Move over Twitter, There’s a New Network in Town

I can only assume that someday Twitter will get overwhelming. Between the hundreds of followers and millions of Tweets that pop up each day, it is becoming increasingly easy to miss something that I would otherwise have loved to read.With Twitter, it is all about the connections. While most social networking mediums do capitalize on connections, it can often be difficult to find companies to follow in the first place. Fortunately, people have started picking up on the fact that Twitter and Facebook are not all powerful and have created something that is quickly becoming a major force in the social media scene—StumbleUpon.

According to date from StatCounter, “for the first 18 days of August StumbleUpon accounted for 50.27% of all referral traffic from the top 10 social sites.”Twitter on the other hand, generated less than 4%. In other words, StumbleUpon is slowly becoming the trick to getting more referrals to your website and content. The way it works is this: when a user hits “Stumble,” an article based on their interests will pop up on their browser. Interests are either based on a search the user did, on topics the user mentioned they liked when they signed up, or based on the other articles users say they enjoyed (which they mark with a thumbs up).

The site is not only great for users, but great for businesses. If a business can get their content read by users who will find it interesting, (and then refer it to others who would feel the same) their followers should go way up. I can tell you as a writer who works in a social media department that this network has generated lots of traffic to our website simply because this platform is so targeted in its users. We know we are getting users who care, and this makes a big difference when it comes to participation. Unfortunately, many businesses are so stuck in the Twitter mindset that they miss some easy steps to really get their name involved in StumbleUpon. Get involved by considering a few of these easy steps that most people miss:

5 Secret Tips to Getting Your Site Stumbled Upon Again and Again and Again

1. Do not just self-promote

StumbleUpon allows you to submit other content that you find interesting. The reason this is so important is because StumbleUpon also allows you to acquire “friends,” like Facebook, which are basically like “followers” on Twitter. If you submit someone else’s work, chances are the author and all of the author’s friends will pay attention the next time a piece of content from your website rolls around. This will help get your name out there and make you more of a presence on StumbleUpon.

2. Visuals Matter

Unlike Twitter where you simply see a link to a blog page or some sort of content, your content will show up right on the “Stumbler’s” page. Informational graphics are extremely popular on the site, so make sure that your post is ready for this type of competition. A simple, plain, boring looking story will probably not get many thumbs up. After all, there are tons of articles to choose from on this website, so it is very easy for a user to decide to skip whatever looks boring.

3. Stumbling is something that should be done frequently

It is easy for users to see how often you submit content to the website. Remember, this network is extremely targeted traffic, so you will not have hundreds of friends that are not active on the site. While posting your own content on Twitter can get annoying, it is appropriate to submit frequently to this medium.

4. Be an Active Follower Yourself

Just as with other social networks, it is important to become active and befriend those with similar interests. If you can form connections with other websites, you will have a better chance of getting your content on that browser right when a user signs in because all of your “friends” will then be able to see what you’ve submitted. Sounds a lot like Twitter and Facebook? Well there is one big different—you can only have up to 200 friends. This allows for an even greater amount of targeted traffic.

5. Use the StumbleUpon shortlink

This is a great way to make sure that you can stay involved with the website frequently and easily. The shortlink system, su.pr, will allow you to send links to use on StumbleUpon from other social media platforms. This is great for those who are very comfortable with Facebook and Twitter and want to slowly make their way into the StumbleUpon phenomenon. This shortlink will give you analytics so that you will know which content is popular and you should continue to submit.

StumbleUpon is really all about the targeted traffic. The network is only growing and is in many ways the best place to get your content out to the public that really cares. Surfing around the Internet can be time consuming and overwhelming, and soon even more people will pick up on the fact that this is a website that takes care of this for you. If you can start getting your content and name respected by the website, you should find yourself in great shape to really take off in the social media realm.

Amanda DiSilvestro is a writer on topics ranging from social media to fleet tracking. She writes for an online resource that gives advice on topics including gps fleet tracking software to small businesses and entrepreneurs at Business.com.