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Technology Toolbox – Social Media and Stumbleupon
Digital Studio for Public HumanitiesThe University of Iowa
dsph@uiowa.edu @uidsphApril 4, 2013
The Summary…at the Start
Social Media are tools, not solutions
An effective plan and organized solution will always present greater worth than just seeing what’s out there
Prompt your user
Best practices Social media works best with one idea across several
platforms Platform = communication medium/website
Ex. Twitter is a platform Each platform should offer something different
Be willing to experiment, and be willing to try new things
What is Social Media?
Social Media is a reference to a relatively new formation of popular, interactive sites where people share information with others Includes different types of information Also includes public profiles
Clear list of connections Example: “Like” DSPH on Facebook Hyperlinks (friends, groups, images) are the key
Why should I/we use social media?
Great marketing tools Leverage/extend your message Amplify your content; make it more exciting
Easy to use Can be done in 15 minutes per day if you are smart about it Can integrate into e-mails
It’s where your students are going
Most 15-24 year-olds only use social media to communicate
They hate using e-mails and won’t keep track of them
People will tell their friends about DSPH, and they’ll do it for free…
But only if the product is good and full of quality content
The Key to Social Media is Content It’s about great content – quality blogs, photos
and videos If you make it, they will share it Break your content into multiple platforms
Tweet about your blog, send Facebook updates about program deadlines
Easier to break down manageable chunks of great content than scraping good things from bad content
The Keys to Social Media
Reward different skills Writing, photos, videos Provide incentives to students to cater to their
strengths
Break SM users into different teams Writing group – blogging, Tweeting, linking Photo group – Instagram, iPhone, digital photos Video group – iPhone, MailVU, webcam, iMovie
If you have students select what they want to do, they’ll find ways of competing against each other Competition produces the best results
Types of Social Media
Facebook 800 million users (November 2011) 73% of all adult SNS users across the Internet use
Twitter – 200 million users (2011)
YouTube Received 50% more views than in 2010 Threatens traditional advertising and marketing
Tumblr – 90 million unique monthly visitors
StumbleUpon drives 50% of all social network traffic.
StumbleUpon
A social media bookmarking site that allows users to “like” websites and add them to their profile.
These websites are then shared with their friends through their profile
“Stumble” button – added to a user’s browser toolbar when they sign up
Sends a user to a random website, usually one previously liked by a friend
StumbleUpon boasts more than 30 million users
Each user fills out a survey of their interests
Notes About StumbleUpon
After 24 hours a popular shared link will typically get zero more “retweets” on Twitter, 5% more likes on Facebook but will get 83% more “stumbles”
The half life of a link (the point in time when a link has garnered half of the engagement it will ever get) is 2.8 hours when shared on Twitter, 3.2 hours when shared on Facebook but a page shared on StumbleUpon has a half life of 400 hours.
The average Stumble page view lasts 72 seconds which is 25 percent longer than the average web page view at 58 seconds
So How Do I Use It?
Let’s Get Started!
Install the Toolbar
Connect Around Interests
Install the Stumble Button
Use su.pr
Participate!
Active users of StumbleUpon receive greater traffic than others Receiving high ratings from other users increases
likelihood of “stumbling” by others Don’t just create a profile, submit your site and walk
away. No increase in views Use it to peruse interests and news
StumbleUpon has a very specific policy against using their service for promotional purposes
Useful Links for StumbleUpon
StumbleUpon New User Guide
StumbleUpon User Statistics
Jeff Bullas - How to Use StumbleUpon for Business
The Lifecycle of a Web Page on StumbleUpon
5 Step Approach to Using StumbleUpon to Increase Traffic