How to Use StumbleUpon for Business

In today’s world, any smart marketing campaign will include a mix of the various popular social media platforms. But it is important to remember that with any social media platform, in order to maximize the return, you need to be an active, regular participant in the community.

You won’t gain any value by signing up for a social media service and only posting your marketing content. Those that get the most value out of social media are those that engage and communicate with other social media users.

Additionally, you want to position yourself where your current and potential customers are. Just because a social media site exists doesn’t mean that it’s right for your business or that your customers will be there. There are a lot of options in the social media realm for promoting your business online these days, so research into your audience demographic is important. One of the best and most visited social media websites you may wish to consider is StumbleUpon.

What is StumbleUpon?

StumbleUpon is a social media bookmarking site that allows users to “like” websites and add them to their profile. These websites are then shared with their friends through their profile and by using the “stumble” button, which is added to a user’s browser toolbar when they sign up. The stumble button basically sends a user to a random website, usually one previously liked by a friend. StumbleUpon boasts more than 30 million users. Each user fills out a survey of their interests, so there is definitely the potential for your business website to reach a broad and targeted audience.

What are the Benefits of StumbleUpon?

StumbleUpon asks their users to define the categories that interest them, everything from action movies to zoology. If your business fits into one of these interest categories well, your site can get a lot of new visitors that are more likely to be interested in your business. Additionally, you’re going to get a steady stream of visitors if you use it properly, as opposed to a burst of visitors from other paid advertising services that could potentially skew your website statistics or crash your servers.

How do I use StumbleUpon?

As mentioned above, if you’re not actively going to use StumbleUpon, this solution may not be a good fit for your marketing campaign. In order to get your website “stumbled upon,” you need to be an active user and receive high ratings from other users. If you do nothing but create a profile, submit your site and walk away, you won’t get any benefit from the site. Moreover, StumbleUpon has a very specific policy against using their service for promotional purposes. If you run a business and are only promoting your business’ website, you will most likely be identified as a spammer and kicked off the service. That is why it is greatly important to participate in the community.

If you want to use StumbleUpon purely for promotional purposes, then you will need to sign up for their Paid Discovery program. Essentially, StumbleUpon will place your site in front of users that are interested in discovering new sites. Every user that clicks on your site will cost you a flat fee of $0.10. They also offer some upgrade options that allows your site to get seen more often. They also offer the option to create a site or brand channel that will allow users to follow your company. You need to contact StumbleUpon directly for this service and it will cost you, not to mention the bounce rates are sometimes known to be high if your website does not fit the category well.

Why you Should Add a StumbleUpon Badge

The simplest and least expensive solution, if you feel StumbleUpon is the right fit for your business, is to add the StumbleUpon badge to your website. StumbleUpon offers html code for free that allows you to insert their badge onto your website pages, encouraging other users to add your site to their profiles. This will exponentially increase your discoveries in StumbleUpon, especially if those who add you are active users.

Of course, every social media site offers some sort of badge or widget – we see them everywhere. One thing to keep in mind here is that you don’t want to clutter your home page with every service’s badge. You only need to utilize those that you are targeting. Dedicated users to any service, including StumbleUpon, will actively promote your site if they find the content useful. StumbleUpon even offers a toolbar for their users to easily like websites and add them to their profile.

Choose the Right Social Network for Your Business

Ultimately, you need to choose the social media services that are right for your business. You can’t be engaged with users everywhere. If you try, you’ll quickly be focusing only on social media and not on your business. Stick with a handful of services where you can build a following and engage customers on a regular basis.

Give StumbleUpon a try. It may be the one you’re missing!

Guest author: Grant Webb works with Bisk Education, providing continuing education and test preparation for professional accountants. Including accounting CPE programs and CPA Exam Review courses.

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