You Don’t Have Time to Do Social Bookmarking — Much Less Facebook or Twitter

Social connectivity is a wonderful part of the new Internet. The rise of Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn — the trifeca of modern business connection — has changed everything about the way the world markets. Getting testimonials isn’t a matter now of finding 6 or 7 individuals willing to go on video and talk about your product. It’s a matter of getting 60 or 70 thousand people to click that [Like] button.

Modern folk go online and they look up your business name, and they probably find your website first — but they also probably find it’s Facebook page second. If they click on it and find double-digit followers, they know instantly that you’re small time, offer a crappy product, or both. If they find some story about your business, they probably find it through a social bookmark on Reddit, Delicious, or a similar service.

Paying attention to social marketing isn’t an option any more — it’s the norm. The problem is that social marketing isn’t like normal organic SEO. Organic SEO can be — and is sometimes best — done in the middle of the night (or noon in Bangladesh.) Social networking is a matter of connecting to your base when they’re available, generally right in the middle of your work day. Do your social bookmarking late in the day, and by the time anyone who might care would vote it up, it’ll be off the first page and into the pit of oblivion.

That’s just the beginning, though. Social bookmarking takes time — because unless you build up a presence on a site like Reddit, no one will ever care about your new entries enough to vote them up. Like anything else ‘social’, bookmarking isn’t about dropping information and running — you have to create a persona, build relationships, and develop your presence in order to get enough respect to maximize the medium.

Facebook and Twitter are actually easier to get a following on, but take more constant effort. In the end, they don’t take any less time than bookmarking — and if you intend to put out any kind of quality content on a regular basis, might even take more.