Votes: What’s the secret sauce?
Note: Advanced Players may want to skip this board
If anyone has ever “played” in the world of social media before, they know one thing matters more than anything else:, the almighty vote. Up votes can sometimes make you feel like a lottery winner and a down vote can make you feel like you were turned down for your high school prom by the second ugliest girl(or guy) in school. The first ugliest was already taken.
While perusing Mixx today, I came across this comment
… why is my average vote 2 maybe 3 on the rare occasion 17. Its seems there are about ten MIXXers who always end up in the top 20 popular post and any thing they post gets at least 20 to 30 votes. Mind you I like a lot of what the top MIXXers post and vote for them anytime I read and like their post. So what do I need to do to get votes I know I post good stuff…
Why is it that two different individuals playing the “Mixx Game” can get two completely different voting results? Its all a matter of how you play the game. There is a secret sauce, but it has several ingredients and they must be added in the right proportions to skyrocket you from the basement to the penthouse on a consistent basis.
Content
As the saying goes when launching a new website, “Content is King”, and this is the same for social media sites. You have to submit good content to catch that elusive vote which goes without saying (or one would hope).
Submitting content that you like is perfectly fine and you’re bound to get votes from like-minded individuals who have similar tastes as you. The key to this strategy is to make sure there are a lot of people who think like you and have the same tastes otherwise you may be disappointed.
Before you submit an article, picture, or video step back and ask yourself “Would someone outside my circle of friends like this?”. If you’re not sure, then you may have a hit or miss submission.
While we’re on the subject of content lets talk about headlines briefly. If you’re submitting an article from a main stream media (MSM) site don’t try to be more creative than the editors of those sites. You may be surprised to find that they may be more creative than you give them credit for. If you are forced to create a title on your own, keep it simple and direct. Sensationalism may help you, but don’t be surprised when a user gives you a “thumbs down” because the content didn’t live up to the hype of the headline.
Friends
Its called Social News or Social Media not Hermit News. You have to make friends, end of discussion. If you don’t want to make friends, then you better be certain that your content is the next Pulitzer prize winning article or some variation of “Two Girls One Cup”, because your votes will be more anemic than a hemophiliac vampire with a paper cut. Ok that last comparison was a bad reach, but what can you say?
Back to adding friends. Find those individuals who submit content you like and add them to your list. You may also want to add the Top Players of the site your on to your friends list they are, after all, the movers and shakers on the site and can make or break your submissions.
Comments
Don’t be shy, comment on others submissions. “This article Sucks!” may not be a great ice breaker so you may have to do some sucking up to get on the submitters good side. A good rule of thumb is to make them feel good about their submission and they may return the favor with a few up votes on your page.
Good Comments + Friend Add = potential mutual friend
Mutual friends are a great source of votes because, more often than not, they will blind vote you submissions since they trust you to submit good content.
Votes
To receive is to give. This couldn’t be more true in social media. If all you do is vote up your own material, then why would you expect someone else to vote up yours? When you find a submission you like its not only a good idea to comment on it, but vote it up as well. Simply adding the comment “Wow thanks, that was great” won’t get you a vote, but an up vote may.
When you vote on someones submission they’ll have more of a tendency to visit your page and give some of your submissions a vote.
You may also make a new friend as well.
So what’s the secret sauce to social media? BE SOCIAL!
good article. it’s all about partaking!
Content is KING, no doubt about that. Great post!
Yup, makes sense — just like in “real life” you generally get what you give out.