Social Bookmarking and Social Networking in a Nutshell

Social bookmarking and social networking are very powerful ways of promoting your business online. They are both free and create a kind of online word-of-mouth.

Together they can be combined to become social media marketing.

But from the conversations I have with my clients and many other small business people, there still seems to be a lot of confusion about what they actually are, the differences between the two and what social media marketing is. This blog article aims to clear up that confusion.

What is Social Media Marketing?

Social Media Marketing is based upon three relatively simple ideas:

1. Word-of-Mouth Marketing
2. Hyperlinks
3. Six Degrees of Separation

We all know that word-of-mouth is the most powerful form of marketing there is. We also know that hyperlinks (clickable links) make getting around on the Internet very easy. Now consider that with Six Degrees of Separation, just about anyone on the planet is potentially only six clicks away. Put these three ideas together and you create a simple way for people to communicate their marketing message via clickable hyperlinks. More importantly, if you get everything right, (more about that at the bottom of this article), you have the potential to create a very wide-reaching viral buzz about your product or service and truly get the most from social media marketing.

So in a nutshell, social media marketing is a way to get others to promote your products or services electronically over the Internet, free-of-charge, to a potentially huge audience.

What is Social Networking?

Social networking is a way of creating a dialogue with lots of other people. On the Internet social networks are created by social networking websites like Twitter, Facebook, Digg, Delicious, MySpace, Linked-In, Technorati and literally thousands of others. Essentially, you sign up as a user on your chosen site (this is free), then you build a network or “friends”, “followers” or whatever the individual site likes to call the people in your network and you have conversations with them – sharing ideas, experiences, knowledge and so on. The more effort you put into developing these networks the bigger they will become and the more potential you will have for spreading your message. But remember, they are social networks; they are for creating a dialogue, not for ramming your product or service down everyone’s throat or spamming your network with unwanted sales pitches (this kind of thing is especially rife on Twitter and will just irritate and alienate people). Build your network slowly and steadily – concentrate on quality, not quantity.

What is Social Bookmarking?

Social bookmarking is simply a way to let other people in your social network know about something on the Internet that you think they might find useful, helpful or exciting. For example, if you have read this page, liked it and want to share it with your social network(s), you can simply click on the share button towards the bottom of the page, choose your social network(s) and in a couple of clicks you will have added a short summary about this page to your page on the network, which others in your network can read. This summary will contain a link back to this page ( a one-way link from a highly ranked social networking website). This means that your website visitors can create inbound links to your website that bring both traffic and better search engine listings for you at no cost. Moreover, the process can be repeated over and over – all free of charge.

But before you get carried away, you need to be sure that what you have to offer is highly beneficial for the customer in order for social media marketing to work for you.

How to make Social Media Marketing Work for Your Business

1. Your message – you need to have a marketing message good enough to create a desire within people to talk to others about it. To learn how to get your message right, read How to Write Headlines That Sell.
2. Your product (or service) quality – your product or service needs to be as good as it possibly can be. The best way to do this is by implementing a programme of small, gradual improvements, or as the Japanese call it, “Kaizen”. To learn more about Kaizen, read Kaizen Club.
3. Your customers’ experience – Your aim should be to turn prospects and customers into raving fans of your business because of the experience you give them. To learn how to do this, read How To Be Brilliant.

Get these three elements right and your social media marketing will be a great success. – good luck. 

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