New Kid in the School of Digg

I've been playing around with a Digg account lately, trying to figure out how to best incorporate our clients content into this fun social networking site.  Digg is unique because it doesn't

1.An Ace Nickname: The Username.  I'm a big fan of creating plausible usernames - in this case I used my real name.  As a newbie, using a normal name like "Scott Osman" or "Miranda Mocco" helps sets the precedent that you're not a bot out to spam.

2.It's all About Looks: Your Avatar.  This needs to be unique from other users and if possible, consistent across social networking sites.  I threw a relatively ugly yellow border around my image, as an easy way for people to indicate it's me.  Check out some successful avatars and get a little feedback on what people think of yours. http://avatarwall.com/toprated.  Again, I found that as a newbie, people like seeing a face, it makes communicating more friendly, but as always different people like different things.

3.Hang Out in the Cool Places: Share Your Profiles!  Digg permits members to share tons of profile links, be sure to take advantage of this so your future friends can easily contact you.  Be sure to include your: Twitter, AIM, MSN, Yahoo!, Gchat, last.fm, facebook, linked in, reddit, and stumble upon profiles. 

4.Make friends with the popular crowd.  Long ago Digg had a top users list (sometimes referred to as the "holy grail"), but it was deleted.  I used an alternative list set up by SocialBlade to friend top active diggers.
By friending them, you will become their "fan" whereby you receive updates on their Digg activities; it is only when they accept you as a friend that your status is certified as "mutual friends" and your activity will be received by them.

5.Identify stylish trends: Pin Pointing Submissions with Front Page Potential.  How do you find the high potential articles when the majority of submissions are spam with one or two Diggs?  First and foremost, digg your friends submissions as they appear, especially if the friend sends a "shout" (like a facebook wall post) promoting a certain submission.  You're allowed 200 diggs a day - depending on how much of a life you have, try to use all 200.
I'm a huge fan of the Digg Noise Filter, which pulls up articles with your requested number of diggs in it.  Or try the Flash based Digg Watcher.

6. Back Stabbing: Talk about your Friends.  I cannot stress this one enough.  You must comment on submissions, and the more people who vote up your comment, the more recognition you get.  

I've certainly struggled to figure out what makes a popular comment; supporting Obama, comic book heroes, and protests all seem to be green lights.  Whitty banter, sarcasm, and jokes are usually popular, and comments like "interesting submission" often get a thumbs down for being too obvious. 
Being one of the first people to comment on an article that goes to the front page is a great way to build up your recognition.  People who view the article will see your comment as it appears at the top of the page, hence more are likely to vote it a thumbs up, and hopefully friend you.  
Check out where your popular friends are commenting and be sure to "reply" to their comments.  This will call attention to yourself and hopefully be enough to convince them to friend you back.

Spend about 1 month following the above rules.  In part II (which will also take me about 1 month to write!) I'll go over great strategies for submitting content that gets notable traffic.  In the mean time, get commenting!