Social bookmarking takes the concept of “Favorites” or “Bookmarks” to a whole new level. Rather than storing websites you like within your Internet browser, social bookmarking enables people to store their bookmarks on a website where they can arrange, organize, and manage these links as they choose. Of course, social bookmarking also includes a community element, hence the name. Users can also share their favorite sites with the entire Web, or a selected group of “friends” or connections on the site.
Social-bookmarking can also be used by Internet marketers to attract traffic to a webpage and gain exposure. As more and more Internet users begin embracing all forms of social media, including social-bookmarking, websites like Digg and Delicious have become a critical component of modern Internet marketing. Marketers can “like” or “digg” an article, which will then be posted for the entire bookmarking community to see. Because other users on the site see the article and vote on it as well, a great article can spread through the social bookmarking network like wildfire. Bonus: the inbound links created through these sites also help improve page rank!
To make the most of social bookmarking, implement these tried and true tips:
o Include the option to bookmark, “like,” “digg,” or “buzz” an article through the most popular bookmarking sites right on your page.
o Add new articles to each of the bookmarking sites immediately after posting them. Ask your friends to do the same using social media tools like Twitter, MySpace, and Facebook.
o Work out an arrangement with another Internet marketer to bookmark or like each other’s content (a bookmark swap)
