After running some tests on my blog, I found that they each generate very interesting results in terms of traffic building.

Stumble Upon

If you’re not using it, I suggest you at least try it. I noticed HUGE spikes in my traffic after submitting my articles to stumble. It was almost an instant spike in traffic. A very noticeable spike that gave me several hundred views. The one downside to this is the traffic lasts only a couple minutes. This means you get a HIGH bounce rate because people are stumbling and continuing their journey. It’s good for a quick spike in traffic, but nothing long term. I also noticed that not a lot of people actually engaged in the website. It was meant for social skimming.

The plus side is you can submit articles fairly quickly.

Reddit

I totally forgot about this news sharing site to be honest. I don’t have a reddit button on my blog. I did submit some articles and noticed that the user ended up staying on the site longer. It’s also a more steady flow of traffic rather than a spike in traffic. With this being said, I highly recommend submitting to this site because it does generate traffic to your site and looks to have a lower bounce rate.

The downside is that you sometimes have to wait 8 minutes between submitting new articles and it seems more limited.

Digg

I haven’t seen much traffic come from this site and I’m not quite sure why. I also noticed that the topics you can submit to are very limited. Perhaps the content gets diluted so it doesn’t get shared.

With this brief summary, I can say I saw a huge spike in traffic on my blog and it blew my analytics. It shows that 99% are new visitors. So with that being said, I suggest you try using these sites to help boost your website traffic even just a little.

Mashable.com Meetup Tweet Stream

Meeting a girl in a coffee shop is being replaced by sending her a funny yet engaging message on an online dating site. Writing postcards to friends while traveling abroad is being replaced by sending an electronic mail message. Calling up a friend to go out to grab lunch was replaced by text messaging which is now being replaced by tweets and Facebook messages.

Is social media destroying the opportunity for actual personal connection or is it leading to more opportunities?

As a passionate social media user, I often ask this of myself. I believe that social media in the professional sense is hands down a wonderful opportunity to network and build a relationship online. I’ve been contacted for jobs and have built my reputation through experience and advice given on various social networks such as LinkedIn, Twitter, my blog as well as other platforms. It’s wonderful! In a professional sense, social media is a must have tool.

In a personal sense, I hate it. I remember when we had the huge blackout in San Diego. We lost electricity for pretty much a whole day lasting till the next morning. We had no way of communicating. Phones were dying, computers couldn’t be recharged, no lights, no refrigerator…nothing. What did that do to us?

Living in the Pacific Beach area at the time, it did wonders. I decided to hop on my bicycle and head to the beach for a sunset surf session. On my ride over, you’d see people gathered on their lawns with candles and lanterns having a grand ‘ole time listening to the football game. People were actually meeting up and having actual human interaction. Sometimes I wish there were more blackouts so that people would go out and enjoy the outdoors and the company of others (which is somewhat ironic because I’m on a computer now writing this blog post).

Social media does wonders in the professional industry where you need to network, but in my personal life, I quite dislike it. What are your thoughts on social media?

UPDATE: I created a video on how to enable the new Facebook Timeline beta feature. Enjoy! Continue Reading →

While of my flight back home a couple weeks ago, I overheard something that was very curious. This woman next to me on the flight refused to use Facebook, refused to use her free mobile phone upgrades and didn’t even think about getting a kindle or ipad for reading books. The gull!

Ole' Timer.. it's time to upgrade!

Growing up in a society that is inextricably bound to technology, we often find ourselves constantly trying to keep up with latest trends and newest technology. Every once in awhile we come across the technophobe. “Technophobia is the fear or dislike of advanced technology or complex devices, especially computers. The term is generally used in the sense of an irrational fear, but others contend fears are justified.” – Wikipedia

These ‘technophobes’ refuse to use Facebook. Why? Continue Reading →

After watching a screening of the movie, ‘the social network”, I can’t help but feel like social media has become the hot topic. Every brand wants it, every person knows about it and everyone uses it.

We can all agree that Facebook (once called The Facebook) has and is continuing to lead the way in terms of social media. My curiosity lies in how much opportunity is left. Not only are social media portals popping up every couple months, but they are, in my opinion, becoming less unique in nature.

I need an idea. Social media will be here forever…but what can we learn from it so that we can create the next best thing? Will it relate to social media…or will it be something completely and utterly…different.

P.S. Hmm.. I wonder what would happen if I lived like a whole year on facebook and documented everything via this social media platform…Would that be an interesting to follow? An individual’s life who uses social media (specifically facebook) almost as a way of life and communicate.