Social Bookmarking could be one of the best things that ever happened to websites and blogs.
Basically Social Bookmarketing sites allow users to create a set of content bookmarks. These bookmarks are organized by tags, which are (usually) arbitrary words or phrases the user can assign to content. This gives the user a way to classify, rank and organize content using tags. The most popular Social Bookmarking Site is del.ici.ous, which has millions of users.
Social Bookmarking sites have an intrinsic advantage over search engines and other bots people choose what to bookmark rather than relying on a program to categorize and qualify content. There is an implied quality in something that someone has taken the time to select.
Social Bookmarkers read other people's bookmarks and add them to their own if they like them. There are also RSS feeds so people can see what others are tagging, which I think is really cool, and a textbook example of viral marketing.
About 4% of my referrers this month are del.icio.us related, including .8% off the home page, meaning that people click on my link when they see it pop up in their RSS feed. I get a goodly amount of traffic from technorati as well, but I would call that site a business bookmarking site, so I'm not going to mention it here.
I only provide a facility on AffiliateBlog for del.icio.us tagging. There is a terrific WordPress plugin called Sociable that allows direct tagging for tons of Social Bookmarking sites. If you don't have it as part of your blog you should get it and install it today. This blog is being redesigned and should be done in a few weeks. The new design will incorporate Sociable.
So what can YOU do to get the social bookmarking virus ramped up? I see two basic considerations:
1. Write good content. Darren Rouse had an interesting observation about del.icio.us items that make it to the top of the site. You can take a look, but basically he observes that lists, how-tos, technical articles and humor get to the top faster.
2. Give people the tools to bookmark easily. If you have a blog, use Sociable. It's terrific. If you have a site, there are plenty of interesting tools that will help you make it easy for your visitors to bookmark your content. AddtoBookmarks.com is a good one.
There are Social Bookmarking sites popping up all over the place. Here are the Top 10. Where did I find them? In someone's bookmark list on Listable, of course.
Del.icio.us Listible Digg StumbleUpon BlinkList Spurl Magnolia Furl BlogMarks Reddit
Related articles from around the web:
Similar content: Viral Marketing, Social Bookmarking, Marketing, myspace, Del.icio.us
How to Effectively Target Your Marketing
Advertising has traditionally entailed the creation and dissemination of promotional content that, one hopes, will attract the interest of new customers while also building a professional and wide brand image and awareness. Hopelessly inefficient, this form of advertising has been largely replaced by the rise of targeted advertising – helped along by big data sets […]
The Benefits Of Promoting Through Social Media Marketing
Just like the company website, it is important to use social media sites for promoting the business. There are effective tools that any business can use to advertise the company website that will increase traffic to the site, filled with like-minded individuals. In the last few years, social media networking sites have created a sea […]
Why I Like Social Media Marketing
Social media marketing is one of my favorite forms of marketing. That wasn't always true because in the beginning I didn't know what I was doing. Like many marketers, I thought that marketing on social media was just about posting links and telling people to buy your products. I was gravely wrong and I wasted […]
How To Be Effective In Social Media Marketing
Marketing through social media is all about connecting with your customers. Social media has made it possible for the ordinary consumer to directly interact with the merchant. This has helped many companies strengthen their relationship with their customers, thus increasing customer loyalty. You can use social media marketing in improving your business as well. Read […]
