Many of you may be unfamiliar with the power of social bookmarking sites. Through these sites you not only have the ability to save, favor and share what you find across the web, but you also have the ability to share your own content.
There are several reasons on why you would want to make use of social bookmarking sites.
- You'll be able to share your content to new audiences.
- Social Bookmarking creates further inbound links to your content. This is good for gaining the attention of search engines and increasing page rank.
- Fast indexing and increased visibility.
Here's the list of our top 10 and what you should know about them:
1. Twitter
Although, primarily considered a microblogging site, used for writing short updates called "Tweets" of 140 characters or fewer. These Tweets are posted to your profile, shared with your followers, and are made searchable by Twitter. Here are the Twitter FAQ for more info.
The general usage of Twitter is great and will add value to your inbound marketing campaign, however, you can extend your use of Twitter by using it a social bookmarking tool. Just like a bookmark, tweets are short sentences in a memo that you can share with friends.
2. Digg
Digg is used for people to discover and share content from all across the web. Digg uncovers the best stuff online as voted by the Digg community. You can take it one step further to promote your content on digg with customizable widgets to build a story from your sites content. Submitted content has the ability to reach thousands of users with the possibility of them generating links back to your site.
3. StumbleUpon
Use stumbleupon to bookmark a site or blog that you own. This means that StumbleUpon gives website owner's the ability to have their site indexed in a well managed category system. Your site then will be stumbledupon by others and if they like what they see, they have the option of tagging it and sharing it with their friends. This is a great way to increase traffic to your website. See our StumbleUpon profile here!
4. Reddit
Reddit is an open source site, which means its contributed to, debugged, and improved by the community members. It is a site where people can submit links to content of their own or to others. Users then have the option to vote the posted links "up" or "down". The more "up" votes, the more successful the link is and gains prominence by reaching the front page.
5. Pinterest
Pinterest is a social bookmarking tool where users "pin" interesting images they find across the web. It differs from all the other social bookmarking sites in that your bookmarks are made via images rather than URL. These images are categorized into boards. You can think of Pinterest as a shareable scrapbook! Make sure you note the original link of your content in the description copy as to ensure some visitors to your site! One could say that Pinterest may be the next hottest linking strategy.
Take a look at our Pinterest profile for some marketing and design inspiration!
6. Buzzfeed
The content of the posts is usually either a video, image, or link. You can post anything you find on the web or anything of your own creation. Typically things are shared in the hopes of going viral. Buzzfeed is an excellent place to post lists of things. Check out what we mean in these Examples of Buzz Feed Lists. Its wise to avoid posting links to your personal blog on buzzfeed, its frowned upon and will likely be taken down.
7. Delicious
Delicious, formally known as del.icio.us, was bought by Yahoo in 2011 and was rebuilt from a mere social bookmarking service to a site that has a deeper focus on content curation and discovery. Users can save what they like, anything from pictures and tweets to videos and blog posts. Delicious' classification system is based on tags. Users tag each of their bookmarks with index terms of their choice. Similar topics form what is called a "Stack". Delicious has also implemented "hotlist", "popular" and "recent" pages to assist exploration of the site.
8. Diigo
The team at Diigo would like users to think of the site as a "social bookmarking 2.0" site. Diigo goes beyond other bookmarking sites and refers to itself as a research tool, social content site, and a knowledge sharing community.
Diigo allows you to make use of personal notes and highlights of information on webpages. Then you can bookmark and save these notes and pages for other use. Much like delicious, you can use tags to keep everything organized.
Another neat feature of Diigo is that you can send a bookmark straight to your Twitter account, Facebook page or to your blog with one click!
9. Squidoo
A user-generated website that is a catalog of the best stuff online, Squidoo is a fun and free way to make a page and get traffic. Pages are called "lenses" and each lens is like its own blog post. You can make lenses about the things you love, something that you're an expert in, or a page about a personal story.
On Squidoo, making pages is made simple. The people behind Squidoo make it easy for you to get started. Here are some tips on writing your first lens: "Starting your first lens? Here are 3 ideas". Squidoo is a free and easy tool to use to help your content reach new and untapped audiences.
10. Newsvine
Newsvine is a bit of a different breed when discussing bookmarking sites. It is a site that is more news and current affairs sharing than for personal content sharing. According to the people at Newsvine, it is "an instant reflection of what the world is talking about at any given moment." It is a mix of user generated content as well as a syndication of stories from mainstream sources.
A unique feature of Newsvine is the ability for users to flex their journalist muscles and write their own articles for submission. Popular articles are featured in the "Featured Writers" section and thus have a higher chance of gaining additional publicity.
With each of these sites, the content you create becomes a bookmark and searchable for other users. Using any one of these sites is a great way for your content to reach new audiences. The benefit of using these bookmarking tools is all about expanding your visibility. You'll be targeting new audiences and building credibility with them and as a result you may even see an improvement in your page rank!