Dec
21
12 Tips for Using the Business Exchange Social Bookmarking Site
Filed Under LinkedIn, Networking and Marketing Strategy, Social Media and Social Networking Sites
Looking over my traffic stats several weeks ago, I was very surprised to notice that a single visitor had been referred to my blog by Business Week.
I traced the visit back to Business Exchange, Bloomberg Business Week’s social bookmarking site “that helps professionals discover and organize information from across the Web… a great way to share content and find the most relevant news on business topics.”
Anita Campbell, a Twitter friend and CEO of Small Business Trends, “an online small biz community reaching over 250,000 each month,” had saved my blog post, The Social Media ROI Obsession, on the Business Exchange site. Somebody evidently clicked through to my blog to read the article.
Once I arrived at Business Exchange, I quickly realized that this social media site was much more upscale and business-like than the social bookmarking sites with which I was familiar, and I saw BX as a potential venue for sharing content and networking up with corporate executives and media elite.
On Friday, Business Exchange notified me that I will be the featured user starting Tuesday, December 22nd at approximately 9:15am ET and lasting for 24 hours. I thought therefore that this would be an opportune moment to write about the Business Exchange site.
Business Exchange Site Basics
These are the principal ways you interact with the Business Exchange site. You can:
- join and set up your account
- search topics and people (note that the search box is tucked away at the bottom, way below the fold)
- bookmark articles you discover into one or more topics
- browse articles that have previously been bookmarked
- react to articles that you or others have bookmarked
- save topics and articles of interest for easy future access
- follow other users
- explore users’ links
- subscribe to other users’ activity
Here are 12 easy ways that you can benefit from the Business Exchange site:
- When you join, choose the option to link your Business Exchange and LinkedIn profiles. Your LinkedIn information will automatically be filled in on your Business Exchange profile page, and you will be able to easily send invitations to your LinkedIn connections.
- You can let Business Exchange automatically post your reactions to LinkedIn and Twitter. I checked off the box for LinkedIn but not for Twitter. It’s your decision.
- Bookmark only high quality business articles that fit into existing topics. Add each article to as many topics as apply, up to five, the maximum. You’ll receive contribution points, one for each topic.
- You may bookmark your own high quality business articles, but if you bookmark only your content, you’re likely to be labeled a spammer, and your standing on Business Exchange will be jeopardized.
- You don’t have to bookmark articles to participate actively. You can react to articles bookmarked by others and receive a contribution point for each reaction.
- Other users will likely “size you up” based on your your contribution points, the quality of your contributions and reactions, the number of users following you, your profile and your links.
- Follow users who interest you. Don’t expect them to follow back automatically, and don’t automatically follow users who follow you.
- Explore other users’ links. You might discover a blog or other website that you’ll like. You may also find a way to connect up with them at another site and network together. Let them know that you’re both Business Exchange users.
- On LinkedIn, if you and another member belong to a common group, you can send an invitation without knowing that member’s email. If that person just followed you on Business Exchange or is a LinkedIn Open Networker (LION), extend an invitation and mention Business Exchange.
- Use the Business Exchange home page interface to invite LinkedIn connections. X-out people you don’t really know, so that you don’t risk spamming them. Customize your invitation message. Those who join will be added as mutual followers automatically.
- When telling friends about Business Exchange or promoting the site, link directly to your profile. You want that they should get the idea to follow you if they join.
- The Business Exchange site tends to be slow. Be patient. It’s worth waiting. Business Exchange is in beta, and hopefully Business Week is addressing the response time problem at this very moment.
Conclusion
I’ve been pleased with the articles bookmarked at Business Exchange and the quality of traffic my blog has received from the site. I hope you’ll have a similar good experience with Business Exchange.
Before you go, please subscribe and leave me a comment. See you on Business Exchange. 
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24 Responses to “12 Tips for Using the Business Exchange Social Bookmarking Site”
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First and foremost, congratulations at being featured! Very nice holiday feather for you cap. I will definitely be checking out the site, sounds like it is going to be a great source of information. On a more personal note, thanks for providing a wonderful year’s worth of tips, tricks, advice and information. I wish you, and all your readers, a safe and happy holiday season!
Thank you Cheryl for your kind words. I wish you and your all the best in the year to come.
Thanks for the great tips on BWBX Larry and for being such a great user. We appreciate your participation!
Michelle, I believe that Business Exchange can play an increasingly important roll as more and more high level business people make a commitment to using social media.
Hi Larry,
Congratulations on being featured on Business Exchange. I will definitely have to check it out. Thanks for sharing.
Deb
Thanks for the info and tips. I originally found you on Ryze, but will now go check out the Business Exchange.
Debra,
Ryze was my very first social networking site. Thanks for visiting and commenting.
Larry, way to go buddy. I am always on the lookout daily for new social media real estate I can populate automatically. Nothing like building a list of over 200+ social media and bookmarking sites every one of my articles go to every day. Seeing I post 3-4, that means an additional inbound 600-800 links.
Dr. Dave Hale
The Internet Marketing Professor
Bookmarking yourself is very powerful.
Bookmarking others may be equally powerful.
Thanks Larry, I am joining you.
Great Debbie. Nothing like togetherness.
I’ll have to try that some time. Sounds worthwhile. I’ve got some other projects to finish first.
Morgan Mandel
Larry, as always, you are a fount of information for all things social networking. I am going over to set up my Business Exchange profile as we speak!
“All things social networking” is a bit of an exaggeration, Steve, but I’ll accept the compliment anyway.
Larry, I went there, tried to register both with my LinkedIn profile and manually, but it states that the captcha was not entered. However, I used two different browsers, Explorer and Firefox, and saw no captcha. I sent them feedback, but sure would like to register!
If you don’t hear from them on Monday, email me, and I’ll email my contact in their administration. Seems they’re having issues with their site.
Congratulations on being featured on Business Exchange.
Thanks for this excellent resource. I signed up and already found some very helpful articles and resources. Be on the look-out for my friend invite.
I like it. Great post. Thanks so much for the tips. It was really nice to know actual process of networking and bookmarking properly….. thanks again!
Larry, my apologies for not dropping by sooner and commenting — I missed this the first time around. Good tips and congratulations on getting featured. And thanks for the shout out.
- Anita
Just stopping in to say that I love the article! I was invited to join the Business Exchange this week and decided to try it out. I have not had much time to explore so thank you for the great article. Congrats on being featured, I will surely look at it more, I am addicted to article reading when it is quality content!
Thank you Brooke, Anita, Yoli, Eunice and Conrads.
[…] already guess, it is a site that is extremely focused on business and the news. After reading a great blog post on Business Exchange by Larry Brauner, I have been experimenting with the site seeing how it fits into my daily social media routine. I […]
[…] already guess, it is a site that is extremely focused on business and the news. After reading a great blog post on Business Exchange by Larry Brauner, I have been experimenting with the site seeing how it fits into my daily social media routine. I […]