Duping Digg Hot Topic At SMX Social Media

Digg.com was the primary topic of discussion at SMX Social Media Tuesday and why not? In Chris Winfield‘s words, “Digg is all that anybody cares about.”

The comments and the vibes I got from the discussion, mostly the “Extra! Extra! The Social News Sites” panel featuring Winfield, Neil Patel and Tamar Weinberg, were, however, a little contradicting to what I consider the generally agreed upon appropriate approach to social media.

I was bothered a bit by the general tone that Digg is something everyone seems to be beholden to. While there is no argument that a successful Digg post can drive thousands of people to your site — Brent Csutoras, Rebecca Kelley and Cameron Olthuis actually emphasized making sure your servers were ready for a Digg onslaught in the Linkbaiting session — Chris’s comment seemed to be the rule of thumb.

During the discussion, Patel said that Digg users donâ’t actually read the posts. They just Digg or bury the stories and move on. He also actually advocated having fake profiles, behaving in accordance with the community — he mentioned reporting people trying to buy Diggs — but then using the profiles to become power users implementing Social Media Optimization techniques and getting lots of front page placement.

I tried to ask a question at the end of the session but wasn’t close enough to the microphone steward, so I’m here blogging it instead:

Why should we beholden to such a website or community if A) It’s users are disingenuous to the process and B) SEO and SEM folks are openly lying, tricking and duping the community to suit their or their client’s needs? Will this model not run its course and become a farce because the collective online community is smarter than even the most brilliant Digg hack?

SMX Social Media Day One Links, Live Blogs and Posts

Live Blog Transcripts
(Start with this entry and navigate your way through the sessions using their “next post” links.)

1. From Vanessa Fox at SearchEngineLand.com
2. From Kim Krause Berg at SearchEngineRoundtable.com
3. From Eric Lander at SearchEngineJournal.com
4. From Marty Weintraub at aimClear.com

Flickr Photos

1. Mine
2. TopRankBlog’s (Lee Oden, I assume)
3. StorySpinn’s
4. Rustybrick’s

Sorry if I missed anyone. Make sure I have them for tomorrow!

[tags]SMXsocial, SMX Social Media, Digg, social news, social media ethics[/tags]