Harold Jarche has said that using social bookmarking could be “…the simplest way to start sharing organisational knowledge.” and I totally agree. It’s also an easy way to get started with the concept of “Working Out Loud” and curation.
It is super easy to get started with social bookmarks and it’s only slightly different from what you’re already doing when you save bookmarks in your web browser. A few of the benefits of social bookmarking include:
- Moving your bookmarks online and accessible from anywhere instead of being locked in a single place/device. (If you’ve ever tried to remember a site you bookmarked at work while you were out of the office you can appreciate this one!)
- The tagging feature makes them much easier to manage and find what you’re looking for. Unlike browser bookmarks which can only be in one folder, you can apply multiple tags to each link you save.
- They can be private or public -it’s up to you.
- Your public links are shareable
To see it in action take 2 minutes and watch this Common Craft Video “Social Bookmarking in Plain English”
Back in the day I was a huge fan of Delicious, but after being sold and rebuilt I’ve never gone back. I use Diigo these days, which also has some nice additional features like highlighting, annotating, group sharing and others.
Pinterest is another option and Jane Bozarth has a good article on “Pinterest for L&D” that’s definitely worth checking out.
Here’s a downloadable, printable sheet on Social Bookmarking you can use for yourself or for sharing with others.
Where are your bookmarks? What do you like or dislike about where they are?
Mike Taylor 
3 thoughts on “Social Bookmarking”