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You probably keep seeing the terms, “Social Networking and Social Bookmarking” lately and are wondering what they mean. So was I, until I discovered both of these terms are related to “new media” or “social media.” I didn’t realize when I asked, “Where Do You Hang Out Online?” that I was really talking about social networking! I’m going to share with you a bit more about what I’ve learned about the basics for using social bookmarking and social media for business.

“What exactly is social media?” you ask. It is internet media that has the ability to interact with it’s users in some way. This blog you are reading right now, is one example of social media, you can interact with it by leaving a comment, or social bookmarking it! (Hint, hint!) Social media also includes sites such as Facebook, lenses at Squidoo, Videos at YouTube and much more. For a really detailed explanation, Robert Scoble has an excellent post here: What is social media?

Have you ever found a web site and thought you might like visit it again? In order to easily find it again, you probably saved it to your browser’s “favorites” or “bookmarks” right? The problem is that you can have hundreds of sites saved in your browser and then, the one you are looking for can get lost in all those bookmarks. The problem gets even bigger if you use more than one browser or computer. The solution is simple, social bookmarking sites.

Social bookmarking is a term that describes a method in which Internet users can save, classify (called tagging) and share their internet bookmarks with other internet users or friends. This concept actually began in 1996, it started to gain popularity in 2005 and 2006 when sites such as http://del.icio.us, http://simpy.com and http://furl.net started to take off. Now, there are hundreds of websites that allow you to share your favorite web pages and network with other users. Your friends and/or other users can view your saved sites by tags, category, topic or randomly, if they choose. Some sites give you the option of keeping some or all of your bookmarks private as well, which great if you have top secret resources.

Many of these websites offer features such as allowing users to rate and comment upon the bookmarks, add notes, receive RSS feeds and even create social networks. The RSS feeds in particular allow users to receive up to the minute information on certain tags that they have “subscribed to.” You can receive up to the minute information and resources on any given topic.

Because the information is being ranked by real people, the web pages with the most helpful content will usually receive higher rankings. This is in comparison to a search engine’s spider that crawls the Internet and has its own way of measuring a site. For example, If you were searching for information on direct sales in a social bookmarking site, you would probably find very different results than you would find in a general search engine search. Lets have a look at some of those sites, but read the entire article before you join any. Okay?

• del.icio.us is a very popular site and was one of the first social bookmarking sites to really take off.
• digg.com receives 8.7 million visitors each month. You can look up a number of topics but the main focus is World and Business, Technology, Science, Entertainment, Gaming, Sports, News and Videos and you’ll find instant information and statistics on those topics.
• bluedot.us motto is stuff you care about! It allows users to view what’s new, what’s hot at the moment and what the weekly stats are.
• blinklist.com is still in beta testing and it’s mission statement is more about how people can use the service for keeping track of their own research. The social aspect allows you to find what your friends as well as other’s recent and hot topics.
• technorati.com main focus is RSS feeds, it allows users to share and favorite their blogs, photos, videos and more and boasts almost a million and a half visitors each month.
• mybloglog.com, blogcatalog.com and bumpzee.com These sites all combine social bookmarking, blogging and social networking.
• You can also find sites that are more specific like hugg.com for green topics, lensroll.com which is only for Squidoo lenses and mumdinger.com for bookmarking topics that interest Moms.
• And last but not least I’ll include twitter.com although it’s not a social bookmarking site, it’s a new media way to communicate and network with people. What are you doing?

This is list is only the tip of the iceberg, there are many more sites available, but these just happen to be the ones I’ve started using. If you do decide to join or already belong to some of the same ones, I’d be delighted if you added me as a friend or joined my network!

These sites are all varied and, while they share in social media, they are all geared towards different audiences. To get the most out of these sites you may want to combine the use of several of them and look for the ones that are geared to your niche.

So now you are wondering, “What does all of this have to do with my business?” Basically, social bookmarking is the new “word of mouth” advertising. The more people that bookmark content on your web site will increase the chance of new users finding your site as they search through various users’ bookmarks. If a site provides quality content that users find helpful and you spend a little time networking within these social bookmarking sites, your site could have a much higher ranking within the social bookmarking site than it does in general search engine traffic.

The best thing is the convenience of having all your bookmarks located in one place and being able to share them with others. For example, you could share all your business resource links with your downline or other people you work with.

A word of caution, social bookmarking should be done responsibly, if you only bookmark your own sites you can get yourself into hot water or even banned from some sites. Because they are social networks you need to conduct yourself in an ethical and professional manner to make and keep new friends.

As you can see, all of these social networking elements can work together to create more buzz for your website and introduce you to new people with similar interests. Which could lead to more traffic and even some future business partners. However, you shouldn’t ignore search engines or discontinue all your search engine optimization efforts.

Why not practice your social media skills right now, by leaving a comment or adding this article to your favorite social bookmarking site?

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