Social bookmarking is a very cool concept. It is the process of saving bookmarks to websites that you find knowledgeable and interesting. It is a great thing to do from a personal standpoint because it makes it quite convenient to access your favorite or selected web pages from any computer.
But how does social bookmarking help in business? That’s what we are going to discuss in this post today. This article will guide you on how to use social bookmarking for marketing and business growth. There is no simple way to explain this, but we’ll try our best to do justice to this post. Let’s begin with the definition of the term we are talking about.
What is Social Bookmarking?
Social bookmarking refers to tagging a website page using a tool in your browser, making it easier for you to access that page any time in the future directly. You can also save any social media posts you like to your browser bookmarks. But when you use social bookmarking, you usually use the features of different platforms to bookmark your favorite posts.
These bookmarks are online, and therefore, can be accessed from any location and any device, as long as you have an active internet connection. In the previous decade, content marketers and other social media users began using social bookmarking sites for this purpose. These social bookmarking sites have turned into dynamic and diverse online communities, where you can discuss links and build further sub-groups based on shared interests and relevancy.
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How Does Social Bookmarking Work?
Social bookmarking sites have their process flow. They are categorized into different discussion topics in specific threads or rooms. Users can follow the content in these rooms that interests them. They receive notifications in their feed every time a piece of information is posted.
The links in these social bookmarking sites serve as the starting point for all knowledge-sharing and discussion. This makes these sites a fabulous spot for creating backlinks, exploring social media inspiration, and networking with micro-influencers.
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Some popular examples of social bookmarking sites are as follows.
- Digg
Why Do Businesses Use Social Bookmarking?
Social bookmarking is a means for businessmen, marketers, and content writers to find and save valuable and valuable content. They can then add this content to their publishing schedules or calendars. This is an amazing way of simplifying the process of content creation and speeding up the growth of your social media followership.
Most social bookmarking sites allow users to search for the most recent, the most popular, and the most relevant topics for a business. You can also search for a specific keyword to search through your saved bookmarks. Social marketing helps social media managers target the particular information they want to show to their audience. It makes the overall process of seeing, curating, and sharing information a lot easier. Instead of doing countless searches in massive search engines, social bookmarking provides you with a more direct, relevant, and refined source of inspiration. This explains the importance of social bookmarking for companies.
Businesses always need to be up to date about the market and industry trends. Brands that indulge in social bookmarking can keep an eye on what’s popular and trending in their respective industry at all times. For instance, if you are running a boutique and operating in the fashion space, you’ll get to see what people like to talk about in the fashion and clothing line. You will thus be able to publish valuable and up-to-date content on your forum or website. This will show your audience that you know what you do and sell and establish you as an expert in your field. People tend to feel more comfortable buying from brands that they can trust.
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Social bookmarking sites simplify the methods of expanding your brand reach through the web links they create and the interaction they generate among potential influencers and collaborators. In short, these websites are great platforms for finding curated content, which helps you to build your authority on social media within your specific niche. They are also a fantastic source of getting high authority backlinks, which can greatly impact your website’s search and keyword rankings.
3 Main Benefits of Social Bookmarking
To further explain the importance of social bookmarking, here’s a list of its three main benefits for business.
1. Drive Traffic to Your Website
Social bookmarking helps you to generate free and organic traffic to your website. Your submission to social bookmarking sites regularly could even make your website end up on the first page of Google search results for your targeted set of keywords. The most interesting thing is that you wouldn’t have to spend a single penny to get these top search rankings. If your website is relatively new, you might not even be able to handle this load of traffic.
Social bookmarking sites track the web links that each user visits. This information is valuable, as it can set up your future marketing campaigns. It gives you insights into your site’s visitors and audience and tells you which demographics make up the most relevant audience for your products or services. This information reveals to marketers if they are effectively reaching their target audience or not. The statistics that you get from these sites might also open your eyes to new markets and opportunities to cash into.
The way social bookmarking drives traffic to your website is three-fold.
- You create bookmarks of your website when you register on social bookmarking sites.
- You encourage other users on these sites to bookmark your website’s pages.
- You can build your bookmarking community to share as many bookmarks with other members as you want.
2. Explore New Markets and Business Opportunities
When you have access to so much organized information through social bookmarking, it is easier to identify market gaps and opportunities to tap into. You can use RSS feeds on your website to stay on top of social bookmarking sites. Simply add these sites to your browser’s bookmarks, and they will be there whenever you need them.
3. Strengthen Business Relationships and Networks
Your next big client might be surfing and browsing on the same social bookmarking sites that you’re on. Think about bumping into them and making your offer just to find out that they are ready to close the deal right away. Social bookmarking is a superb way of showing your potential clients that you are active in online communities and like to serve your audience diligently. In this way, you can use social bookmarking for building and maintaining long-term client relationships.
How to Get Started With Social Bookmarking?
You’ll need to register with at least one good bookmarking site to get started. Most social bookmarking sites are usually self-explanatory and easy to get familiar with. Building a community on one site is a good strategy for effective growth. Once you have signed up, follow these steps.
- Start submitting content from your website or blog.
- Regularly share bookmarks to grow your network.
- Promote any affiliation you have through these sites.
- Encourage people in your posts to add you to their networks. Ask them to add your website URL and blog posts to their bookmarks.
- Keep searching for relevant bookmarks that can potentially help your business.
The better content you have on your website, the faster this process. This is why you must have an appealing and professionally built website for your business, to begin with. After all, you need to have a website to showcase your business on the internet, or else it’s almost as if your brand is non-existent.
If you are unsure how and where to get an attractive website for your brand, hop on to Strikingly.
Image taken from Strikingly
Strikingly is a growing website-building platform that allows you to create good-looking web pages via a user-friendly editor interface. We provide lots of categorized and ready-to-use templates to our users, so they don’t have to spend time and money building their web design from scratch. Most of the features required in a basic website are available in our free plan. This means you don’t have to invest any money to get started with building a beautiful website on Strikingly.
Once you have created your website, you can simply integrate it with any social bookmarking sites that you are using. This will help you drive traffic back and forth between your social media and website content. Our social feed feature even allows you to insert part of your Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter feed into your website so that your site visitors can get a glimpse of your social media content without having to hop out of your domain. That’s how you max out the benefits of your social bookmarking efforts.
