Using Social Bookmarking
Select a site. Each of the most popular social bookmarking sites offer something a little bit different. You might decide to rely mostly on one site, or on a combination of them. Twitter. It's not just for making pithy jokes or chronicling every episode of Game of Thrones. Twitter's "re-tweet" function allows you to keep track of your favorite links, articles, videos, and pictures. With a user-base that is more than 300 million strong, it also provides an excellent branding platform for your business. Reddit. Reddit's structure of sub-reddits (or sub-categories) takes tagged key words and turns them into on-line forums. Here, you can post links in the key word's corresponding sub-reddit and get up votes by community members. The web site design is very bare bones and sometimes clunky to navigate, but if you just need a place to find links based on common interests, this should fit the bill. Pinterest. Are you driven by images? Then Pinterest is the place for you. Here you can "pin" links for just about anything -- new recipes, exercise tips, tech articles, wedding inspiration, etc. Although Pinterest might appear to be exclusively for women, more than 1/3 of its users are men. StumbleUpon. StumbleUpon is a website purely designed for liking and share links. When you register an account with them, you can choose general areas of interest, and then the web site will present different links for you to "stumble upon" and read. Delicious. The grand dame of social bookmarking, Delicious is currently undergoing a reboot to make it easier to integrate links across social media platforms. Because Delicious has had such a long-standing presence in the social bookmarking scene, many users are still loyal to it.
Upload bookmarks and links. The particular methods for doing this will vary from site to site, but you will most likely need to cut and paste the link you want to bookmark into an "upload" forum on your profile on the site. To copy, right-click on the link's address in your browser. Select the "copy" option from the menu of options that will appear. Then, return to your social bookmarking site and right-click again; select the "paste" option this time. This will put the link into the forum where you can upload a link. You will then need to hit an "upload" or "post" button on the site. Consult the tutorial section of the social bookmarking site if you have questions about how to upload content to it.
Link to social media. You might find it easier to link your Facebook or Google+ profiles to your social bookmarking site; that way, you will have one central, easy way for logging in and keeping track of your interests.
Create useful tags. As you upload bookmarks to any of the above sites, be sure to "tag" the link with some key words that will help other users find it. What 2-3 words come to mind when you think of this link? What search words did you use to find the link?
Download the extension. If you find most of your bookmarks on a desktop browser, then be sure to download the extension that these websites. Whenever you see a page you wish to bookmark, you just click the extension and easily add it to your profile on the site.
Use social bookmarking for Search Engine Optimization. Social bookmarking can't directly increase the Google rank of your business's web site. However, keywords related to your business can land on Google's search results when they appear on popular social bookmarking sites which do have high Google rankings, like Reddit, Twitter and Pinterest. Offer discounts and special user codes through social bookmarking sites to drive traffic to your web site. Upload the link for the page on your web site or blog that you want to readers to visit one of these social bookmarking sites. Use popular keywords to tag your links. Often, social bookmarking sites will tell you which keywords are "trending" (as on Twitter) or what word is a particularly popular search at that moment. Consider how you can tag your business's account with popular keywords. This will help drive more traffic to your site. Amass followers by being active on these sites. Retweet or pin items that you find to be popular from other users. If you are an active user on the site, then more activity will come to your own account. If you think of social bookmarking sites as a helpful PR tool, then you can use them to raise awareness about your product to your target audience.
Respecting the Community
Don't spam. Many social bookmarking sites have become fertile ground for digital marketing. While it is fine to promote your own content on most of these sites, be careful not to flood users' feeds simply to drive traffic to your site. Remember that it is in your business's interest to be a trustworthy and valuable member of the community.
Engage with others. If you are using a social bookmarking platform for marketing, it is especially important that you engage with the content of other users. Pin, retweet, and link to content that you find to be engaging and important. Not only will this help you make valuable connections, it will also give your potential customers a better sense of who you are and what drives your business.
Don't be a troll. Many bookmarking sites leave less room for hostile flame wars than other social media sites. But you should still be considerate. While you might want to engage in a lively debate with other users of the site, try to keep the tone cordial and respectful. Remember that tags and keys words are there to help connect users, not divide them.
Understanding the Benefits of Social Bookmarking
Connect with others. When social bookmarking originated circa 2003, it provided a public alternative to private bookmarks that you could organize in your browser. Websites like Delicious provided a space where you could collect links and tag them under common interests. Today, social bookmarking is much more interactive than when it first began, with digital communities like Digg, Reddit, Pinterest and Twitter providing millions of users a space to share common interests, bounce ideas off of each other, and gain inspiration from the community.
Get folksy. When social bookmarking was first designed, users would "tag" links according to keywords of interest. These keywords together became known as "folksonomies," or a collection of vocabulary that users could assign to particular links. Searching the "folksonomy" of a bookmarking site can help organize your information.
Embrace accessibility. Websites like Pinterest and Twitter are designed with the mobile end-user in mind. If you want a central place where all your favorite links on music, food, technology, etc. are easily stored, then social bookmarking is designed with your needs in mind.
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