What exactly is this Social Media malarkey, and why do some people reach the lofty status of influential rockstar while others fall flat on their faces?

There seems to be a growing consensus among the down-trodden majority that social media simply isn’t fair, and that a handful of power-users must have got where they are by special treatment, cheating, or some kind of witchcraft - but is that true? There may be a simpler explanation…

Whether it’s blogs, digg, twitter, or anything else that falls under the ambiguous “social media” umbrella, the failures are easy to predict - you’ve seen them; users who are desperately trying to game the system to glean a handful of curiosity hits on their own site, before being buried, blocked and penalised by the community.

Where are these people going wrong? If any of the following observations ring a bell, you might need to rethink your strategy if you want to avoid pissing off the entire internet…

StumbleUpon

1. You have multiple accounts - Not only are you spreading your efforts too thinly, but this becomes obvious when the same people appear on all your reviews. Gaming the system like this is pretty obvious to other users, and to the algorithm, which will flag you as a potential spammer.

2. You regularly submit your own articles - While there’s nothing wrong with submitting the occasional ‘pillar article’ if you think others will be interested, submitting every page on your own site will get it banned rather quickly, and your subsequent stumbles will carry very little weight. Leave submission to your readers.

3. You use the ‘Send to’ feature to ask for votes/diggs/whatever - There’s nothing more annoying than having your stumbling session interrupted by an SEO spammer asking you to vote for an article. This is the quickest way to land your reputation in the toilet.

4. Your avatar is a sexy porno chick stolen from Google Images - This trick can get you a lot of fans quickly, but the kind of people dumb enough to fall for it are most likely not your intended audience. To everyone else, you’re just another spammer.

5. You ‘thumb-down’ the competition - This might sound counter-intuitive, but by trying to sabotage sites that compete with your own, you’re driving away users interested in that topic, when you should be building bridges to your favourites via related keywords. Besides, if you’re threatened by a competing site, your thumb-down will have little impact.

Digg

1. You regularly Digg your own articles - This doesn’t necessarily make you a spammer, but it stops your readers from submitting your articles for themselves, some of whom will have a lot more influence on the Digg community than you. There’s also a much greater motivation for others to Digg an article before anyone else, as getting a story to the front page increases their own influence.

2. Your ‘Shouts’ include the phrase “Please Digg!” - This is instant bad karma on Digg, and most users ignore these annoying daily requests, and if you find yourself trading Diggs with other users, your account will be punished or banned.

3. Your headlines are just plain crappy - People scan headlines very quickly, and unless yours jumps out from the page, the story will be forever stuck in the ‘upcoming’ section. Popular headlines summarise the entire story in a few words, are not ALL CAPS, and include [vid] or [pics] where appropriate.

4. You don’t understand what Diggers want - The most influential users tend to be very tech savvy, and are not interested in “free hosting”, “how to install wordpress” or “how to make money with adsense”. Stop it.

5. The story you ‘broke’ was on the front page 2 days ago - Don’t waste your time re-submitting old news. A story is considered old after about a day, and you’re competing against an obsessive, compulsive community. You (hopefully) have a life outside Digg.

Blog Comments

1. You don’t read the articles you comment on - In an effort to gain a quick link to your site, you don’t bother to read past the first paragraph, eager to leave an ill-thought out comment like “Great article, I agree!” you not only embarrass yourself in the process, but you were kind enough to let others know which blog to avoid by linking to it.

2. You think ’scraping’ an article will get you a trackback - Any blogger worth reading will delete trackbacks from spammy, irrelevant, or scraped content. If, however you quote the article, adding your own spin on the story, trackbacks will be gratefully received, and a nice link to your article will appear in the comments.

3. You’re an irritating little troll - Leaving comments with the sole purpose of attracting eyeballs to your homepage, or just to let off some steam is never a good idea. Don’t write anything in a comment that you wouldn’t write on your own blog. The only people clicking through to your site are thinking “who is this a**hole?”.

4. You only comment on “Do-follow” blogs - You’re really missing out on an opportunity to engage with new readers if your sole reason for commenting is to improve your pagerank. Add something to the conversation on other blogs in your niche, regardless of the SEO benefits of doing so. People will return the favour.

5. You don’t know what the hell you’re talking about - Think before submitting that comment, because most of the time, you can’t take it back. Stick to what you know, unless you want to leave a lasting testament to your stupidity.

Twitter

1. You think your followers care that “you’re stuck at the airport/just woke up/insanely bored” - Adding to the noise with ‘filler tweets’ does nothing to keep your followers interested. If you sound like a broken record, say something wildly inappropriate, controversial or profound once in a while.

2. You treat your followers like a captive audience for your link spam - If you tweet links to your blog on a regular basis, mix it up with a bit of chatter. Talk to people, not at them.

3. You think name-dropping makes you look good - If your tweets go something like “Having lunch with @TheQueen, then it’s off to pick up my @pulitzer_prize” then all you’re showing is your insecurity. Blatant self-promotion will get you un-followed.

4. You don’t engage with your followers, ask questions or respond to tweets - Pretty self explanatory, creating a dialogue with other users is the best way to retain followship, and shows potential followers you’re not just another spammer.

5. You follow 26,368,723 people - it’s pretty obvious to onlookers that anyone who follows thousands of people, and only has 20 or so followers is just trying to extend their reach. Nobody is that sociable.