For a text version of this article click here Social Bookmarking... Confused? You're Not Alone by Theresa Cahill Copyright 2006 - All Rights Reserved The word is out that social bookmarking is the thing, that special flavor of the month (or year or decade?), but only by taking it in small steps have I been able to figure out some of its ins and outs. The long and short of social booking is, it is a way to save your Favorites folder (or portions thereof) online. This means no matter where in the world you happen to be, as long as you've got a connection to the internet, you just log into your social bookmarking account and voila! at your fingertips are all of the important urls you might find yourself needing - but without access to - since your computer is sitting home and you're not. Now that is a good idea! Saves uploading a bunch of urls to your domain, or remembering to send them to your Aunt Sally before you visit, on the off chance you'll need to remember that special something while you're away. (By the by, it's also a quick way to actually use your home computer. I don't know about you, but my Favorites folder is virtually useless at this point.) But, there's even more to social bookmarking then easy access. You can also share this information with others. Your friends, family, co-workers, subscribers, whoever, can easily see what you've been uncovering on the web and decide, at that point, if it's something so useful and/or interesting that they, too, would like to access it easily through their own social bookmarking account. The logical step from there (since I'm assuming that you are reading this because you, too, are interested in new ways to market on the net) is to find a way to tie bookmarking to your service and/or website. Personally, I'm starting small. I've created my own account: http://del.icio.us/tdgac It wasn't hard to signup. Nothing tricky there. After logging in, I began adding specific pages with specific tags to the "post" field inside my own account. The description, tags, url... all make sense. Sure enough when I hit save, there it is... in my "your favorites" area. My next step was to make a quick check using the "recent" url at the upper right hand corner of my own account. Since I'd only just added my page, I was anticipating the joy of seeing it posted at the top of this huge, huge list. Seemed reasonable, right? Wrong! Either billions of people are hitting the "save" key at the very moment I am or I'm sorely missing something. Hmmmm... definitely confused now. [I'm positive that at this moment some of you are just shaking your heads at my extreme ignorance. I can just picture, too, many more thinking "yipee! I just might be getting this right now!" You see there are all sorts of people at all sorts of stages of understanding - all online at this same point in time. Bless those that "get it" right away! And thank heavens there are a few (like I'm demonstrating right now), that basically fumble their way around for a bit before it all starts to "sink in!" For those of you way ahead of me, thanks for reading! For those who would like a bit of guidance to get started, I'm here to help... I hope. We'll fumble along together.] That said... If this is all new to you, too, head here: http://del.icio.us/tdgac You'll see a few urls under the "All tdgac's items." Beside each of these web page entries are the faint words "save this." Put your mouse over the "save this" and click. If you have an existing del.icio.us account, it will take you to the log in page for your account (for you smart ones!). If you don't have an account yet, you'll be given the opportunity to create one now. [BTW, give a lot of thought to your username... that's where the "tdgac" part came from mine LOL, so think it through first. You'll be stuck with it unless you delete and recreate your account.] After creating your account and logging in, you'll see an area on your screen where http://del.icio.us/tdgac is shown. There's also a description box, a notes box, and a "tags" area. Give yourself something descriptive so you'll remember who in the world tdgac is... My Wizard Ads or Theresa Cahill might make a good description. Hit the save button and voila! You've got the beginnings of your social bookmarking! At this point, under your "settings" area (upper right hand of screen in del.icio.us) you can do any number of things. Importing your current Favorites folder (or portions thereof) is available. Explore! Now that you're on the road to social bookmarking comes the fun part... telling others what you're doing. If you have a website, you can easily add (assuming you do your own webmastering or know the rudiments of copying and pasting) a "save this page" to any and all of your important webpages within your site. Use the "help" link, then read "For Publishers" under the Feeds and Tools section. That's where you'll find the code. In addition, you'll want to share you're newly found method of communication with others. Get your family, friends, subscribers, mailing list involved in bookmarking your small chunk (del.icio.us listing) of the social bookmarking web. Then, make use of it! Don't just load it up with junk. If you're a writer and find interesting writer's resources add them to your account. If you're a news junkie and track particular newsworthy items, post those! As you get more and more familiar with social bookmarking, you'll understand the importance of "tagging" your information correctly. According to del.icio.us, your page goes on the front page (I've yet to see any of mine though) and also is filed away under sub-indexing using those all-important tags. I'll admit, I've only just scratched the surface so far. I don't claim to be an expert (that's obvious), but I do know that with further education and implementation, social bookmarking as a marketing tool is definitely worth the effort. And... like all new things takes a bit of fumbling around before we get it right. So ahead! Get started! See where it leads you - the next brainstorm idea is only a few minutes (okay maybe hours or days) away! :) ====================================== ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Theresa Cahill is the owner of My Wizard Ads. Her job is to make your online advertising experience as effective and effortless as possible. www.mywizardads.com Reference: social booking