A new consumer phenomenon is called “tagging” or “folksonomies” (short for folks and taxonomy). Tagging is powerful because consumers are creating an organizational structure for online content. Folksonomies not only enable people to file away content under tags, but, even better, share it with others by filing it under a global taxonomy that they created.

Allow me to show you different tools that makes tagging a lot easier. You may use sites such as del.icio.us– which is sharing site for bookmarks, and Flickr — a popular photo sharing website. These online sites allow users to collaborate and categorize content by using tags or keywords.

For instance, an individual can post photographs of their iPod on Flickr and file it under the tag “iPod.” These images are now not only visible under the individual user’s iPod tag but also under the community iPod tag that displays all images consumers are generating and filing under the keyword. Right now Flickr has more than 3,500 photos that are labeled “iPod.”

Folksonomies naturally complements search. In effect, it is currently improving its popularity. Try to search for the word “blog” on Google. You will see that there would be thousands of results with the word blog. This is made possible by tags or keywords. Probably, you will be seeing articles such as “How to launch your first blog site” or “Tips on writing blogs”. These tags eases searching of contents.

Although tags are far from perfect, marketers should, nevertheless, be using them to keep a finger on the pulse of the American public. Start subscribing to RSS feeds to monitor how consumers are tagging information related to your product, service, company or space. These are living focus groups that are available for free, 24/7. Folksonomy sites can be also be carefully used to unleash viral marketing campaigns – with a caveat. Marketers should be transparent in who they are, why they are posting the link/photos and avoid spamming the services.

There are more freebies to grab at Instant Lead Magnet. Get to know Damon Nelson and his Fast Video Reviews at http://FastVideoReviews.com