How Twitter Affects Digg
Friday, February 20th, 2009
by CHRIS TROTTIER
For both current and former Digg members, there has been a marked trend towards establishing a presence on Twitter. Some experienced “Diggers,” a commonly used term for those that use Digg, argue that a Digg account is no longer complete without a Twitter account.
This has become especially true since the last algorithm change on Digg. Users are now limited to 200 diggs per day. Go over the limit, and Digg sends an “itchy trigger finger” warning and prevents the user from digging further for some hours. This is intended to elevate the quality of each digg. No digg can be impulsive; the idea is that the user must truly believe the content is diggable.
Twitter, on the other hand, can be impulsive. You can retweet your friends’ stuff as many times as you like. In fact, there’s a level of participation on Twitter that is just not possible on Digg.
Former Digg user Zaibatsu offers an interesting case study on how Twitter can help a Digg user.
Zaibatsu: A Case Study
“One thing I didn’t want to do, after being banned, was give Digg more pageviews,” Zaibatsu told me over the phone. “Back in June, I started my Twitter account and that quickly snowballed into 35,000 followers. My influence has been greater on Twitter than it ever was on Digg. In fact, I’ve been influencing content on Digg through my Twitter account.”
At the time Digg banned Zaibatsu, he was the #3 ranked Digger with over 10,000 fans. At one time, he was “front-paging,” (a fairly self-explanatory term used by Diggers to denote when an item submitted by a particular user appears on Digg’s coveted front page), as many as 10 times a day. But last year, there was a spate of power-user bannings, and Zaibatsu was one of them.
Most power-users would start a new, incognito account. Zaibatsu was fed up with Digg, though, and he sought a new social media home. He was attracted to Twitter because it offered him what Digg could not.
“On Digg, I would have to wait sometimes 24 hours before the story I wanted to share could get seen,” Zaibatsu explained. “Some good stories got buried. On Twitter, if I like something, I can share it with more than 35,000 people instantly.”
Zaibatsu also pointed out Twitter’s advantage over another tool commonly used by Diggers. Twitter, he believes, trumps IM. “Whenever I log into my Gtalk account, I instantly get 40 messages from people — and I have to respond to them all individually. On Twitter, if someone responds to one of my tweets, I don’t always have to give a personalized response because people understand it’s Twitter.”
The Twitter Advantage on Digg
Obviously, many people on Twitter are also active on Digg. How can Twitter help these people?
One way is by providing limitless opportunities to connect. Under the Digg shout system, you can shout to only 200 people at once — and then have to wait 15 minutes before the next shout. Even then, most Diggers don’t like it when you shout more than three times a day. Overusing the shout system can quickly turn a good story into one that is buried. In fact, most experienced Diggers use shouts with caution. But on Twitter, a tweet reaches all that user’s followers. They, in turn, may retweet an item to all their followers. Many Twitterers are also casual Digg users; if they like a story on Twitter, they might also want to digg it.
Additionally, as Zaibatsu found, there’s a level of social interaction on Twitter that is non-existent on Digg. To interact with a fellow Digger, the only recourse is to use comments or shouts, neither of which are conducive to establishing real relationships. Twitter, on the other hand, allows you to reply publicly and privately to someone by using replies or direct messages, and to do so in a way that does not distract from content.
Another great advantage to Twitter is that there are fewer limitations on what can be posted. For instance, users promoting sales of any kind on Digg is against their policy. If a Digger submits a sales link to a bizarre item on eBay, it could result in a ban.
On Twitter, where marketers and entrpreneurs abound, such links are not a big deal, and may even be appreciated. If a Digger really wants to share something that might violate the Digg TOS, Twitter could be a good alternative.
In summary, if you Digg, you should open a Twitter account (if you haven’t already done so). Twitter provides a greater level of social participation than Digg. Using Twitter, Diggers are able to reach a new and different audience. Twitter also allows users to share content with an audience immediately, and the number of times a user can share quality content is not limited.
Some, like Zaibatsu, may even discover they are more influential on Twitter than on Digg.
Christopher Trottier (aka atomicpoet on Digg) enjoys unique videos, and takes joy spreading them virally.
February 20th, 2009 at 6:42 pm
Great article. I find that twitter replaces digg for me now a days because if a story is re-tweeted often enough it means i should have a look at it. Kind of like the front page of digg for me.
JP
February 20th, 2009 at 7:26 pm
I am new on Twitter, and still learning the ins and outs, but I really do like it a lot better than Digg. I know that I was taught about Digg first, but I think Twitter is a much more powerful program! The only downside is the new following/followers. I do not have many followers yet since I do not know how to get them!
February 20th, 2009 at 7:43 pm
Very interesting article!
Thanks for sharing this with us!
February 20th, 2009 at 8:24 pm
You left out the most important difference. Twitter uses aren’t jackasses.
February 20th, 2009 at 8:40 pm
Excellent article. I agree with you on everything about twitter. Another great thing about twitter is no one can bury your story just because they are trying to take yours down to move up themselves. You are “front page” the moment you send it. Nice work.
February 21st, 2009 at 4:13 am
Good comparison of communication between Twitter and Digg users.
And the conclusion is… that there is “no comparison”… as Twitter is built for communication
February 21st, 2009 at 4:15 am
Very interesting. I’m new to this, trying to find my way around with all the various blogging sites. it is overwhelming. new experience for me. Your explanation make total sense and bring better understanding
February 21st, 2009 at 6:14 am
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February 21st, 2009 at 6:41 am
Hi Chris,
Great job on this information and expalins why it is important to belong to both.
February 21st, 2009 at 7:13 am
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February 23rd, 2009 at 4:56 am
Great article. I use both twitter and digg and am still a relative newbie at both. I use twitter to promote new posts on my blogs. I submit my stories on digg, but have not begun to really use it thoroughly yet. This helps. Thanks
February 24th, 2009 at 1:30 am
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March 4th, 2009 at 1:03 am
I heavily use Twitter as a tool to share the links that I mine for. One of the sources is still Digg. I’ve limited it to reading the shouts that come into my email and then proceed to digging them. I run my diggs through a feed into twitter that can be updated every 5 minutes. So I digg a few articles here and there and it goes directly into the stream of things.
Instant access. I like digg… but it’s no twitter.
March 4th, 2009 at 11:07 am
I don’t think you can compare Twitter and Digg (the latter addresses a broader audience), but Twitter is really becoming a powerful tool.
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March 10th, 2009 at 9:40 pm
i agree on the content. Twitter could be much helpful. imagine if you have 50k followers and tweet your post and lets say 20% of your followers will retweet it.what do you think?boom!=)
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March 26th, 2009 at 10:36 am
I have been using twitter from couple of last months and i must say i have pretty positive response from twitter, having quiet ok traffic from digg but i have most of regular traffic from twitter. can’t say whether twitter can replace digg.. both are good at their places and i use both of them regularly.
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July 22nd, 2009 at 3:51 am
I don’t think it matters anymore.. Digg has its own audience.. whereas twitter is just getting cluttered.. no category and nothing..