Chris Brogan had some interesting stats on Friday after having made the front page of Digg and del.icio.us – although his stats had a huge spike, there was zero carry over to the following days. Nothing, nada, zip…it was a one day spike.

Now a one day spike is nice, but what it tells us is that Digg and Del.icio.us are just providing disengaged readers. Think of it as the internet equivalent of the drive by…indiscriminate traffic that stops by then leaves forever.

I wonder if this calls into question the importance of social media. Do we really get any bang for our buck, or are we just acting as content sources for other site’s end product?

As Chris notes, he’s not really looking for eyeballs at any price, he’s looking for engaged readers. His take:

My experience tells me this about me and my content: you’re already here. I’m gaining 50-100 new friends a week. And that’s just plenty fine.

The take away here: as an online publisher, Digg and Del.icio.us may very well be the shotgun approach. I wouldn’t rest my whole content strategy on them…