How And Why Do You Use Sphinn?

How and why do you use Sphinn - the social news/networking site for online marketers? Do you think it’s a dysfunctional social media site compared to other big names like Digg and Reddit?

Eric Lander thought Sphinn is dysfunctional because it has a relatively small group of active users compared to its total registered user base. He also looked into the user data and used one of the most active Sphinners Bill Hartzer’s data for analytical purposes.

Bill came back with a post to respond to Eric’s analysis and explained that the main reason for the relatively small amount of active users is because the majority of Sphinn users are internet marketers rather than social networkers, and internet marketers tend not to understand the concept of social networking.

I think both of them have valid points in the argument. Sphinn, being a niche player in the social media market, is visibly dominated by a small group of individuals, and sites. I could think of a few reasons for such low percentage of “active” users on Sphinn.

Not all users use Sphinn as a social networking site, but rather a social news site

I use Sphinn mainly to catch up on the latest news and happenings in the online marketing industry. Although I also subscribe to simply too many feeds, I still would like to see what other industry players are buzzing about.

Not everyone has the luxury of time to discover, read, sphinn and comment stories

I work in-house, and I couldn’t afford to spend the whole day’s time to read and comment every search engine industry story out there. During the day and if I’m lucky, I would have a few minutes to scan the front page of Sphinn, pick and click a few interesting titles, scan through the stories, and sphinn them if I believe I like the content. If I have some spare time in the evening, I might go back to re-read the stories. I would definitely love to discover and submit stories, but more often than not, I just do not have free time to even read a complete story.

Exciting news just do not happen every day

Sometimes I get a déjà vu feeling when I read the titles on the front page. Don’t get me wrong, there are tons of interesting ideas, theories, and opinions in our industry, but topic-wise, it just seems like we have always been talking about the same old stuff over and over again. How many times do you have to read about other people’s opinion about link building techniques, black hats, keyword strategies, more link building techniques, social media marketing, and more link building techniques?

It’s unfair to compare Sphinn to Digg and Reddit, because Sphinn does not cover as many topics as the other general news aggregators. Most news pieces come from the top 2-3 search engine news sites, which are probably on most search engine marketers’ RSS feed reader anyway.

Personally, time is the biggest factor that affect the way I use social networking sites like Sphinn, and I believe I’m not the only person with such a problem.