The great thing about the #digg it experiment (trying to use Twitter to increase visibility for progressives, feminists, and women of color on Digg), is that it’s so easy to explain to people*:
- if you’ve got a story you’re trying to promote on Digg, include the #digg hashtag when you tweet it, and at least one of #p2, #rebelleft, #topprog, #fem2, or #woc
- if you see something with the #digg hashtag, digg it if you think it’s interesting — and retweet it as well
The first round of experiments a few weeks ago went very well. So last Friday we decided to try again, sending mail to a couple of progressive mailing lists encouraging people to digg and retweet. Once again, the results were great.
Over 20 people have participated so far, and a total of 15 stories got tweeted with #digg and at least one of the progressive hashtags — most aggressively by Twitter user @diggleft. Of these, give got at least one retweet.
| Post | tweets | total followers |
diggs |
| Obama preferred to Reagan | 16 | 7644 | 167 |
| College grads’ economic woes |
9 | 5350 | 18 |
| Feingold and FISA | 3 | 1282 | 63 |
| Iranian women to be stoned | 2 | 1124 | 51 |
| Kansas redistricting |
2 | 2101 | 0 |
@HumanFolly’s tweet Wowza – “Obama Preferred Over Reagan — In Fox News Poll” http://bit.ly/QCPMe got the best propagation, with 15 retweets, reaching up to 7644 followers on Twitter. The story has 167 diggs, the most of any in the experiment so far. Of course, the original story was on Talking Points Memo, and no doubt it was being promoted in other ways. Clearly, though, Tweeple** are contributing a measurable percentage.
The relative impact was even larger for @sarahkatheryn’s tweet Please Digg http://tinyurl.com/cfsrlr Will Economic Woes Get better for College Grads? For a site like Future Majority, which doesn’t have TPM’s clout, Twitter’s impact can be even more significant.
And once again, the most successful efforts were originally tweeted by women. Coincidence? Probably not.
The single biggest thing I learned from this effort was @AmandaSteinberg’s excellent suggestion of including a sample tweet when asking people to participate.  There are some additional observations in the first comment, and I’d love to hear what others have to say.
First though, let’s keep experimenting:
- please digg this post — and retweet: RT @jdp23 results from Twitter/digg experiment: http://is.gd/myDg please #digg and RT! #p2 #fem2 #rebelleft #topprog
- the story about Iranian women being stoned is still active, so please digg and retweet it as well. RT @myrnatheminx: 8 Iranian women in imminent danger of being stoned to death for adultery: http://tinyurl.com/bwrugu #fem2 #p2 #digg
Thanks much — and stay tuned!
jon
PS: to see all the tweets with these hashtags, use the magic search query digg ( #p2 OR #rebelleft OR #topprog OR #fem2 OR #woc OR #LGBTÂ )
*My #Digg it! A proposal for women of color, feminists, and progressives on Twitter on Reno and its discontents has a lot more if you’re interested.
** people on Twitter. when in Rome …
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