What is Social Bookmarking?
R: Today, I'm talking to John about the growing practice of 'social bookmarking' on the web and how you can use it as a marketing tool. The key question we need to ask is simply: what is 'social bookmarking'?
J: It's really a simple way for people to share their favorite websites with lots of other people but doing this all at once and via specially devised social websites or networks.
R: okay, that sounds interesting but surely, if I want to share a website with my friends, I can just send them an email with a link to that site?
J: That's true but it would also have a few disadvantages. In my view, most people don't feel like putting in all their friends' email addresses and sending a big group email just to let them know about one page. They may also feel like sharing their favorite link with more people including sometimes even total strangers.
R: Oh, I see, it sounds as if sharing website links through online social networks is easier to do and reaches a wider audience?
J: Absolutely, and from a business point of view that means we are talking about an opportunity to make it really easy for other people to spread the word about what you have to offer.
R: Well that sounds good! So what kind of online networks are there, which can we used in this way? Can you give me an example?
J: One of the fastest growing networks recently has been the social website Facebook, which amongst other things allows people to share links with their friends and colleagues. Anyone can log in and post a link to your website for all their contacts to see. Another big website is Digg.com which lets people share their websites with anybody from the public.
R: I guess those examples are very different, though. In my experience, Facebook is mostly restricted to groups of friends so - on that logic - Digg.com would get your link out to more people?
J: Digg is more open but different networks have different advantages and disadvantages. For example, Facebook may be more effective because some people actually spend their entire lives on there instead of having a real social life. Now, as tragic as that may be, it illustrates how you need to encourage people to spread the word about your website in whatever way is easiest for them.
R: Okay, so what do I do to get this working for me? I mean, how can I actually encourage people to use social bookmarking to spread awareness of my site?
J: It's fairly easy, all you need to do is identify which pages on your site people might want to share with others - maybe even all of them - and then integrate some special buttons onto those pages that help people easily bookmark them on their social networks.
R: That doesn't sound quite so easy, sounds a bit technical actually!
J: Well you're right and it would be very technical but the good news is that we're adding a new feature to our system that allows people to drop in those buttons without even having to understand how they work.
R: I suppose you can also directly bookmark your own pages by adding it to various social bookmarking websites yourself.
J: That may well be worth doing and it's also worth encouraging your friends to bookmark the pages too so that there are more votes for your website! But ultimately, the ideal situation is one in which hundreds of other people love your content so much that they bookmark it of their own accord.
R: This will really make people think about their content because they need to create pages on their websites that other people get excited about and want to share with others.
J: Yes, that's absolutely right! Social bookmarking works best when your content is genuinely worth sharing so it's a pretty good way to encourage people to improve the free resources on their sites. In my view, the best way to make it work is to create some useful articles and consider combining them with appealing images or media to motivate people to bookmark those pages.
R: That sounds like a good strategy. So I guess you will be making the transcript of this podcast an example of that?
J: Hey, well, you've figured out my cunning plan! Absolutely, any useful article or podcast can be an opportunity for social link promotion! In fact, if you are listening to this podcast now, feel free to scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on the 'Share this page' button so see some examples of how to use social bookmarking in practice.