I spent my weekend stumbling around. Instead of writing a blog post, I decided to play with StumbleUpon — since I’m convinced I don’t know enough about all the Internet communities out there using social networking tools such as Delicious, Digg, Twitter and Mixx. Unfortunately, I didn’t come to any groundbreaking conclusions using StumbleUpon. We haven’t discussed StumbleUpon on the IMA Blog yet, but now is as good of time as any. The Wikepedia definition is helpful if you are unfamiliar with this technology and want to learn about its history, how it works and its line of owners. “Stumble Upon is an Internet community that allows its users to discover and rate Web pages, photos and videos. It is a personalized recommendation engine which uses peer and social-networking principles.” (Of note — In May 2007, eBay acquired StumbleUpon for $75 million from the original post-graduate school developers but has hired Deutsche Bank to try to sell it again.)
My first impression of StumbleUpon was that it is a fun tool. Before I had it figured out, (you do literally stumble around for awhile), I spent at least an hour in MoJoe’s looking at animals in love, making snowflakes, gawking at street installations in Washington, D.C., and oohing and awwing over some human creative painting. Most of the reviewed and rated sites are novel — odd and wacky, interactive or display amazing talent.
So how can the Museum world use StumbleUpon? The online community has a specific Arts category and a page of Web content tagged with the term “Museums”. These are places to surf what other Museums are producing. Moreover, it has perfect potential as a platform for viral marketing if you have enough friends or a brilliant idea with a long shelf-life. Last week, the American Chronicle published “Twelve Ways to Promote on StumbleUpon” spelling out relatively simple techniques to getting your site recognized. My favorites include emailing sites to friends with the easy-to-use StumbleUpon toolbar, reviewing sites and requesting others review yours, and blogging.
The future of StumbleUpon may be uncertain with eBay’s recent downturn and its decision to seek a buyer for StumbleUpon. With 5 million users verses Facebook’s 100 million, I’m not sure its popularity will ever warrant the same focus from marketers. Until it’s clear, I’m happy to keep stumbling. How do you feel?
You can Stumble any of the IMA’s blog posts by clicking the icon on the far right after each entry.
October 16th, 2008 at 11:09 pm
Stumble can be problematic when one is up late at night and should be headed for bed.