What is Social Bookmarking?A Beginner's Guide

Outline

1. What is social bookmarking?2. Bookmarking vs. social bookmarking3. From bookmarking to social bookmarking4. What is social tagging?5. What is social news?6. How social bookmarking helps content7. Tips and tricks8. What is the future of social bookmarking?

What is social bookmarking?

From Wikipedia: "Social bookmarking is a method for Internet users to store, organize, search, and manage bookmarks of web pages on the Internet with the help of metadata."

Metadata is: "data about data", of any sort in any media.

Folksonomy is: a collaborative method of annotating and categorizing content.

Bottom line: social bookmarking is about organizing, sharing, and finding content that people like.

Bookmarking vs Social Bookmarking

Bookmarking• Private• Organized through files and

folders• Stored on one computer• Found through pull-down

menu and bookmark bar• Browser-specific, difficult to

port to another computer• For your eyes only

Social Bookmarking• Private or Public• Organized through tags,

categories, and popularity• Stored in the "cloud"• Found through search, social

profiles, and social stream• Easily shared between

computers• For whomever you want to

share with

From Bookmarking to Social Bookmarking

The Internet is inherently social. It is natural to want to share our favourite parts of the web with friends. Regular browser bookmarks are (ironically) the most unsocial, static part of the web's user experience...

Social bookmarking transforms the best parts of the Internet into a social experience!

What is social tagging?

Social tagging is a non-hierarchical, folksonomic method of indexing, enabling people to use their own language to catalogue content.

Examples: Delicious, Diigo, Furl, Simpy, Ma.gnolia

What is social news?

Similar to social tagging, but media compete for front page space through votes. Because much of the content is news-related, there is only so much time high ranking media items can compete.

Examples: Digg, Reddit, StumbleUpon, Mixx, Yahoo Buzz

How social bookmarking helps content

• Helps people find amazing content (Google can only establish content notability, not content grade) 

• Helps content find a targeted audience• Creates a big burst of traffic• Boosts SEO efforts• Builds community based around content• Exists as a viral trendsetter: if content is popular on Digg it

will be popular on Twitter• Allows people to predict content popularity

For social bookmarking, content really is king!

Tips and Tricks

• Create eye-catching headlines.• Find people who share similar interests as you.• Promote content without being asked.• Don't push content too hard!• Don't help everyone who asks.

What is the future of social bookmarking?

• Bigger demand for "content curators": people who find and create amazing content -- and present it well.

• Professional social bookmarkers will soon be employed by ad agencies and press rooms. (This is already happening!)

• Mobile Internet adoption will create a demand for dedicated apps that go beyond traditional web browsers.

• As content is shared on social networks like Facebook, there will come a desire to index it. (TweetMeme?)

• Augmented reality will allow us to bookmark physical places and share them with our friends.

Conclusion

In the land of social bookmarking, content is king and friendship is queen. No other category of social media builds as much traffic. (I have seen Digg submissions get 100,000 hits in 12 hours!) Social bookmarking is about sharing your favourite things on the Internet. Consequently, social bookmarking's form may change, but its function will not.

Should you be a social bookmarker? If you've ever wanted to share content with friends, then YES!!!

Invoke is a full-service interactive agency with a focus in social media. 

We offer social marketing campaigns and build industry-leading social tools, such as memelabs and HootSuite. 

For more information, email me at christopher.trottier@invokemedia.com