If I write a article for a client and use Social Book Marking software, will this add value (or does the value depend on how ofen it gets shared)?

[2Stroke]

I'm about to start experimenting with bookmarking software. My first step is trying Ping.com (because it's free), but I am also keen to try Onlywire.com (which comes at a cost- darn).

My questions are: when I create an article for a client and post to all these social sites will this make a difference? Or will it only make a difference if people share the article?

Has anyone been experimenting with  social bookmarking software that can tell me what results they have had and how they got there?

Thanks a mil!

[BryanCasson]

From my experience, posting to social media networks helps your article get indexed quicker in Google, so if it is a brand new article that you have posted to social media then Google will follow the links from social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook etc and crawl your site quicker than usual as the Google Freshbot is constantly visiting these pages so has a good chance to find your content quicker. As for whether or not sharing the content makes a difference I would say yes and no. If no one shares, you will still be indexed quickly however you will not gain the benefit of your content going viral. Take Stumbleupon as an example, if you post great content that is shared on Stumbleupon then there is a good chance you will get thousands of visits to your site in minutes and hundreds of thousands of visits over a year period from one article.

Remember, not every article is going to go viral, but when they do you will get great value out of them, not only from a "visits" point of view but also from a "links" point of view when others write about your content and give you credit for it.

[2Stroke]

Hi Bryan,

Many thanks!

If by simply posting an article to a few social networks means that Google will crawl the article quicker, that is already a lot of value because of the link you have included with some anchor text for your client.

I am going to start sharing content soon and will see what happens.

Have you used a site that let's you share content to various social networks with the click of a button?

[BryanCasson]

I am not a big fan of automated software myself as I prefer to experiment with different descriptions and titles on different social media sites to see which gets the better response, but each to his/her own. As a word of caution, just make sure that the software that you use does not throw out spam links (or powered by X links) attached to your article as this looks unprofessional and your attempt to get readers should always be professional. Maybe test it under an alias first before using it with your own website or company name. Is see you are from SA (Cape Town), I took a look at your site, are you a Drupal expert?

[2Stroke]

Hi David,

Thanks for stopping by our site. Yes we are Drupal experts and have worked with Drupal for some time now. We are also one of the biggest Drupal web developers in SA. One of the reasons we choose to work with it is due to the fact that it's SEO friendly.

What is your interest in Drupal?