As a future information professional, discovering StumbleUpon has truly been a rewarding and learning experience. I have recommended to family and friends, as well as colleagues in the metadata office where I work. (Be careful not to Stumble too much, or you could like this:
http://www.marcofolio.net/images/stories/fun/imagedump/stumbleupon/stumble_image-6.png
The information professional specializes in finding accurate information utilizing a wide variety of different resources. With its ability to enhance professional development and community-building, StumbleUpon deserves a place in this paradigm as an innovative and dependable resource.
Sources:
Stumbleupon. (n.d.) Retrieved at http://www.marcofolio.net/images/stories
/fun/imagedump /stumbleupon/stumble_image-6.png
Thursday, December 17, 2009
8. Consistency Wins the Race
It's vital to Stumble on a regular basis. Use Stumble like you would a blog: be consistent, and you will gain a bigger following!
Failing to regularly post new and thought-provoking materials you have stumbled almost guarantees teens and young adults will lose interest fast and move onto something else. Opportunity wasted. It’s wasted from the standpoint of community-building. If the same YA librarian regularly posted fun ideas found while stumbling i.e.—a book club with pizza—there is a greater chance teens will get involved with the library. The second reason it is important to consistently stumble and leave user feedback on respective web-pages is that it actually refines the algorithm that calculates your interests to the extent that StumbleUpon will return content you like more often.
I discovered an article that addresses how information professionals should approach their 2.0's with regularity and discipline. The author, Marshall Breeding, insists that in the world of the information professional, consistency is vital in maximizing the effectiveness of Web 2.0’s: “The key to effective institutional use of Twitter involves a disciplined approach of regular, relevant messages that will be of interest to the organization's clientele. It's easy to set up a Twitter account and put out the first tweet or two on behalf of your library. It requires a commitment of resources to ensure a steady stream of interesting content over a sustained period.”
Sources:
Breeding, Marshall. (2009). Social Networking Strategies for Professionals. Computers in
Libraries, 29, 29-31. Retrieved from
http://vnweb.hwwilsonweb.com.ezproxy.library.wisc.edu/hww/results/results_single.jhtml;hwwilsonid=CP04KOYP5TG4RQA3DILCFGGADUNGIIV0
Failing to regularly post new and thought-provoking materials you have stumbled almost guarantees teens and young adults will lose interest fast and move onto something else. Opportunity wasted. It’s wasted from the standpoint of community-building. If the same YA librarian regularly posted fun ideas found while stumbling i.e.—a book club with pizza—there is a greater chance teens will get involved with the library. The second reason it is important to consistently stumble and leave user feedback on respective web-pages is that it actually refines the algorithm that calculates your interests to the extent that StumbleUpon will return content you like more often.
I discovered an article that addresses how information professionals should approach their 2.0's with regularity and discipline. The author, Marshall Breeding, insists that in the world of the information professional, consistency is vital in maximizing the effectiveness of Web 2.0’s: “The key to effective institutional use of Twitter involves a disciplined approach of regular, relevant messages that will be of interest to the organization's clientele. It's easy to set up a Twitter account and put out the first tweet or two on behalf of your library. It requires a commitment of resources to ensure a steady stream of interesting content over a sustained period.”
Sources:
Breeding, Marshall. (2009). Social Networking Strategies for Professionals. Computers in
Libraries, 29, 29-31. Retrieved from
http://vnweb.hwwilsonweb.com.ezproxy.library.wisc.edu/hww/results/results_single.jhtml;hwwilsonid=CP04KOYP5TG4RQA3DILCFGGADUNGIIV0
7. StumbleUpon in Special Libraries
StumbleUpon’s potential--indeed, 2.0’s in general--extends beyond the realm of public libraries. Special libraries in the areas of medical, law, science, and even insurance can stand to gain valuable resources from StumbleUpon. At last summer’s annual Medical Library Association’s annual conference (named, incidentally, MLA 2.0), President Mark Funk spoke at length about 2.0’s in the professional world: “Bureaucracies are changing, becoming less hierarchical and opening up through blogs, wikis, RSS feeds, and podcasts (Kniffel, 2009).”
As part of the conference’s 2.0 Panel, medical librarian Melissa Rethlefsen, (at Mayo Clinic College of Medicine) spoke about, “How librarians are using social networking applications to create online communities” (Kniffel, 2009). From a technical perspective, StumbleUpon offers many of the same features as Facebook and Twitter in that users are encouraged to add “friends” who have similar and professional interests. Thus, a law librarian with a Stumble account can receive updates and recommendations from fellow law librarians for new digital law-related resources and utilize them to strengthen the resources of their own library. Thanks to StumbleUpon, the law librarian posts quality resources to an institution’s homepage, where other workers can use them to improve job efficiency; therefore, StumbleUpon directly contributes to an organization’s overall efficiency.
Sources:
Kniffel, Leonard. (2008). Medical Librarians Get Healthy Dose of Social Networking.
American Libraries, 39, 32. Retrieved from
http://vnweb.hwwilsonweb.com.ezproxy.library.wisc.edu/hww/jumpstart.jhtml?recid=0bc05f7a67b1790e1186e01681fd1ff74efa001b8aa8d03a73d33ee33140d79f1eff1bb479b67d2f& fmt=H
As part of the conference’s 2.0 Panel, medical librarian Melissa Rethlefsen, (at Mayo Clinic College of Medicine) spoke about, “How librarians are using social networking applications to create online communities” (Kniffel, 2009). From a technical perspective, StumbleUpon offers many of the same features as Facebook and Twitter in that users are encouraged to add “friends” who have similar and professional interests. Thus, a law librarian with a Stumble account can receive updates and recommendations from fellow law librarians for new digital law-related resources and utilize them to strengthen the resources of their own library. Thanks to StumbleUpon, the law librarian posts quality resources to an institution’s homepage, where other workers can use them to improve job efficiency; therefore, StumbleUpon directly contributes to an organization’s overall efficiency.
Sources:
Kniffel, Leonard. (2008). Medical Librarians Get Healthy Dose of Social Networking.
American Libraries, 39, 32. Retrieved from
http://vnweb.hwwilsonweb.com.ezproxy.library.wisc.edu/hww/jumpstart.jhtml?recid=0bc05f7a67b1790e1186e01681fd1ff74efa001b8aa8d03a73d33ee33140d79f1eff1bb479b67d2f& fmt=H
6. Su.pr
As I mentioned before in passing, StumbleUpon has released a cool new add-on for its Stumblers called Su.pr (prounounced 'Super'). Su.pr is designed to allow StumbleUpon and Twitter to interface in the sense that you can tweet about an interesting web page, and Su.pr will allow you to view traffic of your treat in real-time. Su.pr even show you what the optimal times for tweeting are! Very cool.
Here is a list of features from one of the Su.pr developers:
-Submit my content to StumbleUpon’s 7.9 million users with each post
- Have my best content showcased in a right-hand sidebar for each page I link to
- Get suggestions for optimal posting times: get more traffic per post
- Schedule as many tweets or posts as I want, for any time
- See my click-throughs in real-time
- See retweets for each post, including the biggest influencers (ranking coming soon)
- Post to Twitter and Facebook at the same time, with more platforms in the pipeline
- Use my own short URL (i.e. www.fourhourblog.com/ab123) instead of someone else’s branding
The result of it all? More traffic. StumbleUpon has jumped to almost 10% of my total traffic per week, delivering as many as 24,000 unique visitors to a single post in less than 24 hours. In short, SU.PR totally kicks ass. It saves me headache, gets me better results through smarter analytics, and drives significant monetizable traffic.
From an information profession standpoint, I believe librarians need to be on top of the latest development like Su.pr in order to remain relevant and keep patrons interested in library services.
Sources:
Su.pr: StumbleUPon's New Traffic Builder. (n.d.) Retrieved from
http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2009/06/09/stumble-upon-supr/
Here is a list of features from one of the Su.pr developers:
-Submit my content to StumbleUpon’s 7.9 million users with each post
- Have my best content showcased in a right-hand sidebar for each page I link to
- Get suggestions for optimal posting times: get more traffic per post
- Schedule as many tweets or posts as I want, for any time
- See my click-throughs in real-time
- See retweets for each post, including the biggest influencers (ranking coming soon)
- Post to Twitter and Facebook at the same time, with more platforms in the pipeline
- Use my own short URL (i.e. www.fourhourblog.com/ab123) instead of someone else’s branding
The result of it all? More traffic. StumbleUpon has jumped to almost 10% of my total traffic per week, delivering as many as 24,000 unique visitors to a single post in less than 24 hours. In short, SU.PR totally kicks ass. It saves me headache, gets me better results through smarter analytics, and drives significant monetizable traffic.
From an information profession standpoint, I believe librarians need to be on top of the latest development like Su.pr in order to remain relevant and keep patrons interested in library services.
Sources:
Su.pr: StumbleUPon's New Traffic Builder. (n.d.) Retrieved from
http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2009/06/09/stumble-upon-supr/
5. Google Vs. StumbleUpon
The internet, quite simply, is vast in both size and content. A Google query, for instance, returns literally hundreds of thousands of hits. As an information professional, it is our job to locate accurate information, usually in a timely manner. Also, patrons expect us to point them toward useful, information-finding resources they can use on their own--even when, more and more, these resources lie beyond our own stacks. In the case of Google, the question becomes: How can the information professional turn hundreds of thousands of hits into a succinct, easily searchable resource?
Searching vs. Stumbling:
Using search engines to locate relevant content typically means hunting through pages of results. Rather than searching for quality web sites, StumbleUpon members are taken directly to web sites matching their personal interests and preferences.
Combats Information Overload:
Information on the Internet changes rapidly. StumbleUpon is a dynamic approach to keep on top of this ever-evolving pool of knowledge. StumbleUpon filters through the vast amount of information on the web to direct Stumblers to high quality web sites which are relevant to their personal interests. An obscure but interesting site can be immediately shared with other like-minded users. Old or low-quality sites can be removed if their ratings become too low. The participation of community members helps maintain a database of the most up-to-date and highest quality sites possible.
Sources:
About stumbleupon. (2009). Retrieved from http://www.stumbleupon.com/aboutus/
Searching vs. Stumbling:
Using search engines to locate relevant content typically means hunting through pages of results. Rather than searching for quality web sites, StumbleUpon members are taken directly to web sites matching their personal interests and preferences.
Combats Information Overload:
Information on the Internet changes rapidly. StumbleUpon is a dynamic approach to keep on top of this ever-evolving pool of knowledge. StumbleUpon filters through the vast amount of information on the web to direct Stumblers to high quality web sites which are relevant to their personal interests. An obscure but interesting site can be immediately shared with other like-minded users. Old or low-quality sites can be removed if their ratings become too low. The participation of community members helps maintain a database of the most up-to-date and highest quality sites possible.
Sources:
About stumbleupon. (2009). Retrieved from http://www.stumbleupon.com/aboutus/
4. Evolution
Web 2.0’s will inevitably change.
StumbleUpon has already launched StumbleVideo, which searches through predetermined sites like YouTube, Google Video, Metacafe, and MySpace Videos; StumbleThru, which searches sites such as The Onion, Public Broadcasting Service and Wikipedia; and, the aforementioned Su.pr (stumbleupon, 2009).
I think this evolution in StumbleUpon's searching parameters is rather interesting because it enhances a user's stumble results. Stumbling amongst sites like TheOnion, Public Broadcasting, and BBC ensures the content returned to you is vetted for accuracy. True, an an average Stumble can and will take you to vetted sites; however, you will come on sites that are not vetted near to the standards of BBC News--who stake their livelihood and reputation as a news source for accurate information.
StumbleUpon has already launched StumbleVideo, which searches through predetermined sites like YouTube, Google Video, Metacafe, and MySpace Videos; StumbleThru, which searches sites such as The Onion, Public Broadcasting Service and Wikipedia; and, the aforementioned Su.pr (stumbleupon, 2009).
I think this evolution in StumbleUpon's searching parameters is rather interesting because it enhances a user's stumble results. Stumbling amongst sites like TheOnion, Public Broadcasting, and BBC ensures the content returned to you is vetted for accuracy. True, an an average Stumble can and will take you to vetted sites; however, you will come on sites that are not vetted near to the standards of BBC News--who stake their livelihood and reputation as a news source for accurate information.
3. A Helpful How-to!
HelpMeRick.com is a widely used and well-respected site that has many tutorials related to social networking technologies. I found this tutorial helpful, particularly because it tipped me off to the potential PR and Advertising capabilities of StumbleUpon. Here is the link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MXXjPG7RWc
One of StumbleUpon’s more remarkable assets for the information profession is that it can vastly increase online exposure for any repository or library. For example, a librarian at any given (public, special, academic) kind of library has the ability to do a number of things in order to direct fellow Stumblers to their site: they can give a “thumbs up” to their own site; write detailed site feedback about their site (which goes into the cell-cloud) to increase the site’s chances of coming up in Stumbles; and, they can regularly invite all “friends” to their respective site. This PR aspect of StumbleUpon is truly something information professionals can and should take advantage of for community-building and bringing new patrons in.
Sources:
How to stumble upon the internet. (2008). Retrieved November 24, 2009, from YouTube, personal user profile, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MXXjPG7RWc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MXXjPG7RWc
One of StumbleUpon’s more remarkable assets for the information profession is that it can vastly increase online exposure for any repository or library. For example, a librarian at any given (public, special, academic) kind of library has the ability to do a number of things in order to direct fellow Stumblers to their site: they can give a “thumbs up” to their own site; write detailed site feedback about their site (which goes into the cell-cloud) to increase the site’s chances of coming up in Stumbles; and, they can regularly invite all “friends” to their respective site. This PR aspect of StumbleUpon is truly something information professionals can and should take advantage of for community-building and bringing new patrons in.
Sources:
How to stumble upon the internet. (2008). Retrieved November 24, 2009, from YouTube, personal user profile, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MXXjPG7RWc
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
