Social Bookmarking Tips for Those Who Don't Get It

Social bookmarking is a great way of keeping track of all of the websites and pages that you find most useful and interesting. It’s a great way of meeting others including those with whom you can network for business purposes. By supporting others there, you can find the support you need for your online business as well. It often allows those who are working alone to make it in the world of internet marketing, a chance to develop a supportive network to help them succeed.

Of course for many it can be a painful and counterproductive effort if a few nuances aren’t understood. It's for this reason I offer this brief list of social bookmarking tips.

In their first enthusiastic rush on a new social bookmarking site, many newcomers begin submitting their every webpage and blog to the site in hopes that strangers and friends will find their content so compelling, they will in turn visit those pages and bookmark them. This is not necessarily a good approach. Submitting your own content is fine in moderation and, after developing the trust of other members. Finding content that is compelling, useful, timely, or very entertaining to share with others often gets a better result.

Regular participation on a social bookmarking site is important in order to develop and maintain relationships or a following.  However, sharing numerous bookmarks each day can result in other members ignoring your content unless it’s really outstanding. 

Just as in any social circle, it’s important to reciprocate and give back to those who help you along. Becoming involved in your friends’ success is necessary if you want them to care about your own. You can share bookmarks that interest them, visit their pages and blogs, bookmark some good ones, and share the love through whatever reward system is in place on that particular social bookmarking site. Another easy way to give back if you share a complimentary or overlapping niche is through referencing their work in your blog (and including a link) or trackbacks.

Although you don’t have to use your real name, you do need to have an online personality. Establish yourself as knowledgeable, successful, fun, or something. You want people to be interested and you want them to begin to trust you and what you have to say. Your online personality and reputation must be established and maintained to succeed.

The other part of this social bookmarking tip is about familiarity or recognition. I tend to keep the same screen name and avatar throughout the various sites I use. I want my friends to be able to easily follow me where ever I am. If I spent time developing a reputation that makes people take an interest in me, I want that to follow me where ever and when ever possible. Sometimes a different approach can work, particularly if you're working in different niches.

Yes, your profile matters. That little paragraph where you say “Hi, I’m a work at home mom” needs to be upgraded a bit. Again, this will help establish your personality and reputation. People who see your posts and are interested may well visit your profile to see what they think.

This is critical too because if it’s the page most often seen and you’ve include a few critical links on there, those links too will be seen frequently. For instance, you might include a link to your blog, website, or author page from an article directory. State your accomplishments or vision. Say something of interest and make use of the space to promote yourself without spamming.

In my experience, how you tag the articles and pages you submit is critical to getting found.  I stick with no more than 5 or 6 tags for my submissions. I usually have two or three general tags that fit the main categories/subcategories on the site. The next two or three can be more specific. For instance, if I were to submit a blog post about How to Make Beautiful Swedish Weaving Potholders, I would submit tags such as how to, crafting, home, weaving, potholders, and Swedish weaving.

It's kind of like going to a party. You won't get a crowd of people clamouring to talk to you if you walk in and greet everyone with "the weather's been bad" and likewise on line, people won't flock to you if all you have to say is "buy from my e-bay store".

Titles like "Sure Fire Five Minute Ways to Increase Your Website Traffic" or "How to Make an Apron that Makes You Look Like Angelina and Cook Like Rachel Ray" might make people take notice. In other words, your titles or headlines matter.

Of course, short titles also serve a purpose since most of the people on the site have a lot to do and not a lot of time for reading and deciding whether or not your post is the one they want to invest time in checking out.

Some sites are right for crafting, others for tech. Some require the hottest and latest topics and others don’t. Find a community and topic focus that fits. In addition, you can find social bookmarking sites that have very friendly and supportive communities and others that don’t. Some are more active than others and some even provide incentives like revenue sharing. One of my personal favorites is Tagfoot which is just getting ready to come out of Beta. It's friendly, simple, and offers AdSense and other revenue sharing features.

In any case, don’t always assume that the problem you’re having with social bookmarking is you, you may just be involved in the wrong site for what you're trying to accomplish.

There are certainly many resources online that can help you along in better using social bookmarking sites to your advantage, but understanding some of these basic social bookmarking tips may help you avoid unnecessary struggles.