With the release of statistics of the incredible growth of Web2 and Social Bookmarking, it is easy to lose sight of the fact that many people still don’t know what Social Bookmarking is, much less how to use it to increase traffic to their websites. See my previous post where I may have gotten a little ahead of myself.
I was very surprised today to discover that 3 people I spoke with hadn’t heard of Social Bookmarking or Web2 ( or del.icio.us, technorati, digg etc.). Never mind an explanation of delicious’ URL. When I started talking about Optimizing for Social Media, I got blank stares and had to backtrack.
So I thought I would back up a bit and start off with some basic information and in future posts, build on this initial understanding.
First, if you have a website, the essential information about Social Bookmarking sites is they are new phenomena that can increase traffic to your website. You can get people visiting your website, certainly within days, and sometimes within hours.
So what are they and how do they work?
Social Bookmarking sites are websites where everyone shares their favorite sites to build up a huge collection of favorite sites about different topics. The site listings, like search engine listings are searchable by keywords, and also by tags.
Tags are like keywords, except you get to choose them, and there aren’t any rules. They are for you to help remember where you put something!
The interesting thing about Social Bookmarking sites, is they top ranking site for a search is the site the most people have voted for, not the result of complex algorithms.
How much traffic do Social Bookmarking sites get? A LOT! Here are some sites and their Alexa rankings:
Del.icio.us 139
Technorati 207
Digg 85
and all 3 are on TIME magazine’s top 50 coolest websites.
How can you get started?
1. Familiarize yourself with what is out there. Here is a quick list:
Technorati
blinklist.com
furl.net
del.icio.us
myweb2
shadows.com
simpy.com
spurl.net
ma.gnolia.com
Visit these sites and do searches that relate to your website and see what people are adding, and what people are interested in. On some sites, like Technorati, you will see a list on the right hand side, Top Tags, which tells what is popular. On the interior pages, Technorati will also give a handy graph with the number of mentions of your keyword or tag in the last 30 days. If you click on the graph you will see a larger graph where you can see the number of searches for your keyword over 30, 90, 180 and 360 days. This is great marketing information.
2. How do you fit in? Once you know what is out there, and possibly what some trends are, start planning content that will fit in. Write articles that will fit in and start submitting.
Take your time on creating your content — the extra time will pay off. If you content is good, people will click through to your site and they will be interested in buying what you have to offer. Be personal and speak from experience. My personal preference is for content that contains a bulleted list of actionable advice. Give tips and suggestions that someone can use right now.
3. Tags & Keywords. Tags are very impportant. Before submitting you may want to look at other articles and websites in your subject area and make a list of what tags they are using.
3. Track everything. Keep a log of what articles you submitted where. Watch your website stats and see what is happening.
4. Wash, Rinse, Repeat!
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