One social media tool that many marketers forget to incorporate into their social marketing plan is social bookmarking. If you haven’t used this marketing tool then I highly suggest that you try it out. But keep in mind a few principles first:

1. Social bookmarking is as much about the social as it is about the bookmarking
2. Don’t be selfish - bookmark other people’s stuff too
3. Use the bookmarking tools to make friends
4. Don’t just settle on one bookmarking tool - try several
5. Share your bookmarks with your friends
6. Enter the conversation; most social bookmarking sites allow you to comment on articles - take advantage of that opportunity
7. Be a voter
8. Find a few niche social bookmarking sites that target your industry

Social bookmarking can be effective in building links to your website, but it’s also effective in making new friends, building and developing relationships, and in driving traffic to your website. Used effectively, you’ll increase your business stature like it’s nobody’s business.

(Source) In 2006, 61 percent of all U.S. teens visited social a networking site on a monthly basis that number will increase to 70 percent this year. By 2011, one-half of all online adults and 84% of online teens in the US will use social networking each month,” says Ms. Williamson. “There is little to suggest that this activity will go away.”

Do you think this opportunity will pass? I don’t. In fact, I think it will only grow. And with a projected 84% of online teens using social networking sites in 2011, that means by 2015 almost every adult in the country will be using social networking. I can’t think of any better reason not to be advertising.

According to the Search Engine Optimization Journal:

MySpace and Facebook are obviously the big players in the social advertising market, but don’t discount the other options. What is to say that the next MySpace or Facebook cannot come out of any of the new social networking sites that are on their way up at this point in time. The benefits of Facebook and MySpace is that they provide a large “captive” audience and targeted advertising. If you are looking for a social market, these are perhaps the best markets at this time. With social networking options coming from both Yahoo and Google, there should be a range of similarly attractive options on the way. With social marketing it never hurts to play the field.

This is a unique opportunity for advertisers. Facebook and MySpace are very popular social networking sites. The UK has Bebo. There is no reason not to start advertising on these websites right now. And if you consider the niche social networking sites then you have every reason to advertise on these sites due to the targeted nature of the traffic. Social networking may not be business as usual, it if you advertise and advertise to the right audience then you’ll get the usual increase in business that effective advertising affords.

Last month Andy Beard wrote a compelling blog post on social media marketing.

Specifically, his suggestions for making the most of social media marketing include:

• Undefined Goals vs Specific Goals
• Random Activity vs Planned Method of Attack
• Random Stats vs Accountable Statistical Measures
• Random Content vs Planned Content Strategy
• Random Encounters vs Optimized Role Management
• Random Pathways vs Defined Traffic Funnel
• Traffic vs Targeted Traffic
• Topical Linking vs Strategic Linking
• Reporter vs News Epicentre
• Self Orientated vs Customer Orientated

Some of the specific comments in the article that I’d like to highlight include:

With social media marketing, whilst many items are difficult to determine, if you start out without specific goals, you may well be wasting resources.

I can’t think of any advice that is more appropriate. If you want real results for your social media marketing then target the right media. If your target market doesn’t hang out on Facebook then you shouldn’t be there either.

Plan your content strategy around your previously defined goals, not what is happening in the blogosphere. Look on discussions and events happening outside of your niches as opportunities if they are related to your goals, or can be leveraged.

When it comes to planned social content, a tight focus on your goals is almost a necessity. It’s so easy to get sidetracked. Don’t let it happen.

When you enter social media marketing channels, there will be a need for 2-way conversation - with customers and clients, members of the press and bloggers, raving fans and detractors in the public eye.

People do go on holiday, and things will not always go as you plan.

Boy, isn’t that the truth. Make a plan and stick with it. That’s the best way to approach social media. Give one person, or a small team, the ability to make on the spot decisions, but don’t make every decision an “on the spot” decision because then you’re just winging it and that’s a sure recipe for disaster. Know what you are going to do before you do it.

Think out of the box with your linking

Andy’s suggestions on link strategy are a must read themselves. If you are performing any type of social media marketing then you need to be linking. Think it through carefully.

When it comes to social media marketing, you have to be social. Think big. Develop a team.

A new social tool called Wantz.it allows users of del.icio.us to add items to their wish list simply by tagging them “dowant” on their del.icio.us accounts. What makes this such a cool tool for e-tail merchants is that you can now encourage your customers to add items in your online store to their del.icio.us bookmarking tags. Simply explain the “dowant” tag and how it works and place the del.icio.us icon on your web pages to make this process easy for your shoppers. In one click, you’ll be encouraging your customers to encourage their friends to shop at your online retail store.

The Wantz.it team is promising a new Facebook application soon. If that happens before Christmas then you’ll be able to share your shopping list with your Facebook friends. Think about how powerful this application will be. Not only will Facebook friends be able to share their Christmas lists, but they’ll also be able to share their shopping secrets - the places where they get the best deals. This is good news for online retailers. And it’s social marketing with a huge Christmas smile.

A new Internet video show will soon begin airing and use people like you and me to make it interesting. I know this because I read it on Mashable. I have no way of knowing whether the show will be successful or not, but at first glance the concept seems pretty cool. The idea is that one person will challenge everyone else to do something. The first person who videotapes themselves doing that and gets it into the hands of the show’s producers will then direct the next person to do something else. Sounds like fun.

I don’t know all the ways the show’s creators have used to market the show, but I can tell just by reading about it that at least the concept is cool. If I were marketing the concept, here’s what I’d do:

1. Build a website that hypes it up big time - They did that. But it’s a pretty bland website. It doesn’t say much. All I know is I will be entertained and I will be the entertainer. Huh? Give me some details, please.
2. Next, I’d seek out the influence of heavy weights - Like Mashable. With their 5 million monthly page views and 136,000 feed subscribers, I’d say they’ve got a real heavy weight. I hope they didn’t stop at just one.
3. Press release - I’d write a killer press release and distribute it online to the top press release distribution websites for the greatest exposure.
4. I’d start a blog - And write to it every day about how exciting it would be for everyone to participate in my new project.
5. Social bookmarking - I’d use social bookmarking as a tool to spread the message.
6. Social networking - I’d join every social networking site I could find and make lots of friends, inviting them all to participate.
7. Viral Video - Since this site is a video show, I’d create a viral video to distribute on YouTube and other video sites hyping it up. I’d show scenes of people doing crazy stuff and inviting their friends to do it too. I’d really make it look desirable.

This show has a lot of potential. Marketing it has even more. When it comes to viral marketing, you have to get crazy.

Video sharing is on fire from all quarters. First, Viacom took a punch at YouTube, but other large companies have done so as well. If the Napster story is any clue, you can bet the courts will step in rule in favor of the companies who feel as though they are being shafted by video owners sharing their video content with non-owners. But this will only affect those video owners who share content that was produced by someone else. In short, you will need to get permission before you share video content.

Most video marketers, however, produce their own videos. But what about those who do not? Is there any protection? Here are a few pointers if you want to get involved in video social marketing:

• Produce your own videos; do not use someone else’s content
• If you do use someone else’s content, get permission first
• Understand Fair Use Law and act appropriately
• Give proper attribution for material that is not yours
• When it doubt, throw it out

Play it on the safe side. Eventually, these companies will start going after the video sharers themselves. Or you could run the risk of losing your account status at the video sharing sites if the courts do decide against them. When it comes to video marketing, your business reputation is at stake so keep it ethical.

Rand Fishkin always has insightful commentary. Yesterday’s blog post on social media marketing at SEOmoz had a lot of useful insight in it and I won’t comment on all of it. But I would like to address one essential point: The value of social media marketing in terms of SEO.

This is something that doesn’t get a lot of airplay, but Rand shows a screenshot of his own profile at various social media websites. The screenshot illustrates the SEO power of doing nothing more than setting up profiles at the various sites. Typically, the search engines count those links in your profiles to your website in their inbound link algorithms. You never have to participate in the social media site to get that benefit. Just setting up the profile will do it.

But that’s not to say that’s all you should do. If you want inbound links, there are other ways to build lots of inbound links. But these social media site profiles will provide you with valuable inbound links to your website. The problem is, there is a ceiling because you can only have one profile at each site. You might be able set up alias sites at some of them, but that’s only going to be effective so far and for so long. The true value of social media marketing is in the participation at the websites.

Whether you prefer LinkedIn, Facebook, MySpace, or an industry-specific networking tool, social media sites are very powerful. The real value comes in establishing a presence, mingling with other members, building relationships, and through that developing those contacts into truly meaningful prospects. Keep in mind, though, that individuals are merely individuals. The real value here is in finding the influencers and to convince them of the value that you can provide to their audiences. One key influencer can potentially lead you to thousands of new visitors to your website and new customers. All it takes is one rock solid relationship with a key influencer.

A few years ago there was a popular country-western song that went something like this:

Some girls don’t like boys like me
Awww, some some girls do

It was a catchy tune (if you like country-western), but I can’t help thinking that the same thing applies to customers. Some will like you and some won’t. It doesn’t matter how hard and heavy you market yourself to a particular customer or group, they do have free will. They can choose who they’ll do business with. And they also choose the criteria by which they’ll make that decision. Sometimes it might just boil down to the type of shoes you where. Are you really going to go out and buy a new pair of shoes just to attract that one customer who is impressed by blue suede?

Social marketing depends a lot on connecting with people. If you connect then you have a potential customer. If you don’t, no matter what you say, they’ll likely go somewhere else. Teh abundant philosophy says there’s enough business to go around. Don’t waste time chasing girls who don’t wink back. Just reach out and grab the hand of the girls who do. Because some of them just won’t like businesses like yours, but some customers do.

(Source) I believe the stage is being set for a big surge in blogging in the near future. The first wave of blogging was personal blogs, the second wave was splogs (automated spam blogs), but the third wave will be widespread growth in business blogging. And yet there is a noticeable lack of good training and resources to help people with this. My vision is to help people achieve successful business blogs via Gateway Blogging techniques and principles.

I found this an interest blog post on business blogging, but I wanted to just highlight this paragraph. I agree that a surge of business blogging is just on the horizon. Many companies haven’t discovered it yet. For a long time, article marketing was all the craze. Then everyone started doing it and the value was watered down. While there is still some value in article marketing if you do it right, the sad fact is most article marketers don’t do it right. I suspect the same will be true of business blogging.

So why am I talking about this on a social marketing blog? Because blogging, no matter what else it is, is intrinsically social. The whole idea is to have a conversation with your customers and potential customers. You want them to comment. You want them to interact, leave you feedback. You also want them to trackback from their blog, and you want to trackback to theirs from yours. Talk to your competitors. It’s all a part of the social atmosphere of the digital economy.

But there are other ways to make your blog social as well. First, you can list your blog in directories, even business directories. Then you add them to your social networking profiles, and you should also be bookmarking them on a regular basis. That attracts new readers.

Yep, when it comes to social marketing, you need to add your company blog to your strategy, and make sure you use it in conjunction with the other social tools at your disposal.

WebTrends has a product that every social marketing professional on the planet needs to tap into. It’s called WebPosition 4.

Some of the best features of WebPosition 4 are left for your 30-day free demo trial, but I’ll let you in on a little secret: This is one fabulous tool!WebPosition 4 not only reports your search engine rankings, but it also allows you to target the best keywords, optimize your web pages more effectively, and analyze your conversions. You can choose between a standard and a professional edition. Quite honestly, it’s worth the extra that you’ll pay to get the professional edition. It does so much more.

Here’s the difference between the two:

Standard -

• Great graphic capabilities
• Automated e-mail reports
• Automated process of tracking keyword rankings in 200 search engines
• Track ranking information for 5 websites for an unlimited number of keywords

And that’s not all. It does so much more.

Now take a look at the professional edition:

• All the benefits of the standard edition plus
• Monitor your pay per click advertising across 200 search engines
• Excel-based reporting to track results over time and analyze trends
• Track conversions more easily
• Private label your reports with your company logo

(great for marketing companies)

Full e-mail and telephone support comes with both editions, plus a 30-day money-back guarantee. Buy WebPosition 4 for only $149.

Mark ‘Rizzn’ Hopkins has been on a presidential campaign kick for the past few weeks. I must admit, the thought was well intentioned. The results, however, have been disastrous.

According to Mark, only five presidential candidates are even close to getting social media at all:

It baffles me that only five candidates out of the entire field used their social presences and web sites to actually speak to the public on their terms (Ron Paul, Mike Huckabee, Senator Dodd, Dennis Kucinich and Mike Gravel).

This should come as no surprise, but I’ve been impressed with the way Ron Paul has used social media to garner support. It may have been intentional, or it could have just been some kind of cosmic accident - like the Big Bang. Probably, it was because he appeals to younger voters who are tired of the “business as usual approach” in Washington and who are a bit more technologically savvy than their older peers. Hey, whatever it takes.

But what can your business learn from the candidates? Here’s a list:

• For starters, don’t be like Alan Keyes and Rudy Giuliani. Get a presence.
• Don’t be like John Edwards or Hillary Clinton and think that quantity is better than quality.
• Don’t be like Barack Obama and consider social media as some aspect of the Borg and if you can just get to the central nervous mechanism then the rest of the universe will follow - that’s not how social media works.
• Don’t be like Mitt Romney and think that participation is enough.
• And don’t be like Romney and John McCain, who seem to think that learning about the ins and outs of how it all works isn’t necessary - in today’s online business climate, it’s necessary.
• Finally, all the candidates (except perhaps Ron Paul) can teach us to stop trying to control the message.

The truth about social media marketing is that you can’t control the message and you can’t control the outcome. But you can encourage the direction of your message by simply “putting it out there.” This is where Ron Paul’s campaign has shined. His supporters are doing all the leg work. Once you put the message into the hands of the right market, let the market speak and don’t interfere. Only when the market comes to you should you then interact.

Mashable has introduced a new section of its website called Web 2.0 Marketplace.

The Marketplace allows anyone to go online to buy, sell, or trade websites that offer Web 2.0 services or to make deals regarding the services themselves. If you are in the Web 2.0 market - that is, you want to buy a domain name or website in this niche area or you have one to sell, or you provide services regarding Web 2.0 - then you might be interested in connecting with others of like mind.

The Web 2.0 Marketplace offers the following sections for networking:

• Websites for Sale
• Websites Wanted
• Jobs Available
• Jobs Wanted
• Consulting
• Blogger Jobs
• Bloggers for Hire
• Platform/Software Providers
• Facebook Developers
• Events
• Domains for Sale
• Seeking Funding

In addition, Mashable will allow you to request a category not listed. Now the only question is, Can you define Web 2.0?

The Make Money Man has some great insight into networking. I like his ideas. Borrowing from Seth Godin’s ideas on small business enterprise, Jon has shared some excellent ideas regarding networking. He really gets social marketing, though not once has he called it that.

Point by point, here’s the catch:

The Most Powerful People Are Often the Hardest to Reach - They’re also the most beneficial and rewarding. Nothing comes easy and if you expect your life as a social marketer to be easy then you’d better hang up your hat. Powerful networks is about knowing influential people. Get to know some and your social network becomes more powerful with each influential person you add to your network. But don’t do this in a superficial way. Really strive to be their friend.

Small Networks Can Make a Big Impact - This is perhaps the most underrated aspect of online marketing. You don’t need a big network to be successful. You just need a powerful network and sometimes the most powerful network is very small.

Nurturing Present Relationships Isn’t Enough - Life changes. So should you.

Don’t Be Normal. Be Purple. - This is perhaps the most important thing to learn from Seth Godin. Don’t be normal. Be extraordinary. At something. Anything.

You Can’t Build a Relationship without Permission - Permission marketing is one of the most revolutionary ideas on the planet. When you invite people into your network and they accept, they’ve given you their permission to follow up with them. Don’t squander it.

Sometimes, Great People Don’t Get along - Don’t try to get along with everyone. Just be yourself and let serendipity happen.

If You Want Fame, Get Others to Talk about You - No one will ever know who you are if you don’t give them something to talk about. They may love you or hate you, but if they’re talking about you then your influence is growing.

If you’re not networking, you’re not really doing business. Social marketing is the most powerful form of marketing online because it relies on the power of people and their networks. Join one, start one, be one.

(Source) Mark Zuckerberg’s foray into being the top executive at a company with a $15 billion valuation has been dismaying to Facebook users and advertisers.

Facebook has had some public relations challenges lately. Does that mean users should abandon the social networking site? I don’t think so. It’s still a good place to network.

Zuckerberg may not be the best CEO for the site, but that doesn’t mean Facebook users shouldn’t be loyal to the site. It doesn’t have some of the same issues that MySpace has had. Sure, there were struggles and there will be others, but the opportunities offered by Facebook for real social networking for companies trying to make their way online have not ceased. Advertisers are a little skittish and that may be a good thing. Facebook users won’t have to worry that Facebook will dive headlong into ad pitching like so many other sites have done. They can focus on the networking opportunities instead.

I say pay close attention to where Facebook goes in the next couple of years. The game isn’t over. It’s just beginning.

Do you do a lot of social bookmarkeing? If you do then you probably wish you had a quicker way to post to your favorite social bookmarking sites. Well, I’ve found to social bookmarking services that make it easier and quicker to bookmark.

SocialMarker.com only lists 28 bookmarking sites and you can bookmark your content at all 28 in less than 15 minutes. It’s prettier than the next site I’m about to mention, but beautiful isn’t everything. Still, 28 sites is nothing to sneeze at. Fifteen minutes.

SocialPoster.com isn’t as pretty, but it offers 55 websites that you can bookmark at. They’ve even got separate bookmark submitters for Russian sites and adult websites. Not that I condone that, but it is available.

Either of these two bookmarking services will make your social bookmarking go easier and smoother.