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What Social Bookmarking Networks Want From YOU

How do you know whether it’s OK to promote your blog on any particular social bookmarking network? Some sites seem to be fine with it, but others not so much … you run the risk of really upsetting people, maybe getting sanctioned. How do you know what to do? Many marketers get a great deal of traffic from these social bookmarking sites. What is the best way to get your share? Here are 5 tips:

1. Quite a number of networks are adamant that you play by their rules. Networks like Digg and del.icio.us and StumbleUpon will generally figure it out and take you to the woodshed if you use them just to promote yourself. To them, it’s “Ask not what you can do for yourself. Ask instead what you can do for your social network.” If you are actively helping them grow by bookmarking stuff that lots of other members find valuable, they’ll be happy with you. You can submit and promote your own pages, but only if that’s a very small part of your function with them.

2. They love it when you find new stuff, that has not yet been bookmarked … and then once you bookmark it and bring it to the attention to others in the network, they also bookmark it. THAT means you are a real value to the network, that you are providing relevant information to people who want it.

3. One thing they don’t want is to see you bookmarking a whole bunch of pages that no one has bookmarked before, and that no one bookmarks after you do. Digg & StumbleUpon and the others see that as very suspicious activity. It’s not natural. They figure you probably have some bad motive, and over time, they will punish you somehow.

4. They want you not just to bookmark, but to add (preferably incisive) comments to other peoples’ bookmarks. This is a real example of bringing value to the whole system, and they will reward you for this.

5. Be a part of the site community. Invite your friends. Join appropriate groups. (That’s good for you anyway … it should help you find more readers for your blog.) The more you become part of the community, the more you signal your intention to help build that community … which they love.

Follow these guidelines and the social bookmarking sites will serve you well.

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Friday, May 23rd, 2008 at 12:50 pm and is filed under Get More Traffic . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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