Reddit and Digg are social news aggregator sites where users can post online content they find or they create, and other users essentially rank or rate these postings.
Reddit, founded in 2005 and owned by Conde Nast, has a simple user interface, as is its algorithm for promoting news items. Users can choose whether they want to “up” or “down” any given content, and that’s basically how rankings are determined. Furthermore, in 2008, Reddit’s founders released the code and the site continues to be open source – a valuable attribute to many of the most-active internet users.
Reddit administrators report a 230% increase in pageviews between January and December 2010. Digg, on the other hand, had 200 million pageviews compared to Reddit’s 250 million. Digg’s noticeable decrease in traffic is attributed to the poor reception of the release of Digg Version 4, which was unsearchable at its release and did not have many of the features users had come to enjoy. Subsequently, Digg lost many of its loyal users.
As far as marketers are concerned, this is an important change to how you integrate social media into your website. Do you use an “add this” widget? Make sure Reddit is featured so that Redditors can easily share your content with their community. Content that get promoted is typically interesting, funny or controversial – but most importantly, it is well-written and accessible.
There are several social news and news aggregator sites, in addition to social networking sites, and it can often be overwhelming to manage your online presence. It is always helpful to know which sites are most popular and most effective. Need help staying up-to-date with social media? Contact us.
