Even with a small amount of experience in the world of social bookmarking, you’ve undoubtedly come across someone saying you need to fill out your profile. Why is that important? Well it helps to draw targeted eyeballs (prospects) to your online business. You match what they are looking for. Does it work? Well in theory, yes. But in the real world, you may find varying results. 

What doesn’t work so well for many people is those eyeballs don’t always convert very successfully to leads. Then, on top of that, the few leads you do get don’t always convert well into buying customers.

If this is your experience, first realize you are not alone. Second, understand that does not mean that “working” social bookmarking sites are a waste of time. You have the power and control to leverage your time using social bookmarking sites.

How to MAKE It Work 
It may sound simple,  but it’s not easy. If you want a responsive audience, then give ‘em what they like. Doing this will virtually guarantee you that they will promote you and spread your content. Be more entertaining. Offer more education. Connect and cater to them with more of what’s going to make a difference in their lives, and they will become a follower, and maybe even a friend. When they emotionally link to you, they will virtually link to you, which is an incredibly valuable experience. It’s so important that Google determines your rankings by how many and what type of websites link to your site. So, if you can develop yourself on the social bookmarking sites as an expert — one who gives great value and resources, then you will realize a lot of one-way, incoming links. That one simple, interactive strategy can make you very visible and popular. Google likes people who are visible and popular and rewards them with better search listings.

Research what the needs are of your audience. You’ll quickly see how those can become the keywords from which searchers will find you, first in social bookmarking sites, then Google. When a Google searcher types in a keyword phrase, they are looking for something specific. You want your name, brand and website address to be found in that path. We want them to “stumble over your info.” Give them the reasons they need to click on through to your site. Google brings them to your door…now it’s your turn to really show them why they should “come in.” 

So it’s not really any social bookmarking site that is to blame for your lack of results. Instead look at what the prospect sees. Is this information worth looking at? It’s similar to the old adage GIGO – garbage in, garbage out. 

G. Wayne Clayton is the founder and Chief Visionary Officer of Integerol/SocialMarketingExpert.org. He’s a former newspaper publisher and investigative journalist. He has been seen seen and heard on CNN, Fox News Talk radio, quoted in The Toronto Star and is a Guest Blogger on FastCompany.com.

Incredibly six of the top ten tactics are Social Media related.

Also in the mix of popular strategies listed included Search engine optimization with 28%.  social networking with 26%, email marketing and social media monitoring and outreach both at 17%, and pay-per-click advertising at 14%.

Lee Odden of the Online Marketing Blog emphasised the fact that the perfect digital marketing strategy very much depends on the type of organization and the target market, among other factors.

“Traditional marketing budgets are increasingly shifting to digital marketing and why not? Internet marketing is often more cost effective, builds awareness quickly, fosters relationships and is measurable in ways traditional advertising just can’t match,” says Odden. He mentions that some companies are prepared for digital and social media marketing programs and many are not. So to get ‘ready’, companies really need to develop strategic plans so they can get up to speed on both best and worst practices.
http://www.toprankblog.com/2009/02/reader-poll-top-digital-marketing-tactics-for-2009/

Oddens research does gowever fly in the face of a Forrester Research poll done last year. According to the Forrester survey, corporate blogs are the least trusted sources of information among U.S. consumers.

The most trusted?  Emails from friends.

G. Wayne Clayton is the founder and Chief Visionary Officer of Integerol/SocialMarketingExpert.org. He’s a former newspaper publisher and investigative journalist. He has been seen seen and heard on CNN, Fox News Talk radio, and is a Guest Blogger on FastCompany.com.

Poor Facebook. They can’t seem to do much right over the last few years in spite of their amazing growth. Like for example, Facebook finally fesses up and admits they DID try and buy rival Twitter — after continually denying it. Here’s the story from PCMAG.com… 

Facebook Did Try and Buy Twitter
Speaking with BusinessWeek, Facebookexecutive, Peter Thiel confirmed what we had figured all along: his company tried and failed to buy microblogging site Twitter, last year. “It became pretty clear it wasn’t going to happen,” he told the magazine. “The deal would have to be done with Facebook stock. And then you have to figure out how much the stock is worth.”  

Why did Facebook have such a hard trying to acquire Twitter? Legal issues and unresolved accuracy on just how much a company like Facebook is worth have much to do with it. Caroline McCarthy, a CNET News staff writer said:

Controversy over the true value of the privately owned company also came into play earlier last year when the settlement of the ConnectU vs. Facebook lawsuitwas being negotiated. Court documents were redacted to keep the true valuation under wraps, and media outlets, including CNET News, petitioned to have the documents made public. The founders of small social-network ConnectU, who had sued Facebook because they claimed founder Mark Zuckerberg stole their code and business plan, contested the original settlement when they said they had been misled as to Facebook’s true valuation. 
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10185022-2.html

I  love Twitter but how are they coming up with that number? The old rule of thumb on the Internet is that any one subscriber is worth $1/month for the service. Twitter has, I believe, about five million users. So that’s $5 million/month, or $60 million/year.

Moreover, Twitter is very much a platform where the real value is in the users. Twitter works and is working because the average user on the service is intelligent, well-read and has something to say (and share). Being absolutely frank, if the network suddenly booms to a 100 million users (i.e., Facebook-levels) a lot of these newcomers are going to be slightly less impressive (i.e., MySpacers). This by default will make the overall value drop. End result: a lot more eyes on a exponentially decreasing prize. We’re already seeing this to some extent with the dumbing-down of the current celebrity blitz on there. 

 I tend to agree with @Sheamus ‘ point…my concern is just what would massive success for Twitter do to the user base. Frankly one MySpace is enough. You know we’re in trouble with Twitter when they start allowing bright neon type flash, and walls for others to post blingy images on your profile page.

G. Wayne Clayton is the founder and Chief Visionary Officer of Integerol/SocialMarketingExpert.org. He’s a former newspaper publisher and investigative journalist. He has been seen seen and heard on CNN, Fox News Talk radio, and is a Guest Blogger on FastCompany.com.