Social media, including social bookmarking, is all about know-like-trust.

Whether you sell online or offline, you know that it is much easier to close the sale when the buyer knows and trusts you. A good example is when you look at a tv commercial, where someone describes a product that solves a problem you may have. Even though it sounds great, you will, most likely, be reluctant to buy the product. After all, you don’t know whether you can trust that the claims made, are accurate.

However, if you subsequently come across a friend, colleague or acquaintance who bought the product, and this person is raving about it, you are much more likely to make the purchase. You know how to interpret his/her words and that makes it much easier for you to make your decision.

When the sales process moved online, this so-called “know-like-trust” factor became a real issue. After all, it used to be very difficult to figure out who the person is behind the product you are interested in. I believe that that is the reason that social media has become so popular so quickly. After all, social media has made it possible again, to profile yourself to the public and to engage in conversation with your visitors.

As a result, people will have the opportunity to figure out who you are and what you stand for. By taking the time, you have the opportunity for others to get to know you, start linking you and finally start trusting you. You have effectively established the “know-like-trust” factor.

The same concept holds true in social bookmarking. If all you do is bookmark your sales pages, nobody is interested in you. It is obvious that all you are there for, is to make money. However, if you bookmark all kinds of content related to your niche, others in your niche will get to know, like and finally trust you.

This all sounds so obvious, but if you go to the social bookmarking sites, you will be amazed how many people only submit their own sales pages. Hopefully, this article will make you realize one more time, how counter-productive this approach really is.

To your success,