Among the top social media websites, one of the leading traffic generators is StumbleUpon. The main reason for this is that once a user likes a specific page, it is added on the StumbleUpon lineup and will be displayed to all visitors using the StumbleUpon toolbar.

How can you best capitalise on StumbleUpon to drive traffic to your website?

The bottom line to succeeding at StumbleUpon is generating great content. No sales or product description page will take you far if it is devoid of great content. To know the right content to use on StumbleUpon, use their query page to get tutorials, videos, and infographics on generating great content. Naturally, if your content does well on social networks, it stands a great chance on StumbleUpon.

Here are four tips to help you use StumbleUpon to drive more traffic

1. Generate organic stumbles

Many site owners come to realise the power of StumbleUpon when using analytics. Make sure to include the StumbleUpon badge on your website content. The StumbleUpon badges page provides integration tips for Movable Type, WordPress, and Movable integration. It also comes with a variety of social share plugins like Digg for WordPress. If your content is easier for people to stumble on, there is a greater probability of being stumbled and driving more traffic.

2. Share your content

After signing up on StumbleUpon, add its URL or enter your message and send it as a status update. It will connect to your Facebook and Twitter accounts to post the message or schedule it. When a visitor clicks the link, he/she will be redirected to your website with a StumbleUpon toolbar. All those logged into StumbleUpon will be able to give the content a ‘thumbs up’. The tool even enables users to share the same content on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and other networks. This will help to drive more traffic to your website.

3. Establish the following base

After getting followers on StumbleUpon, share your content directly with them. Getting followers on your site on StumbleUpon works just like Twitter; however, you do not have automatic follow-back users. You need to get users to follow, follow them, and remain optimistic that they will follow back. StumbleUpon sends an email notification to tell the user that somebody followed them. Getting followers in your niche is easy. Simply visit http://www.stumbleupon.com/discover/keyword/ and replace the “keyword” using the topic of interest.  The Stumbler’s profile opens with graphics that demonstrate the extent of commonness with other followers.

To raise your chances of being followed, make sure you create an appealing profile for your website by adding basic information, selecting topics of interest, and uploading a profile image. Even if people rarely stumble on the message, you can only share it if it is stumbled. You can either wait or ask a friend to stumble it. From here, you can share and send a message of 140 characters to every follower you interacted with.

4. Employ StumbleUpon paid discoveries

In case the results are not forthcoming, do not wait for natural discoveries to drive traffic. The best way is to get a StumbleUpon paid discovery, where all people interested in your topic of choice are redirected to your website. You can opt for the light plan, standard plan, or premium plan, depending on what fits your needs. With the plans, you only need to create a new campaign for the site and set it up to drive more traffic.

Conclusion

While StumbleUpon is often underestimated by marketers, it is a great way to increase traffic to your site. Just like other sites, it is imperative that you maintain the right etiquette, generate top content, and share it with followers. If all else fails, you can always make the most of the paid option, which is easy to use to drive a lot of traffic.