Social bookmarking sites can act as a hub of curated information and testimonials. They can increase your brand’s visibility, improve traffic flow to your website and grow interest in your brand. Don’t be overwhelmed, Checkerboard can do the work for you, so that you can reap the benefits. In addition, we can set up your business to use social bookmarking to track individual projects, and optimize your marketing and public relations campaigns. Here are some ways that using social bookmarking can benefit your business.

Display credibility: You want your company to be recognized as an industry leader: in stride with, or better yet, one step ahead of trends and your competition. Being recognized as a resource of useful information is likely to get your business noticed both by other businesses and by clients.

Search engine results page: Use social bookmarking to improve your company’s search positions in Google and other search engines. Because they are mostly user-driven, social bookmarking websites are seen as credible, useful resources. They are ranked fairly high in search engines. A link from a social website can hold much more value than free online directories. This gives your company an advantage in search positions.

Share what others are saying about you: You may have business reviews or testimonials scattered around the digital world. When a potential customer or client asks for reviews, it’s nice to be able to send them to one spot, rather than directing them to various different places such as Google+, Yahoo, Yelp, etc. A simple solution is to send someone to your social bookmarking site profile where everything is in one place in a consistent format.

Campaign organization:  Folders and tags can be very helpful in organizing and referring to any content (stories, blog posts, social media posts etc.) created for specific campaigns. All of these will be easily accessible in one place. That makes them easy to find for current or future projects.

Resources: Social bookmarking sites can be a resource hub for employees.

If you conclude that social bookmarking can help your business or brand, take these steps to get started.

1. Understand the communities
   1. Discover trending content
   2. Explore relevant tags
   3. Read content and decide what fits well with your industry or blog
2. Create account(s)
   1. Build complete profile(s)
   2. Link back to your website
3. Create lists and categories
   1. Incorporate strong keywords related to your business
4. Download tools & buttons
   1. Add these to your website and blog for ease of use by your viewing community
5. Find your network
   1. If the site provides one, go through the suggested Follow list. Connect with those that fit well with your business
   2. Reach out to other people and/or organizations
6. Engage with your network
   1. Submit URL links (from your blog and other articles)
   2. Rate other stories, comment, and write reviews

Social bookmarking is a powerful tool that, when used properly, can be very beneficial to you and your business. It is always good to do your research and figure out where your business fits in within the digital communities.  Connect with us. We can have a Website Property Manager work with you in exploring and testing different network services, including social bookmarking sites, to discover which best fits your goals, setting you up for success.