The PFT Newbie Column – The Stumble Upon activity on Thursdays

Krysthle Poitras

Hi team,

I would like to introduce myself as one of the many newbies that recently joined the team. I am learning the ins and outs of all the activities, and I'm finding that it`s quite a steep learning curve. Being the adventurous self that I am, I have decided that I will try each activity at least once, even the ones I'm not knowledgeable about, so that I can report on the how-to`s for the other team members who dare not adventure into unknown territory! Lol

I figure this will be a good resource for all future members who also join the team and might feel a little overwhelmed by all the requirements.  Fear not, I am here to mess up and learn for you, so you don’t have to!

Okay, every Thursday is dedicated to the Stumble Upon activity.  If you don’t know what Stumble Upon is, it’s a platform for sharing and finding webpage’s based on your interests. You choose your interest categories and SU (StumbleUpon) will find webpages that have content matching those interests.  When you click on the Stumble button, SU will bring up a page that is of interest to you.

But how is this any good for your business? Well, when you add pages to SU, it inventories them in its large network of webpages for others to discover. You don’t know who might stumble upon your product page, but it redirects targeted traffic that has an interest in your kind of product.  Targeted traffic is much more likely to buy from you, because they are actually interested in your products compared to blindly promoting to people who may or may not be interested.

So how does this activity work? First you need to sign up and have an account. I won’t teach you how to this, as it’s pretty basic. Once you have an account, you are set to go! I recommend downloading the SU app to easily add pages.  Select the appropriate app depending on which internet browser you use. Click on the following link to download: http://www.stumbleupon.com/downloads

Let`s review some of the features you will be using. Your dashboard should be similar to this picture:

 The most important features are all on this home page.  To access the homepage, click on the arrow at the top right of your SU dashboard and choose profile in the scroll down menu. Note that another important feature is here, the Add Page feature.

The Add page feature lets you register a new page for the SU inventory of webpages. If you haven’t downloaded the SU bar as mentioned above, this is how you will want to add pages. 

In the team discussion threads, you might hear talk about adding a review, or reviewing a team member. This means the same thing as adding a page. If you have the SU bar, you can simply click on the SU button in your browser bar, and this will bring you to the Add Page feature. The picture below shows you what the icon looks like, on the top right. It might be elsewhere’s on your browser, but this is where I keep it.

If a page has already been added (or reviewed), it won’t bring you to the add page button. In that case, you can just click the thumbs up as seen on the top left hand side of the picture above. Now you have liked the page, and the Stumble part is done for this particular shop.

But what is it hasn't been added yet? Here is what you need to do. First find the thread with all the shops. It should similar to this:

As you can see, only one shop as signed up so far. You will want to call out no.2 in the thread in case someone else also wants to add themselves to the thread at the same time as you. If no one else is calling the spot, go ahead and add your info.  Add your shop name followed by the listing you would like promoted. Make sure you remove everything after the numbers so that a picture doesn't show up. Then, you will need to choose a topic/category for your listing. Look at the SU categories (What`s this page about section) to figure out which on best represents your listing. Then choose four tags that best describe your product.

The person who signs up after you is the one who does your review. And you are supposed to review the person that is on the list before you. In this case JQ Jewelry Designs. The reason for doing the review is that someone needs to add the listing into the SU inventory. To be fair, everyone does one review (the person before them). Once the page has been reviewed/added, you don’t need to start over each time. You can just click on the thumbs up button at the top of the page when you click on the Etsy listing.

Okay, so to do the review, you need to add the web address that JQ has provided (the listing).  JQ had also provided you with a category/topic and tags. Choose the category she has provided for you and type in the tags she has chosen.  In the Write a Comment section, you have two options. Either you can copy and paste the description from the listing page, or you can write a positive blurb about her product. It’s really up to you.  Once you have finished, just click on the Add This Page button and the hard work is over.

If SU is giving you trouble and won’t let you like pages, you can always piggy back off someone who was able to do it. Team members will often share their “likes page” for you. Follow the link they have provided and it should bring you to the team members reviews.  Find the listing you were looking for and click on the small letter ‘i’ (for info) in the box.

This should lead you to the “Stumblers Who Have Liked This” page. Click on the thumbs up at the top of the page, and you have accomplished your stumble.

Once you are finished doing this, all you need to do is share via other social media if you have chosen to do so. For example, if you provide a link for Pinterest, so that others pin your listing. You are expected to do the same with the team members that have also provided links to pin. Same applies to Twitter, Wanelo and other social media sites. And don’t forget to heart each item too on Etsy.

Hope you will now have the confidence to go and participate in the next Stumble Upon Activity on Thursday!

xox Krys