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One of the dilemmas that many webmasters face these days is which social bookmarking buttons or services they should decide on and use prominently within their pages. The simple fact is that they all “target” a specific user base, so, knowing which one to use for your site should be a part of your overall strategy. Here’s a closer look at today’s most popular social bookmarking services, the kinds of people who use them, and more insight into which one(s) you should display on your site.

Newbie forewarning: most, if not all of these sites are “nofollow.” Note that this shouldn’t be a deterrent in any way, as “links are links” and they all contribute to your site’s success, especially in a world where social is influencing SERPs! More recognition (and a constant stream of it) is what you’ll be looking for these days in the world of social SEO evolution.

Note that this is not a list of all bookmarking services with buttons – just the ones that don’t suck and are worth your consideration!

Social Networking & Bookmarking Buttons for General Topics

Facebook Like button: The new “like” continues to be liked itself amongst the webmaster community. Simply insert some simple code on your site with the iconic “Like” button, and it will get sent straight to someone’s Facebook page feed when clicked. Facebook’s opportunity doesn’t have to be explained these days; therefore, it’s not something to ignore. I’ll always feel that Facebook Like works best on universally “interesting” articles, especially if it’s humorous.

• Use it if: Who doesn’t have a Facebook account these days? Hell, just use it, period! Facebook is on fire right now, and the “Like” script is unobtrusive. The audience is so huge, that it includes tons of interest level subsets. It can’t hurt to try it out!
• Solid alternatives: MySpace Share, Twitter Retweet button

Twitter Retweet button: Still a valid way to share, Twitter seems to be getting overwhelmed by the fact that Facebook serves the same purpose in a more engaging way. Regardless, it’s still a big platform that can give your articles a great deal of exposure if seen to the right user(s). Thanks to things like hash tags, your article can get further exposure based on what category it’s hashed under. Twitter continues to be one of the big three (Twitter, Facebook, Youtube) in the realm of social media analytics and sentiment analysis.

• Use it if: …you use Twitter as a part of your branding strategy. Since you’re on the site a lot, it would be a good idea to tie this functionality into your articles so that you can not only get more Twitter exposure, but more followers as well.
• Solid alternatives:  Facebook Like button

Google Buzz button: You may or may have not used it already, but it’s kind of like a social networking mash-up. Think of it as having the mobile “where in the world am I?” geo-targeting of Foursquare or GoWalla, combined with the front page feed of Facebook. It’s mostly used by tech geeks and lesser known by anyone else at this point in time. People who use the Droid and other Google-sponsored phones may have the Buzz app on it. Do individuals’ Buzz results show up in SERPs? No…at least, not at present. Technically, Buzzes go to a “user account” rather than a public web page like other popular social bookmarking sites. However, they can go viral, and Buzz is a perfect example of a ‘trust marketing’ tool, as people are recommending links to their friends (of whom trust their judgment). Don’t believe it? Just look at the Google Buzz activity that Mashable.com’s articles get.

• Use it if: …you have a lot of internet geeks, marketers or otherwise who visit your blog. Presently, they’re one of the biggest user bases of Buzz until the program becomes more publicly accepted.
• Solid alternatives: Google Wave This

Digg “Digg This” button: This site constantly evolves, and continues to be the quintessential news sharing site. Digg traditionally shines for articles that reveal something new (the newest smartphone dissected, a new planet or dinosaur fossil found, a political blunder, a bizarre tradition, etc.) or otherwise incredibly interesting or off-beat. Digg and especially the Digg community have gotten harsher on backlink-hungry webmasters than ever before – expect your submissions to be “buried” if they point to affiliate sites or promotional pages.

• Use it if: …your site deals with occult, interesting, amazing or unique situations in article or picture format, feature a Digg button on the upper left of each article page.
• Solid alternatives: Mixx button, Reddit button, Yahoo Buzz Up button, Slashdot bookmarklet, Newsvine seed
• Second string alternatives: Kirtsy This button, Propeller bookmarklet

Delicious.com “Bookmark on Delicious” link: A lot has changed beyond the old URL it was once known for (del.ico.us). It has become a major player in the social sharing world and is even used as a top social tracking metric in social analytics. Delicious is a top choice for personal bookmarking, too. It makes it easy to ‘tag’ and associate links with a nearly limitless number of tags that are limited to your imagination – a great way to classify a link with a long-tail niche term (you can use pluses or minuses in place of spaces between words in a keyword). Hey, if giant sites like Flickr use it throughout their entire site, it must be worthy.

• Use it if: …you don’t know what other bookmarking service “fits” for your site. A lot of people use Delicious, and it’s a safe blanket-bookmarking service to rely on.
• Solid alternatives: Diigo button (formerly Furl.net)
• Second string alternatives: Faves.com Fave It

StumbleUpon Submit button:  In terms of worthiness, StumbleUpon has been one of the most controversial sites amongst webmasters. Many favor the rolling bursts of traffic that it can foster, while others ridicule its inability to be part of a solid backlinking strategy due to its short-term or one-time-only results. Regardless, it’s a huge site with a community of “Stumblers” who can bring attention to your page, video or picture. The StumbleUpon button “stumbles” your site, or gives it a notch, increasing the chances of it being seen via random stumble within its category. Stumbles build an inertia-like momentum; the more stumbles you get, the more probability your site will show up at random to site users.

• Use it if: …your user base mainly includes bored people looking to kill time – StumbleUpon is a great time killer for people looking to discover new things. If your site is interesting enough to fit the bill, it might be a good match with a StumbleUpon Submit button. Note: I almost considered not putting StumbleUpon on this list due to the more-than-likely chance of a short term traffic burst,  but results may vary.

Social Networking & Bookmarking Buttons for Niche Topics

LinkedIn Share button (WordPress only!): Regardless if you use it or not, LinkedIn has still positioned itself as the “Facebook for professionals,” and is more notably being used by recruiters sick of bad Monster.com or CareerBuilder applicants flooding their inbox. It’s also a place where people create and join groups relevant to their background or profession; in essence, a site of niche businesspeople. This button will let LinkedIn users share your page with their entire network.

• Use it if: …your site is a job networking or job seeking site, LinkedIn Share is an obvious fit in either case.

Sphinn “Sphinn It” button: Got a site dealing with internet marketing, SEO, SEM or online business strategy? This community is dedicated to these topics, and is frequented by marketers looking for quality advice. It’s a place to get noticed for all of the hard work you’ve put into that SEO hypothesis, those flowcharts proving some kind of point about online marketing trends, or anything else that would be of extreme interest to an online marketer.

• Use it if: …your blog is primarily about internet marketing and/or any of its facets, and you write meaningful, content-rich articles that serve as valid resources.

Tip’d “Tip It” button: It’s a social bookmarking site for financial news only: the Tip It button will give your article a notch on the site, hopefully pushing your article more toward the top (think of it as a financial Digg). The best part about Tip’d is that it caters to the topics that tend to never do well on other social sites: primarily, those about law and accounting or economics.

• Use it if: …your articles pertain to topics in the fields of law, investing, real estate or economics.

Fark “Fark It” button: Fark’s purpose is to draw attention to various articles of interest elsewhere on the internet, as chosen by its site users. Sites that get the green light will make it to the front page, which is a high visibility area that may result in the dreaded “Digg Effect” of server congestion. The Fark button is simple and doesn’t include a counter; however, it gives your page a vote to appear on Fark’s home page.

• Use it if: …your material is quirky, humorous or deals with “stupid news.” Make sure it’s a unique story you’ve pursued on your own, and not just a copy of something else.

N4G News Tips link: N4G or “News For Gamers” is a social article site dedicated only to gaming-related news in the current day. The popularity of stories on N4G is signified in temperature-like “degrees.” Only the most popular articles of the day make it to the front page, out of hundreds of daily submissions.

• Use it if: …your run a video game news site dealing with game reviews or topics of interest only of today’s game releases.

Select a Button…and Run With It!

Using the guide above, choose which sharing button makes the most sense on your site.  If two prove to be a good fit, include both. Just think: many people who have Twitter also have Facebook, just like many people who use Buzz might also use Digg.

The best way to know a good combination is to look at the big sites that are already savvy on social networking: Mashable, Time.com, CNN. They’ve already done their research before making a final decision. Look at the big sites in your niche…what are they using?

If you’re a “regular” on any particular site, it would be insane not to use that site’s button on your pages. So, if you Mixx all the time and have built up an impressive profile and friend list, it would only make sense to use the Mixx It Up button on every page of your blog!

How About Those All-In-One Social Bookmark Services?

If you simply can’t or don’t want to pick one of those ‘everything in one’ buttons that create a rollover displaying multiple bookmark icons (i.e., ShareThis, AddThis, Social Marker, Add To Any, etc.) is a perfectly valid thing to do. Just beware of the fact that people are less likely to use a specific service in those buttons, and that many visitors hesitate to even use them at all. (Personally, I think ShareThis is the superior one amongst them all – it even has its own built-in analytics, and also an official ShareThis WordPress plugin).

In essence, this shows a pro and con of using specific buttons: they’re very convenient for people who use those particular services, but worthless for those who don’t.  On the flip side, all-in-one buttons are great because they include all of the popular services. However, many people are too lazy to use them, especially if they can’t find the service they use if it requires clicking the “more” link within the pop-up.

What’s the Best Place to Put a Social Bookmarking Button?

I think it’s safe to say that the most advantageous places to stick them are within the upper left corner of your body content, underneath the heading (considering you don’t already have an AdSense banner stuck there).

Otherwise, it’s commonplace to include it under the header, flushed left or right – your choice. A really bad place to include it would be away from the content, such as in the page header or in the sidebar – that wouldn’t make much sense at all.

Consider ending your article with yet another social bookmarking venue, rather than making your visitor scroll all the way up to the top to access it.

Perhaps certain bookmarking services do better under an article than above it? How about a quick way to have your visitors publish your link on their Facebook feed with a “Facebook Like” link right after your article’s conclusion, while the awesomeness of your article is still fresh in their mind and potentially of interest to their friends? These are the tests you should perform.

Whatever button ‘fits’ with your site should be considered an overall part of your site’s marketing strategy. It’s a tool that makes your site become easy to share on a specific social bookmarking service, as opposed to hoping your visitors will copy and paste the link into their account. Using the more relevant service will mean more pleasing results – do some due diligence and decide which one makes the most sense for your individual sites!