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Ways To Use Social Bookmarking Sites

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Social bookmarking sites can get your traffic to spike up significantly - but that does not mean that you can go online and try to randomly instigate that traffic. It has to happen naturally, or else you can risk losing your credibility online.

The voting concept in bookmarking sites allows the popular stories to get to the first page. So, it’s important to understand what makes content popular by carefully studying the trends in those sites. If you use these bookmarking sites to genuinely share things that interest you, chances are that you can create a following where people start to watch the sites that you bookmark. A thing to note is that the online community is ever-so-watchful of manipulated or self-interest driven content. If you want to use social bookmarking strategies for your business, you’ll have to adapt it as a regular use tool for things that interest you.

If you bookmark a link today and within ten days from now 1000 others also bookmark it, the bookmarking sites treat you as an authority on that particular subject because others follow whatever interests you. Having an extensive network, when I bookmark anything I am bound to have thousands bookmark it too. On the contrary, when you are not being followed by anyone you can bookmark your heart out but it will not mean anything to anyone.

Every bookmark is also considered a link so if you are bookmarking all of your own pages for self-promotion – the search engines and bookmarking site monitor your account to ensure the bookmarks are not self-serving. Self serving account holders will have their links tagged “no follow” in the code (these are tags that basically tell search engine spiders that the link is not for search engines to read) resulting in no search engine traffic to your site. As an account holder unless you look at the code or apply software to highlight the “no follow” tags on screen you can never know the output of your efforts. So if I bookmark pages from my website only, they won’t help increase my websites traffic or rankings. Don’t game the system because the system has the smartest people in the world protecting and improving its integrity. If you try to fool the system, you’re the one who will lose.

However, if you have a thousand people following the brilliant resources that you regularly bookmark, you can also bookmark your own sites at a rough ratio of 1 in 10. Our testing shows that a ratio of bookmarking one of your own self-serving links or pages to every 9 neutral (not self-serving pages) of similar content brings us the best ranking in bookmarking sites…

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  • Steve,

    This is similar to building a following in any kind of social network or website. When you promote and expose high quality content people will naturally gravitate to you. It's how we all found Simon. This bookmarking will definitely be some of your own content as well as that valuable info you just happen to find out there on the web.

    I use my delicious account as my main bookmarking account for any links that I may want to refer back to months or years from now. This is what makes tagging it so very important. Use as many tags as you feel you need to and as many different words as you might search for that link when you're thinking about it six to nine months from now.
  • There are 2 main reasons for using Social bookmarking sites.
    1. to bookmark topics of interest for later reference.
    2. so that other people who have high regard for you can have quicker and easier acces to valuable info that you bookmark.

    What happens as a natural cnsequence of being a regular bookmarker, is that very soon youestablish yourself as an authority and you develope a following.

    So besides Bookmaking creating a valuable system of reference for yourself - it also sets you up as an authority and leader in your field.
  • Social bookmarking is certainly an important part of your social media marketing strategy and I guess one of the hardest to control in reality as it's so dependent upon your audiences reaction to your 'self serving' links (i.e the 1 in 10 ratio). Social media as a marketing model is a marathon and not a sprint and this is something the traditional marketers may find a challenge. I read a post only this week from an internet marketer who stated that social bookmarking was losing its punch and he didn't see any real value in it - my only assumption is that he cannot have been using social bookmarking sites as they are meant to be used and was possibly seen as a spammer within the community.

    One challenge here comes when linking tools such as Traffic Geyser (which you've covered in a different post Simon).. as TG automates the submission process across social media sites for video submission it can literally blast your videos into multiple social media sites at one go (actually TG can repeat this process up to four times) and if not correctly balanced with other content this can mean a high level of self serving content heading into each bookmarking site within a short period of time.

    What would be your own thoughts on this Simon? would you submit other users content via TG to balance your own or limit your own submissions?
  • Hey Neil, your audience will definitely like your self-serving links mixed in as long as it's similar to the topics they are interested in. Obviously, in all of Simon's training and what you've learned staying on topic and being narrowly focused is key. You wouldn't want to be bookmarking a bunch of stuff on cars and have people following you for that and then throw in your self-serving link about dogs. Many of these car enthusiasts probably won't be interested in dogs.

    And Neil I'd suggest you mix in some other content into your traffic geyser account. Maybe two or three other links for everyone video your posting through to balance out the mix of content in your bookmarking accounts.
  • It pays not to be self-serving but embrace your communities to work together.
    I believe that is part of the lesson learned here. Also something you teach in
    your training.
  • I love the strategy that is outlined in this article. It is so true that one should be an active member of the community to expect to get that behavior reciprocated. Give more than you take, is a great MO. It will be greatly appreciated by your followers.

    It happens all too often, even if the user complies with the rule of bookmarking at least 8 to 10 pieces of content vs.one of their own, that they bookmark their sales pitch when it is time to bookmark the own content. What they don't realize is, that they are hurting themselves more than that it could possibly help. After all, your readers will be much more interested in the quality content and will, therefore, focus on the content you provided that is not yours.

    To prevent this from happening, simply bookmark some of your valuable content and link that content to your sales funnel. This way you keep your bookmarks clean and your readers can decide if they are interested in your sales pitch or not.

    And if you don't believe me, just read "Social Traffic" and you will agree.
  • duncan_b
    The term 'bookmarking footprint credibility' seems to sum up what this is all about. Making no compromises in the quality of what one bookmarks seems to be integral to this thought. The other element would seem to be contributing valuable content, that is, content worthy of bookmarking when the same high standard is applied. So it seems that this is no short term endeavor, but I would think the narrower the 'niche' within which one operates, the sooner one can establish the bookmarking footprint credibility.
  • worldvitaminsonline
    We are just starting our Social Bookmarking program. Your article will help us in this effort. Thank you.
  • bobbicknell
    Simon this is a great post about social bookmarking! I appreciate the tips to get followers.

    Awesome guidelines about quality content and the opportunity to track it online.
    Am looking forward to videos about using Digg for example.

    Key point about bookmarking links that we twitter to generate traffic as had never thought of that.
    Thanks for the education and recommend to all your book "Social Traffic"!
  • The risk of credibility and the fact that spammers get ripped out of the communities is a good thing. The key is to do things which are natural and valuable and know what spam is.

    It's a difficult definition because it means different things to different people. A good rule of thumb is to watch the site your working on for 3-7 days and see what kind of content does well.

    Then model this when creating your own content because obviously this community values this type of content. It won't be considered spam.

    Having some focus on what kind of content you push and a following is the strategy to employ. Very important or it's wasted time.
  • Now I get it.
  • addytseng
    I understand bookmarks. I understand social. So social bookmarking is a bunch of people telling each other their lists of favorite "books/ articles/websites." The bookmarked items are on the lists for different reasons - because of the content or because of the author.

    What I don't understand is how you can become an authority on anything unless you ARE the author. Maybe if you are always the first to find good material and you consistently find good material, you are an authority, of sorts. You are just a good librarian.

    I get the social community piece. We all try to be supportive of each other, professional or novice. We may bookmark content we don't really think is top notch but we do it because we want to support a friend. Is that a good idea? Does it damage an authority"s reputation to bookmark something not quite up to par because he wants to help a friend? Are votes based on quality of content or just popularity? e.g. If I can get a bunch of my friends to vote for me on American Idol you KNOW it's NOT for my singing ability!

    My understanding of the purpose of social bookmarking is exactly what I described at the beginning. I will bookmark my favorite sites/material for sharing. My selection will show my friends (or the public) who I am, what interests me, what I feel strongly about, similar to what we may put on our Facebook profile. Why should any of that stuff be voted on?
  • I only use Digg. It didn't occur to me (dahhhh!) to bookmark the links I Twitter. If I like them enough to Tweet or RT, of course I'd bookmark them, huh! Simon, I have to say that I "enjoyed" the line - if you have staff, team up to concentrate on one platform each ... no staff, just Emma , my sheepdog here. @Rebecca, yes I agree that there are people we know now (for me in Digg) who we can watch and trust. The getting to know part adds value to what they're interested in.
  • Learning how to use these tools really lets me explore what i want to learn about online so I can understand why one would want to adapt it as a tool for their own interests. Actually getting the opportunity to practice with them in the learning platform gives me the opportunity to build up my networks over time. It works better for me if i know who i am following and reading thatn if I just add a bunch of people I have not taken the time to explore. I imagine that a lot of people are the same.
    So far what i can see in any business that is going to be successful whether on or offline, charitable or profitable, adding value is the key. People want to learn and be informed. They want to be nourished not spammed. Over the past year now, I can recognize the difference.
  • Guest
    I use stumble upon for around 3 -4 years. I wasn't active for quite a while and on this month ,I got active, I got 20% of the traffic from there. Double then from twitter. Their tool bar is really good , fun and easy to use.
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