I am becoming a big fan of the organic approach to StumbleUpon (SU) and the ways you can connect with members finding like minded users in demographic and interest areas.
The StumbleUpon social tool was built for discovering webpages that are recommended by your network of friends. The site allows for networking and the toolbar allows for finding and discovering new great content on the web. This is a powerful combination of Internet function and social web.
After using SU for a long while it seems that the tool will be able to grow in its use as a localized marketing tool. And though outwardly commercial sites tend not to get a great amount of traffic (rather fail miserably) – it’s all in the approach.
SU has been tested for the value of its traffic in a number of scenarios and discussed in relevant ways over the course of 2007. At 10e20, Tamar did a very thorough review of the benefits of StumbleUpon and how it can be used for business as a whole. Dosh Dosh did a really comprehensive guide to the ways and means of SU and how one can monetize and Loren Baker spoke of fun and useful techniques to employ in SU to bounce traffic to your site.
The Paid advertising program of SU allows you to purchase Stumble visits for 5 cents per. Others have looked at the paid program and assessed it, but buying traffic from Stumble just doesn’t interest me. SU is about finding users with like-minded interests. They are there for a conversation and a dialogue to find new and interesting content, stories and information. That’s why I think the local aspects and drill downs of geography in SU can be tremendously powerful for social networking and marketing a local business. Users want to know about new things. They are there for discovery. If you show a user something local, they will get excited about it and probably talk it up. Just like with all Social Media – you get the most out of it when you put a lot into it.
So how does one leverage SU for getting local? SU allows you to go to pretty much any state and find people who are there. The way I like to think of it is like Craig’s List or any other site where you might find others who have similar interests and needs in similar locations. Except, unlike Craig’s, SU is good because it has so many great social features like viewing avatars, photos, videos and so much more that people have tagged and thumbed up.
Say for example, I’m opening a new retail store location in
State –
http://www.stumbleupon.com/state/new_york/
City –
http://www.stumbleupon.com/city/brooklyn/
Furthermore, you can drill down by gender in these city areas. That’s pretty cool targeting.
It takes work, but it could very well be worth the time spent, as you can make actual connections. After you’ve made good local connections, messaging and blogging within this audience can be tremendously powerful. Note: if you have trouble finding a state (sometimes SU’s search features are cumbersome) you can just use the (.com/state/new_york/) at the end of the URL to get where you need to go; similar action can work with city (.com/city/brooklyn/.)
As in the boutique retail example above, if for example you’re opening a women’s accessory boutique in Brooklyn, New York you may want to sort by City (Brooklyn) and Gender (Women) and begin friending these users and getting the word out about your opening, location, website and your products, by tagging and submitting your site, product images and other sites related to Brooklyn and the other users likes and interests. And, begin thumbing up pages that this group of users have submitted and showed to you. Do make sure your profile page indicates what you’re all about (your site, interests etc.). After you’ve made good local connections, using the messaging and blogging tools within SU can be tremendously powerful to engage this audience and get word out.
So not only is SU helpful for bouncing your site traffic, but you can also connect with very targeted users on a local geographic level, gender and topical interest areas to bounce your foot traffic. You may find that this social media tool can help you grow your foot traffic in a local business and get the word of mouth buzz that you need to launch something new. Who says Guerrilla Marketing can’t be accomplished online? If I were opening up a location in Brooklyn, the 2,060 users from
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39 Responses to “Going Local in StumbleUpon”
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I’d never thought of adopting that approach, Jake. It’s very intriguing. The only stumbling block is the limit of 200 friends. SU isn’t really geared to help you contact those people, only to make you aware of them. Perhaps that’s the way it should be.
Awesome post Jake.
I found it really helpful.
@Barry – you could contact people. It just takes some time. But it is very easy to tell who is worth contacting and who isn’t.
Very insightful Jake and I totally agree with you that the paid advertising program is not necessary if you focus on the networking aspects that you mentioned.
I like it Jake … very nice! Putting it this way, I’ll argue now more than even that Google or Yahoo needs to buy Stumble from eBay, and integrate these local findings into the reordering of their search results. Really good post!
Very interesting, Jake — thanks for writing this up.
Hi all – thanks and I’m glad that you find this piece interesting.
@Barry – the 200 limit should definitely be lifted IMO but there are ways nonetheless to make an impact – and strut your stuff.
@Matt, Kristen, Stephanie and Jeff – thanks a bunch and visit again soon!
[...] Going Local in StumbleUpon [...]
[...] Going Local in StumbleUpon | 10e20 Blog StumbleUpon is going Micro. (tags: tagging socialbookmarking stumbleupon) document.write(”); [...]
Jake,
These are some great tips for local usage of StumbleUpon. I would also add that asking people you meet in person if they have an account and getting them signed up and connected to you if they haven’t yet, is an easy way to maximize your influence in a given geographic area.
[...] was built for discovering sites that are recommended by your like minded users. Jake just posted a great article about harnessing the power of local searching within StumbleUpon. The site allows for networking and the toolbar allows for finding and discovering new great [...]
[...] Going Local in StumbleUpon | 10e20 Blog StumbleUpon is going Micro. (tags: tagging socialbookmarking stumbleupon) [...]
I love SU, but I find that people really don’t want to see blatant advertising, which they tend to label spam immediately. I think SU is perhaps not the best tool to advertise anything besides the arts, photos and visually compelling material.
@Pinny – You make a great point about meeting in person. Nothing beats that.
@Veronica Romm – excellent point. Going local in StumbleUpon should be approached gently and should not be taken as a form of advertising, but more a form of connecting locally to get buzz and word of mouth out to people. I agree 100% that a lot of Stumble is arts, photos and visually compelling info – as it should be. At some point though, to grow, it will become more inclusive of other content types and subject matter. You make great points.
I love SU. We receive a lot of traffic from people stumbling. What a great way to become known in the great interweb.
Also one other thing I have noticed is that at least the people I socialize with are from all over the world. One stumbler actually said that they intentionally stay away from local stumblers b/c it keeps them feeling safer, more anonymous. I did not think about it till then but I do communicate with only a select few locals who happen to be my actual friends. Need to think about that one.
[...] Jake/10e20: Going Local in StumbleUpon [...]
[...] Going Local in StumbleUpon by Jake Matthews [...]
Good to see the local part, I used Stumble a lot with my old site. Good to see our “Dutch” userbase increasing and socializing more and more on Stumble.
[...] Going Local in StumbleUpon [...]
[...] Going Local in StumbleUpon [...]
[...] usually go to the lift out to be sure you see what it is referring to. I created some lift outs for a post Jake wrote here about going local in Stumbleupon. They are very basic, but get the job [...]
[...] Going Local in StumbleUpon [...]
[...] Going Local in StumbleUpon [...]
[...] Going Local in StumbleUpon Jake Matthews, 10e20 | 1/23/08 [...]
As I'm reading this article, I'm also browsing StumbleUpon and trying to make the best out of it. It's a helpful social site for meeting new people that share my interest.
great, i am also addict stumbleupon its very interesting to like the pages and easily discover the our pages quickly
great post, its very interesting.. stumbleupon very good online discover the web content
great resources
[...] Going Local in Stumbleupon 10e20, Jake. Look for Groups related to your community or your state. Get to know some of the people there to network directly: “If you have trouble finding a state (sometimes SU’s search features are cumbersome) you can just use the (.com/state/new_york/) at the end of the URL to get where you need to go; similar action can work with city (.com/city/brooklyn/.) “ Like by state, if you are signed in to your account. [...]
[...] Going Local On StumbleUpon Find members in your area, check their profiles to see who is in your niche, then network with them. 10e20 blog [...]
[...] Going Local On StumbleUpon Find members in your area, check their profiles to see who is in your niche, then network with them. 10e20 blog [...]
[...] Going Local in Stumbleupon 10e20, Jake. Look for Groups related to your community or your state. Get to know some of the people there to network directly: “If you have trouble finding a state (sometimes SU’s search features are cumbersome) you can just use the (.com/state/new_york/) at the end of the URL to get where you need to go; similar action can work with city (.com/city/brooklyn/.) “ Like by state, if you are signed in to your account. [...]
[...] Going Local On StumbleUpon Find members in your area, check their profiles to see who is in your niche, then network with them. 10e20 blog [...]
I use StummbleUpon to find useful web content.
wow, genius
An instant benefit
I was stumbling a lot in the past year that devoted more time to StumbleUpon than my own site, which I was trying to market. During that time I received minimal traffic from the site. Maybe, I wasn’t doing it the right way.
I was stumbling a lot in the past year that devoted more time to StumbleUpon than my own site, which I was trying to market. During that time I received minimal traffic from the site. Maybe, I wasn't doing it the right way.
[...] Going Local in StumbleUpon [...]