From WebProNews:
Thursday, September 04, 2008
A top Digg user with a popular ratio of 34% has been getting paid well for
promoting articles on Digg. His/her popularity has allowed numerous stories to
reach the Digg Home Page, and when that happens he/she gets paid even more.
Editor’s Note:
It’s hard to imagine this is limited to Digg or even to the social media
umbrella. It’s even harder to distinguish how this differs from other
PR/marketing tactics like celebrity endorsement or message creation and
dissemination. The ethics road is a virtual quagmire of journalistic idealism
vs. economic realism; but no one is altering truth, just presenting a truthmore prominently.
An interview with this person (who wishes to remain anonymous; for the
purpose of this article, let’s call them “Digg Throat”), and provides
quite an interesting look into the behind-the-scenes world of Digg marketing
and social media marketing in general.
“I have worked for many popular blogs and I know most top users do,”
explains Digg Throat. “As of now I am involved with three blogs/companies
that I regularly help with social media promotion, especially on Digg. To put
it in short : my status and reach within the community allows me to help
businesses leverage their opportunities by reaching a different crowd and a
large crowd for that matter.”
Digg
Throat has been charging up to $700 per article for his/her promotion, and if a
particular item reaches Digg’s home page, he/she gets another $500. Now that’s
some easy money. Too bad it’s frowned upon by Digg, and Digg users alike.
However, paid promotion is just a fact of Digg. It’s not a surprise, and users
who have a real problem with it, will likely just find another site to read.
Besides, is this really that much different than paying PR staff to push your
message?
What is Digg to do though?
“Digg should strongly consider placing clearly labeled advertisements
within the news stories,” says
TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington. “Even as paid ads they’ll get a ton of
traffic and Digg can charge accordingly. TechMeme, a tiny site in comparison,
has done this successfully for some time. If Digg can’t stop its users from
making a little money on the side, they may as well get in on the game.”
Something like this could work for Digg. It could incorporate spots into ad
campaigns with existing clients like
YouTube allegedly does with its promoted videos. Digg users may not be too
enthusiastic about such a scenario though.
Something tells me Digg is going to be doing some investigating. They ought to
be able to at least narrow down the number of possible suspects for Digg
Throat’s identity. He/she may have wished to remain anonymous, but may have
still given enough information away for Digg to figure out who they are. This
may not do much to combat that problem of what some would refer to as
“Digg Spam”, but I’m sure they would like to at least get closer to
the bottom of it.