The Stone Age…The Industrial Revolution…The Information Age…we’ve come a long way in the last several thousand years. Where exactly are we today? We’ve entered The Era of Social Sharing. Today’s generation is one that salivates to share anything and everything. Articles, images, videos, location, status updates, etc.
In this web-driven world, sharing and networking go hand in hand. Give folks the information they want, when they want it – and you become indispensable. If you need a little help finding ways to share content online, try one of these 11 methods.
11. Google Buzz
When Google Buzz first launched, there was an amazing amount of, well…buzz. The buzz has since died down to a bit of a low hum, due to initial privacy concerns and a tendency towards information overload. But, the fact remains – via its’ GMail integration, Google Buzz has an enormous user base built in. And it works via mobile.
10. Digg
Digg.com is a way to share articles and videos that you find particularly compelling. If enough of your fellow Digg’ers do the same, the content finds its way into a featured position. Not the most efficient way to share every piece of relevant content you come across – but a good spot for the best of the very best.
9. Flickr
For the artistically inclined, Flickr represents a fantastic way to share images across the web. Even for the utterly un-artistic like myself, Flickr is a unique place to store and link to relevant graphic images.
8. Stumbleupon
Stumbleupon is an often forgotten way to share content online. The main premise is simple – add links to articles you like, and they enter the stream of randomly served pages that users see. If other users also like the article, it is served to more and more people.
How do I know that Stumbleupon is still a relevant mode of content sharing? Roughly 40% of this blog’s traffic is referred by the site.
7. Google Reader
I can’t explain how much I love Google Reader as a content absorption tool – I simply couldn’t live without it. But, it is also a fantastic method for sharing content. By clicking the “share” button after reading an article, it instantly enters the streams of those who follow me. My RSS feed delivers work from my favorite authors, and my shared items list serves as a repository for the best of the best.
6. Delicious
Delicious.com is a tasty way to bookmark favorite articles and websites for both storage and sharing. Firefox and Chrome add-ons make it a one-click process to bookmark any site on the web. The simple tagging feature allows you to organize bookmarks by category for future reference – at the same time allowing your network to easily sort through your favorite articles.
5. Linkedin
To some, Linkedin is a static Rolodex of contacts. To others, it is a dynamic place to share and view content of all sorts with your immediate network and relevant groups. I highly recommend the latter! Linkedin is constantly updating their interface to allow for super-simple sharing of status updates, profile changes, and interesting web content.
Who better to share relevant info with than your closest network of professional contacts?
4. Facebook
Like it or not, Facebook is the 800 pound gorilla of social networking today. Yet, many forget that the site represents a way to share so much more than mundane daily updates. By sharing compelling articles in your news feed, you just might surprise a few friends and family. Similarly, by “Liking” pages or links, you are sharing your approval of that content with your network – a very powerful way to spread content around.
3. Twitter
Ah, yes – Twitter, the golden child of the social sharing era. Over 20 billion tweets have been sent to date. And yes, 40% of them contain pointless babble…but so many other tweets represent a concise way to deliver insights and/or link to long-form content.
Most of the content I share or absorb in a given day comes from my Twitter network. The most trusted form of shared content is that which is retweeted – signaling that multiple people find it to be compelling (a good sign you will too).
2. E-Mail
You might not view your old Yahoo! Mail account last used in 1999 to be the ideal form of content delivery. Yet, behind Facebook, e-mail still represented the 2nd most common way to share information as of 2009.
For the quick and direct delivery of content (one-to-one or one-to-many) e-mail simply can’t be beat. Tweet an article to 5,000 followers and 10 might read it. E-mail the same article to 10 colleagues and all 10 just might click the link within minutes.
1. Your Blog
As usual, there is no better way to communicate than via your very own blog. For example…when I collect and broadcast the best personal branding articles of the month, I’m able to accomplish several things at once. I efficiently distribute the info to a wide group, I show the authors my appreciation for their work, and I store the list to be viewed by anyone at a later date. Triple whammy.
What about you? Do you use these tools regularly, or are there any other super modes of content delivery that I’ve missed?
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