The What, Why, & How of Social Bookmarking: The Marketer‘s Guide - Marketing Scoop (2024)

As a marketer, you‘re always on the hunt for effective ways to reach new audiences, drive engagement, and show thought leadership. One underrated tactic worth adding to your toolkit is social bookmarking.

In this comprehensive guide, we‘ll cover everything you need to know about social bookmarking, including:

• What is social bookmarking?
• Why is social bookmarking valuable for marketers?
• How do you use social bookmarking sites effectively?

Whether you‘re a complete beginner or just need a refresher, you‘ll walk away with actionable strategies and tips to start leveraging social bookmarking in your marketing today. Let‘s dive in.

What is Social Bookmarking?

At its core, social bookmarking is a way to save, organize, and share links to your favorite online content. Rather than saving bookmarks in your web browser, you use a social bookmarking site to store and tag your links in the cloud.

This allows you to easily access your bookmarks from any device and share them publicly or privately. Social bookmarking sites also make it easy to discover new content, follow other users‘ bookmarks, join topical groups, and vote on or discuss links.

The History of Social Bookmarking

While the concept of bookmarking goes back to the early days of the web browser, social bookmarking sites started emerging in the mid-2000s. Early pioneers included Delicious (founded in 2003) and Digg (launched in 2004).

These sites allowed users to save and tag links, see each other‘s bookmarks, and vote on the most popular content. This was a radical shift from content silos to user-powered content discovery and sharing.

Other notable bookmarking platforms soon followed, including Furl, Ma.gnolia, Newsvine, and Reddit (which now calls itself a "social news aggregation" site). The space continued evolving with the rise of visual bookmarking on Pinterest and Flipboard and the move towards mobile "read-it-later" apps like Pocket and Instapaper.

Social Bookmarking Today

Fast forward to 2023, and social bookmarking is still going strong. While some early platforms have shuttered or pivoted, there are more ways than ever to save and share content across the web and apps.

Just how popular is social bookmarking today? Let‘s look at some recent data:

• Over 459 million people use Pinterest every month, saving and sharing visual bookmarks (Statista)
• 11% of global internet users actively use Flipboard to curate and share content (Hootsuite)
• Pocket, a leading "read-it-later" bookmarking app, has over 30 million registered users (Pocket)
• 75% of B2B buyers use social bookmarking and curated content to research purchasing decisions (Demand Gen Report)

As people continue to suffer from content overload and distrust traditional advertising, the need for human-curated content will only grow. That‘s where you, the marketer, come in.

Why Social Bookmarking Matters for Marketers

Social bookmarking offers several powerful benefits for content marketers looking to reach new audiences and establish authority. Let‘s break down the top reasons to start using social bookmarking as a marketing channel.

1. Content Research & Curation

As a marketer, you need a constant pulse on the latest news, trends, and conversations in your industry. Social bookmarking makes it easy to centralize all your research in one place and discover valuable new sources and ideas.

By following relevant topics and users on bookmarking sites, you can efficiently gather useful information to fuel your own content creation and thought leadership. You can also save and organize this content into collections to reference later.

Bookmarking expert and consultant Debbie Hemley explains:

"Social bookmarking is an excellent way to find and organize content on specific topics from all over the web. As you bookmark and tag content, you‘re also creating a rich repository of sources to pull from later for blog posts, presentations, or newsletters."

2. Targeted Content Amplification

With organic social reach declining and paid promotion costs increasing, social bookmarking offers a cost-effective way to get eyes on your content. By sharing your best blog posts, videos, infographics and more on bookmarking sites, you can drive targeted referral traffic back to your website.

The key is choosing the right platforms where your target audience is active and sharing content they‘ll find genuinely useful. For example, infographics tend to perform well on visual platforms like Pinterest, while long-form articles get more traction on Pocket or Flipboard.

Social bookmarking can also help improve your content‘s search engine optimization (SEO). Links from high-quality bookmarking sites can boost your page authority and help your content rank higher in search results.

In fact, websites that regularly share content on social bookmarking sites generate an average of 33% more backlinks than those that don‘t (Backlinko).

3. Community Engagement

Social bookmarking isn‘t just about driving one-way traffic. Done well, it opens up opportunities for community engagement and dialogue with your target audience.

By interacting with other users through comments, votes, and messages, you can gather valuable feedback, answer questions, and build relationships. You might even uncover new collaboration or co-marketing opportunities.

Bookmarking expert and author Kristi Hines advises:

"Don‘t just drop links and disappear. Stick around and engage with the community. Thank people for upvotes or reshares, respond to comments thoughtfully, and share other people‘s content as well. Over time you‘ll build a reputation as a trusted voice in your niche."

Of course, shameless self-promotion is a quick way to get ignored or blocked on social bookmarking sites. The key is focusing on serving the community first and only sharing content that truly adds value to the conversation.

4. Competitive Intelligence

In addition to sharing your own content, social bookmarking can be a goldmine for competitive intelligence. By tracking what content your competitors or industry peers are bookmarking and sharing, you can better understand their content strategies and audience preferences.

Tools like Feedly and Scoop.it even offer team collaboration and analytics features to help you stay on top of industry trends and benchmark your own performance. Some advanced social media monitoring platforms also include social bookmarking sites in their analysis.

Competitive insights you can uncover through social bookmarking include:

• Which topics and content types are resonating in your niche
• Which platforms and communities are most active for your target audience
• Emerging trends and thought leaders to watch
• Gaps and opportunities for differentiated content

By keeping a pulse on the content landscape, you can adapt your own content marketing strategies to stay relevant and competitive.

5. Thought Leadership

Finally, curating and sharing high-quality content on social bookmarking sites can help position you and your brand as a go-to expert in your industry. By providing valuable resources and insights, you show your audience that you‘re plugged into the latest developments and conversations.

As Debbie Hemley notes:

"When you consistently share useful, relevant content on bookmarking sites, people start to recognize you as a thought leader. They‘ll look to you for the latest news and ideas and be more receptive to your own content as well."

To establish thought leadership with social bookmarking:

• Focus on a few key topics that align with your brand expertise
• Share a mix of content types from a variety of high-quality sources
• Add your own commentary and insights when sharing links
• Engage in discussions and answer questions from the community
• Curate your own themed collections or resource lists around your topics

By becoming a trusted curator and commentator, you can build a loyal following of fans more likely to consume and share your own content.

How to Use Social Bookmarking Sites Effectively

Hopefully you‘re now convinced of the potential value of social bookmarking for your content marketing efforts. But how do you actually get started and use these platforms strategically? Here‘s a step-by-step approach.

1. Choose the Right Platforms

Not all social bookmarking sites are created equal. With dozens of options out there, it‘s important to focus your time and energy on the platforms that best fit your audience and content.

Some factors to consider when evaluating social bookmarking sites:

• Audience demographics: Does the platform have a significant number of users that match your target customer profile?
• Content focus: Is the platform oriented around the topics and content types you produce?
• Engagement: Are users actively consuming and sharing content on the platform or is it a ghost town?
• Features: Does the platform offer useful features like collections, tags, analytics, and integrations?
• Competition: Are your competitors or industry peers active on the platform?

To help you get started, here‘s an overview of some of the most popular and relevant social bookmarking platforms for marketers in 2023:

2. Set Up & Optimize Your Profiles

Once you‘ve identified the most relevant platforms for your brand, it‘s time to set up and optimize your profiles. As with any social profile, how you present yourself on social bookmarking sites shapes your brand perception and credibility.

Best practices for social bookmarking profiles:

• Use a clear profile photo, ideally your brand logo or a professional headshot
• Write a descriptive bio that explains what you do and the types of content you share
• Link back to your website and other social profiles
• Customize your URL if possible to make it easier to find and remember
• Organize your bookmarks into clearly labeled collections or boards
• Add tags and notes to your bookmarks to add context

For example, here‘s how marketing expert Neil Patel optimizes his Flipboard profile:

Note the verified checkmark, clear profile photo and bio, website link, curated magazines, and follower count. These elements all signal credibility and authority.

The foundation of successful social bookmarking is sharing high-quality, relevant content that your audience will find useful. This means looking beyond your own blog and curating content from a variety of trusted sources.

Some strategies for discovering share-worthy content:

• Set up Google Alerts for your target keywords and trending topics
• Follow influential blogs and publications in your industry
• Use social media monitoring tools to track relevant mentions and conversations
• Browse relevant forums and online communities like Quora and Reddit
• Attend industry events and conferences to discover new ideas and experts

When bookmarking content, always prioritize quality over quantity. Avoid spammy or low-value content as it will hurt your credibility. Look for content that is:

• Original and insightful, not just rehashing common knowledge
• Well-written and researched with data, examples, and expert quotes
• Actionable and useful for your target audience
• Timely and relevant to current events and conversations

In terms of frequency, aim to share a few high-quality bookmarks per day or week rather than flooding your followers‘ feeds. You can also mix in occasional shares of your own content, but keep it to less than 20% of your overall bookmarking activity.

4. Engage with Others

Social bookmarking isn‘t just about broadcasting your own finds. To get the most value, you need to actively engage with other users and participate in the community.

Some ways to engage on social bookmarking sites:

• Follow other users who share interesting, relevant content
• Upvote, like, or comment on bookmarks you find useful
• Join and participate in relevant groups or discussions
• Respond to comments and questions on your own bookmarks
• Send personalized messages to thank users for sharing your content

The more you engage authentically, the more visibility and reciprocity you‘ll likely get in return. Just be sure to add value to the conversation, not just promote your own agenda.

5. Measure Your Results

Finally, to gauge the business impact of your social bookmarking efforts, you need to track your results over time. Some key metrics to measure include:

• Referral traffic: How many visits to your website are coming from each bookmarking site? Use Google Analytics or similar tools to track this.
• Engagement: How many upvotes, likes, comments, and reshares are your bookmarks getting? Most bookmarking sites provide basic analytics.
• Follower growth: How many new followers are you attracting on each platform? Track this manually or with a social media management tool.
• Lead generation: Are your bookmarking efforts driving email sign-ups, content downloads, or other conversion events? Use unique tracking URLs to measure this.
• Sales and revenue: Ultimately, are your social bookmarking leads turning into customers and revenue? Use ecommerce tracking and CRM integrations to connect the dots.

By tracking these metrics, you can identify which platforms and tactics are working best and optimize your strategy over time. You can also calculate the ROI of your social bookmarking efforts to secure buy-in and budget from leadership.

Putting It All Together

We‘ve covered a lot of ground in this guide to social bookmarking for content marketers. To recap, here are the key takeaways:

• Social bookmarking is a powerful way to discover, curate, and share valuable content with your target audience across the web
• Marketers can use social bookmarking to drive referral traffic, engage niche communities, and establish thought leadership in their industry
• To succeed with social bookmarking, focus on a few key relevant platforms, optimize your profiles, share high-quality content consistently, engage authentically, and measure your results

Social bookmarking may not be the newest or shiniest tactic out there, but it remains a proven and cost-effective way to reach new audiences and advance your content marketing goals. By embracing the power of human curation and community, you can cut through the noise and build lasting value for your brand.

Of course, social bookmarking is just one piece of an effective content marketing strategy. To dive deeper into topics like content ideation, SEO, distribution, and measurement, check out our other in-depth guides and resources:

• The Content Marketing Pyramid: A Framework for Generating More with Less
• The Step-by-Step Guide to Conducting a Content Audit
• Content Distribution: The Ultimate Guide for Marketers
• How to Set Content Marketing Goals That Matter to Business

Now it‘s time to put this advice into practice. Choose a social bookmarking site, set up your profile, and start sharing and engaging today. You might just be surprised by the results.

How will you use social bookmarking in your content marketing? Let me know on Twitter [@YourHandle] or in the comments below!

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