Layman's explanation of Digg

Social media plays a major role in how we communicate, share files and photos, do business, and meet new people. We have witnessed the power of social media through the rise of YouTube stars and videos like KONY 2012, which had the ability to bring people from all over the world together in an online community for change. We have watched movies about Facebook (The Social Network), started making phone calls and conducting meetings over Skype, and watched celebrities repeatedly stick a foot in their mouths using Twitter.

It has come to the point where there are so many different social media platforms out there, we are beginning to lose track. And for those of us who never quite latched on to the social media bandwagon in the first place (which has now obviously proven to be much more than just a bandwagon!) this article is for you. So you can finally learn your tweets from your pokes, your hashtags from your diggs.

Part seven of our series explains the basics of Digg below. While tomorrow we will be explaining LinkedIn.DiggSummary: A social news website that allows users to submit stories and vote them up or down, called “digging” and “burying” respectively.

Background: Digg started out as an experiment in November 2004 by Kevin Rose, Owen Byrne, Ron Gorodetzky, and Jay Adelsom. The original design was free of advertisements and was designed by Dan Ries. As Digg became more popular, Google AdSense was added to the website. In July 2005, the site was updated to Version 2.0, featuring a friends list, the ability to "digg" a story without being redirected to a success page, and a new interface designed by web design company silverorange.

Use it for: Discovering, selecting, sharing, and discussing the news and videos that appeal to you.

From a business perspective: Digg gives brands the opportunity to gain a large amount of exposure. However, it is not really designed for customer interaction.

The BasicsDiggRefers to users liking a post.

Top NewsThe main page of Digg that shows the most shared posts on the site.

Getting Started

• Digg is a social bookmarking site. After you create a profile you can post links for other users to “digg.”
• Try to create catchy or interesting headlines and content that other Digg members may enjoy and make viral.
• Post your Digg link to your other social media sites to encourage traffic to the article.