Welcoming Websites

Cross-posted from a series at my personal blog, Looking for Faith. Although this series is addressed specifically to Unitarian Universalists, the advice is relevant to a wider spectrum of religious groups using StumbleUpon to promote their websites.

Since the last post encouraging UU's to sign-up for StumbleUpon, a number of Unitarian Universalist bloggers have been in touch to say they are Stumblers. Yay! The list of UU Stumblers includes ChaliceChick, Elizabeth, John Pageless, Ms. Kitty, Ms. Theologian, Suzanne Reed, and me.

Ms. Kitty asked in a recent comment for advice on next steps, so let's discuss how to increase traffic to worthwhile Unitarian Universalist sites using StumbleUpon:

Step 1: Start Stumbling...

Give a thumbs up to what you believe are the best Unitarian Universalist webpages, so that other Stumblers will give them a look. My experience is that it's fine to Stumble posts on your own site -- and it will increase traffic -- so long as you Stumble a variety of other sites as well. The more sites you stumble and tag, the more people will notice your StumbleUpon list, and hopefully visit the sites you've recommended.

Step 2: Choose Topics and Write Tags

After clicking the thumbs up button, choose a topic from the drop-down menu to apply to each site (such as "religion") and add tags such as "uu" and "unitarian-universalism."

Ms. Theologian has pointed out in the comments that the panel in which to assign tags does not always appear after you click the "I like it" button. This usually happens when you are on a site someone else has already tagged. In this case, click on the button in the toolbar that looks like a thought-bubble, and then scroll down to where it says "You rated..." and click "Edit Tags or Review." I have no idea why the site is designed this way, but there you go!

I also like to add tags that relate to the specific content of the post. If the page is about being a Unitarian Universalist parent, I'd add the words "parenting," and "children." That way, the post may attract the attention of Stumblers interested in parenting posts, in addition to those looking for specifically religious content.

Step 3: Make Friends

Having friends and "fans" on StumbleUpon is another way to increase the number of people who notice your StumbleUpon recommendations. After clicking the "Browse People" button on the righthand sidebar of your StumbleUpon homepage, you can search for Stumblers by location, shared interest, or other factors. When you're on the StumbleUpon page of a user and thinking "you know, I really like what they are Stumbling," then you can click the "Add her/him as a friend" button.

The terminology around "friends" and "fans" on StumbleUpon is needlessly murky. To clarify: if you click the "Add her/him as a friend button," you become a "fan" of that person. If they reciprocate, they you are "mutual friends." If someone adds you as a friend, and you don't reciprocate, then they are a "fan" of you.

Step 4: Ask to be Stumbled

If you have a Unitarian Universalist website, whether it's your blog, your congregation's website, or another UU-relevant site, it's ok to write a quick blurb encouraging your readers who use social media to promote it.

UU blogger Julian helpfully recommends pasting some code at the end of posts that includes the buttons for StumbleUpon and other social media. There are also Wordpress plugins that encourage readers to promote your posts on social media. I've hesitated to use one on Looking for Faith out of concern that the buttons will confuse readers unfamiliar with social media, but perhaps this is Luddite of me.

Any other steps that should be added to the list? Please let me know in the comments. Thanks and happy Stumbling!

To see earlier posts in this series, visit Four Reasons for Unitarian Universalists to Use Social Media and More StumbleUpon for Unitarian Universalists.