There's an interesting piece about Digg in today's Guardian - see the technology section. Kevin Rose, founder of Digg, is talking about the appeal of the social media site which lets users vote on what should be newsworthy. Digg now gets 26 million unique visitors a month. Rose says, 'People want to have a voice and a say in what is news. We've levelled the playing field by accepting all other forms of content,whether it's sources from CNN, the Guardian....it's about seeing what the masses want to surface,which articles they are finding the most interesting...'
Rose says he wants Digg to become the standard for other web sites. That's a fascinating thought. Let your site visitors tell you what they do or don't like about your web site in public. Will they be bothered to tell you? That will be a real test of whether or not your content is as interesting as you think it is.
Digg is a great example of social media in action. News and what counts as news is now far more democratic. Anyone can publish and decide what should be the news,you no longer have to be a media magnate like Murdoch. As the influence of social media sites like Digg grows, there is going to be pressure on companies to create content which is genuinely interesting. Otherwise it will never get recommended by people who use tools like Digg. So you are standing there with a press release in your hand ready to put it online. The management team might have approved it. But will people digg it? And how will you decide whether or not your content will be dugg?!
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