The Power of Online Social Networking
Social networking and online bookmarking have grown in popularity in the last five years. It can be hard, however, to know which to choose because there are so many of them. That’s where social media reviews come in. When you read the reviews, though, you may find that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Some might defend their particular choices tooth and claw. That may be due, however, to being unaware of all the available options, so they got hooked on one site without really knowing what’s out there. Some of those who are insistent about their choice don’t even know the difference between business networking sites, social bookmarking sites and social networking sites that are primarily there for fun. Many are not aware that there are also social networking sites, like Capazoo, that use micropayments to incentivize users to visit the site and promote it to others.
Many social media users aren’t aware of the differences between online social networks because the features and uses overlap. As an example, HubPages can be used for either business networking or to just have fun. And there are literally tens of thousands of Ning sites, such as New Energy Network, which specialize in narrow niches. These type of social networking sites are significant due to their emphasis on people’s niche interests. Communities focused on interests, such as book readers, abound. Social networks like Bookcrossing have everything from chats, book reviews and online bookshelves. A less interactive format that is just as important as online networking is online social bookmarking, which has become a standard for people who work and play on the Web. Sites that feature social bookmarking, such as del.icio.us, allow logged-in users to save their online bookmarks for free. These sites are also great for people who are searching for information, because keyword tags that allow for easy searching can be assigned to each bookmark. This ability also makes these sites powerful for Internet marketers, because backlinks result from the use of bookmarks. One social bookmark doesn’t really mean anything in terms of backlinks but when you add them all together, they become influential in search engine rankings. And with sites such as Propeller, if a URL is posted on one of these bookmarking sites that has good pagerank, high Google rankings can result if it is submitted correctly and has the right keywords associated with it.
Confusing the issue even more are sites like Mixx, which feature both social networking and bookmarking. They are used for bookmarking but also are equally powerful for marketing and socializing. You can make a lot of friends on these sites and links posted to these social networking platforms sometimes rank well in the search engines. This makes these type of sites genuine gold to Internet marketers.
