Links to tag a post: do they get used?
05.24.06I've added a series of links to the footer of my posts that will enable one-click submission of that post to a wide variety of social bookmarking systems. There are many ways to do this, but today I found what may be the easiest - with Twister MC's social bookmark link creator.
This is a pretty popular thing to do - but do people use them? I always use my browser's bookmarklet to save to del.icio.us - do you click on these links when you see them? Perhaps it's mostly a reminder to bookmark a good post. I wonder though if the aesthetic cost of these links is worth the usability they create.
I can see the use of links like this in an RSS feed for sure, using a service like Feedburner's FeedFlare. In a feed reader there's not always easy access to a bookmarklet or the unique URL for an individual post - thus a one-click link is great. But on a blog site? Thoughts?
May 24th, 2006 at
I use MyBlogLog to track outgoing links on my blog. On my old design, I had bookmark links at the bottom of my posts, however on my new design I have them inside a hidden layer that will only show when you click the Extras tab. With my old design, I would see multple clicks a day on them - mostly to del.icio.us, and it was certainly benefit. But with my new design being that they aren’t seen without opening the hidden layer, im lucky to get a click on one a day or every other day.
So, yes. From my experience, people do click them and they do help bring some visitors. I’ve seen best results with del.ico.us.
May 24th, 2006 at
I have not seen any evidence that people use these on the Interplast blog. Individual posts of ours, rarely, if ever, get tagged on del.icio.us or Reddit, and we haven’t received one donation from our “Donate Now” button that is right next to the social bookamrking links.
I don’t know if our content is simply un-tag-worthy, or if our audience doesn’t understand how to use the tools. Regardless, it’s been something of a disappointment.
May 24th, 2006 at
To Brian, Seth and others - I wonder wether emphasizing these sorts of clickable links on our sites rests on a paradigm expecting direct results from our blogs instead of our participation in the blogosphere serving as a lead generator. I know that commenting on other blogs has lead folks to read my blog which has lead to most of my current employment. (But not until after face to face conversation made more familiar by earlier blog reading.) Yet when I think about two of the primary people who have hired me (Hi Marnie and Barb!) I don’t know if either of them ever tagged my posts or clicked many of my “extra” links before hiring me. Similarly Seth, looking at the list of people who have tagged your blog’s front page reminds me that I’m not one of them - but I am subscribed, read it when I can and we communicate often. I wonder wether all of these “easy connection” tools are just little levers that only some people will use as part of a blog’s larger connection to the world? Hmmm…
May 24th, 2006 at
The more levers, though, the more connections… Easy sub buttons for feeds, easy bookmark links like these, comments, trackbacks, one-click backlinks, these are all tools that integrate a site more tightly into the conversation… The more of these tools you have, the easier it is for the individual reader to make use of the information that you provide in a way that makes sense to them. More levers, I say!
May 24th, 2006 at
Excellent point about the indirect (ie lead generation) benefits of blogs. I don’t have tons of extra time in my work day, and once I firgured out how to add the bookmark links, I never had to worry about it again. It simply does loads them at the end of each post automatically.
I think social bookmarking tools are still very geeky. This will probably change as The Big Boys with The Big Market Share adopt them (when will Yahoo start integrating del.icio.us?). In the meantime, people such as yourselves can tag various posts, and it’s not an imposition on readers who have no idea what those little icons are.
It’s an example of a “you never know” technology that is easy setup and requires no maintenance. People (especially funders) want to know if an NGO is innovating and doing the most with the least. Tagging is one small way of showing that, as John puts it, we have lots of levers and lots of ways to accomplish our mission.
May 31st, 2006 at
Hi, guys. How nice to see the smartest guys on the Web in communication here. I have just been reading Brian Benzinger of Solution Watch on Webride and have just set up an email alert to John’s Freshblog, which I had not heard of before. Thanks, Marshall, for being such a hub and enabling your readers to learn of other, wonderful blogs and thereby become better users of web tools.
John and Brian have it right–the easier it is for relative dum-dums (like moi) to subscribe to your blogs the better. I personally prefer email alerts. I find it way too much trouble to set up bookmarks in delicious. I want to read a post, forward it to co-workers and stash it in my email inbox. I don’t want comment on it for the benefit of persons unknown. I use you guys ruthlessly for my own benefit–tee hee. Bookmarking requires a certain amount of selflessness that not everyone possesses. So set out those RSS to email alert tools on your blogs, guys. And yes do comment on other blogs. That is how I heard about John’s blog just now, for instance.
Hope