"Social Bookmarking" - Not a Viable Medium for Marketing?

[jay 11]

Online bookmarking services allow individuals to catalog web pages of interest and access that catalog from anywhere there is an internet connection. I see a lot of members here mentioning how bookmarking their websites and web pages can be used as a tool for driving traffic and increasing web citations (links). This is true but I have to think the percentage of relevant links and qualified traffic is extremely low . Am I alone here? Have their been any studies that measure the use of Social Bookmarking sites as a medium for driving sales or conversions? I'd LOVE to see some stats...

[InsightsDigital]

Though I dont have any stats to share per se, as a digital analyst, I have reviewed so many website analytics and I can safely tell you that I hardly ever see book marking sites referring significant amount of traffic. The trend I have seen with bookmarking sites and analytics are:
1. There is a spike in traffic only on the day and perhaps few days after link is submitted. Otherwise, link referral dies off...
2. Unless someone else shares the link on their list or feed, potential power of book marking dies off.
3. Unless the link is for a very interesting site, it will die off...

[jay 11]

Thanks for sharing! That certainly makes sense. I can understand how publishers would be able to drive volumes of traffic if they published something viral or very compelling but that's not easy to do. I'm sure it takes a lot of hard work.