Now that just about everyone is familiar with social media and the opportunities it presents to business owners interested in connecting directly with customers, the community, lets take a look at how to get started.

1. Read

In order to write, you must read. A good guideline to keep in mind is to read more than you write. The more you read, the more you’ll learn what your niche is talking about, what ideas are bring shared, and more importantly what people aren’t talking about. This is important information to know if you’re planning on building your profile as an authoritative voice in your niche.

2. Share

Don’t be a blog-hog! The key to building your profile and brand is to grow into a resource other people find useful or interesting. If you’re only sharing the content you create, you’re minimizing the potential of customers seeing you as an authority. Share what you find interesting – the key to social media is creating and inspiring conversation, so be sure to pass the ball around often … doing so will surely guarantee people will be more likely to pass the ball back more often.

3. Rock the Vote!

Participate in the bookmarking communities and build your bookmarks by sharing with others, and more importantly, voting on the content you’re linking to. Not only does this help that person you’re bookmarking, but it also increases your visibility, profile, and authority in your niche. Voting is often what drives the bookmarking sites, so be sure to support the power of your community by voting – it usually requires an additional click of a thumbs up, a star, or a digg.

4. Leave Comments & Reviews

Similar to voting, reviews and comments enhance the experience of the bookmarking world with your individual voice and point of view. Comments are like gold to new bloggers, companies new to social media, and those interested in conversation for several reasons – connection being the most obvious. You might even go as far as saying comments and reviews are really the voice of social media.

5. Promote your profile

Unless people know that you’re sharing what you find interesting or helpful on the web, there’s really no point. Encourage your followers on Twitter, your fans on Facebook, and your subscribers to your site to check out your social bookmarking profile by placing a sleek chicklet, badge, banner, or even text somewhere on your website. Consider researching your Google Analytics stats (specifically where your top content is receiving its traffic) in order to find out which social bookmarking site or network you should promote – it’s best to promote those brining in the most traffic.

6. Finally, Create Content

It’s the moment you’ve been working toward! Only once you’ve created and established an online presence within the social bookmarking realm can you start promoting your content – this said, I wouldn’t suggest posting your own content as it reveals desperation, amateurism, and self-promotion, which is accepted on a very light level these days. Once you’ve written your content, proofed it, and published it, consider adding a link in some shape or form, as mentioned above in #5, linking directly to your profile. Another option is to add ShareThis to the bottom of your post, as you’ll see shortly, so that your readers have the tools needed to share the post if they feel so inspired.

Overall, social bookmarking is all about sharing. Some believe it’s better to give than receive … and when it comes to bookmarking, it’s definitely true.

(Check out the bookmarking options below with the ShareThis button)

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