How to Use the StumbleUpon App
As a blogger (and mom) who is always on the go, I’m a huge fan of any phone app that will help me in my day-to-day life. I recently discovered the power of StumbleUpon from a blogger friend and I’ve been slightly addicted to stumbling and sharing my favorite posts from my favorite bloggers. As you know, I work during the day at an office and I can’t just be on the internet and stumbling, so I found the StumbleUpon app to help me feed my addiction in my down times and I’m sharing a few tips and tricks with you here today!
As much as I know you all hate scrolling, I’m just going to warn you that I have several (lots, actually) screenshots to share to fully get the gist of the app so there’s going to be scrolling in this post. You also know that I’m wordy so just hang in there with me and before you know it, you’ll be addicted to stumbling on the StumbleUpon app as well.
Disclaimer: This post is in no way sponsored and there are no affiliate links. I downloaded this free app for my Android phone and this is my experience with the app.
When you first open your StumbleUpon app, you will either get your first stumble post or you will get this home screen. If you don’t get this screen, just hit back until you get here if you want to search a few of your favorite categories or learn what’s trending. If you’re ready to start stumbling, just press the red circle and off you go!
I’m going to start with the main menu where you can see your choices are to look at your profile, your lists, get SU help, or log out of the app. If you happen to have pending shares from your contacts, they will also be listed in this menu. I keep up with my shares pretty closely these days (addiction will do that to you) so I didn’t have any pending when I made this screenshot. You will have a red number on that menu button and an option to choose to view your shares if you have them.
Let’s look at what you can find on a user’s profile. I chose to use mine, but you can view this same information with any user you find on SU. We’ll talk about some of that in just a bit.
As you can see, you can view a user’s likes and interests, any lists they are following, and their profile picture from this screen. If you are a fan of a particular person and you tend to like the same things this person likes, just hit “Stumble Likes” and you’ll get a random post from their likes. Once you find a post you like, you can thumbs up (I’ll show you that in just a bit) and it will stick in your likes. Once you have begun stumbling their likes, just hit the red round SU button to continue to the next like. You do not have to back to their profile every time. You will see this in a later screenshot.
TIP: Stumbling another user’s likes (and giving thumbs up to their likes) gives that user Stumble Power.
The more you stumble their likes, the more powerful they become and their likes are more likely to become some of the random stumbling posts. If that person stumbles one of your posts, you could be one of those randoms. So, stumble your friends’ likes often!
This is the bottom half of the profile screen page when you scroll down. You can see who a person is following or who is following them. This is how I find my friends so I can stumble their likes or find a particular post that I want to thumbs up. For instance, if I know that Mallery has already given a thumbs up to Amy’s post, rather than go to Amy’s post and share it on SU (which is a little more difficult with the app, I’ll show you in a bit) then I will just go to my following, pick Mallery’s profile, go to Mallery’s likes, click on Amy’s post, and give it a thumbs up. This will be clearer in just a bit as well.
Once I click on Following, I get this screen with the people I follow in alphabetical order. If I’m looking for Mallery, I just scroll down to the M’s until I find her, then click on her name to get her profile screen.
Look at the last screenshot and you will see a button that says “Find Connections”. This is the screen I get when I click that button. I can search for new people to follow using my email list, Facebook contacts, and Twitter contacts.
I was following all except these two so I just clicked on Select All and the checkmark at the top right and now I’m following them as well.
TIP: It appears that StumbleUpon has a limit on how many new people you can follow in one day.
When I first started finding people to follow, I had 60ish new people in my contacts list. I would hit Select All and I could follow somewhere around 20 per day. I just kept doing this until I was following them all again. I believe this limit applies to the app and to SU in general so pace yourself when you’re following new people. You may think you have followed and SU will unfollow for you once you’ve hit your daily limit.
This is just the preview of a post that is about to pop onto my screen. You should see the Category and either a post title or the blog title, sometimes you will see a file name. There are times when I get this preview and I know that I will not want to thumbs up or read a post, so I just click the red button and stumble again before the page fully loads.
Okay, you have finally come across a post that you love, either through random stumbling or by stumbling someone’s likes. You have the option to thumbs up, thumbs down, or share that post. I’ll show you the share options in just a bit, but for now, let’s just thumbs up because this post is a really great one and I want it to be featured on SU.
(Hint: Notice at the top of the screenshot where it says Now Stumbling: JanetGoingCrazy’s Likes. If I hit the round red SU button, I’m still stumbling the likes from the person listed).
If you find a post that you love and you want to share it, click the share icon and here are your options. Feel free to share it on FB and Twitter, but you really want to share it with your SU contacts. Click on Another Stumbler and let’s talk about that for a minute.
Now, when you click on Another Stumbler, your contacts will pop up like this. Your contacts are not going to be all of your followers or all of those that are following you, but rather those people who you are following and they are following you back. You have the option of choosing your most recent shared or listing them alphabetical. The StumbleUpon app (like on the website) does not give you the option to Select All, likely because they don’t want you spamming all of your contacts with every post you love, so share sparingly or just with those people who you know will love the post. If you know someone will hate it and possibly thumbs down, please don’t share it with them.
Once you have chosen who you will share the post with, click on the arrow on the top right and you will get this screen to enter in a comment. Type your message and click the top right again. Voila, you have just shared your favorite post with your favorite contacts!
Let’s go back to another post that you are viewing on SU and look at this little menu on the bottom right. If a page doesn’t fully load, you can Reload or Report an Issue with the app. I rarely have to Reload a page (mostly if a blog has a lot of pop-up ads or something to stop the page from loading) and I have never had an issue to report.
Let’s talk about your middle menu on the StumbleUpon app. Here is where you can decide what Interests you want to stumble today. You can look for pictures, stick with one particular interest, see what’s trending, etc.
If you scroll down on that middle menu, you get an option that says More Interests. Here is where you can edit your Interests or choose a category to begin stumbling.
When you click Edit Interests, you will see all of the interests that you have previously chosen to set up your own profile. You can unclick an interest if you no longer want to see posts from that category.
Click on Add Interests if you want to add a category to your StumbleUpon profile.
When you click on the different categories, you get subcategories so you can be a little more specific. Set up your Interests, head on back to the StumbleUpon home page, and get to stumbling!
Now that you know how to use the StumbleUpon app, why don’t you follow me on StumbleUpon at JanetGoingCrazy and download the app for yourself!
I did not know they had a phone app!! I can definitely see myself doing this while i am in the car pick up line.
This is good because I get so confused with those apps and then I just delete them until I get to a computer. I will download again.
DaisyRay Jackson recently posted..{Review} PINE BROS SOFTISH THROAT DROPS
ooh I’ve never used the stumble app before. Thank you for the tutorial.
Jennifer H recently posted..Comment on Moto X Smartphone & Spotlight Stories #buggynight Review & Giveaway by april yedinak
I dont have a smart phone so I shared this post for others to learn
tara pittman recently posted..Cooksimple Meal Starters a Healthy Meal Kit
This is perfect for me – thanks. I need to start using Stumble again. This makes it easy!
Dawn Sandomeno recently posted..Special Carrot Salad For Spring!
Well well well – I guess I’m behind…I don’t use it. I do have an account, but haven’t really sit down to know what it’s all about…now there’s an app for that!! I must get busy! Thanks for the “how to”
kim recently posted..Starting a Tradition at Vista Camps – A Texas Hill Country Summer Camp for Kids
I use Stumbleupon every day. It’s a great source of traffic. I use the app at night to get caught up on my shares.
Ellen Christian recently posted..How to Paint a Ceramic Flower Pot
Great information, thanks!! I don’t use StumbleUpon on my phone, but it looks like something great for people who need it.
Jamie recently posted..“April Fools” Spill – #TBCCrafters (03/27/13)
Great post! I am obviously going to stumble it, but I am going to Pin it as well!! Thanks!!
Thanks this is all really useful! I need to get more use out of stumble upon, so just downloaded the app so I can do it on the go!
Anna recently posted..Disney Event at Asda – From March 31st