How Social Bookmarking Can Help Promote Your Website
Andy West
May 13, 2011
Social bookmarking is an online tool that has arisen to allow people to more easily share links to pages that interest them. Think about bookmarking a page on your computer, which allows you to save the link so that you can navigate to it more quickly. Social bookmarks, likewise, are bookmarks that are on the Internet so that your social network can see them as well.
If you think you don't know what social bookmarking is, think again. Most likely you already use it. For instance, Twitter is a site that allows you to share bookmarked content with your friends quickly and easily. Other examples are Digg, Reddit, Stumble Upon, and of course Delicious, which was one of the first sites to create a directory of bookmarks.
Social bookmarks are, by nature, amateur-driven. Basically, when someone creates a bookmark, they decide on tags under which to categorize the page. Because these tags are created by real people—albeit people who may not know the precise keywords with which to tag a site—they have become known as folksonomy: an amateur method of classification.
Social bookmarks are a great way to promote your website or blog, precisely because they are created and categorized by real people. Think of this as similar to another blog linking to and recommending your blog or a specific blog post. A bookmark can be more viral in nature, however, and therefore has the potential to reach more people than just a link on someone's blog.
For example, let's say I have 120 people following me on Twitter—a conservative number. I tweet a blog post I liked on one of my favorite blogs. Twenty of my friends liked it and re-tweeted it themselves. Of each of those friends, perhaps twenty of their friends did the same, and so on. As you can see, a single bookmark has the ability to reach hundreds, thousands, or even millions of people in an extremely short amount of time.
So how do you encourage people to bookmark your website? Obviously, this is up to them, so the very first thing you need to do is ensure that you have great content on your site or blog. You can also submit your websites to social bookmarking sites, using the tags you desire. But most importantly, make it easy for your readers to bookmark your page.
Have you ever noticed that most news and content sites now have a button that you can click on to share an article? You typically can choose from all the major sites listed above: Twitter, Delicious, Digg and so on. You should be able to set up your blog so that Twitter, Facebook and other icons show up on every post. This is important because many people won't bookmark a page unless it is really easy for them to do so. If you don't include these buttons, you may actually be missing out on an opportunity for a bookmark. When you think about how that single bookmark might be shared, you may be missing out on hundreds or even thousands of new readers.
Don't miss out on the online marketing opportunities that social bookmarking might provide. Make sure your site is filled with good content, and make it easy for readers to share your pages with their friends. You may be able to increase your readership, and therefore, your customer base exponentially.
If you think you don't know what social bookmarking is, think again. Most likely you already use it. For instance, Twitter is a site that allows you to share bookmarked content with your friends quickly and easily. Other examples are Digg, Reddit, Stumble Upon, and of course Delicious, which was one of the first sites to create a directory of bookmarks.
Social bookmarks are, by nature, amateur-driven. Basically, when someone creates a bookmark, they decide on tags under which to categorize the page. Because these tags are created by real people—albeit people who may not know the precise keywords with which to tag a site—they have become known as folksonomy: an amateur method of classification.
Social bookmarks are a great way to promote your website or blog, precisely because they are created and categorized by real people. Think of this as similar to another blog linking to and recommending your blog or a specific blog post. A bookmark can be more viral in nature, however, and therefore has the potential to reach more people than just a link on someone's blog.
For example, let's say I have 120 people following me on Twitter—a conservative number. I tweet a blog post I liked on one of my favorite blogs. Twenty of my friends liked it and re-tweeted it themselves. Of each of those friends, perhaps twenty of their friends did the same, and so on. As you can see, a single bookmark has the ability to reach hundreds, thousands, or even millions of people in an extremely short amount of time.
So how do you encourage people to bookmark your website? Obviously, this is up to them, so the very first thing you need to do is ensure that you have great content on your site or blog. You can also submit your websites to social bookmarking sites, using the tags you desire. But most importantly, make it easy for your readers to bookmark your page.
Have you ever noticed that most news and content sites now have a button that you can click on to share an article? You typically can choose from all the major sites listed above: Twitter, Delicious, Digg and so on. You should be able to set up your blog so that Twitter, Facebook and other icons show up on every post. This is important because many people won't bookmark a page unless it is really easy for them to do so. If you don't include these buttons, you may actually be missing out on an opportunity for a bookmark. When you think about how that single bookmark might be shared, you may be missing out on hundreds or even thousands of new readers.
Don't miss out on the online marketing opportunities that social bookmarking might provide. Make sure your site is filled with good content, and make it easy for readers to share your pages with their friends. You may be able to increase your readership, and therefore, your customer base exponentially.
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