Social bookmarking sites have been around for years, but their popularity as a local inbound marketing tool is just now being realized by anyone who markets on and offline. The internet is a powerful tool which provides you with several resources that you can use to create a successful marketing plan. Let’s get back to basics and look at the Bookmarking aspect of the internet and how you can use it in your local inbound marketing plan.
There are literally hundreds of bookmarking sites on the internet today with the most popular being:
- Digg
- Stumbleupon
- Ville Money
- Delicious
Here’s a recent listing of the top 100 bookmarking sites as of June 2013:
100 Best ever top social bookmarking sites
7 top tips
Our top 7 tips are based on how your business can incorporate bookmarking sites in your local internet marketing plan to drive traffic to your website. This will in turn help you to increase your email list, the number of visitors to your site, and of course, your sales and your bottom line. You probably have some of these as buttons on your website. You can see the Stumbleupon and Reddit above this article. These are very subtle calls to action.
Related information: Secret Hidden-in-Plain-Site Inbound Marketing Tip: Call-to-Action
You need to remember that social bookmarking sites are based upon the concept of sharing. That means if you publish on one, be polite and look at several in exchange. This is the same concept used on Google+ and other social sites.
- Always share content on a regular basis and leave thought provoking comments on articles you read. By taking the time to leave feedback you are becoming more visible and you are helping to brand your business as a company to follow within your industry.
- Include bookmarking buttons on your website and blog. By providing these buttons you are making it super easy for visitors to your site to share your content with their friends.
- The majority of bookmarking sites have no limits on the number of words you can use in your description. Most allow an unrestricted amount of keywords to be used as well. Both of these items when used correctly can really help boost your local inbound marketing traffic. I tend to try to use a short hook around the content and the keywords.
- It’s OK to use bookmarking sites as a self-promotional tool to help attract people who live in your area. This is a great way to utilize local inbound marketing techniques in order to generate leads. This promotional method helps increase your local visibility and helps to establish your brand.
- Brand your company across all of the bookmarking sites equally. Use the same logo, user name and the same webpage to endorse your authority. You don’t want to be like a character actor who has so many disguises no one knows who he is.
- Make use of your user profile, you may be surprised how many people do not do this. When people look for further information including contact and website info, none is available. How can they find you if you don’t have a roadmap? Add appropriate keywords in your profile whenever possible.
- People enjoy using Hashtags so use them to help identify your brand and your company. Tag your posts and shares accordingly so they are placed in the appropriate categories.
By incorporating these seven tips your business will be more easily discovered online. You can grow your customer list and increase your bottom line by using effective bookmarking techniques within your local inbound marketing plan.
Why go to the trouble?
In a recent article, What is social bookmarking and how a small business can use it to attract new customers, from the Geisheker Group website Alanna Monica explained just how small businesses can profit by including bookmarking sites.
Within this social bookmarking system users save the links to their favorite web pages publicly for others to see and investigate, or privately for their intimate network. This system has also revolutionized how search engines organize and classify web pages. Without the advent of social bookmarking, the Internet would look entirely different.
But in addition to changing the way the world clicks, social bookmarking has also been an excellent tool for small businesses. Marketing campaigns would be far less profitable without social bookmarking sites. Small business can get their product noticed by sharing content and spreading the word on special promotions they offer. Once the promotion spreads traffic to the company’s website goes up with it, leading to higher page rankings on Google and more customers for the business. We all know that when something becomes popular those that haven’t been a part of it all of a sudden want to be, and just like that your marketing campaign goes viral. Social bookmarking sites create an environment that businesses can use to not only generate new customers, but also to make their business famous.
Incorporating bookmarking into your local inbound marketing business can open up an entirely new realm of opportunities for you. You will discover that your ability to attract your target customers improves and that these customers will be only too happy to share your content with others.
Bookmarking sites is a convenient way for people to return to their favorite sites time after time. In order for your sites to get bookmarked enable social sharing buttons on your website today.
How many of these helpful tips are you using already?
Jaco Grobbelaar is the owner of BroadVision Marketing. BroadVision Marketing works with business owners to put in place inbound and outbound marketing strategies that consistently secure new clients. The BroadVision Marketing Training Center is located in Petaluma, CA and primarily serves companies in the San Francisco Bay area.
Jaco can be reached at jaco@broadvisionmarketing.com or 707.766.9778 or connect with Jaco on Facebook - www.facebook.com/broadvisionmarketing - and LinkedIn - www.linkedin.com/in/JacoGrobbelaar.