How Much Social Bookmarking Should You Participate In?

Aug 20
09:38

2010

Winslow Sandy

Winslow Sandy

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The concept of sharing resources was one of the original tenets behind the development of the World Wide Web. Research was being performed at CERN laboratories in Europe with the data and information needing to be seen by other researchers near and far. By sharing links to data pages on this new medium, the habit of social bookmarking had its modest beginnings

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As the Internet has developed over the past decade and a half many innovations have occurred in the way we all use the technology. Whether we're simply creating a brochure style website to promote a business or we are active in one of the many social communities,How Much Social Bookmarking Should You Participate In? Articles spreading knowledge and information remains one of the key uses of the web.

With the rise of technologies that allow for users to create accounts and store some of their favorite links, bookmarking sites have become a familiar scene. Some folks only use these services to maintain a personal record of their most visited and favorite websites. Others take advantage of the decidedly social aspects of sharing their Internet travels with others.

It's in this sharing, this form of meta communications that most social bookmarking websites are gaining attention, users, and community interactions.

So, how does a social bookmarking service work? Is it really worth your time, effort and energy to participate? Well, as you might imagine the straight forward answer to this question is "it depends."

These social tools are continuously being developed to provide ease of use for the site member. Many of the services offer JavaScript enabled bookmarks you can place in your web browser's tool bar. When you land at a page you'd like to add to your bookmarks, you simply click on the toolbar button, and that site's URL and other meta information is added to your profile account.

Some services also provide a way to automate bookmarking by tying into your browsers own bookmarking functionality. This can be a great way to only have to save a link in one place but still have access to that information on your social site as well.

If you are active in a specific, targeted niche, the concept of sharing your bookmarks with others may make a lot of sense. Many of the web’s thought leaders are also highly interactive using bookmarking tools to share their daily online journeys. If you fall into this category, or simply want to launch your way into becoming a niche guru, social bookmarking tools are definitely something you'll want to have in your SEO toolbox.

With all the social communities and bookmarking services out there, it can be a challenge to know the best methods to go about taking advantage of the existing infrastructure. One key is to choose a small number of services and then stick with them. Over time, your involvement with those bookmarking services will add up and pay dividends.

As long as the bookmarking site continues to grow, both with its number of users as well as total sites bookmarked, you should continue to reach an ever wider audience with your involvement. Being conscious to habitually bookmark new and interesting sites, you'll be able to maximize your web surfing and the social interactions of sharing your bookmarks with others.

Make sure that whichever services you decide to choose, you'll have all the tools you need to automate social bookmarking along with the capacity to elaborate on the meta information associated with a bookmark. It's this attention to detail that will gain you followers and provide you with maximum of effects for a minimum of effort.