Social Media Butterfly

Social Network Updates for the week ending June 20, 2008

Posted by Nathania Johnson

Facebook finds a way to let homeschoolers sign up.

del.icio.us releases Internet Explorer add-on.

FriendFeed adds feeds to rooms.

Flock, the social media browser, released version 2.0 in beta.

SocialVibe is now on Twitter. Follow @SocialVibe

Veoh added groups.

socialmedian Rolls Out New Features

Posted by Nathania Johnson

socialmedian , a niche social bookmarking site for social media pros and enthusiasts, has announced new features to their alpha site. Dubbed “M4,” the updates began rolling out last weekend. Here they are:

• A new design template, placing all primary content into a main content area on the left side of the page and all related content and tools in a right-hand sidebar.
  
• New design template also features navigation elements in the header for quick-access to key features
  
• Mini profiles via mouseover for any user or news network name on the homepage.
• Update your profile by editing the “N-E-Thing Box” in your settings.
  
• A get-started guide for new users
  
• Email anything to your socialmedian page. This feature is still in testing, but it’s an easy way to send a picture to socialmedian from your mobile. For more info, visit http://www.socialmedian.com/labs

StumbleUpon Video Adds Content from Six Video Sites

Posted by Nathania Johnson

StumbleUpon has announced the addition of video content from the following sites:

College Humor
Funny or Die
Vimeo
Dailymotion
veoh.com
vbs.tv

The news comes in the wake of comScore data showing online video viewing up 13 percent in the month of March to 11.5 million.

Already at StumbleUpon Video are:

YouTube
Google Video
MySpace
Metacafe

Check out the content via your SU toolbar by narrowing your stumbling to just video or visit http://www.stumblevideo.com

Sk*rt Rebrands to Become Kirtsy

Posted by Nathania Johnson

Sk*rt, if you’re not aware, is essentially the “Digg for Girls.” The social bookmarking and voting site is about 1,000 times friendlier than Digg plus has a lot more variety in its content - especially if you have two X chromosomes.

But now the site has been rebranded. The name is now Kirtsy.

Be sure to check out the Kirtsy blog right now as well - they’ve been giving away a lot of great prizes.

Digg is Improved, But StumbleUpon is Still My #1

Posted by Nathania Johnson

It’s no secret that I’m not a big Digg fan. I just don’t get into most of the stuff that gets voted up. And I’ve only heard of a couple sites getting real benefit from Digg versus the many many sites that I’ve witnessed get a boost via StumbleUpon.

But after hearing about recent algorithm changes, I decided to give it another try. There were two things new to me since the last time I visited:

• I was happy to learn that there are more categories than before. I even found a couple posts that were fashion-related.
• The site is a little smoother to navigate, which is nice as well.

But StumbleUpon remains my favorite bookmarking site. The number one reason is that the toolbar allows me to see pages right away. Digg, Del.icio.us, Sphinn and all the rest require you to visit their site.

Yes, there are Firefox extensions and toolbars for Digg, but they take you to Digg.com - not the stories being Dugg.

StumbleUpon also has more interesting content, and a wide variety of content. The users are friendly and stay on sites longer. I think one of the reasons is that the voting is so easy. Digg is set up so that you need to have a lot of friends and a lot of votes to be powerful. So, I’m guessing that people are in a rush to vote things up and get through the sites. StumbleUpon encourages site exploration and user engagement, and your analytics should show that.

What’s your favorite bookmarking tool and why?