Wow, this totally came as a shock… I submitted this 7 days ago and thought it died. There was an incredible response to the article I submitted but I thought the story expired to the land of the forgotten.

Then, I saw the popular stories in my feed reader, and I’m astonished. Here’s the Digg story so you can see it with your own eyes.

I guess the Digg algorithm is getting harder and harder to nail.

Many of you know I’m writing more and more about Digg. I’ve become deeply involved in the community and I’ve gotten a greater understanding of what stories make it to the main page. I’m about to break the Top 100 (that list is here). It’s something, that, as Muhammad Saleem said, is because of a heightened awareness of what that community seeks:

Because they understand the nuances of the site and the preferences of the community, they are able to submit content that is appreciated by the democracy-based community of Digg and the content is consequently promoted to the home page.

When I submit a story to Digg, I have a good deal of confidence that my stories have a decent chance of hitting the main page, typically because I generally look for the content that is worthy of a Digg front-page mention. That’s why I was astonished when I saw a story in my feed reader that I ultimately submitted to Digg get buried at 43 votes. I spotted an anomaly that I typically didn’t detect once the story got buried: the rate at which it was being Dugg still grew, and by the time I checked the story again just a few hours later, it had an additional 60+ votes. Typically, buried stories taper off. They don’t grow like this. The community saw the piece and felt, like me, that it was deserving of a front page promotion, but the story inexplicably didn’t make it.

Dear Apple,

In all this iPhone hype, many of your consumers seem to have forgotten about your beloved iPod. I haven’t, and I still keep my trusty Mac Buyer’s Guide handy to find out when a buying cycle ends or is about to begin.

I bought my first iPod, a 3rd generation device, in September of 2003. I still like it, but my music collection has grown and the battery life of this iPod is not as good as it used to be. I’d love to upgrade and take advantage of those features that have graced the presence of newer portable Apple products.

I saw my boss’s iPhone. I even played with it for a bit, but I was scared that I’d accidentally call someone. Despite this, the interface is totally awesome. You’ve made great strides since the 3rd generation iPod days.

Therefore, I write to ask of you, my friends, to consider building a 6th generation iPhone — only without the phone. I think the WiFi is hot, and I really don’t care about how it’s interfering with Duke University’s WiFi network (even though it really isn’t). I can still handle that.

As I become more and more immersed in the world of social media, I begin seeing how it’s not just me; social media is a tool that infiltrates our existence and our being. Consider the Digg effect: if your server is ill-prepared for a traffic spike and you hit the front page for the first time, your web host will probably disable your service contract. Within the first few hours, you’re seeing at least 10,000 visitors to your website. That’s substantial. These thousands of users are all accessing your superior content at the same time and are being influenced by what you say. In fact, social media is on the radar of many prominent news outlets. Journalists are watching what is being submitted, and more interestingly, they are watching what you say.

Two examples have arisen this past week.

In anticipation for the highly acclaimed Harry Potter novel, photographed pages of the book have already leaked onto the Internet. Within hours, the discovery was brought to the forefront of the Digg community. The Wall Street Journal covered the initial leak. What tipped them off? This TorrentFreak post seems most likely. After all, it made its way to Digg.

The worst possible thing you can do is to slight someone else at the expense of convenience. The result is bad publicity, regardless of the benefits you believe it yields for the short term. If you screw up, it’s a public relations nightmare. Can we say damage control?

Here are three cases that were blown way out of proportion but could have been handled a lot better if the companies thought of the consequences before acting. There’s a bottom line: it’s a lot harder to sweep your mistakes under the rug, especially as a company in a world of conversing markets.

Case #1: Sprint Terminates Customers’ Accounts for Complaints

It’s been all over the Internet already. One of the more recent fiascoes occurred when Sprint forcibly disconnected service for 1,200 customers. From News4Jax.com, Sprint released a rather disturbing statement, saying:

Rather than continue to operate in a situation that was unsatisfactory for Sprint and our subscribers, we chose to terminate our relationship with those customers to allow them to pursue other options.