Social Networking And Social Bookmarking – Getting All Linked Up
by Marsha Maung
Oct 7th, 2008
If I had to use a conventional term to describe what online social networking and social bookmarking in the business context, I would use the term ‘word of mouth marketing’. I mean, let’s look at it closely.
Social networking sites explained
Social networking sites consist of people who create their profiles online. And many people these days, especially the X- and Y-generation are habitually using these social networking sites to connect with one another, find friends, share stuff with each other and some people go a little further by joining causes and participating in groups with purposes close to their hearts. Each of the member’s profile is linked together in a NETWORK, like a web. What one shares in one’s profile or page is made available through their ‘friend’s’ social network as well. Whether the shared stuff appears throughout the outer layer of network is up to one’s preference. You can choose to make available the links, photos, videos and audio files to your ‘friends’ only.
It’s sad that people continue to think of online social networking as child’s play when in actual fact, business people can make full use of the online social media CONVINCINGLY, EFFECTIVELY and most importantly, CHEAPLY (free, in fact).
Sure, sure….I know it’s fun and addictive to be able to share your most recent escapades to some remote island being almost-fed-on by a barracuda or you could post a picture of you kissing a dolphin…all that’s fine but if you look beyond the superficial value of online social networking sites, you’ll see the potential. Think a little deeper.
What about social bookmarking - what on earth is that?
When talking about social networking, my fingers are touching more than just sites like Facebook, Myspace, Friendster, Multiply, MyBlogLog…etc.
What about social sharing sites like delicious, digg, stumbleupon, furl.net, Twitter, Propeller and more recently, Yahoo! Buzz? These are social bookmarking sites, for your information.
Writing and publishing an article is not enough...you have to get as many links in and generate as much publicity as you can for each of the article
If I may, let me share a secret with you. My friends and network of people within my Facebook account will see that I share links freely with them on my facebook account…it’s there for everyone (who’s willing) to see. But what most of them don’t take into account is this…the work behind publicizing each and every single article that I have ever written in the ten odd years that I have been a freelancer through article marketing and online social networking.
One simple reason….publicity.
I don’t write for no reason. Whenever a nice piece (hopefully this one qualifies as well), I would want as many people to read it as possible and understand what I am trying to get at. I am not a narcissistic person – but in a business sense, this is how online marketing works. Through socializing and sharing with others online.
I’ll illustrate with a diagram here.
Click to see a larger version in a new window
The black boxes indicate followers or people who are remotely linked to me. Amongst them, there are few who are advent followers or fans of my links and articles. Hey, this is what life is all about…some love you, others think you’re nuts and a huge majority think you’re desperately annoying! I accept that.
One site, one article linked amongst one another through social networking and social bookmarking websites
But the point is this….do you see now, with the illustration above, how one article can be linked from one website with so many others through online social networking websites?
Facebook is well-known for its powerful ‘linkfulness’ so, I probably don’t need to talk a lot about Facebook as it is…I’ve pointed out how useful this online social network tool can be in an earlier article.
But here’s the other secret.
Update your social bookmark and social networking site to alert potential customers and clients....or at least let your friends know what you're up to of late.
Every time I post an article up, I update each and every single one of my social bookmarking and networking profiles up so that it is visible to as many people as possible.
Delicious - the pioneer of article social bookmarking
Delicious is the pioneer (if I am not wrong about this) in social bookmarking. How it works is like this – you sign up for a membership with the website, create your own profile in there and then whenever you have a new article or find something worthy, you link it up in your delicious site to share with others who share similar interest.
Furl.net, Yahoo! Buzz, and Propeller works the same way that delicious does, so, nothing new there. People who have an account with these sites can choose to ‘add to favorites’ the links that you have placed there.
On top of creating one additional link in the World Wide Web, you’re also creating awareness amongst the other members of the site based on the ‘tags’ you create under the link. For instance, if I wrote an article on ‘article marketing’, I would tag it under ‘articles’, ‘marketing’, ‘online’, ‘promotion’, ‘internet’, ‘writing’, ‘write’, etc.
Digg - the strict master of social bookmarking
Digg is a little stricter in a sense that they make an extra effort to ensure that there is no duplicate link within their network. I have to admit Digg can be MORE THAN a little annoying; but the fact that many people find Digg very useful and streamlined, it makes sense to open an account with them and place your link there as well. Of course, it would be best for you to download their browser toolbar so that you can easily ‘digg’ others’ articles, content, images and videos as well.
Stumbleupon - social bookmarking with a difference
Stumbleupon is another social bookmarking site that is ever-increasingly popular these days because of its easy interface and seamless features. What’s unique about stumbleupon is the fact that, at a click of a button, you can actually ‘stumble upon’ others’ content and add it to your own link of stumbleupon sites. When you click on the ‘article’, ‘image’, ‘video’, ‘news’, etc icon, it will randomly pick something up from the list of links others have posted up and present it to you. This is what makes stumbleupon unique from others.
Twitter - Update update update
Twitter’s also another unique way of sharing what you’re doing, what you’re reading and your favorite websites and activities with others who are ‘following’ you. Other twitter members, if they like what you are putting up on your twitter page, can choose to ‘follow’ you. Whenever you log into your twitter page, the updates will show up on the homepage, alerting you about what others have been up to. This works vice versa. If someone have chosen to follow your updates, your links and updates will appear in their homepage as well.
How does article marketing fit into this equation - what and why
I choose to place article directories here in this article as well despite the fact that article marketing doesn’t exactly fall under the ambit of online social networking. ezinearticles is one of the most popular and well-established article directories known to man, right now, but so’s GoArticles. However, somehow, Google likes ezinearticles a whole lot more than it does GoArticles.
As far as article marketing is concerned, I would like to warn newbies out there about duplicate content. Some of you may have been using softwares or companies that submit one article to multiple directories on the World Wide Web. I strongly urge you to stop this practice because…one, it doesn’t make any sense; two, google as well as copyscape won’t like you very much. You’d better count yourself lucky if you’re not already banned by Google.
Buzzle - the next generation of article marketing of ezinearticles of suite101
I’ve started using another article directory called Buzzle and so far so good because they follow a concept similar to ezinearticles…in that, the articles submitted to their website is meticulously scrutinized by professional eyes and hands. So, it’s safe to say that the quality of articles placed in buzzle is of rather good (or passable) quality.
The similarity between the online social networking, social bookmarking and article marketing websites is this…they ALL help create additional links to your articles or home page. Not only that…they help you reach out to others who are willing to help you publicize the links that you have placed under your profile.
This is what I call the modern day online social networking akin to word of mouth marketing of the brick and mortar business.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Marsha Maung is a Malaysian-based freelance writer with two kids. She spends her time ferrying her kids around, watering her plants, writing web content, SEO stuff, ghostwriting books and also indulges in the occasional Facebook-ing. Visit her blog for more dirty details on the life and times of a mother, writer, designer, housekeeper, coffee-maker, poop-wiper, chef...and just about everything else under the sun.
REPUBLICATION RIGHTS! IMPORTANT!!
Listen up! I am a very nice person, if you think this article is neat and you'd like to publish it in your website, all's cool with me but with one condition. Only one and from the bottom of my heart, I wish that you would, in all sincerity, allow me my one single wish....to place the following codes into the your website at the END OF THE ARTICLE. It's not going to disrupt much, so please do it?
Either paste the above ABOUT THE AUTHOR stuff into your website (with links included) or copy the following codes into your website. That's it! Thank you! *muax*
<b>Marsha Maung</b> is a Malaysian-based <a href="http://www.marshamaung.com" target="_blank">freelance writer</a> with two kids. She spends her time ferrying her kids around, watering her plants, writing web content, SEO stuff, ghostwriting books and also indulges in the occasional Facebook-ing. Visit her <a href="http://www.marshamaung.blogspot.com" target="_blank">blog</a> for more dirty details on the life and times of a mother, writer, designer, housekeeper, coffee-maker, poop-wiper, chef...and just about everything else under the sun.
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