MySpace, Facebook and similar
Social bookmarking websites are no doubt the buzzword of the recent months. What is social bookmarking? Let’s turn to the definition:
Social bookmarking is an activity performed over a computer network that allows users to save and categorize a personal collection of bookmarks and share them with others. Users may also take bookmarks saved by others and add them to their own collection, as well as to subscribe to the lists of others – personal knowledge management tool [wikipedia.org]
As a site owner I consider these websites as a source of traffic – thousands, in fact millions of users get registered with these websites. There was a recent announcement that MySpace is website #1 in traffic in the USA (though Yahoo! did not agree with the stats). Social bookmarking sites become a considerable source of traffic for those websites that due to some reasons do not enjoy much traffic from search engines. They are also a nice source of extra visitors for the websites that are on top of the search engines.
There is no recipe for attracting visitors from these places. There is a wide variety of types of social bookmarking websites (see the list). MySpace is probably the best known among webmasters. The most common methods to get traffic from MySpace – bulletins, auto-adders and other methods that resemble me of spam. Evidently, not a long lasting way to promote your website. But there are more legitimate ways to brand your website on MySpace.
I would recommend exploring the list and registering with those services that might be a good fit for your website. See what kind of people populate the place, how they interact, what they search, etc.
Here is the list of the most popular social networking websites at this moment to check:
MySpace – Best for: Teens, Young Adults
Bebo – Best for: Teens, Young Adults
Tagworld – Best for: Teens, Young Adults
Orkut – Best for: Young Adults (Brazilians)
AIM Pages – Best for: Teens, Young Adults
Hi5 – Best for: Teens, Young Adults
Panjea – Best for: Teens, Young Adults, Artists
Cyworld [US] – Best for: Teens, Young Adults, Koreans
Tagged – Best for: Teens
Popist – Best for: Teens
Friendster – Best for: Young Adults
Tribe – Best for: Young Adults
Facebook – Best for: College/University students
ConnectU – Best for: College/University students
Yahoo! 360 – Best for: Adults, Middle-aged
PeopleAggregator – Best for: Adults, Middle-aged
MommyBuzz – Best for: Moms!
MuslimSpace - Best for: Muslims
Stardoll – Best for: Kids/Teens
Imbee – Best for: Kids
Dogster – Best for: Dogs; their owners
Catster – Best for: Cats; their owners
Fuzzster – Best for: Fuzzy pets; their owners
BookCrossing – Best for: Book lovers
Boompa – Best for: Car lovers
Spout – Best for: Film lovers
MOG – Best for: Music lovers
Yub.com – Best for: [Online] Shoppers
Yelp – Best for: Anyone in the U.S.
LinkedIn – Best for: Employed individuals; business-folks
biddingBuddies – Best for: eBay members — buyers/sellers
Faqqly – Best for: teens, young adults
[tags]MySpace, Bebo, Tagworld, Orkut, AIM Pages, Hi5, Panjea, Cyworld, Tagged, Popist, Friendster, Tribe, Facebook, ConnectU, Yahoo! 360, PeopleAggregator, MommyBuzz, MuslimSpace, Stardoll, Imbee, Dogster, Catster, Fuzzster, BookCrossing, Boompa, Spout, MOG, Yub.com, Yelp, LinkedIn, biddingBuddies, Faqqly, social bookmarking[/tags]