Hi. My name is Ian, and I Digg myself. And that’s OK.

There have been several articles (on Slate.com and in the Wall Street Journal, to name a few) talking about how marketers are using tagging communities like Digg.com and Technorati. Smart Ruthless marketers (like me) are apparently tagging our blog posts with the singular intent of getting people to read our stuff. Gasp.

It’s all good. Think about it. I can post my content to Digg and Technorati until I’m blue in the face. But if nobody likes it, then they won’t link to it, or ‘Digg’ it, or do anything else.

Marketers, salespeople and pundits do use tagging communities to promote themselves. But if the communities don’t pick up the thread, then it goes nowhere. If the message is compelling, then it gains momentum.

It is possible, theoretically, to get 1500 of your closest friends to link to you and vote for your story. But somehow, I’m guessing Digg and Technorati, (and Furl and all the others) check to see if the same 1500 folks promote your content day in and day out.

Tagging is the best self-correcting media distribution method yet: Write well, inform, entertain, and you’ll succeed. Write poorly, or bore the heck out of people, and you’ll fail, no matter how hard you try to game the system.

Oh, yeah, and if you like this story, please Digg it.