Why Social Bookmarking?
When you save a web page url for later viewing that is called “bookmarking”. When you save a web page url to a public website and add relevant tags, that is called “social bookmarking”.
Why Social Bookmarking?
Before social bookmarking, internet users saved urls they wanted to remember in whatever bookmarking tool their browser offered. That’s fine if you don’t have too many. But as you probably have already experienced, as you save more and more bookmarks, they become harder and harder to find, and you can’t remember what category you saved them under. And then if you want to share them with someone, you have to email the link or write it down. And sometimes you’re on a different computer so you don’t even have access to those bookmarks when you need them.
Social bookmarking addresses and solves EVERY ONE of these problems we’ve all had. How?
1. You can add as many tags as you want. Unlike categories in your browser, tagging allows you to categorize your bookmark under as many different categories as you want. If you bookmark a tshirt design company’s website, you can tag it “design” “tshirts” “merch” “wearable art” etc. And these services usually suggest common tags you could use. What this means is that basically your searching nightmares are over. “What was that tshirt design site?”, you might ask yourself a year later. You check “tshirt” and there it is. And if you searched “design” it would also be there. The key is to make sure and tag with relevant keywords that you (and others) would search for in looking for that url.
2. You can share your bookmarks with specific people. Some social bookmarking sites like delicious.com allow you to create special feeds just for your friends or colleagues or whoever you’d like to send specific links to. And as the recipient you can add that feed to your RSS reader, so you get alerted the instant someone sends you a personal url just for you to see.
3. You’re making information retrieval saner and easier for the whole world. By using social bookmarking, you are contributing to a properly categorized and organized true library of information that others can use as well as yourself.
4. You can be free. You don’t need to be stuck to one particular computer to view, create and share your bookmarks, because these are stored on the social networks’ servers. So you just log in from whatever computer and you have access to all your bookmarks and everyone else’s too. It’s a beautiful thing.
5. It’s a really good online business marketing strategy. Sharing your business’ web pages with the world allows the world to find you, and allows you to search for members who might be interested in your products/services. You can find people interested in YOUR keywords, as well as finding out what websites THEY find interesting. You can see what bookmarks are currently popular, and use this information in your own website optimization, promotion, marketing, and advertising.
There are many reasons that social bookmarking is a great tool, both for personal use and for business. The above are just a few. I hope this helps. And I hope it convinces you to get going with social bookmarking.
Keep in mind that there are hundreds of social bookmarking sites, each of which requires you to create a profile, and each of which you would have to bookmark your web pages to, in order to make best use of this tool. As a business owner, you may want to opt to have the Dream Team do all of this work FOR you. It’s a very effective web marketing strategy, but it’s also quite time-consuming to do it right. The Dream Team professionals take care of this, and many, many other services for you, to get your business seen, known, and to drive tons of traffic to your website. Want to find out more about what the Dream Team can do for you? Go to http://www.websitemarketingdreamteam.com/traffic/.
