Can you Digg it?

One of the websites at the forefront of the web 2.0 revolution is Digg.com. Digg is leading the trend toward "news" sites that don't employ a news staff. Think of Digg like this: it's a fully democratic news system that allows anyone to post news items and site visitors "digg" the story...meaning they vote on the fact that the story was interesting, helpful, entertaining, etc. The popular stories rise to the top and the others just sink to the bottom. You can learn more about it here.

A little background
Digg has been a tech news website since its launch in 2004 until today when they launched a new Digg.com that covers world news, entertainment, science, and gaming. It will be interesting to see how they do with this jump outside the geek news world but here's why Digg is important to you: if you can get a story in the Digg headlines you have just bypassed the hidden barrier that every living marketer faces...the advertising defense.

Ad defense and the beauty of Digg.com
The advertising defense is what all of us have to some degree or another. It's the filter that allows us to skip right over magazine ads, flip past TV commercials, ignore billboards, and file direct mail in our trash can. We filter most of these message because we know we're being marketed to and there's so much of it around us we're very selective with the things we give our attention to. Here's where Digg (or a site like it) comes in. When you go to one of these sites you're not looking to be marketed to in the stories themselves because if you're looking at the top headlines then you're reviewing what thousands of other people have already qualified as newsworthy...meaning you trust that they aren't going to pay attention to something that just an ad so the people give the story credibility which in turn means you're advertising defense is not up. It's the PR professional's dream. The only little hitch in this plan is that your story has to actually be good...and other people have to agree with you. It will take the right story to be well dug, but when it happens you'll know you're really onto something.

Who cares?
If you're a with a church, this probably isn't something you're going to use because your comunication focus is going to be predominatly local. However, if you're involved with a nationwide ministry or business, consider releasing your news in a diggable fashion. Digg's traffic is going to climb over the next several months since they've opened their site for more topics. It will be a great place to be seen and reach people you would never reach through other means.