Most of us know that the more friends or fans we have in Digg, the easier it is to push a story up to the top. But what is really unknown, and happens to be one of the top secrets that no one wants to give away is how do you gain more fans or friends.

Why Is Digg.com and Digging So Important?

First, a little introduction is in order. Digg is a social sharing website that allows someone to share something interesting that they’ve come across on the web with others. If they find it interesting, it is said that they "Digg" the story. Just the same, if someone else diggs the same story, the story now has 2 diggs on it. As more people digg a story and the diggs continue to accumulate, it pushes the story higher in status (or importance) until it finally makes it to the front page of the Digg.com’s website. No one outside Digg’s organization really knows the complete secret formula that gets your Digged story to the front page (just as no one really knows what goes into that darn great tasting Kentucky Fried Chicken, except for the Colonel). We’re just told that the more a story is Digged, the better its chances of being pushed to the front page.

So why is it so important to have a story that makes it to the front page?

Well, because it opens you up for more viewers to see your blog or articles. In fact, you can even Digg pages of your website and gain more visitors or potential customers. The page views open you up to better SEO as well because the Digged references show up in Google searches too. Thus, as part of your blogging process, you should always Digg your own posts (or new website pages) first, provide a button somewhere to allow viewers to also Digg the post, and then get your Digg.com fans and friends to Digg the posts too.

Most marketers or social media marketing companies use Digg to promote articles or blog posts written by them or their clients. This is where having lots of Digg fans and friends helps.

So What’s The Difference Between Fans and Friends?

When someone friends you in Digg, they are said to be a fan. It is a one-sided friendship. They can respond to your shouts (which I’ll explain in a second), but you can control whether you want to receive their shouts. If you befriend them in return, you are now mutual friends, and send each other bidirectional shouts to receive help in promoting articles.

Again, no one knows the secret formula as to how many Diggs will cause a story to hit the front page, but I’ve heard that Diggs from fans count more than Diggs from friends, and I believe it was Kevin Rose (the founder of Digg.com), on one of his Diggnation Shows, that I heard say it.

For this reason, you’ll often see many individuals connect with someone (perhaps you), wait to you friend them back, and then delete their side of the friendship, leaving you to hold only a fan connection to them.

This is similar to how Twitter followers works. You follow someone that you had no intention of really following, only to have them follow you back. Then you drop your end of the following, and they’re left following you (one sidely) until they decide to stop following you.

What Are Shouts?

Shouts allow you to either alert your fans/friends of a story you wish to promote or to send them a message (similar to an email). Just the same, when they wish to gain your assistance in promoting a particular story, they’ll send you a shout. You have control over who you send shouts to (in case it is a bit racey or something that not everyone would enjoy).

Alright, So How Do You Gain More Fans or Friends?

If you’ve been paying really close attention, you already know the answer to this question. Just friend others, and chance are that they’ll friend you back. There are 2 sides to this suggestion.

The first side is more inline with Digg.com’s rules for friendships. You basically friend those you come across on other social networks, or even on Digg.com through mutual friends, and because you like what they Digg and they like what you Digg, you become friends. Essentially, you’re creating a real mutual friendship, just as you would have in the real world.

There is a black hat side (I’ve already eluded to). You essentially find as many individuals as possible to connect with and friend them. Wait a week to see if they friend you, and if not, drop your one-sided friendship and move on. Add only as much as 30 new friends per day or Digg may decide to drop your account. At the very least, more than that will cause Digg to start popping up messages telling you that you are friending too many individuals within too short of a timeline.

If you do decide to use the black hat friending scenario, in order to increase your chance of having people you friend return the friendship (making it mutual), try to friend individuals with the least amount of friends or fans at the point that you friend them. Chances are that they will need you as a friend in order to start pushing their stories, so they will return the friendship to help you push yours.

My take on the friendship situation is that I try to friend individuals that have common interests. That way, it at least makes it well worth both our while. Making it both mutually gratifying and gainful for both of us.

Summary

I know that this post might cause some controversy, but I couldn’t find this kind of information myself when I was looking for it, and so I thought it should be researched and written. Besides, I don’t think that we’re really pushing the envelop too much here. Why do you think that our clients hire us to help push their websites to the first page of Google for their given set of keywords? Do you honestly think that we have a red phone on our desk labeled "Google Search Engine". We do what we have to and it’s a different playing field these days in the website traffic game. The social media aspect of driving traffic to your websites has changed everything.

I’m interested in what you have to say. Leave us a comment (good or bad…we can take it).

If you want to share a mutual friendship on Digg, please connect with us at:

http://digg.com/users/AxsysTechGroup

Also, don’t forget to register for our upcoming webinar this week:

http://webinar.AxsysTechGroup.com