Here on Zoomit Canada, a lot of people come to post links to their own content.  That is fine.  Unlike some social bookmarking websites, we encourage you to submit your best material - as long as it’s Canadian, of course.  But once you’ve posted what do you do next?

 

Unfortunately, most people just leave. 

 

What?!?  Is that what you call effective marketing?  Drop a link and leave?  When you attend business networking meetings do you just drop your business card on a table somewhere and leave?  Of course not.

 

Once your submission is complete, you will notice that you land on the “upcoming” page.  This is for a good reason - so you can see submissions from other people just like you.  So you can check them out.  So you can vote for the good ones.  So you can comment for the ones of interest. (It’s not just Zoomit that does this by the way; Tipd, Sphinn, BizSugar and MMO, to name just a few, also send you to the upcoming page for the same reason.)

 

Why it’s worth your time to check out others’ submissions

 

Why is it worth your time and effort to look at other people’s submissions?  Well, for the same reason that you take the time to speak with people at networking meetings - because the value to you of participating depends on the relationships you build with other members.

 

“But I just submitted my site to get a link

to help my search engine rankings.”

 

Umm, if that’s how you think about linkbuilding, your understanding of how search engines value links in 2010 needs to be updated.  And so does your understanding of how most social bookmarking websites function.  Dropping a link and leaving - “hit-and-run social bookmarking” - won’t get you very far.

 

First, the more votes you get, the more links you get from the website.  This applies to most vote-based social bookmarking websites (Digg is an exception).  And you need votes to get your submission promoted to the front page (”published” or made “popular”), where on most social bookmarking websites you NoFollow link becomes a regular DoFollow link.

 

If you want good quality links from social bookmarking, here is what you need to do:

 

AVATAR:  Make sure you have an easy-to-recognize avatar.  You want regulars to check what you’ve submitted, and regulars will get to know you over time.

 

QUALITY:  Submit good quality content that others will naturally want to vote for. Subbing your home page is simply lame.  Nobody cares to read your home page or to recommend that others read it. Don’t damage your reputation by submitting  your home page.  Make your submission enticing with an attractive title that will draw attention and curiosity.  Ditto for the description.

 

VOTE:  This is crucial.  Vote for the submissions of other members (that’s why you land on the “upcoming” page when your submission is complete).  Don’t try a tit-for-tat arrangement like, “I voted for three of your submissions last week, so you have to vote for three of mine.”  But people do expect a certain amount of reciprocity, and if they see you ignoring their submissions, why would they vote for yours?

 

 

COMMENT:  Even better to attract attention of other members is to comment.  As much as most people value the vote more than the comment, it is the comment that draws the most attention.  Yes, people notice when you comment; they check out your latest submission.

 

If you want people to see your submission.  If you want more links from the submission.  If you want your link to be DoFollow.  Take the time to vote for and comment on the best articles that other people submit.  Nobody likes a hit-and-run social bookmarketer, and nobody votes their submissions to the front page.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 14th, 2010 at 8:03 am and is filed under administration, social bookmarking, submission. 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.