subject: What Is Social Bookmarking? [print this page] Many people have asked the question, "What is social bookmarking?" With social bookmarking being such an important marketing tool right now, it is important that we understand how to use this tool. What follows is a breakdown of the important features of this kind of application.
"Shared bookmarks: This is the main feature of all social bookmarking websites. When you find a webpage that you like, you flag it and share it with the general public on a social bookmarking site. Unlike social networking sites, these bookmarks are shared with anyone who has access to the site. You can categorize your bookmarks by tagging them.
"Bookmarking Groups: These groups are groups of people who share bookmarks with similar focus and interest. There are all sorts of groups interested in all sorts of things. Any niche you can imagine has several of these groups that you can explore.
"Bookmarking toolbar: This is the most unique feature of all social bookmarking services. You install a toolbar that has several options on it. One of the buttons lets you surf the bookmarks based on your interests. The more pages you bookmark the more your interests are narrowed down and the more targeted websites you will get.
"Social networking and blogging: This is an often overlooked feature of social bookmarking sites by most of their users. You can comment on any page you look at and also you can keep a blog of the most interesting sites you have found. So you as a user can go in and search these blogs and find people who are interested in the same things you are interested in.
Now there are many personal uses for such a service. It assists you in your surfing by only showing you pages within your range of interests, and lets you socialize with other people who have the same sort of interests as you.
When you look at social bookmarking sites from a marketing point of view, things open up somewhat. A site does not enter the "rotation" of the social bookmarking site until someone has pinged it on the site. So the first thing you have to do as a marketer is tag the entry with all the keywords of your niche. Then you need to ping the main page and it is advised that you also ping all pages of your site. I advise pinging all the images by themselves, as well as all videos. Social bookmarking sites are one of the main reasons video and pictures go viral. This fact is a prime example of why social bookmarking should not be overlooked in any marketing campaign. Social bookmarking sites are gaining a huge amount of popularity and should not be overlooked by anyone whether they are a marketer or just someone who loves the Internet.
