9 Stumbleupon ideas to improve your productivity

I always thought that making the most of friends is the last word in getting popular on SU, back when I started using it. Over the time, there were even more myths like this one that I found were time wasters, and needed immediate attention. Infact, many of the things that I thought were “normal” was actually harming me in making the best of SU.

Let me share a few with you.

1. Clean up your friends list , remove all with no or less activity.
   I was under the impression that the more friends you have the better. Wrong.
   Be very careful when selecting friends. The basic idea is that the stumbles you do are passed on to your friends as well, which is how the traffic is generated. Now, what if out of the allowed 200 friends, 199 are accounts that haven’t even logged in the past weeks together? The stumbles you make doesn’t travel and the traffic is null.
   So go to your friends list today and remove all of them who doesn’t have any activity or less activity listed.
   Check out their number of stumbles and reviews received.
   Set a number for minimum stumbles required to be your friend, anyone who goes below should be avoided. This may sound harsh but if you don’t it defeats the purpose. As an alternative, you can add those “idle” profiles to your other social media like facebook. They probably will fit better there.
   Ex:- I was surprised to see Amit Agarwal’s profile (a top blogger in India) to be an inactive one. Removed him from the list, and added him on facebook.
2. Join the groups that suits your profile better.
   Unlike Digg, there are lot of groups (yep, active ones) on SU that you can join in and start making friends. There are weird topics available to throw in your opinion on starting from Windows hacks to IPL Cheerleaders. Get involved in them, there are lot of active people out there who’d love to meet new people.
3. Talk to top stumblers who are online now.
   Earlier, I used to send messages to other members I befriended on SU, but would not get a reply. The problem was that they never were online. So if you want to make conversation with that top stumbler (may not be a right choice), you better talk to the ones that are online. SU shows an updated page for live stumblers. Make use of it.
4. Add relevant tags to your already stumbled stories and delete wrong ones.
   Man, in the hurry to stumble stories, I should admit that I had even used wrong tags on some stories. Big big mistake. Abhijeet told me the other day, importance of tagging stories rightly on SU. And he was right. If I would tag a story wrongly, it wouldn’t be accepted by other stumblers and would be considered as close to spam. So stumble the stories properly, so that your friends can have a better SU experience and least not screw the whole system.
5. Don’t be a fan of someone who refuses to befriend you
   You knew that popular blogger, so you’d add him as a friend, and until he accepts it you remain a fan of his. Not good. It only makes sense if you are mutual friends. He may or may not see the stories you are stumbling but, if he has not accepted you as his friend then the story will not go viral (chances are minimum). Had it been his friend, you could have got a few stumbles extra, now that the fan is “inactive”, you miss it. So what’s the point in being a fan? Drop him and get a new friend.
6. Don’t change your avatar often, make it universal
   The avatar is your identity. So make it as exclusive as possible. I’m not sure how you should go about it, it depends a lot on creativity and one’s taste, so there are no limits to what you can do and there are no thumb rules as well. The point is to make a unique avatar so that people recognize you quickly. Least said, please don’t use the default ghost image. That sucks! And there are a million others who look like you.
7. Add all those 200 friends
   Just in case you have not added all of them, do it today. Pick the best, those who are active, who are open to friendship and those who share similar tastes as you. Find them and befriend them, when you have 200 slots why not make use of them?
8. In the about section, add your URL. Yep just one.
   In the about you section ( Top near your name in the default layout) if you add your blog URL, people can easily make out what you are. Give the most important link there, if you have an active blog, list it, or you can also give other social media profiles here. The idea is that, while interested people visit your profile they should check your URL and decide quickly as to whether to befriend you or not
9. Use the “Send to” option to let your friend know of a new story
   So when you wanted to share that wicked story you found the other day, what would you do. No no… please don’t tell me you’d send a mass mail or IM them, use the bloody “send to” button it’s been there for a while and you’ve not been using it. The beauty about it is that, while you send the message not only do you make sure that the guys is visiting the site but replying to you with a thumbs up/down. You get him engaged which is the best thing.