Social media sites are a great way to get some publicity for your blog…they’re also a great way for people to find cool stories that interest them. No longer are “important” stories decided by a handful of people in the media…stories are voted upon and the things people are actually interested in get more visibility. Such is the case with Digg…or at least it was…until Mark Cuban’s brother Brian got banned.

Brian Cuban was an avid Digg user…so much so that he had to install a 3rd-party application (called a script) into his web browser to “digg” (vote for) stories his friends submitted. This however was a big no-no in the eyes of Digg.com and they gave him the boot. He wrote an article about the situation (which somewhat ironically made the front page of Digg) and ever since then, they’ve been cleaning house.

With many of Digg’s most loyal user-base now out in the cold, many are turning to rival site StumbleUpon…and with good reason(s):

1. Categories - Find What You Want

Digg has some categories…but really there are only three categories that matter: Front Page, Upcoming & Gone-Into-Obscurity. A story has 24 hours to hit the front page, if it doesn’t your story will get somewhere between 0 and 300 hits before it is moved into the darkest corners of the Web.

With StumbleUpon, you simply tell them what categories you’re interested in and hit “Stumble” to be taken to a site you very likely will enjoy. Site owners enjoy more traffic and Stumblers find stuff that is interesting to them.

2. Welcome In - A Better Class of User

Stumblers are more apt to read the page and more likely to visit other pages on your site — remember, this site was recommended to them based on their viewing habits…not only do users get content that is suggested based on their Stumbling, but site owners get people who are more interested in their site. Everybody wins.

3. Tags - Welcome to the Internet

YouTube has tags, Last.fm has tags, even amateur bloggers have tags — yet Digg doesn’t use them. Tags let you indicate what the story is about, helping StumbleUpon provide you with more relevant content by providing you with stories that contain the same tags and using your tags to help other users.

4. Add-ons - Firefox Users Welcome

Digg is a great site with some great uses…but there are some things it lacks. But necessity is the mother of invention, so some nice people created Firefox add-ons (like the DiggBoss script) that let users automate repetitive tasks and save time. While Digg has banned people for using such add-ons, the StumbleUpon toolbar for Firefox is the first thing StumbleUpon tells you to get when you create an account.

5. Banned - Benny Greenberg Come on In!

By creating a better recommendation engine and embracing user-friendly technology, StumbleUpon doesn’t suffer from any of the “abuses” that Digg so adamantly fights against. So they don’t have to ban anyone…if there’s no problem in the first place, there’s no need to find a solution (if it ain’t broke…), so Benny, MasterofHyrule, Misanthrope girl…I’m heading over to StumbleUpon…see you there?