Several years ago, social bookmarking was all the rage, and people were bookmarking en masse trying to out-SEO their competition. And it worked – social bookmarking was a viable traffic getting strategy for several years.
But then things changed, and Google started weighing results a bit differently. Not only that, but there are now so many social bookmarking sites that it’s hard to keep up. Yes, there are sites that help you cover more ground, but they are becoming less and less prominent.
So, what do you do? How can you use social bookmarking in a way that helps you build SEO and traffic – today?
To answer the question, we’ll have to dive into why people use social bookmarking, and in doing that, I think you’ll get the answers you are looking for.
The Purpose of Social Bookmarking
Why do people use social bookmarking today? They use it mostly to remember links so that they can go back to their favorite sites. They also use it to share with friends. One service that works really well for this is Trunk.ly, which automatically stores the links you share on Twitter and Facebook in an easy to search format.
If you share good links, people will likely follow, and if you don’t, they won’t.
So, we have these two dynamics at play:
- People use social bookmarking as personal bookmarks.
- People use social bookmarking to share.
What people don’t use social bookmarking for is to share sites that suck, and it’s because of this that many marketers go wrong. Let’s talk about that next.
Becoming Valuable in Social Bookmarking
Let’s use the previous example of Trunk.ly. If I want people to follow me there, then the best way to do that is by generating great content. I can’t do that by spamming every blog post I’ve written, but by sharing good content all over the web.
The same goes for sites like Tumblr, which is more popular now than it was in the social bookmarking heyday.
Value = Traffic
The surest way to drive traffic is by sharing only the best of what you write and find, not in sharing everything that comes your way. This means no obligatory sharing between friends, and preferably, content that is tailored to a specific audience.
For example, instead of creating an all-purpose account, why not create an account for each niche or sub-niche? You could create an account for running links, and another for playing guitar, etc.
Bottom line – be interesting, relevant, and valuable.
How to Get People to Your Site
Some people might find your site from blog posts you’ve bookmarked, but most will find out about you from a bio on a social bookmarking site first. In today’s world of blogs and Twitter profiles, people often read about the person behind the profile before they take the profile seriously, and if you ask me, this is your ticket in.
If you share great links, and craft a stunning bio that people can’t help but to click through and check out your website, then you’ve won. In today’s world of information overflow, this is the surest way to traffic and a solid reputation that sticks.
What do you think? Is value and reputation overrated? Weigh in below.