How to Use StumbleUpon Effectively for Business

StumbleUpon is a name that many people are uttering nowadays when the topic of social bookmarking comes up, which it does often. First, what is StumbleUpon? Second, are you using it to its full potential for your business?

What is StumbleUpon?

StumbleUpon is a website for social networking and rating. You can literally stumble upon your most favored web pages, share interesting and valuable information, and write reviews for your followers to read. StumbleUpon is a sophisticated social network with tremendous capabilities of sharing information.

It uses social networking concepts and peer-sourcing that work similarly to other social networks. StumbleUpon has various tools available to enable you to bookmark your favorite webpages. The feature is now available for FireFox, Internet Explorer, and Google Chrome.

Why should you use StumbleUpon?

If you are in need of organizing your most important bookmarks, StumbleUpon will allow  you to save those items that you deem important and you will be able to rate them by clicking on the “I like it” button on the toolbar.

In addition to organizing your own, favorite bookmarks, you can also use StumbleUpon to drive your website traffic to a specific website, webpage, video, or photo. When you indicate that a particular item is a favorite in StumbleUpon, it will automatically be recommended to the entire network. Those people who have expressed an interest in a particular topic will be shown your page as a result of other “Stumblers” having given it a good rating.

How do you save your favorites?

There is a little more work involved when saving your favorites in StumbleUpon than just hitting the “I like It” button. You are strongly encouraged to not only click on the button but also to leave a detailed review for other people to read. You should also use the tag icon so that you add the tag to your favorites. It is important to tag the favored item so that you can easily return to it whenever you would like.

How do you create a StumbleUpon profile?

Once you have registered with StumbleUpon (before you start to build your network), you will need to create a profile. The two most important aspects of your profile are your bio and a list of your favorites. It is very important to create a detailed bio, which you will do by going to your “Settings” and then clicking on “Customize Profile.” In the “Introduce yourself to everyone” box, you can fill in a comprehensive description of yourself and include links to your website, blog and other social networks with which you are connected.

After you have completed your bio, you will need to populate your profile with favorite topics. This will allow other people to have an understanding of what your interests are and to show that you are active. Other people will be more inclined to follow you once they see how active you are in StumbleUpon.

How do you find people on StumbleUpon?

There are many different ways in which to generate traffic from StumbleUpon. Your most proactive approach is to build a robust list of people with whom to share your content. The first (and most logical place) to find people with whom to connect is within your own social networks. Once you have logged on, you should go to the Stumblers tab and click on “Find Friends.” StumbleUpon has the capability of connecting you with your Email contacts as well as your Facebook friends and Twitter followers.

Once it brings up your contacts, you will see their icon, username, actual name (if it is available), main interests, and number of favorites. at this point, you should choose the people you want to follow (categorized by interest) or you can choose “Select All” so that you can follow all of your contacts from a specific network.

Locating Stumblers based on interest

• Groups: Another way to find people is through groups. In this case, you must go by category in order to find a group where people have an interest in a specific topic. Remember that only moderators can add related websites for the group members to see. This is a good approach because many of the groups have thousands of members so it is a great way to connect with a large number of people at once.
   
• Tags: There are a variety of ways that you can locate Stumblers based on their interest in a particular topic. First of all, if you go to the “Discover” tab on your own favorite topics, you will see a list to the right, which is based on the number of times you thumbs-up items tagged with that particular topic. When you look at a specific topic, you will notice a selection of people who like that topic. If you have difficulty finding a specific topic or tag, StumbleUpon will allow you to add a keyword in the URL to see if your search results are more successful.

How do you connect with Stumblers?

Whenever you visit a Stumbler’s profile page, you will see their avatar, bio, and some information about how they Stumble. Additionally, you will be able to tell exactly how much you have in common. If you decide to follow that person, you will have the choice to accept shares to your toolbar, which means that whenever they want to share something with you, you will be get a notification in your toolbar’s inbox. Once you have started to follow someone, you may want to have them follow you as well. You can send them a message to let them know that you would like them to follow you.

Conclusion

StumbleUpon is a wonderful social bookmarking tool that can enhance and diversify your social media experience for business. The more  you use it, the more traffic you will be able to drive to your website. It will help you to increase business and strengthen existing relationships and establish new ones. There is so much available when it comes to social media. It is time to take full advantage of whatever you can.

We are pleased to provide you with the insightful comments contained herein. Please contact us at CompuKol Communications for further discussion on how we might be able to assist you and your team and don’t forget to “like” our Facebook page.