Written on June 7th, 2008 at 06:06 am by Darren Rowse
Which Social Media Sites Would You Use if You Could Only use 3?
Here’s a question for the weekend that was submitted to me from Twitter friend philbaumann who asks:
if you were permitted only 3 social sites to work with, which ones would you pick?
So it’s over to you for your comments.
Which would you choose (be it social bookmarking sites like Digg, StumbleUpon or Reddit, or social networking sites like Facebook or MySpace or Social Messaging/Micro Blogging sites like Twitter or Plurk) - and WHY do you choose the ones you choose?
154 Responses to “Which Social Media Sites Would You Use if You Could Only use 3?”
Rudy
June 7th, 2008 6:34 am
My Top 3 will be StumbleUpon, Twitter, and Friendfeed. Why? Simply because my friends are there.
David Van Vickle
June 7th, 2008 6:35 am
StumbleUpon - handy toolbar; actually I just use this for casual browsing; I use del.icio.us for more official bookmarking.
Facebook - it’s where my people at. MySpace is for kids and bands.
Twitter - it’s where my people at. Plurk needs tools like Twhirl to rank.
Vered
June 7th, 2008 6:38 am
I only use three b/c of time limitations.
Social bookmarking: Stumbleupon, because my blog seems to fit there better than over at Digg.
Social networking: being a professional thirty-something woman, I feel quite comfortable with Facebook.
Social messaging: I use Twitter b/c all the bloggers I know and like are using it. I do wish the service would be more reliable, though.
Brandon
June 7th, 2008 6:40 am
I would choose the social bookmarking site Design Float ( http://designfloat.com ) because it’s for designers, which I identify with most; MySpace because I actually talk to people on there, rather than just receiving invites to Applications *cough* Facebook *cough*; and lastly Pownce ( http://pownce.com ) because I think it can be more productive than the other Micro-blogging services.
SpaceAgeSage
June 7th, 2008 6:43 am
StumbleUpon — I find great sites when I randomly stumble my chosen topics, and I hope to build business connections there.
Facebook — It’s where my family hangs out.
Plurk — I just played with it last night, and it appeals to my communication style. I can see using it as business tool when my blogs mature and to keep track of friends online.
The happiest blog in the world
June 7th, 2008 6:43 am
My pick will be ..
StumbleUpOn.com - Where I found new friends and awesome photos.
MOLI.COM - Very interesting social network that can drive some crazy traffic to your sites.
Sphinn.com - to find some interesting marketing article to read and learn.
Brian Lovin
June 7th, 2008 6:45 am
Stumble - Easiest and largest traffic getter in the shortest period of time. It’s the easiest for people to “thumb up” your articles thus resulting in easier traffic…at least for my site.
Digg - Although I haven’t hit popular (gotten close) I feel like Digg can be very beneficial and there are always people willing to help you out.
As of today, Plurk - A lot of people are switching to this service. I find it addicting, fun, and easy to communicate with people I work with on a daily basis.
Boris
June 7th, 2008 6:47 am
Digg - great community I can relate to, and I have a good friends network
Myspace - I rarely use it but it’s the only way I can talk to some of my friends who’ve moved away
And that’s about the only social media sites I use.
Jonathan Fields
June 7th, 2008 6:49 am
Stumbleupon for content sharing, twitter for connecting, delicious for bookmarking.
Though Friendfeed, Plurk and Mixx are getting more interesting to me by the moment
Ari Herzog
June 7th, 2008 6:56 am
I don’t engage in much social media to begin with: More of my peers are on Facebook than Myspace so between the two I would keep Facebook.
I use LinkedIn a lot because I’m currently between jobs and actively use its resources to see who I am connected to and then contacting them how they can help me.
I upload many of my photos to Flickr and recently came to appreciate many interactive contests where different people vote on the best photo of two or three that meets a certain theme or technique is best.
I don’t use Twitter; tried it once and it didn’t excite me.
I have accounts at StumbleUpon and Digg but don’t quite see the point; maybe someone here can enlighten me how to use them better. Sharing and commenting on bookmarks?
I’d rather maintain interactions with friends on Facebook, colleagues on Linkedin, and strangers on Flickr. Then there is my blog, which is certainly part of the social media sphere but you don’t include in your above categories.
Take a look at the Brazen Careerist from earlier this week, when Penelope Trunk argues it doesn’t matter so much how many different social media profiles one has, as long as one can brand oneself differently in all of them.
Brian Auer
June 7th, 2008 7:03 am
StumbleUpon - Because it’s just plain fun and you can’t beat the traffic from it.
del.icio.us - Because I like to hoard information and be able to find it later.
Twitter - Because it’s a quick and easy way to communicate with real people.
James - DigitalKeyToInfo
June 7th, 2008 7:05 am
MyBlogLog - I think this is a very overlooked Social Site. MyBlogLog acts a bit like a social aggregator with the “New With” feature. I find myself following a lot of my contacts other social activities there.
StumbleUpon - I like the fact that I can help other blogs with Stumbles.
For the third? Not sure. I’m doing more on Twitter and it is kind of cool to converse with other bloggers, but I am not enjoying all the outages. I also kind of like Del.icio.us. Makes it easy to have bookmarks on multiple computers. I’m not sure I have a strong enough 3rd place yet to say there is one I could not do without.
Ali from TheOfficeDiet
June 7th, 2008 7:08 am
Facebook — because I’ve been on there since the early days, and almost all my friends are there.
delicious — because I’m just starting to realise what a wonderful way to organise bookmarks it is!
The third is trickier … probably twitter (does that count?) because my colleagues at work and quite a few blogger friends are on there, and it provides a welcome distraction from the day job … ;-)
Adspotlive
June 7th, 2008 7:17 am
SU first
Digg second
Reddit or delicious.
james
June 7th, 2008 7:19 am
I suspect that we’ll look back on the social networking craze and realize that we wasted countless hours twittering, digging and leaving comments on slashdot that no one will ever read.
Oddly enough, my social network is built through various IM tools - they allow me to reach out to others individually, and for others to drop me a line whenever they have something to say.
Mark Jaquith
June 7th, 2008 7:19 am
Twitter, Facebook. I don’t have a third. I’m keeping my options open. :-)
Danielle
June 7th, 2008 7:21 am
Social Bookmarking: Ma.gnolia; I love the interface.
Social Networking: Facebook; a lot of people I know are there and it’s handy for keeping in touch.
Social Messaging: Twitter; I’ve been there a long time and enjoy it both as a micro-blogging platform and a mini news aggregator that doesn’t distract me as much as my feedreader.
MandaOtto
June 7th, 2008 7:21 am
StumbleUpon: To learn about whats new & interesting (plus a great way to kill the last 10 minutes of a “done 10 minutes ago” kind of day.
Del.icio.us: For research, peer to peer referrals and time saving ways to save stumbles I love but don’t really (READ: shouldn’t) have the time to appreciate.
and Twitter: because its a GREAT way to network with people I wouldn’t normally be brave enough to introduce myself to. Its also a great way to get the latest buzz from respected industry leaders.
strider
June 7th, 2008 7:23 am
1. stumbleupon : it’s amusing,interesting and informative and suits my surfing style
2. er!
3. um, er?
J. Phil
June 7th, 2008 7:24 am
I’d pick:
FriendFeed - I find it just too fun to quit right now.
Diigo - I need an online bookmark util and this is the one I’ve settled on.
LinkedIn - No question. LinkedIn is where the business happens.
The Tech Juice
June 7th, 2008 7:25 am
If I had to limit it to just 3, I would probably pick Digg, Twitter, and Stumbleupon.
In my opinion those are probably the most valuable to my blog. In my niche it is hard to gain readership, as it is highly competitive.
My plan is to keep churning out quality content and I think the readership will come.
Perhaps do some guest posting as well.
Cheers,
The Tech Juice
Catherine
June 7th, 2008 7:25 am
Mybloglog
Simply because it’s easy to use. Though the spam in your message area can get crazy.
SocialSpark
SocialSpark gives stats on all my blogs including my current Alexa numbers. I can promote my blog, earn income, socialize, and find info all in the same place.
Twitter
Quick, fast, easy and immediate communication. Plus its easy to look at different topics of blogs and bloggers with the search engine.
Peter Cooper
June 7th, 2008 7:26 am
Twitter, del.icio.us, and Hacker News. To be fair, they’re the only three I actively use and enjoy using. I only “use” Facebook from time to time because everyone else does.
Phil Baumann
June 7th, 2008 7:29 am
To answer my own question (thank you Darren for relaying):
-Twitter: it’s a great way to get quick snippets of what’s going on and it can be conversational (although I’d like to see this evolve (maybe incorporate the commenting features of Plurk);
FriendFeed: it’s an octopus for almost everything that’s going on and the search feature is pretty powerful;
delicious: it’s simple, usable and seems to have been adopted widely;
Paul
June 7th, 2008 7:29 am
i’d go with twitter #1 - it doesn’t drive me huge traffic yet, more trickles but the conversation is good.
facebook - been using it for years on personal level, just started using with separate page for blog and thats been sending steady traffic. and its much easier to find ppl who’d be interested in what i write
myspace - just a fun “little” site, and with all the groups there there’s plenty of chance to promote and community build
George
June 7th, 2008 7:33 am
My favorite social media sites are:
Social bookmarking: del.icio.us - Great for keeping track of cool sites and also brings me some good traffic.
Social networking: Facebook - Best place to be seen online. I’ve even built my own app for Facebook.
Social News: ValueInvestingNews.com - I didn’t find a social news site that delivered what I wanted, so I built one.
Yaser Sulaiman
June 7th, 2008 7:36 am
Del.icio.us - I post everything to it (well.. almost everything!).
Facebook - my friends are there.
Twitter - I hate moving to yet another micro-blogging service (But I also hate Twitter’s downtime, which encouraged me to join Plurk just today!).
On a second thought.. forget about Facebook: I think I’m starting to fall in love with FriendFeed!
crashsystems
June 7th, 2008 7:39 am
1) StumbleUpon, for finding stuff randomly
2) del.icio.us, for keeping track of the best (most useful) stuff that I find
3) Facebook, for keeping connected with people who I primarily connect with via face-to-face. This is the only one I actually have a large list of people on, probably because very few of the people I have met in person use other social networking sites.
Eric Frey
June 7th, 2008 7:40 am
I’ve only very recently started playing with social media, but so far I’m enjoying:
StumbleUpon - The toolbar is a reminder to actually use it, I’ve found some interesting sites from StumbleUpon.
Twitter and Plurk - Both of these have been kind of fun for me to play with, but more importantly, they’ve exposed me to thoughts, opinions, and websites I’d not have otherwise noticed, and at a very rapid rate. Unfortunately twitter seems rather buggy.
Marylin
June 7th, 2008 7:43 am
Top 3 would be Del.icio.us, Twitter, Plurk.
I can’t live without my bookmarks, and I’m a little addicted with both twitter and Plurk (already, I know…O.o right?).
Ben Rasmusen
June 7th, 2008 7:47 am
Twitter: because I’m too addicted to it and I like my community too much.
Del.icio.us: how else would I keep track of my bookmarks? On my browser? Come on. ;)
Mixx.com: I’ve been really getting into mixx and I find it a lot more useful than digg or other.
Andrus
June 7th, 2008 7:48 am
Linkedin
Facebook
Rebellious Arab Girl
June 7th, 2008 7:52 am
I use stumbleupon, twitter, and my social networking style, word of mouth! :)
Sheamus
June 7th, 2008 7:58 am
As I’ve mentioned on here before IMO the best social media site for new/small bloggers is Reddit, and by some way. It’s the only one that you have a realistic chance of not only getting to the front page - and therefore generating tens of thousands of uniques - but that you can do it fairly regularly.
It’s odd as I seem to be the only person saying this about Reddit, which makes me think that nobody else knows how to ‘work’ it the right way. All the social bookmarking sites have their own whims and fancies. I feel a guest post coming on, Darren. ;)
You can’t do it on Digg, bar some miracle, unless you’re really part of that community. I’ve had the same submission on Reddit generate 25,000 uniques and less than 20 from Digg. Likewise Del.icio.us.
The best quality of traffic, IMO, comes from SU, but you don’t get the numbers, which of course can have a big impact on your advertising.
I recently closed my Facebook account because I was fed up of endlessly turning down application requests.
For me, especially of late with the endless downtime problems the jury is still out on Twtter. I think it’s another example of a service that’s great for the A-list bloggers, not so much for the smaller fish. Plurk has an interesting interface but it feels a bit 2.0 for me thus far.
So! To answer the question - to be honest, I could stop using all of them without much of a worry, but the only one that’s of any real interest/benefit to me right now is Reddit, so I’ll pick that, and throw in Stumbleupon and Twitter too.
Dustin Boston
June 7th, 2008 8:09 am
I’d have to say:
* Del.icio.us
* Twitter
* Facebook
I really lilke Ma.gnolia A LOT but it’s waaay too slow for looking stuff up.
Lipton of Starfeeder
June 7th, 2008 8:10 am
If I had to pick 3:
1. Digg (just because its the biggest)
2. StumbleUpon (alot of my content has done very well there)
3. WeGame (because its a video game related video social site, and my videos have the 2nd most views on there)
btw checking out Plurk now, thanks Darren!
Kim Woodbridge
June 7th, 2008 8:17 am
Twitter - such a great way to give and receive useful information and correspond with others who have similar interests,
diigo - I’ve been using del.icio.us for three years but have recently switched to diigo. It contains the community aspect of social bookmarking that del.icio.us lacks. And you can post to both simultaneously so I am still maintaining my del.icio.us account
I’m not sure about my third as I only minimally participate in other social networks. Perhaps Facebook, as I have found people there that I haven’t talked to since I was a kid. But then again, maybe friendfeed, although I don’t like it as much as I feel I ought to. Or maybe lastfm as I have used that account for a couple of years and am able to discover new music from like-minded listeners.
Jason the TVaholic
June 7th, 2008 8:17 am
Stumbleupon because it seems to provide good traffic levels and is easy to use with the toolbar. Although, with the toolbar up, you can easily stumble away and hour or two without even realizing it.
ShowHype.com because my main sites are TV and movie related.
Twitter because it is easy to use, when it’s working, and sometimes you only need a few words to convey a thought or to point to a site, etc.
Now, if I just took the time to really use them.
Chris Williams
June 7th, 2008 8:17 am
I only use two now Digg and del.icio.us
I have been on Digg for several years, and I think it is fun. When I don’t have anything else to do, I poke around on there and find things that are interesting
Brian wrote this above - “del.icio.us - Because I like to hoard information and be able to find it later.”
I completely agree with that. I move computers so much, that keeping bookmarks on one computer doesn’t really make sense. But also, I like to do searches on del.icio.us. Google is good for some kinds of search, but if 400 people on del.icio.us have bookmarked something that has the tags you are looking for, it is probably worth checking out.
Based on what Sheamus said about Reddit just above, I am going to give it a try as well.
Bicycle Touring pro
June 7th, 2008 8:29 am
I would pick: Facebook, Twitter, and StubleUpon.
I think MySpace is dying out. Too cluttered. Too many ads. Too much spam.
Leigh
June 7th, 2008 8:30 am
I’d say ..
* Flickr
* Stumbleupon (tho the love is fading there)
* plurk instead of twitter. Seems to be a much better fit for me.
Aaronontheweb
June 7th, 2008 8:33 am
StumbleUpon, del.icio.us, and Twitter
Chris
June 7th, 2008 8:35 am
Agh! There are too many to choose from.
- Flickr - because my photos are all on there already and I like being able to share images with my family and friends.
- Stumbleupon - I nearly said del.icio.us, but I use Foxmarks to store my bookmarks online, and that’s all I ever really did with del.icio.us. So, Stumbleupon it is because I discover a ton of new sites whenever I use it, and it’s driven some nice traffic to my site from time to time.
- Plurk - because I like having a place to vent my mental diarrhoea and chat with my mates. Would have said Twitter, but it’s just too flaky at the moment.
Rob Brydon
June 7th, 2008 8:48 am
Facebook, Twitter and Flickr.
Linda
June 7th, 2008 9:00 am
I’d use StumbleUpon for the traffic, Twitter for the instantaneous simple communication, and Squidoo for the community.
Jeff - buzzmyblog.com
June 7th, 2008 9:06 am
Twitter, StumbleUpon, and BlogCatalog are really the only three that I use. So I guess my answer is pretty obvious…
kristarella
June 7th, 2008 9:23 am
Facebook, Twitter and Del.icio.us. Pretty much because they’re the only ones I really use now. I have accounts on all the others, but hardly use them. I don’t really use Facebook to its full potential either. I love De.icio.us… interesting that social bookmarking and social networking come under a social media banner. I used to think of them as social bookmarking, separate to media/networking. The former makes sense though.
DJ Choppercat
June 7th, 2008 9:25 am
My three would be xanga.com, linkedin.com and mybloglog.com.
XANGA I can upload mp3 and record audio, upload video, blog, vlog, embedd almost any widget, groups, subscriptions, photo albums, bulletin, pulse [internal twitter]. AUDIO and VIDEO uploads and recorded AUDIO blog and VIDEO Vlog generate universal widgets to embed elsewhere with a simple and clean interface.
mybloglog.com : Combine Google RSS Reader, Facebook, technorati. ADD a dash of Linkedin.com. OFFER LIVE HOSTS representing all companies from WEB 2.0, THEN got recently purchased by YAHOO. This is the best site I have joined in 10 years.
LinkedIn.com : Professional social network with features similiar to YAHOO ANSWERS Q&A and more. Represents the higher social career networkers with experience and great insights into the business, trafficking, media, OFFICE software and functions and administration. NOT teens or bohemians like myself included. CONNECTIONS and site social etiquette is more introductory and tentative before launching yourself to total strangers for friends. THIS will build business and open a lot of eyes.
Combine those 3 sites with stand alone browser from flock.com. Winner 2008 WEBBY AWARDS : [BEST SOCIAL Network] tool.
AND
access to blogspot.com [technically a BLOGGER and not a SOCIAL NETWORK].
IF the rest of the social networks disappeared, with this combination, everything would be fine.
Leanne Heller
June 7th, 2008 9:29 am
1. Twitter - it is rapidly addictive, and already populated by a mass of interesting people who are frighteningly current. It takes some balancing between making it your life and logging in so infrequently that you have no idea what is going on, but the good news is there always IS something going on.
2. socialmedia.alltop.com - there are almost always interesting blog posts available from sites with something useful to say. Favorite points: it’s easy to view & easy to read & when you mouseover a link, you can preview an excerpt of the article before deciding if you want to click through.
3. Facebook - I resisted facebook for awhile, but it’s a good way to stay in touch with old friends and has a clean interface. A lot of really creative applications, but the notifications can get overwhelming, to both your inbox & your layout. As a positive, there is an option to turn off notifications once you’ve reached your saturation point.
team ray
June 7th, 2008 9:45 am
1. none
2. none
3. none
Tee
June 7th, 2008 9:47 am
Twitter: easy group conversation/ideas/exchanges
LinkedIn: relevant to what I do for 8-10 hrs a day
Digg: more quality categorized material than Stumble
Actually, beyond those, the only other SM site I use is Facebook, and even then it’s rare — I log in when I get a message or a friend request and rarely have much to do with it otherwise.
Sharon Hurley Hall
June 7th, 2008 10:01 am
Stumbleupon, Twitter and BlogCatalog, though Plurk *may* replace Twitter (the jury’s still out)
Rob
June 7th, 2008 10:24 am
If I had to choose 3 social media sites to pick I would pick…
1. Stumple upon. Stumple upon has gotten me sooo many visitors as of lately so it’s my number one choice.
2. Digg. Digg also seems to get me a decent amount of traffic.
3. Lastly twitter, It is becoming very popular nowadays and seems like everyone is using it.
Those are the 3 Social media sites that I would personally choose. Nice to seem some of the sites fellow bloggers use here.
Michael
June 7th, 2008 10:24 am
1. Church.
2. Work.
3. College.
MR
June 7th, 2008 10:41 am
StumbleUpon, Facebook and MySpace
dandellion Kimban
June 7th, 2008 10:57 am
This is a though situation. But, let’s see….
First, del.icio.us…. actually, that one is the only one I really, really need. Not much for sharing as for keeping and organizing my bookmarks. Not only that I accidentally erase my local bookmarks every now and then and that I might need my bookmarks on more than one computer but I really don’t have a clue how to organize all those hundreds of links in folders, i.e. without tabs.
Second… MySpace… yes, it is buggy and noisy and a huge time-waster but it is fun. And it is broader than Twitter which was a big competition for this place. Twitter is good for blogging (in many ways) but MySpace gives more contacts and better introduces people.
Third is digg. It gives nice dose of fresh sites daily. I used to use StumbleUpon for that, but lately digg serves me better.
Tom Hanna
June 7th, 2008 11:03 am
I’d pick one of each.
Facebook because it’s a decent happy medium between the traffic of MySpace and the more professional presentation of Ryze or LinkedIn.
Stumbleupon, because it’s just more fun and user friendly than Digg and other social bookmarking sites and has some rudimentary social networking aspects built in.
Plurk instead of Twitter. It’s new and buggy, but much more fun in its online presentation and seems to lack the annoying default to get text messages to your cellphone.
Michael
June 7th, 2008 11:29 am
I don’t understand how you people can use sites like Twitter and Facebook to bookmark link. It is just so hard to use for the purpose of bookmarking. Anyway, here is what I use:
1) Mento to bookmark links & the links gets automatically imported to my delicious feed.
2) I use Digg and Reddit to find interesting stories and links.
Jennie Rosenbaum
June 7th, 2008 11:33 am
hmm.. it has to be Facebook, which has just grown virally for me and has a great mix of business promotion stuff and fun silliness.
Twitter, because I love to hear the background conversations and random thoughts and to have a place where I can put down my stupid random thinks.
I can’t use stumble because I use Safari so I use Digg instead, but I really just see it as a tool, not as a social media experiment so I think redbubble has to be the third community site I really enjoy. great for arts networking.
Luis Cruz
June 7th, 2008 11:47 am
I write primarily about photography, so my social bookmarking site of choice is PhotographyVoter. Numbers are nowhere near as big as Digg, SU, and the others, but I know those following the site probably won’t bounce as much as those from other social sites.
I also use MyBlogLog - it helps me keep track of what my friends and contacts have been doing online.
As for my 3rd social site, I’m still waiting for an social site that doesn’t try to lock in your data (and will allow me to integrate my site feed if I want). Basically, I want a more open social site.
Peggy
June 7th, 2008 12:09 pm
Wow, talk about a conversation starter!
Twitter — fun, practical, informative
Stumble — easy, fun
LinkedIn — practical, useful, brings in $$$
Syed Balkhi
June 7th, 2008 12:32 pm
I will definately keep
Digg, Twitter, and Facebook
Digg because I like reading the latest news. Twitter because I can chit chat with new people. Facebook because I can personalize and keep a good connection with friends and family.
Andrew Randazzo
June 7th, 2008 1:23 pm
I would stick with StumbleUpon, Technorati, and Facebook.
Kelvin Kao
June 7th, 2008 1:43 pm
I think I will pick one from each category.
Social bookmarking: StumbleUpon
I’ve gotten the most traffic from StumbleUpon so I have the best impression of it. Also I’m not as big on geeky topics.
Social networking: Facebook
Probably because of my UCLA background. Most people I know are on it. MySpace is just way too cluttered for my taste.
Social Messaging/Micro Blogging: Twitter
Plurk is still new, and although fun, I feel like it will become really messy once you are following too many people.
Gerrit Eicker
June 7th, 2008 2:15 pm
Twitter (that’s where the music plays - and my links etc. are stored too), Xing (that’s where the contacts are). That’s it.
kristarella
June 7th, 2008 2:18 pm
Hmm, more like a one-way response starter, I very rarely find much real interaction between commenters here (perhaps I comment on the wrong posts), certainly none in this post.
Griff McGrath
June 7th, 2008 2:27 pm
This was pretty easy for me, since they are the first three site on my favorites list:
1) Facebook - It’s just where everyone is, and it’s how I keep track of what my friends are up to.
2) Twitter - I think it’s a really useful conversation starter and a way to get information (when it’s not down).
3) Flickr - Mainly because I love photography.
Does WordPress count? That would be in there somewhere too…
Noel Schlachter
June 7th, 2008 2:36 pm
I only use the Social Networking Site, Yuwie, because they pay their members for everything they do on the site.
Twitter is good for posting a quick note.
I also love Youtube.
Dean
June 7th, 2008 2:41 pm
My three choices:
Friendster— yes, Friendster’s still very much alive here in the Philippines and elsewhere in Asia. I have +500 friends on Friendster, and I frankly love it.
Plurk—need I say more? Plurky, plurky, wurky, lurky, plurky, wurky, loo!
StumbleUpon—since my blog is a sort of “mixed bag” blog, StumbleUpon provides me interesting content to write about. I consider it an indispensable tool for blogging. :-)
ChaCha Fance
June 7th, 2008 3:14 pm
Wow, such a hard choice. Definitely NOT Twitter or Plurk b/c I’m sick of hearing their names…….
I’d probably go with Facebook b/c most of my friends are there & it’s a great way to keep in touch.
Digg b/c it’s a great way to find out about new things & also great for promoting blogs.
Imeem b/c I can’t live without my music & it’s a great place to share & find music.
The Guide
June 7th, 2008 3:38 pm
Stumbleupon - Helped me find out about some great website and some great games. xP
Digg - Because I digg digg.
Plurk - I actually haven’t tried this yet, but I’m about to. Looks fun. :D
Make Money With Photoshop:
http://make-money-ps.blogspot.com/
Reese
June 7th, 2008 3:39 pm
I only use three now anyway, I don’t feel any need for more. I use Twitter, Virb, and PCityLIVE. Well, I do have a last.fm account, but I don’t use it for any of the social aspects, just for tracking my listening habits.
John Lockwood
June 7th, 2008 3:50 pm
Houssee.com, the best real estate Digg clone, for paling around with fellow real estate geeks.
StumbleUpon for the heck of it.
Oh darn, do I have to pick three?
Eli
June 7th, 2008 4:25 pm
Digg: Because I’m a big fan, been a user for quite a while, and it’s where I go for news.
Virb: Because it’s better than MySpace and Facebook combined.
Can’t think of a third.
AllanHenning.com
June 7th, 2008 4:53 pm
MySpace - I just made a new account after 3 years. I’m a bit addicted.
Twitter - love it!
Facebook - kinda sucks though
Ayan Deato
June 7th, 2008 4:55 pm
I only use Friendster.com and Multiply. Well Friendster for one is the most common social networking site and one of the first that really hit it big here in the Philippines.
Multiply.com is something that I just tried recently tried and the good thing about this one is that it gives you the freedom to post as much pictures and information on your site unlike Friendster when it started. Though now Friendster is going to that direction.
Michael
June 7th, 2008 5:07 pm
Digg, Twitter, and Delicious, basically just because they give me the most value.
JoLynn from The Fit Shack
June 7th, 2008 5:12 pm
Stumbleupon - it’s fun
Twitter - it’s fun
Facebook - great for group activities and interaction
@kristeralla, hi, one post where the commenters really interacted was surprisingly about the topic of comments, you can check it out here - http://www.problogger.net/archives/2008/05/11/should-you-add-keywords-to-the-name-field-when-you-leave-comments-on-a-blog/
Daniel
June 7th, 2008 5:15 pm
All are useless to my website
Jany
June 7th, 2008 5:41 pm
Facebook: to see what my high school, college, post-college friends are doing… especially bay area events and photos galore!
Tumblr: to microblog and ‘reblog’ my friends and see what’s the next hotest thing b/c it’s posted on Tumblr first about 85% of the time, at least with respect to news, odd stories, pictures, interesting new programs and other popular web searches
My third would be Wordpress if you could count its ’social media prowess’: to write longer entries that cover everything from marketing and PR to cute kitties and cool toys to social issues and developing country challenges.
But since it doesn’t quite cut it, Twitter comes pretty close
kristarella
June 7th, 2008 5:44 pm
Daniel, networking with other people on the internet is useless for your website? What the point of having one then? More pointedly, what’s the point of having an RSS feed and comments on your site if you don’t want interaction with people?
Rodney Olsen
June 7th, 2008 6:00 pm
StumbleUpon
Facebook
Twitter
gibsy
June 7th, 2008 6:07 pm
Nice Post.Posted this link in http://www.surfurls.com . Its a social bookamrking site.
WTJ
June 7th, 2008 6:16 pm
StumbleUpon, Twitter, facebook.
Alex Cristache
June 7th, 2008 6:42 pm
StumbleUpon for discovering quality links.
Twitter for the occasional small talk.
FriendFeed for sharing and discussing topics.
Internet Business Ideas
June 7th, 2008 7:19 pm
My 3 choices are:
StumbleUpon - I love using it my friends are there and it is user friendly
Mixx - I just love it
Digg - for my business
Tanny
Toblerone @ Simple Mom
June 7th, 2008 7:46 pm
1. StumbleUpon - for promoting my site. It does well there.
2. Delicious - for bookmarking. Nice and simple.
3. Twitter - for networking. I wish it worked more often, though.
Miguel Cangueiro
June 7th, 2008 8:07 pm
I would use:
Twitter - simple and fast
Digg - Is the social network that gives me more traffic
Stumbleupon - Is the best for promoting my blog, it’s very nice
Jessica Bond
June 7th, 2008 8:20 pm
Another question is how many social media sites does one have time for? When time allows, it is LinkedIn, Stumbleupon, Technorati.
Jessica Bond
Medical Careerist
Kirby Andersen
June 7th, 2008 9:33 pm
Facebook and Twitter - most popular among people I know and enjoy staying connected with. However, I agree with other readers that Twitter has been unreliable especially when integrating with updating Facebook status, etc.
StumbleUpon - just beginning to experiment with
Mario Olckers
June 7th, 2008 10:37 pm
Facebook - Business networking and all my friends are there ;)
Twitter - business networking and because all my friends are there ;) (despite the many issues, I will keep the faith and stay loyal; Plurk was deleted 1 day after I got an account)
Friendfeed - with the bookmarklet in my browser toolbar it cuts out a lot of extra keyboard-and-mouse work when I wanna share or save things I find interesting and the friends and community aspect is brilliant ;)
Denise O'Berry
June 7th, 2008 10:54 pm
My two favorites are Facebook and Twitter. I’m a little turned off by all the Facebook apps, but it’s been a great connection tool. And I really like the IM style of Twitter. Hopefully as it matures it will become more reliable.
Juha Ylitalo
June 7th, 2008 11:12 pm
LinkedIn for keeping track of friends
flickr for its photographic content
and del.icio.us as useful bookmark service for someone who uses multiple machines.
All the rest of the stuff I can cover with my own servers.
Laugh IT Out
June 7th, 2008 11:14 pm
Top 3 will be
stumbleupon,propeller and thoof in same order.
Fitz
June 7th, 2008 11:51 pm
StumbleUpon
great source of amazing and interesting websites
Multiply
simply because my friends in the Philippines are there
Facebook
play around with apps to pass time and to stay in touch with my US-based friends
Mr. Javo
June 8th, 2008 12:20 am
Facebook: this is a great network which you can share many things by posting links… Also there are applications of mixx, stumbleupon…. so you could have many networks in just one :D.
Blogcatalog: it’s a great community, where you can discuss your favorite topics in the infinites groups. Also you have a feed where you can see the latest activities of your friends, so you can “monitor” your friend’s activities.
Twitter: I’m not too fan of this one, but certainly it’s a good way to quickly connect with the people. It’s perfect to stay in touch with other bloggers being one of the most simples “networks”.
kristarella
June 8th, 2008 12:26 am
Thanks for the link JoLynn. There is a bit more interaction on that post than some others, but most people still only interact with the post rather than the other comments. It seems a bit of a shame, because I love real comment discussions, where people respond to what each other has said and not just the post. Maybe the folks who comment here prefer to do their interacting elsewhere (FriendFeed, Facebook etc)? Maybe it’s too exhausting to read all of the comments?
Still, my first comment on this post was the same, I responded to the post, and only half of it at that. If I’d thought more about it I would have said that I love Del.icio.us because it works for bookmarking stuff that I might want to find again and makes it way easier to find. The tagging system works well. I haven’t used the network feature to its full potential, but I like receiving links that I know are intended especially for me. Plus I can put a feed of my latest bookmarks on my blog; I don’t know how many people find it useful, but I know my mum appreciated at least one site I bookmarked… if it’s useful for one person then I’m happy.
Facebook is good because practically everyone is on there. Twitter is cool because there’s a sort of micro-interaction that I’ve started to lose since high school, where you can say random things, have random conversations… things that only work when you’re in the moment or in the right situation.
Joseph Ratliff
June 8th, 2008 12:47 am
Darren,
The top 3 I focus on the most are:
1) Facebook
2) Twitter
3) Digg
–Joseph Ratliff
Author of The Profitable Business Edge 2
Ari Herzog
June 8th, 2008 12:57 am
Is someone (Daniel? Darren?) taking notes of which social media groups are more used than others?
Off the cuff, it seems that Facebook, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, Digg, and Twitter are on the top.
I have accounts at both StumbleUpon and Digg but don’t use them to their full potential: How do you, who’s reading this, use both services?
And what’s with Twitter? I signed up for an account about 18 months ago, around when it was launched, and didn’t get anything out of it so dropped it.
Temi
June 8th, 2008 1:22 am
I will use Stumbleupon, Digg and Del.icio.us
Digg - have gotten many fans there, then to get more traffic to promote my site.
Del.icio.us - its nice and simple, mainly for bookmarking.
Stumbleupon - it has gotten a good interface, to generate more traffic
Rita
June 8th, 2008 1:26 am
1. stumbleupon
2. mybloglog
3. the magnet on the back of my car, along with my snazzy t-shirts that have my website name on them.
Yael
June 8th, 2008 1:33 am
Hey Darren,
1. Stumble Upon- as I like the basic idea (although I find the navigation to be a bit un-friendly) and it brings a lot of traffic to my blog.
2. Facebook- I don’t know why but it seems to be working well for me on my English blog as well as my Hebrew websites (I’m from Israel, that explains the Hebrew).
3. I like Twitter but could live without it. Most of the time it helps me know what you and a few other people I follow are up to.
Carla
June 8th, 2008 1:50 am
1. Linkedin
2. Twitter
3. Facebook
Probably because I am most familiar with these sites so far. I am pretty new to social networking. A lot of my friends are on Facebook, I get a lot from the Answers section on Linkedin and a lot of people follow my updates on Twitter.
I am open to using more though.
Cindy Sue Causey
June 8th, 2008 2:57 am
Been thinking hard on this one simply because I’ve just recently gotten back into the swing of things.. PHEW, but there are a lot of them..
Speaking from the point of view of someone advocating accessibility, especially cognitively along with loads easily because I’m on cheap, cr***y dialup (and not to mention my local phone company could be putting the squeeze on the line as well)…..
Bookmarking :: Digg is working for me.. Takes a bit for it to digest my proffers, meaning it’s slow to respond, but I can get around it easily without having to fight it to find where I do this, that, and the other on it..
StumbleUpon :: Downloaded it yesterday.. Already, hm, well, not wild that it had to be installed.. No offense to its creators, but I kinda, sorta feel a little violated.. It’s a “me” thing.. :wink:
Social Networking :: Facebook is “fairly” easy to load time-wise.. Ease of (cognitively) navigating around, well, is why I don’t visit it any more than I do.. *Do like* that it seems to be attracting all ages..
MySpace :: Nothing’s changed there.. I was “griping” to the Help desk a couple of years ago about how cognitively unfriendly the navigation is.. Try always to somehow give it the benny of the doubt that it is “me”, but, ummmmm….
Oh, and the download time, fuhget about it.. I think I get to actually see about 1 out of fifteen or twenty sites whose leads I follow to MySpace.. *Seriously*.. The download time is *SOOO* bad that I get shut out time and time AND TIME again before a page *FINALLY* loads..
MicroBlogging :: Twitter is who I’m using right now.. (My) memory is one thing I have to work with each day.. *Think* I’ve finally engraved Twitter permanently into it just moments ago as I made a conscience promise to myself to try using it multi-times a day to help get out what I have not been able to work into my blogging and other disability (self-)advocacy efforts as effectively as I might have previously..
One Stop Feed Promotion :: Once I got the hang of it, was able to quickly load my feeds into FriendFeed.. Checked it a day or so ago and *loved* that it has turned out to be a one-stop place friends will be able to go to catch everything these Fingertips do..
Tumblr :: Started an account with them.. Just checked it now.. It’s in second for that it is also successfully stalking me across the Net based on the feeds it does allow..
Who’ll Be My Hero..? :: The fella that lets me add my personal website feeds in, as well.. :hint, hint, HINT:
Saw MyBlogLog mentioned.. They’re on my go-back-and-figure-out how to weave into what I already do.. In performing Internet searches on some of my favorite keywords, have, giggle, found myself turn up high in the returns because of MyBlogLog.. Cool.. :wink:
Off to help a friend *hopefully* increase the accessibility of her personal website.. This was fun..
Cyber hugs from North Georgia.. :)
PS.. Hey, speaking of Memory.. This is old, *OLD* news to the oldtimers, but every site out there would benefit on some level if you were to instigate a monthly tickler at least on your websites..
From being online since the mid ’90s, I belong to *so* many I love, but I simply don’t remember as Memory continues to fade.. You send me a tickler of, say, the latest high traffic posts if you’re a message board, into my inbox, and I guarantee I come to visit.. I may not necessarily log in so you can document it that way, but I will have been back to play and catch up on *your* Life if all else is going well in mine at that moment in Time.. Pinky-swear.. :wink:
Musa
June 8th, 2008 3:30 am
Oh my what i have realised is that i should teach myself about StumbleUpon & Digg. I enjoy Facebook but from the comments mentioned above i am missing out on a lot!
Bloggrrl
June 8th, 2008 4:23 am
What a great post! I love reading about what other people are using and finding some new sites.
My three are StumbleUpon (my fav), Twitter (although it may get edged out by Plurk) and Entrecard (it can be social, right?).
As far as things go that really don’t have anything to do with my blog, nothing beats de.li.cio.us.
I really can’t confine myself to three….
Agent 001
June 8th, 2008 4:49 am
I will choose Digg for its popularity, Stumble Upon for its quality traffic and twitter for traffic and instant messaging.
Caleb
June 8th, 2008 5:15 am
Digg,BumpZee,and MyBlogLog for now…of course with OnlyWire you could bookmark up to19 services at once.
Velvet
June 8th, 2008 5:46 am
SU first - best conversion & traffic
Reddit - good traffic
Digg - almost no conversion + I can’t afford a server to handle a digg effect
Peteris Krumins
June 8th, 2008 7:35 am
1. reddit
2. hacker news
3. del.icio.us
Ryne Nelson
June 8th, 2008 10:46 am
A social site that I think everyone is missing here is YouTube. It’s a site that most of us use several times a day without thinking of it, so it *has* to go in my top three. So here’s the list:
1. Twitter
2. YouTube
3. FriendFeed
Thanks for the great question, Phil!
kristarella
June 8th, 2008 10:47 am
Ari, if you only signed up for Twitter when it started and then got rid of it, I’m not surprised you didn’t love it. It’s pretty much all about the people on there, and I’m guessing there weren’t that many there at first?
Mike Martin
June 8th, 2008 12:25 pm
Myspace ( I know this is sad, but all of my friends are there)
Facebook (once again for friends)
Twitter(keeping up with the web culture)
Miguel
June 8th, 2008 12:28 pm
I would have to say Facebook, StumbleUpon, and LinkedIn
Facebook allows me to stay connected with the people I care about, StumbleUpon because you find all kinds of cool stuff online, and LinkedIn for professional development
washwords
June 8th, 2008 2:50 pm
great post - thank you! I’m trying so to get down to ONE and instead keep adding more and mroe.
LinkedIn-business
friendfeeder-consolidates others
twitter
oh, but also flock (which incorporates these) and … digg and
guess you’re starting to see the problem.
So glad you’re taking this survey. Will you be revealing your own preferneces in a future post?
Kat Rice
June 8th, 2008 10:59 pm
This is a no brainer for me.
Twitter, Plurk, Linked-In
Those are the ones I’m on the most right now (there are others though, trust me) and seem to be resulting in the best business.
But then again, that could change in a month or two, who knows what awesome new site is on the horizon!
d3bruts1d
June 8th, 2008 11:01 pm
MySpace - Because I have several family members and good friends there.
Plurk - Because it’s a great community so far, and I’ve met a lot of really cool people that I’ve enjoyed talking to.
Digg - It’s still one of the best ways to stay up-to-date on the latest news.
Adheeth
June 8th, 2008 11:05 pm
1) Stumbleupon - for bookmarking and driving some instant traffic
2) Orkut - to keep up with all my friends who are off the blogging world.
3) Plurk - the new addiction to keep up with trends and having fun!
John1954Moi
June 8th, 2008 11:21 pm
Twitter (can I include TwitPic?), Facebook and Plurk.
Dave Gray
June 8th, 2008 11:23 pm
In no preferential order:
1. twitter (when it is working) useful, fun and a great communication and marketing tool
2. StumbleUpon - it is relaxing and total discovery at it’s best
3. Mixx social bookmarking and submission that is way better than Digg
Hey Darren hope you’ll publish some kind of stats with so many responses.
Angsuman Chakraborty
June 8th, 2008 11:39 pm
Twitter - Short communication
Facebook - Social Networking
Linked In - Business Networking
Lol Duffy
June 8th, 2008 11:47 pm
I’m surprised no one has mentioned Plaxo’s Pulse (http://www.plaxo.com). You get your friends and colleagues address details instantly updated, you can link in lots of different feeds and share photo’s etc.
I use Facebook to keep in touch with some friends and family and Linked in for business contacts.
But I’ve got to say the top of my list for social networking is my motorbike which always opens up introductions to new people where ever you are and then you follow up with those old fashioned forms of social networking called e-mails and phone calls.
Great blog Darren and good question philbaumann.
Mark Frost
June 9th, 2008 12:06 am
1. Digg - News, news, and more news!
2. Twitter - Who wouldn’t? Great for networking an sharing and receiving information.
3. StumbleUpon - Great for discovering information you want to read/watch from certain niches.
Noelle
June 9th, 2008 2:03 am
Twitter, twitter and well… twitter! I don’t like that it goes down all the time, but it’s the only site I actively use.
Santosh Puthran
June 9th, 2008 2:50 am
The top three sites I use is stumbleupon, digg and twitter. However I am inclined to increase my network on facebook since allows the users to add applications and connect with the friends.
With facebook you can use other applications also …. like videos, feeds etc
Regards,
Santosh Puthran
Management Accountant Blog
Banyú
June 9th, 2008 7:14 am
Wordpress, Twitter and Facebook.
Sonny Gill
June 9th, 2008 9:13 am
Fun post Darren.
As some people were asking for the data, I took the liberty the do so on my recent post.
Joe Kirin
June 9th, 2008 10:06 am
For social bookmarking I like to use Digg.
I have both Myspace and Facebook. I must say though that I like Facebook better than Myspace. There are a lot of spammers on Myspace and the crowd is teen to young adult. I’m in my late twenties so most of my friends are on facebook. However, I hate Facebook apps requests.
For Social Messaging I like Twitter. There are a lot of bloggers using this app and its easy to stay in touch.
Dr. Sally Witt
June 9th, 2008 11:17 am
I like Ecademy, Facebook, and youtube if I could ONLY have 3!!
Dr. Sally Witt
http://www.drsallywitt.com
Bob Cornero
June 9th, 2008 11:19 am
I would like to be picked up by Stumbleupon by far. One of my articles that I wrote about concerning the character who inspired Indiana Jones has aggregated over 30,000 hits over the past 3 or 4 weeks, and my blog is just coming up on it’s 3 month.
Unfortunately, Stumbleupon blacklisted my profile/URL after I submitted too many links from my site - other ppl could still submit my stories, but I can’t any longer. I had no idea there was a cap, and I wasn’t trying to spam, just get my content out there (and hopefully add value to their service). If there was one tip I had to give to bloggers who are just starting out, it’s don’t overuse Stumbleupon! Save your ratings for your best articles!
Scott
June 9th, 2008 3:01 pm
Digg: Huge Traffic when ‘gamed’ right.
Stumbleupon: Basically effortless traffic that can be built on, for thousands of visits per stumble.
Plurk: I don’t know why, but I find this site really fun… and since it’s new I have the potential to reach the top.
arshad
June 9th, 2008 3:54 pm
my top three would be :
orkut [ social n/w ]
digg
plurk .
orkut was my only source of traffic before i got a google pr3 . once i got traffic from orkut , slowly i started gaining feedburner subscriptions and its increasing everyday .hope i get a subscription count like yours , darren . oh yeah …. thats gonna take me a lonnnnnnnnng period .
paz
June 9th, 2008 7:21 pm
(1) Facebook
(2) Linkedin
(3) Twitter
Tsudohnimh
June 9th, 2008 11:03 pm
Friendfeed - It is the most amazing content recommendation and discovery service I’ve ever seen.
Del.icio.us - It works, it’s simple, it gives me a backup of my bookmarks
Google shared RSS - I know this is not a traditional social medium but yet it is another excellent source of finding and sharing interesting items.
Harry Hoover
June 9th, 2008 11:29 pm
StumbleUpon, Twitter and LinkedIn are my picks.
Trula
June 10th, 2008 2:32 am
My top 3: flickr, twitter, and digg
Cat Laine
June 10th, 2008 3:36 am
(1) Twitter: to keep up with tech/green/cool news, make new friends
(2) Facebook: to keep up with old friends
(3) Flickr: getting more into photography
Chris
June 10th, 2008 3:45 am
Tough call…
1- Twitter.com : love to leave momentary rants
2- Stubmleapon.com : love the randomness
3- pcitylive.com : it’s a local thing in panama city so it keeps me in the loop
Ari Herzog
June 10th, 2008 3:56 am
Of the 135 responses above this one (or 133 if you discount my two earlier ones), how many people are citing social media sites that they initially learned of at problogger.net?
Lori Osterberg
June 10th, 2008 3:58 am
Facebook, because of all the different applications it has, and the ability to connect with others.
Flickr, because it’s photography
Tie: Hubpages/Squidoo for driving traffic
Jonathan Mead
June 10th, 2008 4:31 am
Twitter, Stumble and Digg. That’s all I need.
Suresh Kumar
June 10th, 2008 7:25 am
1) Facebook
2) technocrati
3) digg
John Hoff - eVentureBiz
June 10th, 2008 7:28 am
My website’s forums - because I know the people there are interested in the same stuff I am interested in (entrepreneurialship, marketing, web development, etc.).
StumbleUpon - because I can easily stumble upon a new site and find like-minded users there.
del.icio.us - mainly because I learned how to use it when one of my blog articles went viral on there.
Devesh
June 10th, 2008 11:17 am
1) Twitter - totally love the concept :P
2) Facebook - Got most of my family and friends there
3) :-\
Basically I’m only active most on the above two - simplify :)
Noobpreneur
June 10th, 2008 11:56 am
Darren,
1. I use StumbleUpon for their random stumble feature - It’s like opening a box of chocolate… LOL
2. I use Del.icio.us to store my bookmarked pages - It also has a search bookmark feature that can be integrated to Firefox - useful me, having 1000s of bookmarked pages.
3. I use Digg for no other reason than it’s popularity :P
Cheers!
phyllis
June 10th, 2008 1:16 pm
facebook — for my friends that i know IRL
del.icio.us — because i can keep nice track of everywhere i’ve been
twitter — for the bloggy friends that i don’t really know IRL
bagatare
June 10th, 2008 4:07 pm
twitter - cool
friendfeed - recently discovered
reddit - nice
Dennis Ray Nestor Jr.
June 11th, 2008 2:50 am
Linkedin
Digg
Youtube
HectorMilla
June 11th, 2008 3:46 pm
Stumbleupon, Digg and Del.icio.us
Digg - very simple and you get traffic to your site.
Del.icio.us - vey nice and quiet good for bookmarking.
Stumbleupon - it is really really easy, SU generate more traffic than Digg and DEL.
Cindy Sue Causey
June 13th, 2008 10:39 pm
Dropping a quick bug in your ear that Huffington Post (HuffPo) is the first site I’ve seen integrate Twitter into their comment section.. =D
First time I saw it was yesterday.. As one enters a comment, they’re offered the option of simultaneously actively logging into Twitter through the HuffPo website..
Outputs as a TinyURL.com link followed by maybe ten, twelve’ish of the first words in one’s remark.. Nice will be the day it feeds off the Twitter cookie already previously saved on one’s computer (just to skip that one additional step of repeatedly logging in)..
Surf’s Up.. Gonna git..!
Lode Broekman