Digg... viral marketing for your college or university
A very nice article is just up from MarketingSherpa that tells you everything you wanted to know... and maybe a bit more... about how college and university marketers and public relations people might use the social networking site Digg to best advantage.
The article is at http://www.marketingsherpa.com/article.php?ident=30279 and is open access until January 15.
Once you read this, you'll understand why Digg is a fickle place. But that doesn't mean that creative presentation of content likely to appeal to a large audience isn't worth posting. I'm thinking, for instance, of the handful of colleges and universities with online estimators for scholarships and financial aid. Special celebrations and traditions might work as well. Or faculty research results in areas of high public interest.
There's no way to know in advance exactly what might be popular in this viral marketing format. Pay special attention to the section on elements of the algorithm that Digg uses to decide what gets prominent placement and what does not. It isn't for instance, only the number of "diggs" that your article receives, but also the "diversity" of the people who like it.
So take one piece of advice in the MarketingSherpa article to heart: spend some time on the site before you post anything to it. Get a feel for what's popular in the 8 topic areas. And then decide how you might get some extra visibility for your college or university if CNN someday finds you listed at a top level.