Is social bookmarking dead?

[Boogily]

I've been reading conflicting reports that social bookmarking is really useful and that social bookmarking is a complete waste of time that passes no real juice.

My gut tells me that every answer will tailor around "make your content spreadable" and then bookmark socially, which seems to be the right answer. 2 part question -- what if the content is really hard to make exciting (i.e. for chiropractor, funeral director, etc)? Does this mean that just linking to the site with a cut-and-paste paragraph will do nothing SEO wise?

I just need to know if it is even worth looking into or if I should invest in other areas.

[Paul-G]

Not really an answer to the conflicting reports around social bookmarking you mentioned and not sure if my comments make some sense.

When I think of the topics you mention your audience is really small. that also makes the competition small and that makes it less needed to use all link-building possibilities like social bookmarking.

In the case of the topics you named I think you could try to find the authorities within that topic and see if and how you can work together. See if you can guest-blog or ask them to do some guest-blogging. So instead of making the content spreadable. Work around the content and figure out what content will be accepted and adapted by the authorities.

More on-topic, but this is more a gut feeling than real knowledge, I believe SEO specialist abused social bookmarking to much and that decreased the real value.

[webfeatseo]

This is a tough one. It is still alive where you have the option to do so. However most people will not readily be sharing your stuff. I know Digg and Delicious have been taken over where the only way to get on the front page is to page for shares or to do digg for diggs and etc.

One of my largest competitors has one IM chat on gTalk set up specifically for digg for diggs with thousands of contacts.

You can submit your stuff but most likely you will not have much luck unless it is one amazing piece of content that everybody would just want to see.

[seagreen]

Early on in the linking days, the number of links mattered.  Then, things evolved, and quality and authority were factored.  I see the same thing happening here;  I think some of the lower quality, semi-automated, mass bookmarks are losing value.

I believe value is passed from the higher quality bookmarking properties, especially when shared by an authority's profile. Beyond any juice, there is also benefit to mentions, and activity in the social sphere.  That is why it continues to be part of our strategy.