I spoke briefly about the new Digg in last month’s newsletter and this month I want to pass on my candid comments after having really used the application.
First, I really like it. It was easy to update my profile and the application allowed me to feed my blog, post my website URL, link in Facebook and tie in Twitter. In other words, it allowed me to create a complete profile that showcases my outreach programs to allow followers to get a broader picture of my online interaction.
But what I am finding is that Digg is not just about letting people know about you, it is about finding out what other people are talking about in your industry too.
I use many tools to stay on top of what is going on in my industry – RSS feeds, watching forums, monitoring important blogs, and watching certain users on Twitter. What I have found from my use of Digg is that I can more quickly get the “pulse” of what is happening by watching the Digg counts on topics and articles. I can search by topic, industry, and even keyword and then see what articles have been “Dugg” by others; rising to importance. I can then choose to click-in to read the full article and even “Digg” it myself to post it to my own personal profile.
This ability to see what is happening quickly on a topic is incredibly valuable. I find one of the hardest things as a busy professional is to identify who to watch with the time I have. Although I watch some very specific people and authority sites, I am aware that I could be missing legitimate new voices that are emerging in my industry or with new thoughts or applications by not watching a greater variety of sites and people. Digg allows me to do just that; watch people and topics that I maybe was not aware of and should be watching on a regular basis.
Digg now allows you to follow these key new people, almost in a Twitter-like way, so that once you find them in a Digg or topic search, you can monitor their traffic, social bookmarks, blog posts, and tweets. In some ways I think that this instant ability to track trending information may be more important to me in the long run than monitoring blog posts of people in my own industry.
In this world of rapid fire information exchange, it is important to know what to watch, what is trending, and what other industry experts are talking about. If you are active in your industry, this is another really great tool to maintain your edge over your competition.
You don’t have to be an Internet Marketing professional to use Digg. Digg can be valuable for any industry professional. To set up your own account and try out Digg visit http://www.digg.com. Don’t forget to follow us when you do your set up, our Digg page is http://www.digg.com/mccordweb.