As a business owner, I know many opportunities come from the strangest places, when you least expect them.   I often refer to this as stumbling upon a lead.   I am not the first person to use that phrase.  As a matter of fact, it is so common that a website by that very name helps you discover and share great websites.

StumbleUpon.com allows you to rank content with a thumbs up or thumbs down, then StumbleUpon will share more similar content.  It is wonderful to browse for information or inspiration.   But as I have discovered, it is also powerful for lead generation.

We encourage visitors to “Tweet” and “Like” anything they read on our blog.  As a result, we typically get a few visits each day.  We know that social traffic is a great way to reach new people so we  also  installed a “share this” plug in as a standard part of each blog post we write.    It offers visitors a chance to use a wide range of social media tools to share or comment on a post.  The list includes:  Twitter, Facebook, Digg, Delicious, Technorati and Stumble along with many others.  We have tested each of these tools, and StumbleUpon seems to be the most effective at bringing new people and casual browsers.

What makes StumbleUpon powerful? It provides content which others with similar interest like.

Using search engines to locate relevant content typically means hunting through pages of results. Rather than searching for quality web sites, StumbleUpon members are taken directly to web sites matching their personal interests and preferences

The result?  People who find us through Stumble are interested in what we offer.   As a result of our strategic stumbling of our own content, we have seen increases in web traffic, and inquiries from people who have found us through the web.  I intend to keep stumbling, systematically.  What about you?  What have you stumbled upon lately?