How Social BookMarking Affects The OnLine Business
There are sure to have been occasions when you have visited a website and thought it would be useful to come back and have another look at some point in the future. In this instance you are likely to have simply stored it in your browsers “favorites” or “bookmarks” category. “Social book marking” describes a way in which Internet users can store up, categorize and share their Internet bookmarks.
There are a lot of sites allowing visitors to share the ones they consider to be helpful with other users. These sites can be viewed by topic, category or on a random basis.
The idea of social book marking began in 1966 and became very popular in 2005 and 2006 when sites such as http://del.icio.us, http://simpy.com and http://furl.net began to take off.
As more of these sites appear, new features, for example, allowing users to rate and remark upon the bookmarks, insert notes, receive RSS feeds and even form social networks have popped up. RSS feeds in particular allow users to obtain up to date information about any given topic on certain tags to which they “subscribe”.
As the details are being graded by people reading the information, the websites containing the most useful pages will receive higher rankings. This is as opposed to a search engine’s spider crawling the Internet, which has its own way of determining what comes up in the results of the search engine.
If you were looking for information about planting soil in a social book marking site, you are likely to receive completely different results to those produced with a general search engine.
You may well be asking what this has to do with your business. Well, social book marking is the new form of advertising by “word of mouth”. As more and more people bookmark the content of your website, the chance of your site being found by new users in search of information will increase dramatically.
As long as a site offers quality content found useful by the visitors, a much higher ranking will be established within the social book marking network, than that provided in a general search.
With many people taking hits from the search engines, this is yet another method to receive more traffic on your website. There is no need to ignore or stop using search engine optimization; – social book marking is just an additional way to increase the flow of traffic.
What is a Wiki and How Does it Work?
A wiki is a website where numerous consumers can put in, take away, and revise the content of each page by using only a web browser. This provides a simple method of teaming up with others, even though you do not get to meet them face to face.
Whether other users have the same type of software as you is no longer an issue as the only tools required to use a wiki are a connection to the Internet and a web browser. Wiki will supply a virtual, combined memory for every user.
Wikipedia.com is undoubtedly one of the best examples of a wiki. It acts as an open encyclopaedia for all to view and record their own entries. It has millions of users and is extensively draw upon of as a reference tool on the web.
However, not all wikis are wikipedias. Some are purely for private use and are merely communication tools amongst friends, family and colleagues. For instance, a family of five sisters and their spouses may construct a family wiki where each sister has her own page and uses this to keep the rest of the family up to date about what is happening in her life and when to expect the next family get together.
At the other end of the scale a most important business conglomerate may decide to use a wiki to ensure all employees are kept informed of updates on projects. They may well have offices all over the world and by using a wiki, the entire workforce will be able to join forces, add information and statistics, adapt data previously added by a different member of the team and even upload files and photographs.
There are lots of free wikis to select from. Some have hosting of their own and others would need to be installed on the server. As well as free editions there are also wikis which you can pay for. Before deciding on the type you want to use, make a comparison of the features available on each kind.
Some wikis make an allowance for a lot of formatting. When you first start using a wiki, you may prefer to stick to a simple one which serves as a way to communicate and collaborate with other people. A wiki doesn’t have to be all singing and all dancing. You can always opt for a fancier model once you become familiar with how to use the wiki.
Using a wiki is intended to give you an easy life and not be too complicated. By keeping things on a simple wavelength and practicing the basics, you will be able to utilize a wiki for several uses, both personal and professional.
For example, you can use a wiki to assist you in planning the bake sale you so generously put yourself forward for, display and share your vacation photos, or work on a joint enterprise with an associate living 3,000 miles away.
Wikis present many benefits as they are easy to use and can without doubt make life so much easier. Do a little experimenting and learn how a wiki can help you to manage your personal life and business far more effectively.
