BlogHer - Tutorial: Using StumbleUpon - Comments

Response from StumbleUpon Tech Support

Melanie Nelson — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 09:23:31 -0600

OK, I have finally heard back from StumbleUpon about adding Facebook friends. This is their response:

You can read more about importing contacts into
your StumbleUpon account here: http://www.stumbleupon.com/help/Invite_friends_to_join_StumbleUpon/

As you can see, there is an option for importing
your contacts from Facebook. That does not
automatically add them to your friends in SU. It
only shows you which of your FB friends also have
SU accounts, so you can send them a friend
request.

It still seems inefficient to me, but that's what we have so far. I hope this helps.

Melanie
Blogging Basics 101
Bloggy Giveaways
Don't Try This at Home

Thanks!

becky w. — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 09:31:04 -0600

I signed up a while back and have the toolbar. I just had no clue how to use it! I will definately read the other articles you linked above as well.

Becky W.

I blog about my family and life in general at http://nooniebug.blogspot.com

To Stumble a post

Melanie Nelson — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 09:14:58 -0600

To Stumble a post (yours or someone else's) you'll need to install the StumbleUpon toolbar (it's part of the instructions when you're signing up and easy to do). Then, when you want to Stumble something, you click on the thumbs up icon (it says I like it! next to it) on the toolbar (you can click on the screen shots above for a better view of the toolbar).

If you just want to surf, you can click the Stumble! button (on the farthest left of the SU toolbar) to see web sites you might like based on what you said you were interested in when you signed up. If you particularly like one of these random sites, click the thumbs up button on the SU toolbar to Stumble it (i.e., vote for it).

Stumbling something is really just a way to tell others that use StumbleUpon "Hey! This page is good for people with this interest!" The more Stumbles a page gets, the more it's shown. But, as I said in the article, you need to be careful about Stumbling your own articles too much.

Melanie
Blogging Basics 101
Bloggy Giveaways
Don't Try This at Home

I still don't get it!

becky w. — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 09:05:15 -0600

I think I am just a little dense, but I'm just gonna put this all out there. How do I get my posts stumbled? And I still don't really know how to stumble a post that I like if it doesn't have the SU link already there.

Becky W.

I blog about my family and life in general at http://nooniebug.blogspot.com

For a few days

Virginia DeBolt — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 08:15:29 -0600

There was NO preferences tab on my page. Then suddenly there it was, and I managed to get things changed. Very strange.

Virginia DeBolt
BlogHer Technology Contributing Editor
Web Teacher
First 50 Words

Using StumbleUpon with Facebook

Melanie Nelson — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 09:34:39 -0600

I think I have this right, but if anyone with more experience has more info, please feel free to chime in!

StumbleUpon defines a friend as:

A friend is someone whose pages you like. By adding them to your friends list, you will start to receive pages that they like when you Stumble!

Note that it is not necessary to actually like a person in order to make them your friend! Neither is it considered necessary to ask their permission when adding them to your list of friends.

You can have friends you know (e.g., via your gmail contacts) and friends you don't know. People you've come across via SU that appear to have the same interests and are stumbling interesting content.

These are the friends you'll see in your SU Friends account (once you friend them). To use Facebook, my understanding is that you're not adding your Facebook friends to your SU list, rather you're seeing their stumbles within a Facebook app. You're not adding them to your SU Friend list; they are kept over at Facebook and you have a separate SU app to see what they have stumbled recently.

This seems inefficient to me, which is why I'm wondering if I'm wrong on this. However, I did not see a way to add your current Facebook contacts to your SU Friends list. I'm sending an e-mail to the folks at StumbleUpon for clarification. If I hear back from them I'll let you know.

Melanie
Blogging Basics 101
Bloggy Giveaways

Seriously!

Liz Rizzo — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 09:16:46 -0600

That took me forever to find!

It's under "Your Home" "Preferences" "Public Profile"

Liz Rizzo

I blog at Everyday Goddess.

Changing Your Profile Info

Melanie Nelson — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 09:16:05 -0600

Go to StumbleUpon.com > Your Home > Preferences > Public Profile.

There you'll see a place to include a short bio and your URL.

Melanie
Blogging Basics 101
Bloggy Giveaways
Don't Try This at Home

I'd like to change my profile

Virginia DeBolt — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 09:08:55 -0600

on StumbleUpon to include the URL of my blog, and I can't find any way to edit my own profile. Do you know how to do that?

Virginia DeBolt
BlogHer Technology Contributing Editor
Web Teacher
First 50 Words

Stumbleupon traffic

Liz Rizzo — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 08:44:51 -0600

There's got to be a certain amount of Stumbleupon traffic driven by misclicks. I keep getting to the item stumbled when I mean to get to the Stumbleupon page about the item.

Liz Rizzo

I blog at Everyday Goddess.

So how do I add my Facebook friends...

Liz Rizzo — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 08:16:53 -0600

who are already using Stumbleupon to my Stumbleupon? It tells me who they are, but there's no button to add them to my Stumbleupon, only to invite people who *aren't* using Stumbleupon. It seems like the logical first step would be to connect to people who are already there.

Liz Rizzo

I blog at Everyday Goddess.

I've been using SU for

Amy Gates — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 22:42:46 -0600

I've been using SU for months and I still learned a lot from your tutorial. Thank you for putting this together. Oh, and I gave it a thumbs up. :)

Amy
Crunchy Domestic Goddess
BlogHers Act contributing editor

Stumble Upon is great

Giyen — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 23:28:32 -0600

This is a great tutorial.

I think that Stumble Upon is great for networking. I've had a lot of traffic from being Stumbled, but the net gain is always marginal. The drive by analogy is a good one.

Giyen

Bacon Is My Enemy

Lastest Post:

Pigeon Heads Are Crunch Things

Very interesting!

Kalyn Denny — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 20:52:46 -0600

Thanks for the thorough post. I've been curious about it, since a few of my posts have gotten stumbled and I seemed to be getting quite a bit of traffic from it. (Thank you to whoever is doing it!)

Now it sounds like I need to share the love.

Kalyn Denny
Kalyn's Kitchen

I'm working on a post @ StumbleUpon, too....

Robin-Pensieve — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 20:23:10 -0600

Hey Melanie,

Yours will be much more thorough, though; mine's a more personal, less technical angle. It's fabulous when you realize how to use this, both to serve your own interests and those of the blogging community.

Well done, friend!

Tutorial: Using StumbleUpon

Melanie Nelson — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 12:01:37 -0600

Remember way back in 1994 and 1995 when you actually surfed the 'net? You could start out at one page and end up in a completely different spot and nothing was actually related. You were just surfing and following along. These days I sometimes find I miss that randomness. Thanks to Google Reader I check the same sites every day. There are days, though, when I want something fresh and new. Something I haven't seen before. Those are the days I Stumble.

What Is StumbleUpon?
Sign Up & Use StumbleUpon
Setting Your Preferences/Interests
Connect with Friends
Stumbling
Does Stumbling Drive Traffic to a Site?
Recap

What Is StumbleUpon?

StumbleUpon is a social networking site with a twist: it specifically strives to show you only the sites you'd be interested in seeing. It's random, yes, but that randomness is based on an algorithm that keeps track of what you like or dislike. The result is fewer sites that waste your time and more sites you're interested in reading.

Sign Up & Use StumbleUpon

To use StumbleUpon, you sign up for an account and choose your interests (e.g., technology, books, crafts, writing, etc.). Don't worry, you can add or delete interests if they change.

Install the toolbar (you'll need to use Firefox or IE to use the toolbar; I have a strong preference for Firefox. There is a work-around if you have Safari or Opera). This is what it looks like (it's unobtrusive):

Setting Your Preferences/Interests

The preferences you choose determine the sites you see when you click the Stumble! button on the toolbar in your browser.

Click on Your Home.
Click My Preferences.
Click My Interests.
Click one of the topics in the left sidebar.
Check all the sub-topics you're intrested in.
Click Save Preferences. If you click on My Topics you'll see the topics you chose. You can add and delete topics whenever you like.

Connect with Friends

Click on Your Home.
Click on Friends.
Click on Connect with friends you already know. (You'll find this link at the top of the right sidebar.)
Select your e-mail provider if it's listed. If it's not, you'll need to contact your friends manually.
Check to make sure your e-mail is correct and enter your password if necessary.
Click Next. You'll be presented with a page that looks like this:

The default is to show everyone in your mail contacts who is a member of StumbleUpon. This means anyone who has ever sent your e-mail may be in this list (think of all those random comments you receive on your blog!).

Go through the list of StumbleUpon members and un-check anyone you don't know or recognize. Or, if you're comfortable "friending" all those people, you're good to go. I prefer to only hang out with people I know or am familiar with online.

Scroll down a little until you see this part of your screen:

This is a list of those people in your contact list who are not part of StumbleUpon. You have the option of inviting them to join. It's important to note that most people don't like to be spammed to join a social network. So before you check that Select All button, consider whether your friends will appreciate it.

Click Connect Now.

You can repeat those steps with each of your social media networks (e.g., Facebook, Gmail, Yahoo, etc.) so you are sure to connect with all your friends if they're using StumbleUpon.

Stumbling

Now you can start Stumbling (which is what it's called when you are sent to random sites all over the web via the Stumble! button on your toolbar. Get it? Instead of surfing on your own, you're Stumbling with StumbleUpon).

Every time you Stumble (i.e., click on the Stumble! button), an algorithm will determine whether a site is in line with your preferences and interests and you'll only see those sites. In addition, the sites you see will be based on recommendations from other users and friends with the same preferences. For example, if many users who also chose Technology as a preference have given an article the thumbs up, then the algorithm assumes that article is great and will show it to you because you also said you are interested in Technology.

As you are Stumbling, you have the option to give your opinion on the site or article. To do that, you click on the thumbs up (you like it) or thumbs down (you're not crazy about it) icon on the StumbleUpon toolbar. Any time you Stumble a post, you are adding (or recommending) it to the StumbleUpon database. Left Thumb Blogger has information on when to give the thumbs up or down.

If you're the first person to Stumble a site, you'll be presented with this window:

It's important that you take the time fill out this window--especially if it's a page on your own site. You can read more about why this is important at StumbleUpon Do's and Dont's.

Does Stumbling Drive Traffic to a Site?

To test out whether StumbleUpon actually drives traffic to your site as so many suggest, I Stumbled 3 pages of Blogging Basics 101 on Wednesday. When I checked Google Analytics on Thursday morning, I had received 234 visits via StumbleUpon. That was in less than 24 hours.

Driving traffic to your site via StumbleUpon (or any social media site, for that matter) initially sounds like a charm. However, you need to beware of this traffic: it's what's known as drive-by traffic. In other words, these readers aren't necessarily the readers who are going to subscribe to your site and keep coming back. They're temporary. I consider this to be a form of advertising. You tempt drive-by readers with a great article and they may subscribe. If you have enough great articles Stumbled and they keep seeing you as a go-to place for information or great articles, they'll subscribe over time. I see social media traffic as supplemental to your base traffic (those who are loyal subscribers). Just because the drive-by readers are temporary doesn't necessarily mean you don't want them at all. Just know what you're getting.

Recap

StumbleUpon can be great fun for a slow day and it can also be a way to drive traffic to your blog or web site. The key, as with everything, is being an active member of the community.

To recap:
1. Create a profile at StumbleUpon.com.
2. Install the StumbleUpon toolbar.
3. Set your preferences.
4. Connect with friends.
5. Stumble!

More articles on Stumbling:

Do You Stumble Too Much? by Left Thumb Blogger explains that "over stumbling a domain can have a diminishing effect".
Stumbling | Indianapolis Museum of Art Blog by Noelle Pulliam specifically discusses how museums can use StumbleUpon, but the ideas are good for any industry.
Stumbling is Not Falling…5 Tips on How to Use StumbleUpon More Effectively by Janelle discusses how StumbleUpon is great for brainstorming and combating writer's block.
StumbleUpon Do's and Dont's | TopBusinessReviews.com provides
excellent discussion about how to make the best use of StumbleUpon to encourage traffic to your site. Key thing: don't be lazy. Update your profile picture, fill out reviews, tag and categorize appropriately.

Melanie Nelson writes tips and instructions for beginning bloggers at Blogging Basics 101.