« Tip #16 - Search GTrends From the 30DC Toolbar | Home | Day 20 - Part II - Where Else to Host QUALITY Content »
Day 20 - Part I - Responsible Bookmarking (Day 18 & 19 Weekend)
By Mike Mindel | August 20, 2007
This summary has been taken from Day 20 Training for the Thirty Day Challenge.
(Note: I (Ed) apologise. This should really have gone in the pre-season section).
It’s Like a Bank Account
Social bookmarking and social posting is like a bank account.
Everytime you social post someone else’s content (that you genuinely like) you are making a deposit into that account.
Then when you socially bookmark something that you produce then you are making a widthdrawal.
This assumes that it is quality, relevant and useful content.
Bookmarking Your Own Content Is Fine
This is NOT spam.
Every professional blogger socially bookmarks their articles.
But if you have a group of 20 people and everytime you submit a bookmark they automatically did the rounds then this IS manipulation.
This is why I (Ed) asked you to create teams of 4, 5 and 6.
If you have 5 mates and you tell them that something is good.
Those who like your content might bookmark you, those that don’t will not.
You don’t have to do much to make an impact.
So don’t overdo it!
Do things ethically please.
There Are Hundreds of Social Bookmarking Sites
Have a look at Socializer 2.0
There are hundreds of these sites.
Why are they here?
For two reasons.
Social Bookmarking Begins With You
Lets take del.icio.us
If I tag my own bookmarks then my own language makes them easier for me to find.
Lets TAG the socializer page
Up comes a dialog box which I fill in with my own description
and my own tags to help me find it again
When I want to find socializer again I click on this button and I get a bunch of tags in the search box
If I want to find socializer
then delicious limits me to those tags with socializer in them.
Tagging helps me find what I want by letting me use my own language when I bookmark sites.
If I look in the bookmark section
There see. I’ve found my bookmark again.
Great!
So primarily del.icio.us is for me to help me organize my tags.
Secondly…
Social Bookmarking Helps You Find Good Content
If enough people think a resource is interesting, relevant and useful then the content rises in the social bookmark rankings.
So when you go to look for good content, you’ll find it.
You see it works both ways?
What is Social Bookmarking Spam?
It’s ridiculous to call social bookmarking spam.
Mass organized social posting is a form of spamming, especially if it’s crud content.
People would be completely naive to think that there aren’t rooms full of people in China, India, Indonesia being paid $1 an hour to socially bookmark stuff.
That’s just the facts.
Social Bookmarking Rewards
There’s a commerce reward and an emotional recognition reward.
This is the whole essence of it.
If you’re not comfortable using it for commerce then leave now.
Don’t Mass Tag
Forget mass groups. It’s going to hurt you more than it helps.
That’s not marketing the way the internet works.
Think about how things work naturally.
How Do Things Happen Naturally?
Say I (Ed) post to my Tubby Nerd blog
What happens?
I (Ed) will post a blog entry.
Some people will come across and bookmark it.
Some others will come across it and bookmark this.
It’s organic.
I have thousands of people looking at my site everyday. So having a couple of hundred people socially bookmark a post is not unnatural at all as Google or the bookmarking site sees the traffic.
They see the number of people searching for ‘Thirty Day Challenge’ and ‘Ed Dale’ and it makes sense.
But if you post hundreds of bookmarks for Sausage Making Tips and before today there are only 12,000 pages on the entire earth then that will be noticed as irregular activity.
All of a sudden a page is created and there are 90 people all recommending that and socially bookmarking it.
Not a good plan folks. That’s manipulation! That’s not natural.
If 4 or 5 people did it, that would be fine. You’ll pop up and then you’ll get knocked back down.
New information is relevant but it’s only going to stay relevant if people continue to refer to it and link it.
Which says to Google other people in the world are clicking on that listing in Google so we’ll continue to keep it around.
Bulk mass marketing for new content is a complete and utter waste and it will get you knocked out.
You’ll be put off to the side and Google will take a long look at you and decide whether people thought the content was useful or not.
You’ll never run into any problems if you have great content that answers people’s needs and in the web 2.0 world you don’t go salesy. As soon as you go salesy it’s all over.
Mike: Sidenote
I (Mike) just did a search for my name in Digg and look what I found
I personally didn’t even submit my own blog to the social bookmarking sites.
But some of you guys did.
You liked what you saw and you voted with your digg button.
Look how natural it is.
The Tumblr Aftermath
This whole Tumblr episode is a great lesson in seeing a bunch of people get really enthusiastic and throw up placeholder pages.
If you’re going to put up a placeholder then that’s all well and good.
But then to put that into the mix and socially bookmark a placeholder page is going to get you killed.
It’s wrong.
It’s like flashing back to those horrible days of adsense arbitrage where you typed in a keyword and the pages were full of adsense ads and nothing else.
Back to Social Poster
You have to understand and look at each of these social bookmarking sites.
You have to understand what each of these sites do. Their ecology.
Ask yourself ‘how do I contribute to the communities?’, ‘how do I build up a bank account with these people?’.
Take an hour or so off and use StumbleUpon. Look around. See what’s interesting.
If you see a site that’s good and useful then click ‘I like it’ and do some social posting.
People want you to bookmark things. They just don’t want to see bookmarking perverted.
Notify Bad Content As Well As Good
Keep in mind that bookmarking goes both ways. There are thumbs up and thumbs down
On Digg there is also an option for ‘bury it’ if the content is no good
What Are the Key Points
- Contribute. As you surf around yourself and say ‘thats cool and interesting’ then socially post it. You don’t have to post only your own stuff.
- Don’t post in groups above 5 or 6. Anymore than that you will get into big problems. You’ll eventually caught and take out your entire group.
- You don’t have to game the system. Use it how it is designed to be used. Naturally and with great content. You only need a little push.
- Don’t be afraid to point out if someone’s content is a bit light. You’ll be doing them a favour in the long run.
Technorati Tags: day 20 training, thirty day challenge, bank account, social bookmarking, deposit into account, withdraw from account, relevant and useful content, bookmarking your own content is fine, dont bookmark in big groups, hundreds of social bookmarking sites, social bookmarking begins with you, social bookmarking spam, dont mass tag, how do things happen naturally, the tumblr aftermath, social poster
Powered by ScribeFire.
Topics: Daily Summaries |
January 10th, 2008 at 4:08 pm
Mike, how many different social bookmarking sites do I post each new post to?
January 20th, 2008 at 4:34 am
Good questions Dave…to me it doesn’t seem ‘natural’ to Social Bookmark your site or post to 40 different places right off the bat.
Plus…should we SB the main page and each and every post?
Also…the title, description, tag, and in most cases the URL having the same keyword (or keyphrase) doesn’t seem natural to me either
Until I get a definitive answer, I will probably:
1) SB the main site to a couple places every couple of days (I’ll have to be a bit organized to keep track but it shouldn’t be too bad)
2) SB the occasional blog post
3) Put in real descriptions without thinking of keywords
Any suggestions Mike?