When I talk to my social media clients about generating social media traffic, the question inevitably comes up: How can we get on the front page of Digg? And I answer: Are you sure you want to be on the front page of Digg?

Digg’s advantage is the ability to deliver raw traffic to one particular post or article. If the article is written in a Digg-friendly format known as ‘linkbait’ (lists, breaking news, etc.) and you can mobilize your friends and fans to Digg the post, you can drive a significant amount of traffic to the article.

However, this traffic generally does not convert well. They are one-time visitors which generally do not convert well: they don’t click on ads, they don’t visit other pages on the site and they rarely turn into regular visitors or community members. There’s always the argument that with a volume of traffic you will inevitably get some people who convert, but how much effort are you putting into getting a 0.1% conversion rate? That’s 100 conversions per 100000 visitors. And you have to repeat that tomorrow. And the day after that.

The quality of visitors is also questionable. The etiquette within a community usually prevents the more immature commenting and name calling; the lack of a community can garner lots of stupid, non-constructive commenting. Simply opening up commenting to the world doesn’t ensure valuable participation; the majority of comments on YouTube videos are mostly ego-builders for the commenter (although it’s nice to have a pat on the back for a cute video, would you invite a commenter to dinner?).

It boils down to this: Do you want lots of raw traffic for one day, or a steady group of committed fans who visit regularly and contribute to the conversation? This will affect what you write, how you write it, and the other techniques you will use to meet your social media marketing goals.

I am currently working with a client where raw traffic seems important. This business relies on volume, and getting as many people as possible to convert - conversion measured in this case as simply moving over to the main site. However, getting people from the blog to the main site is a huge challenge, and there are big questions around the effort of blogging relative to the conversions.

On the other side, the community is strong. The Facebook group and Page is a success; there is a lot of action and involvement. These are people who are committed to the company and the community, and these people are the company moneymakers - people who directly contribute to the bottom line.

The raw traffic option looks great in the web stats, but you need to ask yourself: does the traffic convert relative to the effort? Should you be chasing traffic or should you focus on building community? Think about how you use Digg yourself. Are you looking for breaking news or something to run the clock out on Friday afternoon? Digg is great. Are you looking for content - things that closely relate to your personal and professional interests? StumbleUpon is a far better tool. And of the two, which kind of site will you become more involved with?

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