Content syndication and distribution online is getting a shot in the arm from social bookmarking.
According to the Pew Internet and American Life Project 28% of internet users have tagged or categorized content online such as photos, news stories or blog posts. On a typical day online, 7% of internet users say they tag or categorize online content.
Heidi Cohen, who teaches in New York University's Masters Program in Direct and Interactive Marketing, says in her ClickZ column that what makes social bookmarking important to marketers is that it's another cost-effective way to augment search marketing efforts, distribute content, and aid branding.
Savvy marketers who want to take advantage of this new trend are often held back by the technical nature of social bookmarks. If you are a big corporation with a highly trained IT department, it should be no problem. But what if you are a small to medium business? Can you still apply these new social media tools to your web content?
Luckily the explosion of consumer generated media has brought with it a slew of easy to use tools that make it really simple to add content yourself and encourage your readers to add and share content too.
Some of these tools, like blog platforms, have the social bookmarking links built in.. But as Cohen points out, in her article, bookmarking is not just for bloggers. You should also add the bookmarking links to your press releases and other good web content, - such as articles and destination information or product specials and updates.
One way to make the most of all these social media tools is to find a system like PRESSfeed that allows you to
add the content to your site
syndicate it in an RSS feed
tag it for Technorati
create a tag cloud
offer social bookmarking links so that your readers can tag and share the content.
And it's all as simple as working in Word.
Remember that the success of social bookmarking depends on the quality of your content. People won't use save and share boring content. It has to be well researched and well-written. And it has to meet the needs of your audience and be something of value they want to pass along to a friend.