Greetings from Inside the SEOigloo!
Danny Sullivan, the father of search marketing, has just launched his new social media site, Sphinn.com. I was rather surprised by the lack of pre-promotion around this big new entity, but the word is quickly getting out about this niche SM hangout.
Sphinn is like Digg
Track your friends, leave comments, and submit articles and discussions for the community to vote on. Sphinn has the standard social media setup of sites like Digg and Reddit. There are a variety of main topics you can submit articles to, and if enough members sphinn your article, you make it to the front page.
Sphinn is NOT like Digg
It’s early days yet, of course, and we can only cross our fingers that Sphinn won’t become a hub for spammers, but it’s immediately apparent that the level of discussion going on at Sphinn is far more on-topic and less negative than what one encounters at Digg.
Search engine marketers are far from welcome at Digg. Now, with Sphinn, they have a place of their own to discuss SEO, SEM, SM, and the major search engines. Sphinn is still in beta, at the moment, but Sullivan and his team are working tirelessly to hammer out bugs and the site has apparently already accrued 500+ members.
Small business owners who are eagerly educating themselves about search engines and marketing stand to learn a lot by making Sphinn a daily read. Even if you are not yet confident enough in your own skills to start or participate in discussions, simply reading the submissions will give you an edge over your non-Sphinning competitors.
On a final note, it seems that the pronunciation of “Sphinn” has become a FAQ. It’s not pronounced “sphinn”, and contrary to popular belief, was not named after Danny Sullivan’s disreputable uncle, Sven. Just pretend the “h” isn’t there, and you’ll be saying it correctly. And, if you do become a Sphinner, I’d like to become your friend.