Bookmarklet is a web browser add-on from Posterous that allows you to create posts quickly using web content. It’s not scraping, it’s sharing, the format makes the difference. Bookmarklet is Posterous’ social bookmark for any web content, from videos to photos to text. Posterous pulls the content you select, you title it, add any comments, click ‘post’ and you’re done!

Posterous already made blogging easy via email, with Bookmarklet, they’re enabling you to direct traffic in an instant.

Set your network

We’ve mentioned Autopost before, but since we’re going to show you how you can use the Bookmarklet to direct traffic, and Autopost is a way of updating all your sites, here’s a brief overview.

Autopost is a setting on Posterous that allows you to select which services and sites you want automatically updated with the most recent Posterous post.

You can set your account so that every Posterous post is linked to your Facebook page, Twitter feed (they’re take the first 140 characters) Del.icio.us, and Flickr page, as well as your Blogger, Tumblr, and WordPress site, among others.

You select the settings, so you control what gets posted where. With sites like Facebook you have additional options on how the post is presented. Additionally, you can post to a specific site or multiple sites by emailing the post to the corresponding email address. For example, a post you want to go to Twitter and Facebook as well as your Posterous site, but not to your WordPress blog, can be sent easily by emailing the post to twitter+facebook@posterous.com.

Direct Traffic

So here’s how it works; first, download the browser tool, and put it in your toolbar. That way when you come across a site online that you want to share with your network, you can easily access the tool.

Here’s a diagram of how Bookmarklet works:

For example, if you wanted to Bookmarklet a video, Posterous automatically embeds the video and includes a link to the site.

Since with Autopost, the post updates your selected accounts, you’ve effectively let everyone linked to you know what you’re looking at.

And since you can Bookmarklet any content, you can link to the video you just posted, the article you just read (written by yourself perhaps) or the comment you just posted on a forum.

It’s not that the backlink you can easily create will necessarily have much weight (see our posts about Link Juice and backlink sources) but it will put your video, article, site or whatever else you’re sharing right in front of your network, with a link and space for you to insert a call to action or comment.

It’s better than a bookmark because it can hit your whole network, it’s better than a tweet because it can be longer than 140 characters, and it’s better than an email blast because it can be more subtle.

Just remember to keep it balanced, so you’re not promoting yourself all the time, as that turns customers and potential customers off. Keep the 90/10 Twitter rule (90 percent informational, 10 percent promotional) in mind, so if most of your posts are informational, you can use Bookmarklet for the occasional promo.