Last February, we predicted that Twitter would become more important to Digg and its Diggers. Behold! Our prediction has become reality! However, little could we foresee how tightly the two services would become intertwined. Now it seems if you Digg, you absolutely have to tweet.

We’re going to take a short look at how deeply Digg has integrated with Twitter.

Tweets Have Replaced Shouts

That’s right. Digg’s shout system will be no more. If you want to share a story with a friend, the likely avenues will be through Facebook or Twitter. We predict Twitter will be the preferred choice because, unlike Facebook, it is easier to build a huge community of followers that love good content and are willing to Digg.

Is this better?

Digg’s old shout system had many flaws. However, its fatal flaw is that few could use it. To be useful, you had to be an active Digger with a large and active social network. Every month, 35 million unique visitors visit Digg, yet only a few thousand are active Diggers. With shouts on the way out, any person can tweet a link or further amplify it through the power of the retweet – giving a Digg story greater potential for going viral. Digg knows this and is gambling for a more powerful social service driven through Twitter.

More Predictions? Just one, with a side of insight.

We believe social bookmarking and microblogging will continue to become more integrated.

Twitter offers instant gratification and conversation. More importantly, Twitter’s real-time search shows what people are talking about now. In contrast, a Digg submission may take an entire day to hit the front page. Only then can a conversation heat up.

In comparison, Digg offers permanence. If a story hits the front page on Digg, it earned it. Of approximately 15,000 stories submitted to Digg everyday, only 120 get community approval. People don’t forget it. They comment on it, link to it, and spread it. Thus, Digg acts as a content filter to the internet.

So: While Twitter offers instant gratification and real-time conversation, Digg offers permanence and content filtration. Twitter will be Digg’s real-time social metric, and Digg will be Twitter’s content filter from its own noise. We think this is a beautiful marriage of Digg and Twitter capabilities.

First, @invoke tweeted about the post, and a notification was sent to everyone who subscribes to Invoke’s RSS feed. Staff members retweeted the post to their friends. The post contained an interview with an influential Twitter user, Zaibatsu, who tweeted it to his friends. Within an hour, this particular entry on Invoke’s blog received 500 visits.

Soon after the post was tweeted, a chain reaction began. Twitter users began to retweet the post. Retweets continued for two weeks. Influential Twitterers like @copyblogger and @lyndoman got on board. All told, we reached an estimated 814,298 pairs of eyeballs through Twitter.

A by-product of our post becoming popular on Twitter was that it became popular on Digg and StumbleUpon. At last count, we had 202 diggs with 12 comments. On StumbleUpon, we got 27 “thumbs up”, and 4 reviews. Four blogs eventually cited this post as an authority on how Twitter relates to Digg. It was also discussed on The DrillDown podcast.

What was the result of all this attention? Since February 19, this post has been viewed approximately 2500 times. Site views have primarily been driven by Twitter, StumbleUpon, and Digg, in that order. The average visitor time spent on the post page has been 3 minutes vs the 1:30 average spent on our site. And we are the #1 ranked site on Google for the phrase “How Twitter Affects Digg.”

We felt these numbers provided a useful miniature case study about what happens as a blog post becomes popular.

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.

Given that it’s a Friday morning and I can hear the weekend calling me already, instead of being hard at work (shh don’t tell anyone) I’ve been catching up on Digg and some of my favorite blogs.? Two particular posts caught my attention today and the one made me realize why the other feels the way they do.

The first is currently the top story on Digg.? It’s a New Yorkers map of America:

Shortly after I say this, I read this post over at Geeks are Sexy – Google Maps Gets its Georgia’s Mixed up. It’s about Google Maps getting the state of Georgia and the Country of Georgia mixed up.? That’s not the funny part of the post though.? It’s when they hopped over to Yahoo Answers and someone in the State of Georgia was asking where the invading tanks were – “I live in georegia but i dont see rusia no where not even sound but they says theres tanks should i be worrie, i herd on the news that rusia has invaded but i dont see them no where wats going on”. Well I can clearly see now why New Yorkers label the red section of the map the way that they do.

Now back to work so I can actually get out of here today.

* This blog post is part of Invoke’s participation in the 2008 Vancouver Blogathon for Charity

The talks between Google and Digg are over. It was rumoured that Google was offering Digg around $200 for the acquisition. Sometime last week, Google walked away from the deal. According to Tech Crunch:

• “Google was in the due diligence stage of the deal, where they peer deep into Digg’s technology and financial statements. Most term sheets are non binding, so anything that gives the buyer pause can be used as an excuse to walk away – but generally the buyer already has a very good idea what they are getting well before the term sheet stage.” Full article here.

This isn’t the first time that a potential acquisition deal has gone sideways for Digg. For an overview of bouncy past Digg has had in acquisitions, check out the Tech Crunch article.