Social Bookmarking... Confused? You're Not Alone
by Theresa Cahill
Copyright 2006 - All Rights Reserved
The word is out that social bookmarking is the thing, that
special flavor of the month (or year or decade?), but only
by taking it in small steps have I been able to figure out
some of its ins and outs.
The long and short of social bookmarking is, it is a way to save
your Favorites folder (or portions thereof) online. This
means no matter where in the world you happen to be,
as long as you've got a connection to the internet,
you just log into your social bookmarking account and
voila! at your fingertips are all of the important urls you
might find yourself needing - but without access to -
since your computer is sitting home and you're not.
Now that is a good idea! Saves uploading a bunch of
urls to your domain, or remembering to send them to
your Aunt Sally before you visit, on the off chance you'll
need to remember that special something while you're
away.
(By the by, it's also a quick way to actually use your
home computer. I don't know about you, but my Favorites
folder is virtually useless at this point.)
But, there's even more to social bookmarking then easy
access. You can also share this information with others.
Your friends, family, co-workers, subscribers, whoever,
can easily see what you've been uncovering on the
web and decide, at that point, if it's something so useful
and/or interesting that they, too, would like to access it
easily through their own social bookmarking account.
The logical step from there (since I'm assuming that you
are reading this because you, too, are interested in
new ways to market on the net) is to find a way to tie
bookmarking to your service and/or website.
Personally, I'm starting small. I've created my own account:
http://del.icio.us/tdgac
It wasn't hard to signup. Nothing tricky there.
After logging in, I began adding specific pages with specific
tags to the "post" field inside my own account.
The description, tags, url... all make sense. Sure enough
when I hit save, there it is... in my "your favorites" area.
My next step was to make a quick check using the
"recent" url at the upper right hand corner of my own
account. Since I'd only just added my page, I was
anticipating the joy of seeing it posted at the top of
this huge, huge list. Seemed reasonable, right?
Wrong!
Either billions of people are hitting the "save" key at
the very moment I am or I'm sorely missing something.
Hmmmm... definitely confused now.
[I'm positive that at this moment some of you are just
shaking your heads at my extreme ignorance. I can just
picture, too, many more thinking "yipee! I just might
be getting this right now!"
You see there are all sorts of people at all sorts of
stages of understanding - all online at this same
point in time.
Bless those that "get it" right away! And thank heavens
there are a few (like I'm demonstrating right now), that
basically fumble their way around for a bit before it
all starts to "sink in!"
For those of you way ahead of me, thanks for reading!
For those who would like a bit of guidance to get started,
I'm here to help... I hope. We'll fumble along together.]
That said... If this is all new to you, too, head here:
http://del.icio.us/tdgac
You'll see a few urls under the "All tdgac's items."
Beside each of these web page entries are the faint
words "save this."
Put your mouse over the "save this" and click.
If you have an existing del.icio.us account, it will take
you to the log in page for your account (for you
smart ones!). If you don't have an account yet, you'll
be given the opportunity to create one now.
[BTW, give a lot of thought to your username... that's
where the "tdgac" part came from mine LOL, so think
it through first. You'll be stuck with it unless you delete
and recreate your account.]
After creating your account and logging in, you'll see
an area on your screen where http://del.icio.us/tdgac
is shown. There's also a description box, a notes box,
and a "tags" area.
Give yourself something descriptive so you'll remember
who in the world tdgac is... My Wizard Ads or Theresa
Cahill might make a good description.
Hit the save button and voila! You've got the beginnings
of your social bookmarking!
At this point, under your "settings" area (upper right
hand of screen in del.icio.us) you can do any number
of things. Importing your current Favorites folder (or
portions thereof) is available. Explore!
Now that you're on the road to social bookmarking
comes the fun part... telling others what you're doing.
If you have a website, you can easily add (assuming
you do your own webmastering or know the rudiments
of copying and pasting) a "save this page" to any and
all of your important webpages within your site. Use the
"help" link, then read "For Publishers" under the Feeds
and Tools section. That's where you'll find the code.
In addition, you'll want to share you're newly found method
of communication with others. Get your family, friends,
subscribers, mailing list involved in bookmarking your
small chunk (del.icio.us listing) of the social bookmarking
web.
Then, make use of it! Don't just load it up with junk.
If you're a writer and find interesting writer's resources
add them to your account. If you're a news junkie and
track particular newsworthy items, post those!
As you get more and more familiar with social bookmarking,
you'll understand the importance of "tagging" your
information correctly. According to del.icio.us, your
page goes on the front page (I've yet to see any of
mine though) and also is filed away under sub-indexing
using those all-important tags.
I'll admit, I've only just scratched the surface so far.
I don't claim to be an expert (that's obvious), but I
do know that with further education and implementation,
social bookmarking as a marketing tool is definitely worth
the effort.
And... like all new things takes a bit of fumbling around
before we get it right.
So ahead! Get started! See where it leads you - the
next brainstorm idea is only a few minutes (okay
maybe hours or days) away! :)
====================================
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Theresa Cahill is the owner of My Wizard Ads, Online Advertising Co-Op, a true one-stop spot for ezine ad advertising, solo ads, targeted traffic, and more!
Reference: social bookmarking
Copyright 2006 - All Rights Reserved
The word is out that social bookmarking is the thing, that
special flavor of the month (or year or decade?), but only
by taking it in small steps have I been able to figure out
some of its ins and outs.
The long and short of social bookmarking is, it is a way to save
your Favorites folder (or portions thereof) online. This
means no matter where in the world you happen to be,
as long as you've got a connection to the internet,
you just log into your social bookmarking account and
voila! at your fingertips are all of the important urls you
might find yourself needing - but without access to -
since your computer is sitting home and you're not.
Now that is a good idea! Saves uploading a bunch of
urls to your domain, or remembering to send them to
your Aunt Sally before you visit, on the off chance you'll
need to remember that special something while you're
away.
(By the by, it's also a quick way to actually use your
home computer. I don't know about you, but my Favorites
folder is virtually useless at this point.)
But, there's even more to social bookmarking then easy
access. You can also share this information with others.
Your friends, family, co-workers, subscribers, whoever,
can easily see what you've been uncovering on the
web and decide, at that point, if it's something so useful
and/or interesting that they, too, would like to access it
easily through their own social bookmarking account.
The logical step from there (since I'm assuming that you
are reading this because you, too, are interested in
new ways to market on the net) is to find a way to tie
bookmarking to your service and/or website.
Personally, I'm starting small. I've created my own account:
http://del.icio.us/tdgac
It wasn't hard to signup. Nothing tricky there.
After logging in, I began adding specific pages with specific
tags to the "post" field inside my own account.
The description, tags, url... all make sense. Sure enough
when I hit save, there it is... in my "your favorites" area.
My next step was to make a quick check using the
"recent" url at the upper right hand corner of my own
account. Since I'd only just added my page, I was
anticipating the joy of seeing it posted at the top of
this huge, huge list. Seemed reasonable, right?
Wrong!
Either billions of people are hitting the "save" key at
the very moment I am or I'm sorely missing something.
Hmmmm... definitely confused now.
[I'm positive that at this moment some of you are just
shaking your heads at my extreme ignorance. I can just
picture, too, many more thinking "yipee! I just might
be getting this right now!"
You see there are all sorts of people at all sorts of
stages of understanding - all online at this same
point in time.
Bless those that "get it" right away! And thank heavens
there are a few (like I'm demonstrating right now), that
basically fumble their way around for a bit before it
all starts to "sink in!"
For those of you way ahead of me, thanks for reading!
For those who would like a bit of guidance to get started,
I'm here to help... I hope. We'll fumble along together.]
That said... If this is all new to you, too, head here:
http://del.icio.us/tdgac
You'll see a few urls under the "All tdgac's items."
Beside each of these web page entries are the faint
words "save this."
Put your mouse over the "save this" and click.
If you have an existing del.icio.us account, it will take
you to the log in page for your account (for you
smart ones!). If you don't have an account yet, you'll
be given the opportunity to create one now.
[BTW, give a lot of thought to your username... that's
where the "tdgac" part came from mine LOL, so think
it through first. You'll be stuck with it unless you delete
and recreate your account.]
After creating your account and logging in, you'll see
an area on your screen where http://del.icio.us/tdgac
is shown. There's also a description box, a notes box,
and a "tags" area.
Give yourself something descriptive so you'll remember
who in the world tdgac is... My Wizard Ads or Theresa
Cahill might make a good description.
Hit the save button and voila! You've got the beginnings
of your social bookmarking!
At this point, under your "settings" area (upper right
hand of screen in del.icio.us) you can do any number
of things. Importing your current Favorites folder (or
portions thereof) is available. Explore!
Now that you're on the road to social bookmarking
comes the fun part... telling others what you're doing.
If you have a website, you can easily add (assuming
you do your own webmastering or know the rudiments
of copying and pasting) a "save this page" to any and
all of your important webpages within your site. Use the
"help" link, then read "For Publishers" under the Feeds
and Tools section. That's where you'll find the code.
In addition, you'll want to share you're newly found method
of communication with others. Get your family, friends,
subscribers, mailing list involved in bookmarking your
small chunk (del.icio.us listing) of the social bookmarking
web.
Then, make use of it! Don't just load it up with junk.
If you're a writer and find interesting writer's resources
add them to your account. If you're a news junkie and
track particular newsworthy items, post those!
As you get more and more familiar with social bookmarking,
you'll understand the importance of "tagging" your
information correctly. According to del.icio.us, your
page goes on the front page (I've yet to see any of
mine though) and also is filed away under sub-indexing
using those all-important tags.
I'll admit, I've only just scratched the surface so far.
I don't claim to be an expert (that's obvious), but I
do know that with further education and implementation,
social bookmarking as a marketing tool is definitely worth
the effort.
And... like all new things takes a bit of fumbling around
before we get it right.
So ahead! Get started! See where it leads you - the
next brainstorm idea is only a few minutes (okay
maybe hours or days) away! :)
====================================
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Theresa Cahill is the owner of My Wizard Ads, Online Advertising Co-Op, a true one-stop spot for ezine ad advertising, solo ads, targeted traffic, and more!
Reference: social bookmarking
posted by OIMS at
3:11 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home