As a service provider I don't know how comfortable I feel with generating fake diggs as a way of promoting my service. Especially if I've paid for the service and there's a record of that. In todays PR climate slimy marketing practices are a good way of generating the wrong type of press.



The best way to leverage the power of digg is to offer digg users something worth digging. A talented marketer or copywriter could put together an article about the about the service in question that illustrates to diggers why they should be interested.



Beyond that I don't think there is any reason why Marketing Mob members couldn't start their own little digg friend group. As long as the digging or reddit'ing is not being directly paid for.

Posted: April 26, 2007, 8:42 am

I've been thinking a lot about this subject too. I think maybe I was a little over zealous with the idea of rewarding a digg. Probably the only ethical way to handle Digg and Reddit is to detach it from any sort of reward.

However, as a marketing mob I think we could still make available the various articles we have that have been Dugg so that people can Digg it if they feel it is appropriate and worthy of a Digg.

I see it similar to putting a Digg button on your website. You're promoting Digg and encouraging people to Digg your article. We could have a section of the marketing mob where people can see all the marketing mob promotions that are on Digg (or other similar sites). However, the Digg itself would be detached from any reward or tracking.

A central digg location would be valuable in and of itself. This type of setup feels much better to me.

I also think that someone who has a high ranking on Digg would also be a great asset since the Digg algorithms take into account your past history. Hopefully someone like that will join the marketing mob. Or that we create someone like that because we're creating so many cool projects that make it to the front page of Digg.

Posted: April 26, 2007, 9:49 am

I think it will be critical to recruit a Digg veteran if we plan on using digg as part of the marketing services. They could act as a adviser for digg tools or as a participant.

These social networking bookmark sites need to be a main focus of every marketing project in todays market. Digg has become a force of nature in it's own right. We need to find a way to use it that is respectful and non-intrusive.

Posted: April 26, 2007, 11:22 am

You both make good points, but i put it to you that don't you think other outfits use a network of friends/associates to promote diggs, i certainly think they do?

I don't think the mob would get stupid with the diggs because one has one's own digg reputation to consider.

My 2 cents on this, but i am not a big digger, so just throwing in comment

Posted: April 26, 2007, 6:14 pm

Doymarn,

I'm sure others are doing the whole pay per digg thing. As a service provider I would avoid any marketing plan that includes this. It's a personal thing for me.

Perhaps we need to allow the users to choose what sort of marketing they are comfortable with? This way they could opt out of any method that doesn't jive with their corporate culture.

Posted: April 26, 2007, 9:00 pm

On April 26, 2007, 7:14 pm Doymarn said:

You both make good points, but i put it to you that don't you think other outfits use a network of friends/associates to promote diggs, i certainly think they do?

They do in fact do this, but any pay per digg and Digg will just cut off whoever is participating. Basically permanently blocking a person's IP address from every logging into Digg again.

However, I think you describe my thoughts well. We can "promote diggs" but we can't "pay (or reward) diggs."

I don't think the mob would get stupid with the diggs because one has one's own digg reputation to consider.

I think a lot of people would get stupid with diggs. My guess is that many people on here don't even care about digg reputation. Or they have multiple digg accounts. Either way, if we take away rewards, then it won't be a problem.

Hopefully people will realize that if they digg cool products or services that we are promoting, then they are helping make the projects successful that we work with which will benefit everyone.

I don't think it's unethical to digg a story for a company you own. The problem Digg will have to deal with is our marketing mob will be partial owners of a ton of companies

Posted: April 26, 2007, 10:13 pm

Aye, be careful with those diggers!

If you make a mistake on digg and come off as a spammer or similar you are in a boat load of trouble. Diggers just love to eat people alive.

Posted: May 17, 2007, 2:32 am

In my opinion, I don't think there is anything wrong with making the Mob aware of diggable articles. However, I would suggest that if Mob members aren't active contributors to digg, to be careful when digging anything the Mob is promoting. It would only be a matter of time before Digg notices then same 30 people digging the same articles. If you're going to digg MM related articles, it's a good idea to actively digg anything and everything you find worthy of a digg.

Posted: May 20, 2007, 3:24 pm