In recent days ‘power users’ have noticed that their in-boxes are filling up with a new stream of fan notifications. It would seem that Digg, which last I heard had given out invitations to about 10,000 people to the new Digg, has significantly expanded that to include the online public at large? Heck if I know in truth. All these “new Digg fan emails” do tell me several things though.

1.) Teh NEW DIGG is COMING!

OK enough drama… but the thing IS coming. This means that we’re definitely moving deeper into a transitional phase into the functional start of the new site. Does that mean it’s coming this weekend? Probably not. But Kevin Rose has said multiple times that his team is working feverishly to get the thing out there, so get psychologically ready.

2.) Maybe it’s good for longtime users because new fans are latching on to traditional power user accounts.

Longtime power users are blessed with an already large, if old, grouping of fans, that is supposed to be beneficial when the new Digg rolls out. (Allegedly because the new Digg is followers based) One of the theories I have heard going around is that the new Digg will be kind to the old power users, at least in the beginning. After that, it’s all anyone’s guess.

3.) The demographic of the new fans adding me has been all over the map.

This means to me that anyone who has a like or love for social media is being invited at this point. I have received fan email notifications from people I have known for years but who are not big traditional participants on Digg. I have received them from people who have dugg two things. I have received them from people who I’ve never seen before but have been digging a long time. This leads to the next point.

4.) Mainstream cyberculture (not the 300-500 Digg heavier users) is switching to the new Digg.

Digg has long had 300-500 unpaid news/infotainment editors who do much of the content selection. People are now adding them on the new Digg, not the old. This says to me that people are starting to spend more of their time on the new Digg, and not hanging out on the old version. (Which power users still utilize more because they recognize that’s where the real traffic is at this point.) It must be said that the amount of referrals coming from the new DIgg is slowly creeping upwards (but is still tiny in comparison). It should be interesting to see at what pace that number keeps getting bigger and bigger.

I write this because these developments feel like an important shift to me. An interesting question I think power users should start asking about is, “At what point do you spend more of YOUR time on the new Digg than the old?” Just food for thought.

It was perhaps even better for my Nana on the iPad today. She’d never seen one of these fandangled things before but within about 10 minutes she had most of the movements all figured out and was enjoying the game. She already knew how to play solitaire IRL — it was just a matter of picking up the movements on the screen. I have to say, I thoroughly enjoyed watching her, at the age of 89, pick up this popular new technology.

I’ve been getting a lot of requests from people on what they should do to get started with a publisher account on the new version of Digg. I’m really not interested in saying too much myself - since it can all be said relatively easily by my man Neal Rodriguez. He has his own special brand of dropping knowledge in the social media scene. Very few people can mix Lindsey Lohan’s panties and 2012 destruction into a soliloquy on Digg.com. Here’s what he has to say about how to start your own publisher account.

This already looked like a bit of a pressure-cooker, but the excitement mounted when I learned who I would be speaking on a panel with; Etan Horowitz, tech writer at the Orlando Sentinel, Patrick LaForge, the Director of the Copy Desks at the New York Times and Peter A. McKay, a writer at the Wall Street Journal. To top it all off, we would be moderated by Eric Schonfeld, the co-editor at TechCrunch. Here we are represented in cartoon form. That’s right, cartoon form.

This artist Jonny Goldstein had a great idea. He would encapsulate what was discussed by each panelist, on each panel, throughout the conference, through cartoons. I had never been a cartoon character before so I was pretty thrilled afterward. His Flickr Photostream shows dozens of other panels and what speakers talked about.

So the morning of the conference, my buddy Alexia Tsotsis and I talked about what I would say, grabbed breakfast and got pumped for the panel. She was so inspirational and helpful. Once the panel started, the other speakers and I talked about how we managed our respective Twitter followings, how news crews had begun to use Twitter and other ways the social media service had changed journalism. It went great and I felt I held my own with the panelists. Here’s the video.

I have to say I was happy to have my own cheering section, lead by the aforementioned Alexia. By the way, my favorite panel at the Twitter140 conference that time around was the fiery argument between NBC news anchor Ann Curry and a CNN producer about foreign news coverage among the networks, and how Twitter was hurting or helping that. This controversy centered chiefly around CNN usage of Twitter with regard to the Iranian election protests at the time. I was impressed because Curry’s knowledge and understanding of Twitter was extensive. She was also very nice when I talked to her after.

Counter intuitive you say? Aw c’mon. See the forest for the trees. So many people who run fan pages include links back to their site on every update, and it grates on the nerves frankly. I know where your site is. I’ve become a fan for pete’s sake. You don’t need to spit it at me several times a day. Here’s an example of why you don’t need a link back from my friends at OC Weekly.

This is among the best status updates you can do to improve community. 11 ‘Likes’ in 6 minutes. Not bad. Why did it work so well?

It’s Timely

You don’t have to jump on a natural disaster to show how timely you can be, but it serves as a good example here. Timeliness can be demonstrated be any issue of local importance that may spark comment, interest or debate. Maybe it’s an important city council decision? If you update your status very quickly after news occurs and ask a simple question of your followers related to it, it can be a great way to build the community of people who gravitate towards your stream of information already.

You’re Not Asking for Too Much

The user is benefiting because you aren’t asking them to go anywhere or do anything. As you know the Internet is one big short attention span theater. People are looking for things that interest them and are often looking to say a thing or two about them. If you give them that opportunity, and they don’t have to wait for a page to load in the process, or don’t feel like they are being sold something, they are more likely to participate. You can always link back to your page or promote a contest on the next status update, which they may be more likely to click through, because you didn’t inconvenience them previously.

You’re at the Center Now

Every organization wants to be the place people go to for the latest news or interesting updates. With this tweet, the newspaper in question didn’t have have a large article with tons of interviews or information to point to, but they gave the impression that they were on top of the news regardless. They immediately showed that not only did they know about the big news event, but that they cared what people thought of it. Only minutes after the quake occurred, they had a large number of comments. They placed their organization at the center of the conversation about the issue. It is the truth that people will remember OC Weekly as being on top of what happened. People truly do remember these things and will come back.

You will Appear at the top of the News Feed

Don’t underestimate the growing popularity of the News Feed on Facebook. At this point, many people have more than 200 friends, and are starting to spend much of their time (when not scoping through pictures) on the News Feed. Why? That particular feed shows the posts that have seen the most activity. The News Feed is a quick, easy way to get up to date on what people in your group of friends are talking about the most. It should be your goal to have at least one of your updates appear near the top of the feed each day.

Conclusion:

It should be noted that linking to your content is not inherently wrong. Such updates are obviously a large part of what makes your fan page worth a visit. What I am advocating here is an injection of your own personality, your own humanity into the Facebook stream on a regular basis. This particular update ended up with 60 comments at the end of the day and was among the most popular updates on the fan page, according to Facebook stats. Asking questions about pressing news events adds value, color and personality, which people are going to relate to and remember. This behavior is going to bring people back, which is perhaps your greatest goal of all.

Here are some examples of the axiomatic tweet:

@BrianSolis “If ignorance is bliss, awareness is…? Awakening? What do you think?”

Brian took it one step further here by asking a question.

@Percival “Twitter misinformation is the best misinformation”

That Percival humor always shines through.

In all the years I have been involved with news organizations, whether they be radio, TV or print, most of my bosses haven’t been very internet savvy. In recent years though that has begun to change. Now the people in charge of newsrooms are starting to become web literate. The influx of Facebook and Twitter has caused old school journalists to move online, and see the possibilities for their company sites, as well as the advertising on said sites.

It goes without saying that some “get it” when it comes to social media more than others. Some just have no clue, and I’m not going to talk about them here, because I would prefer to focus on where we’re going, instead of where we’ve been (at least for this post). Here are three types of bosses who know where we are going, and are adjusting their old media jobs to fit the times.

The Youngin’

She’s young… maybe 31 or 32. She could perhaps run her publication’s social media strategy herself if she didn’t already run the newsroom. She likes playing video games in her spare time. She knows what makes a story shareable on the web. She spends time on FARK and understands the humor that it takes to get one of the site’s admins to put her content on the front page. She spends time looking at the front page of Digg. When she submits something to Digg, there are people who actually digg her content because they recognize her as having dugg their content. She’s a member of several social networks in fact. She’s just as likely to tweet something as she is to update her Facebook page (or that of her news organization).

The highlight of the last month for her was buying her iPad. She brags about the different apps she has downloaded and gives interns and employees advice on how to use the thing. When the writers release a blog update, she uses SEO principles to adjust the title so that it earns a higher place on search results. She reads Mashable and TechCrunch in her free time. She enjoys talking with the web professionals on her staff to learn the latest trends in the world of tech.

The Adaptable Pro

They call him “old” but he gets it. Learning new things is what it’s always been about. He began as a reporter 20 years ago, and has always had a quick and nimble mind that helped him keep up with the world around him and deliver the facts to the public for the TV stations and the publications he worked for. These days he looks at his site’s page view numbers almost as much as he looked at the ratings for TV stations he worked for. Now that he runs this news operation it’s vital that he doesn’t just keep up with how news is disseminated, but that he participates in that dissemination himself.

Twitter is the primary example of this. One of his web professionals recommends that he sends at least ten tweets a day from his own Twitter account, so he does his best to reach that number each day. He’s starting to get the hang of it and people in the company are retweeting him. People out there are realizing that his account is associated with his particular news operation, so he has started to build a sizable following. He knew he had “arrived” when one of the country’s largest blogs about online culture called him “the old guy who tweets about stuff no one cares about.” That was a kick. It made him realize that the next time he had a job opening for a blogger, he should hire someone from that organization. It would only help his company’s online cred. So he did just that.

The Vet/Legend

It’s been 30 years since she became editor of a newspaper for the first time. It goes without saying that things have changed, but she knows how to roll with the punches. She’s actually run this particular publication so long that the burger joint across the street has named one of its food items after her. In recent years the effort to integrate the web into her operation has really picked up steam. Online advertising revenue has risen as a portion of the company’s overall number, so she can see the writing on the wall.

She doesn’t do SEO or social media work herself, but she knows her people have it covered and she understands the importance of those things. Fine tuning in those areas has lead to an increase in page views for the paper’s Web site, and that’s the key thing. She’s an overseer. It’s her managing editor’s job to inspect the content and her job to make sure that the team gets results both online and off. She’s not always been “into” the internet but she’s started to browse more and more in recent years. Particularly, she likes to see what her main competitors are covering throughout the day. She was thrilled to learn recently that because of her company’s embrace of social media, her site is eclipsing many of the other publication Web sites in the market.

Turns out there was a bad accident on the expressway in front of my house. 3 cars banged up bad. Van #42 was here as part of the 2-hour investigation. Once it left, my connectivity issues were long gone. The paranoia always seems to linger in this brain of mine though.

One would think that after spending years of my life on the social media site Digg, I would have made it to at least one Kevin Rose/Alex Albrecht on-stage booze-fest. Alas, no. I’ve never been to even one Digg meet-up. Amazingly for me, I was surprised at how much fun I had, and how fanboy-y I am. I am sad that there may not be any more of these come the end of the year, because Rose is starting a new show.

The guys have a surprisingly cool set-up. They are sponsored by Ford, GoDaddy and some others. They had large screens set up all over Club Mezzanine, so I could see the two no matter how far back I was. And it was not easy to get close. I was simply shocked at the love shown to both these guys. The large crowd of several hundred people was noisy as hell, and didn’t hold back. The beer and the promised rock show afterward didn’t hurt. Although not many people stuck around longer than the show itself, unless they were trying to meet the two and take a picture with them.

To be honest, the main point of Diggnation is to go over some of the best stories on Digg at the time, but the hosts didn’t really get a chance to do much of that. Most of the time was spent getting to the stage, (They journeyed through the crowd to get there, which seemed to me to be an unwise choice, but what do I know!) chugging beers, harassing their cameramen and producers, and shooting the shit. They also spent at least a quarter of the time giving out free schwag, which ranged from shirts to memory sticks.

I was quite happy when a good friend of mine, Steve Elliott, who runs the Village Voice Media site “Toke of the Town,” got a huge shout-out from Kevin Rose himself.

He specifically pointed out the picture on Elliott’s Digg profile page, and showed the crowd the massive pot plant next to Steve in his avatar. Rose called Steve the greatest “weed digger without a doubt,” and brought up the fact that the vast majority of Steve’s submissions have involved marijuana.

It’s an appropriate shout-out considering the massive amount of work Steve has done on social media with regard to the legalization fight all over the U.S. Toke of the Town articles primarily concentrate on the efforts in various states for and against legalization.

Albrecht and Rose had to have consumed at least three drinks on stage by the time the show ended. They then moved over to the side of the club where they took pictures with fans and signed autographs. Wading through that huge group of people took more than half an hour but my buddy James Tamplin and I eventually got close enough to talk to the guys very briefly, as the rock music played loudly behind us.

We met at Medjool’s, a club in San Francisco’s Mission District. We socialized, shot the shit and hung out on their roof. It was good meeting Tal, who turns out to be one of the nicest guys around. I also hear that his web site Walyou is having a lot of success. I am very happy for him! Much thanks to Sharon, a.k.a. SunGoddess808, for the group picture she took!

Here is Tal Siach in the flesh people. Yes he really DOES exist.

Two nice diggers. Cas Ruffin is a new-ish Digger (@dahrecords) on the scene, and Tal is an old man.

This is the first time that Jerry James Stone, the environmental Digger, and really-long-timer Jason Lankow, a.k.a "Jaybol" had ever met. Digger JMRitchie, or Josh Ritchie, was hovering somewhere nearby but for some reason I can't find the pic I took of him.

Tal and Ben had a bit TOO much fun I think at this point in the night.

This is the group shot taken by Sharon, a.k.a Sungoddess808. That's Jerry, Me, Ben Bicais, Tal Siach and Cas Ruffin.

Ben and Jerry don't make ice cream, but they can bring the page views.