Propeller Takes on Digg and Other Social News Portal

If you’re a new social media site going up against an industry leader such as Digg, what could probably your best bet against it? Being under the umbrella of one of the major internet media player might actually. Such is the case of AOL’s Propeller social news portal.

Propeller is by all means a direct competitor to Digg. From its user-submitted links to stories originating from newspapers and magazines.

Once a hot story appears on Propeller, community members can vote for the comment by “propping it”, post their comment about the story, share it with friends, or bookmark the story for reading later on.The more votes a story gets, the higher its popularity becomes. With this Propeller is trying to sprinkle the story with fun and makes it more interesting.

By all means, Propeller has the making of great social news portal.However, it is not free of spammers and users who will try to make the site as undesirable as they can with their nasty and objectionable comments. Hence, to prevent these people from polluting the site, Propeller is a fully moderated site by its editorial team as well as some help from the Propeller community members as well.

Join Baratunde Thurston (left), The Onion’s Director of Digital and author of How to Be Black, for an entertaining look at creative social media campaigns in our Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting February 16. Other speakers include Morin Oluwole (Facebook), Tim Devane (bitly), and SocialTimes' writer Devon Glenn.   Register now.