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What is Social Bookmarking?

If you have been at home and wished you could remember a great website that you bookmarked while you are at work, social bookmarking is a tool you can’t do without. Once you start using a social bookmarking service, you will find the convenience something you can’t live without. Social bookmarking is more than just a convenient tool for mobility purposes, it can also help increase traffic to your website and elevate brand awareness.

Some Terms You Should Know
So it doesn’t sound like I’m speaking another language, here, there are a few terms you should know to understand the rest of this post.

Tagging-Tagging something in a social bookmarking tool is the act of assigning keywords to a piece of content.

Keywords-The most prominent or influential words in a particular piece of content. Keywords can also be tags, but in social bookmarking, the reader assigns the tags, so the tags may be different than what the producer of the site would have selected.

Bookmark-Similar to marking a spot in a book, online bookmarking allows readers to bookmark websites online so that they can return to the site and view it later.

Social Bookmarking Before Social Bookmarking
The “primitive” (funny to use that term with anything associated with the internet) form of social bookmarking is to send an email to someone with a link to something you want that person to see. Unless you have friends or networks on an online social bookmarking site, this is still one of the easiest and quickest ways to share a link to a website with one or a couple of people. To share a website with the Internet browsing public, or if you are just really popular and have a lot of friends, a social bookmarking site is now the way to go. From a business standpoint, it is good to submit your content to social bookmarking sites to refer traffic. Additionally, it is easier for others to share your content if it is already submitted.

Benefits of Social Bookmarking for Businesses
Social bookmarking is considered to be one of the social media marketing tools, along with social networking, search engine marketing, forums and blogging. Social bookmarking sites like Digg.com, Delicious.com and Technorati.com allow users to bookmark online content in online services so that the bookmarks can be accessed from any computer with Internet access.

This makes is much easier to find and access websites with content you can use from anywhere. When you begin using social bookmarking sites, you are no longer shackled to your computer-but are free to move about the cabin freely.

Increase Brand Awareness, Inbound Traffic
You can increase inbound links through social bookmarking. Additionally, if your content ends up at the top of its category on one of the bookmarking sites, you can gather hundreds and sometimes thousands of additional visitors. Who doesn’t love a bit of extra traffic? Submitting your content consistently to social bookmarking sites, and having others view it through search and tag categories on the site will build your brand awareness, if slowly.

Most Frequented Social Bookmarking Sites
It can be a little overwhelming to navigate the maze of Internet marketing, bookmarking, social networking and social media marketing websites. There are a few social bookmarking sites that see more traffic and have the potential for more referrals than others. These are the sites you want to spend your time on, for the best results. (These stats are updated as of January 14, 2009 by ebizmba.com, according to the following, as stated on their website: combination of Inbound Links, Google Page Rank, Alexa Rank, and U.S. traffic data from Compete and Quantcast.)

Digg.com: This site has almost 10.5 million visitors per month. Its overall page rank is 8. If your site rises to the top of one of the Digg categories, you are almost certain to see a lot more inbound traffic. Site owners can submit their content to dig, and then get a button to put with the content to encourage others to also “digg it!”

Yahoo Buzz!: Has 2.5 million monthly visitors. Does not have as many inbound links as Digg. Is rising in terms of popularity.

Technorati.com: With over 75 million inbound links, Technorati sees a lot of traffic and is high ranking in search engines. A link on Technorati is helpful to any website’s traffic flow. Links to your site from high-traffic sites almost always result in a higher search ranking for your site.

Delicious.com: 175 million inbound links to Delicious.com makes this site one of the most populated social bookmarking sites. Delicious can function almost like a search engine itself. Delicious and Digg are the two most convenient social bookmarking sites for folks on the go, because you can log into your account from any computer to access your bookmarks, in an organized matter.
 
Use Social Bookmarking for Research
One of the best ways to use social bookmarking sites to improve ranking of your site is to see what others are finding “Delicious” or “Digging” and learn from those posts. Whether it is the format, the subject matter or other benefits offered by the popular posts, you can always find something to emulate to improve your own site’s rankings. Why re-invent the wheel? Obviously, I am not advocating for copying anyone’s content. That is not only unethical, it is illegal. However, you can always learn from people who are doing well in their fields.

Getting Started and Making Full Use of Social Bookmarking Sites
It is easy to get started with social bookmarking. Simply go to one of the sites above, create an account and begin bookmarking! You can set up a profile to allow you to find others with similar interests. From there, be sure to categorize your bookmarks.

Categories will make it easier to find the information you have saved. When you submit a piece of content, you will tag it according to your own experience and preferences. It is always interesting to see how different people view the same piece of content. Your tags will help others find the content that you submit to the sites.

One thing that you want to avoid with social bookmarking is developing a pool of the same people to bookmark your content every time. Other users will notice this, and it will affect your credibility. In social media marketing, credibility is everything. Without it, you are just another bit of noise.

Want to see how easy it is to bookmark a site?  Simply click on the bookmark/Share icon below to get started.

To Your Social Media Success!

Dave

5 Reasons to Utilize Business Networking Websites

Business networking sites like LinkedIn and Plaxo are sprouting up like so many weeds all over the Internet. If you have held out joining these networks, thinking their popularity would blow over, I’ve got some bad news for you: they aren’t going away. It’s time to join up.

However, the good news is that joining these networks can do wonders for your business. They are great places to connect with former colleagues and find new people to bounce ideas off of. We have reached a point where you can’t really, in terms of business, afford not to be part of the appropriate business networks for your field. Here are the top five reasons why you need to become part of online business networking groups yesterday!

1 - Enhance Your Credibility
Putting a professional profile on business networking sites enhances your credibility in two ways.

First, it shows that you understand new marketing initiatives and can navigate around the Internet, harnessing its power for good in the business world. That might seem like a no-brainer, but it is important for potential clients to see that you are clued in to the way business works now.

The second way that posting a professional profile to a business-networking site can help your business credibility is that with many sites you can have your credentials verified by third parties. Your previous employment credentials, academic credentials and your professional affiliations can all be verified. That removes the ambiguity of a resume that has not been checked by outside sources.

I think all of us can remember how resumes without verification have surfaced during things like political campaigns and have been proved to be less than accurate.

2 - Improve your Reputation
The personal networking that these websites facilitate allows you to with LinkedIn, in particular, connect with or be "recommended" by others, who, by virtue of connecting with you or recommending you, solidify your standing in your particular professional field.

These people can write testimonials about your work and vouch for your contributions in your field. Interacting with others in your field, participating in the conversation and becoming better known will increase and improve your reputation.

3 - Publish Testimonials of Happy Clients
In addition to your website, Professional networking sites are great places to publish testimonials from happy clients. If you do not have testimonials, now is the time to request some! Most customers are more than happy to agree, especially if you include contact information, such as a website, for their business as well. Your testimonials are likely to get many more views on this type of site as people scan profiles in certain areas.

4 - Link to Your own Website
Links from professional and business networking sites to your website are high in quality and can result in more traffic to your website. These links improve your search engine ranking, which always helps to gain new customers. In addition, any place that you can have your website information displayed helps spread the word about your business.

If you do not have a website, it is a good idea to start one, even a simple website or blog that you update frequently. You can put more information on your own website than you generally can on a networking site. Also, a website is increasingly seen as an indicator of credibility in and of itself. You can display testimonials, samples, and your resume and provide an additional means for potential clients to contact you.

5 - Allow Prospects to Interact with You
A good way to get more business is to provide an easy way for potential prospects to interact with you online. If you feel unsure about giving your contact information to random strangers (and who wouldn’t, really?), professional networking sites online are a good way to have a third party help moderate and filter contacts for you. You do need to provide some kind of access, and receiving emails through a double blind system helps keep spam out of your primary inbox, and helps you keep your contacts categorized.

Joining business networking websites is easy and can bring great rewards for the little time you must spend to keep your profile and communication up to date. Find one and join!

To Your Social Media Success!

Dave