There are a zillion social media tools out there to help you drive traffic to your blog or web site. However, one of my personal favorites happens to be StumbleUpon (SU). For all of you out there who absolutely love to surf the Internet (either because you have nothing better to do OR because you are interested in finding out what’s out there), StumbleUpon is dream come true.

Stumbling is Not Falling!

In my own experience as a writer, I find that StumbleUpon is a great tool to have because it allows you to discover other sites which you may have normally not come across. It’s a great way to help out with brainstorming for ideas or even for building personal relationships with other bloggers. That being said, here are a few things about this social media tool which I have found particularly helpful:

1. Variety is the Spice of Life! If you’re new to StumbleUpon and are trying to increase the traffic to your blog, DO NOT ONLY STUMBLE YOUR BLOG. When I come across someone’s SU profile, it can be really annoying to find that they have 3,000 stumbled web sites, 2,999 of which are theirs. Be fair and mix things up by checking out sites that actually interest you besides your own. These sites don’t necessarily have to be related to a specific topic.
2. Make Some Friends! The way to add variety to the sites that you actually “stumble” across is by way of what friends you have. If you only have one friend on SU, then you’re probably not going to discover a whole bunch of stuff. Having more friends means that there are more people who will see the sites that you stumble and vice versa.
3. Quality; Not Quantity! When it comes to stumbling, anyone can give a quick “thumbs up” to a site. However, the true way to become a top stumbler is to actually check out the site for longer than a nano second and give a quick review of what you thought about it. Reviewing a site for someone does two things: First, it gives the other person that warm and fuzzy feeling of feeling that their content is being appreciated; therefore, they’ll more than likely reciprocate the favor. Secondly, reviewing someone’s site gives you more credibility as a user and gains you more exposure. After all, how often do you look at the people who just give a “thumbs up” at the top of the reviewing pane? Sometimes, they don’t even fit in there, which would mean that you’d have to click to go to the next page. However, if you’re planning on reviewing the page, you’ll often see what users have reviewed that page before you. Depending on the person’s profile picture and/or comment that was left, you may feel inclined to contact them and/or check out their stumbles…See where I’m going with this?
4. Make it Personal! When you send a message to another Stumbler to review your blog post or site, make the message personal and appealing.  Often times, I will get stumble messages from other Stumblers and because of the message lacking relevance, I’ll ignore the stumble.  Your message should be short but should also include information about the site you are sending over as well as what you hope to achieve.  For example, “Check out this new blog post I wrote about pigs-please read, comment and/or subscribe. Thanks!”
5. Look for Active Stumblers! When you come across a stumbler’s profile and are thinking about adding them as a friend, make sure you check to see when they last logged on.  Adding someone as a friend who doesn’t use SU often is kinda’ like dragging a dead weight around.  Active stumblers are more likely to discover new things as well as respond more promptly to something you send them.

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Tags: Marketing //