Featuring social bookmarking buttons on your pages is a great way to appeal to the social media without mounting a full social media campaign. Simply having such buttons on your site can improve your relationship with internet users, as it opens another avenue for communication. If you’ve got them, though, you might as well use them.

One of the prominent social bookmarking sites is Digg. This site has been around for a while. With an emphasis on technology, it doesn’t suit absolutely everyone. The little quirks of its users make a good case study on what you need to do to further your SEO techniques and optimise for the social media.

Digg voters don’t even need to see your content before voting. Many diggers are in a hurry when performing their diggerly duties. Basically, Digg users are just like any other internet user. They will flit around the internet looking for the specific information they need, taking little time to look at individual pages. Layered on top of this is an obligation to the Digg community to point out articles that are of interest. The result is that most of the articles that appear on Digg are chosen because their titles have sold them.

Titles hold such importance for content that it’s wise to spend time working on them, regardless of your social bookmarking choices. Many experts recommend that you start the content process by devising a title, using your keywords as prompts. Your search engine optimisation company can provide assistance with these kinds of content issues, and you can talk to our experts at SEO Consult.

• Descriptions are another sales technique. If a Digg user slows down enough to read your title, your description has a good chance of catching their eye. Experts on Digg recommend that your description be especially written to push keywords and promote a catchy concept. If all Diggs come from your pages, this means that having a brief description set out under the title is a good idea
• Never, ever use your links to draw users to your main page. If you’re posting your content around the net in the hopes of catching the eye of social bookmarkers, you may need to nominate where your link leads. If you link to your home page, this will be perceived as spam. Only link to the page where the content is featured
• Keep time on your side. Investigation has shown that time is a surprisingly important factor for the social media. It’s been found that social media users bookmark at certain times of day, usually centred around work hours

Participation in other social bookmarking sites can be of value to your site, and there are some social bookmarking sites that will fit your business better than Digg. If you decide to appeal to more than one social bookmarking site, choose wisely. Trying to appeal to all audiences can actually be a bit off-putting. Many sites fall into the trap of featuring five or more social site buttons on their pages, then wonder why their incoherent social media optimisation strategy isn’t working.

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