest. Understand that you must find the right labor to manage and care for it.  Often times you will be trading media costs for labor costs. Social Media is not free.
6. Respond quickly.
7. Be patient. Be willing to invest long-term and not receive immediate results.
8. Fail and try again. Be willing to try many different things before getting it right (blogs, twitter, forums, Facebook, etc.) and be willing to fail miserably and try again.

Don’t know where to start? Post questions or comments below or call us at 602-275-3935, we’re happy to help.

Hey everyone, Stumblers helped us get 2nd place last year, help us this year to make us #1!

We’re up for a popularity contest in Arizona called “Ranking Arizona” that happens every year and ends in just a couple weeks (July 31st) and we wanted to see what Stumble Upon could do. Here’s the thing, it takes thousands of votes to win so we’re going to see if Stumble Upon users are up to the task.

You can vote twice per e-mail address and with as many e-mail addresses as you’d like; the more the merrier. Just remember to thumbs up this original article so that we can get this thing movin’.

Vote Here on Ranking Arizona for Liberty Interactive Marketing

3 Easy Steps to Vote:
1. Select Name
2. Type LIBERTY INTERACTIVE
3. Enter email address and hit vote!

We’re going to update the stats on this page as we get them in terms of how many people are clicking through to Ranking Arizona, but if we win we can get the numbers and see what Stumble Upon did down to the specific vote.

Oh yeah, don’t forget to leave a comment letting us know how many times you voted! A FREE Liberty Interactive Marketing shirt is yours if you voted the most.