Recently, Sphinn has changed from a vote-driven (read:clique) system to editor-driven (read:non-social) system. This explains any things that seem out of place. Besides that, this continues our Sphinn Interview series, which previously featured Pat Altoft, Sebastian, and Dave Harry, Bob Gladstein, Bill Hartzer and Wiep Knol.
Tadeusz Szewcyk, aka Tad Chef for short, does German SEO and writes the longstanding and successful SEO 2.0 blog.
1) What benefits have you seen from your activity at Sphinn?
A name and reputation in the global SEO industry. Ability to discuss virtually with industry leaders. Being bookmarked, stumbled and mixxed by people who notice me on Sphinn. Getting authority, topical links. Ego massage.
2) Share 3 – 5 key elements of your success with Sphinn.
Avatar, networking with other Sphinn users on many different platforms, catchy titles, being provocative without harming people, voting for others.
3) What other social networks do you participate in? Can you share your usernames there, and what type of content you’d consider sharing with the other members of those sites as well what you wouldn’t pass on?
StumbleUpon – onreact-com, Mixx – onreact.com, Pownce, Blogcatalog
4) What features (besides those announced, like “Mark as spam/Bury”) would you like to see on Sphinn?
Submissions and votes per URL view, report shady SEO directly to Matt Cutts, Sphinn member of the day Entrecard like rotation on Search Engine Land.
5) Are you a socialist or a medium? [A weak attempt at playing on 'social media' that no one I asked this of understood. = bad joke]
Both
6) Define the term: “Sphinn doctor.” [Ditto, except Tad got this hehe.]
I don’t like postmodern puns. Done them when postmodernism was en vogue and I wanted to be a linguist 15 years ago.
7) Besides only submitting their own stuff or only sphinning their own stuff, what are some common mistakes people make with social media?
Focusing on quantity not quality. Focusing on traffic not people. Focusing on traffic not reputation. Being too much about business.
8 ) Tell us a minimum 3 non-Sphinn items about yourself that people could use to catch your eye on Sphinn (i.e. to Sphinnbait you).
Art, design, politics.
9) Which of Cialdini’s 6 principles do you feel most important to gaining influence and why? Can you share some anecdotes?
Reciprocation, liking, authority: I had a really tough time on Sphinn to get noticed, none of my first 20 posts went hot.
Only after getting linked, stumbled and being voted for by me people started noticing me. Then they liked me so much I was submitted and voted up on Sphinn with everything, even stuff that was mediocre.
Now this phase is over but I already gained the authority to make people read my stuff at least. So if my submission rocks it will still get hot.
10) What is the future of social media?
Social media will go mainstream for real while the audiences will get scattered around many interconnected platforms.
[Ed: Astonishingly accurate prediction!]
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