Social bookmarking vs Social networking for traffic

Most people often use the phrases social networking and social bookmarking interchangeably. However, there is a difference between the two.

Social Networking

Social networking means to use a website to connect with other people. It does not necessarily involve bookmarking internet resources. Myspace, for example, is a social networking website, where people get together and share their experience(s) in the form of pictures, blogs, flash animations, comments, etc.

Additionally, websites such as forums and chat rooms also fall under the category of social networking because they provide a medium for connecting people who have similar interests.

Social Bookmarking

Social bookmarking on the other hand means to share internet resources with friends and family. Digg, 30tags, Redbook, etc. are examples of social bookmarking websites. A person bookmarks a website which other members of the website can view, rate, comment, etc.

As you can see, there is an overlap in the two types of websites but social networking websites differ from social bookmarking websites primarily in the sense that they do not require bookmarking a resource. Instead, you can share opinions and ideas as opposed to a social bookmarking website where users usually only communicate by means of bookmarks to resources and comments about those bookmarks.

Additionally, members on a social bookmarking website tend to only connect with people they know. Becoming a part of a group is much more difficult on a social bookmarking website than it is on a social networking website.

Keeping these things in mind, people often use social networking websites to drive traffic to their website while they use social bookmarking websites to get backlinks to their website which helps increase the website's search engine rankings.

Social bookmarking - It's all in a reputation

The best way to get traffic from a social bookmarking website, is to first become a trusted member of the website. The only way to become a trusted member is to bookmark websites which people find interesting.

Once you have developed trust, then people will be keen to view your bookmarks because they will presume all your bookmarks are worth viewing.

As a matter of fact, you can if can build a very good reputation then people will be forced to acknowledge your bookmarks even if they do not like them because they will fear uproar from your other supporters!

I have seen this happen on Digg myself where Kevin Rose, a highly respected digger, digged a website and a viewer did not like the website, but digged it anyway and commented that he did not want to digg the website but it was Kevin Rose so he had to!

Thus, by combining both social networking and social bookmarking, webmasters can skyrocket traffic to their website and get a backlink to their website. The key, though, is to first build a reputation.

As I always say, the trade off on the internet for money is effort. If you want quick results then you must invest money, and if you want free results you must invest effort!

Happy socializing.

 

Great post!!

For the longest time I kept getting
confused between the two because
people do use them interchangeably
and then I realized.

I find that I get totally different types
of visitors from the two.

John

 

Nice post and clear for me. Thank you very much.

 

nice post.Though i knew the difference, but this is something which, others, new to it can refer to , before sounding stupid.

 

Hi,

Nice post. Based upon another thread, I think what I am looking for is some social bookmarking scripts/software with an ability to form groups and share similar tastes. If anyone can recommend a script/platform, I would appreciate it.

Rich

 

bookmarking demon.........?

 

Hi,

Thanks for the suggestion. I think I am looking for something different. Bookmarking Demon is designed to get backlinks form social bookmarking sites. What I am looking to do is sort of build a social bookmarking/social networking site. Social Media by Entertainment Scripts is pretty close to what I am looking for but they seem to be new, without access to their forums, or any trial package, so it would be a bit of a roll the dice with them. However, if someone has experiences with this software or something similar, I would be very interested. Thanks.

Rich

 

Very interesting reading!
Thanks for sharing this info

 

Great explanation. I agree totally with the comments about it taking time and effort and you have to be willing to give first before you will get. You need to add value to the sites instead of just spamming them. Great job.

 

Good explanation about difference between social bookmarking & social networking .

 

Nice post, difference between of those.

 

Very true. You can still use social bookmarking sites to build backlinks to your own sites (and in some cases, to get your site indexed quickly), but if you're talking about making it onto the front page of Digg or Propeller, you have to incorporate some networking efforts and make friends with other users of the site.

 

thats the truth.................social networking differ from social bookmarking......that is such a interested thoughts which you are share with everyone..............


Thanks for that......

 

Excellent post. You made me knew the difference between social book marking and social networking. Thanks.

 

Nice postman! Very helpfull and interesting

 

can someone provide us social network website list ?

 

Great post. Something to keep in mind.

 

Thanks for the share, this post will be of great value to many.

Nice work!

 

This is a great post, most people mix these up from time to time (me included). Thank you for shining some light on this issue. I use both of these interchangeably. I think combined they are great ways for building traffic.

-JC

 

Nice post.. keep it