A quick search of the top 15 most visited websites reveals just how social media-centric the world has become. This is a trend that is likely to continue, as the number of social media outlets is growing daily, and the number of users on these sites is also increasing.
People log on to the internet from their home computers, laptops, smartphones, and tablets for the sole purpose of checking their social media accounts.
The number of visitors that these social media sites get on a daily basis is absolutely mind-boggling.
As of the third quarter of 2016, Facebook had 1.79 billion monthly active users. In the third quarter of 2012, the number of active Facebook users had surpassed 1 billion. Active users are those who have logged in to Facebook during the last 30 days.
The statistic below shows a timeline with the worldwide number of monthly active Facebook users from 2008 to 2016.
As an affiliate marketer, it has never been more important to use social media to its full potential. What was once overlooked by many marketers as a viable traffic source is now one of the most common ways to drive traffic to your affiliate offers.
Table of Contents
Social media marketing tips for affiliate marketers
1. Never Pay For Fake Likes on Your Facebook Page
Although it can make your page look a little more legitimate if it has a large number of followers, you are actually doing far more harm than good.
One of the key performance indicators that Facebook uses in its EdgeRank formula is the virality of your posts, or how often it is shared, liked, and commented on.
Facebook uses this formula to determine what percentage of your fans will have your posts appear on their news feed. The more sharing and activity that your posts get, the more fans you will be able to reach on subsequent posts.
If a large number of your fans come from fake accounts, they will obviously not be sharing or interacting with your posts, which can severely cripple the reach of your future posts and put a major dent in your chances of marketing to your fans effectively.
There are many other ways to get those first few likes to your page.
Once your page is set up, you can tell your friends that you have just set up a new page and would greatly appreciate it if they could click on the like button. You can do this quite easily from your newly created Facebook page by using the ‘invite friends’ option.
The added benefit of doing this is that an update will now be posted on your friend’s wall, telling their friends that they have just liked a page. If you have made your page interesting and attractive to new visitors, then you might just get a few of their friends liking your page as well.
Another option is to broadcast to your email subscribers that you have just set up a Facebook page.
You can also notify your followers through your other social media accounts, and you will have quickly built up a small following to give your page the looks of legitimacy it needs to really get things moving.
Interaction is the key to social media. Don’t just advertise relentlessly to your fans and followers, as they will get sick of it very quickly. If you started following someone and all they did was advertise to you, you’d probably stop following them pretty quickly.
Instead, take the time to follow them back, share their interesting posts and tweets, and speak to them to let them know you are a real and genuine person.
They are far more likely to share your posts if you have shown an interest in them and shared their posts.
It is very much a two-way street, so make some time for them and they will make some time for you. The increased activity on your account will only help you to broaden your reach and attract new followers and fans.
There are also other ways to increase the interaction on your pages. You can run competitions where the best comment wins a small prize.
People love to win something, no matter how small it is and this can be a great way to create a bit of buzz and capture people’s attention. You could even post a funny picture and ask people to provide a caption for it, then let everyone vote on the winner.
Doing this can create a real sense of community on your page, as your fans will be able to interact not only with you but with each other as well.
3. Make Use of Facebook Targeting Options
Facebook has a massive amount of targeting options on its PPC platform. You can drill right down to age, marital status, gender, interests, and education.
Take the time to know and understand your target audience, so you can use Facebook ads to your advantage.
Even if you don’t know what age or gender you should target, you can still target the right audience by focusing on their “interests”.
You may not know what age group to promote to if you were advertising a gaming offer for example, but you most certainly know what they are interested in – games. Try to drill down even further by finding games that are similar to the one you are promoting, then target those people.
By having ultra-targeted ads you will increase your click-through rate and subsequently decrease the cost of your clicks.
One niche that can really work well on Facebook is “dating“. Often the advertiser will be specific about what age groups they want you to target, so setting up your ads to target those demographics is a cinch.
If you can take the time to do a little bit of research to find out more about your intended audience; your marketing efforts can get a significant boost.
4. Don’t Forget About the Social Media Platforms Outside of Facebook and Twitter
Although Facebook and Twitter are usually the first two networks people think of, there are a lot of other smaller social networking sites.
Pinterest is one such network you should spend some time getting to grips with. In fact, it is now the 5th most popular social network behind Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Linkedin.
Pinterest is predominantly used by females, which makes it perfect for driving traffic to cosmetics, beauty, and fashion offers.
Take the time to build up your Pinterest profile by joining other boards, re-pinning other people’s pins, and interacting with the community, and you will open up a huge opportunity to access the potential traffic that Pinterest can bring you.
Just find some interesting pictures that will stand out from the crowd and capture people’s attention, and you can drive traffic back to your website through those pictures.
There is a world of untapped traffic on the lesser-known social media platforms, so take the time to build your profile on those and learn how to use them effectively.
You should also be using each social media outlet as a springboard to grow your other social media accounts. Make sure people know that you are on multiple social media platforms and that they have many different options for where to share your posts too.
One of the best strategies to increase your social media presence is to make sure you have linked all of your accounts together.
- If you have just started a Facebook page, a quick tweet to your followers on Twitter to let them know about it can be all it takes to build up your Facebook page quickly.
- For a website, make sure your visitors have the option to share your content across several different social media accounts.
- If you have an email list, make sure to let them know which social media platforms they can find you on.
Spend time to make it easier for your visitors to share and interact with you, and you will reap the long-term benefits.
5. It Is Not All About Marketing
Okay, admittedly that sounds a little strange! Just like in tip number 2 above, people will tune out very quickly if all you are trying to do is sell to them.
Find some funny pictures, interesting stories, or even free advice to share with them. If you are providing value to them (whether it is entertainment value or otherwise) they will be far more likely to take a greater interest in you.
There are additional benefits that come from doing this. If all you are doing is sell, sell, sell then people tend to have their defenses up, making it very hard to break through.
By providing a little bit of light humor or extra value, all of a sudden their defenses are down and they are taking a keen interest in what you have to say, and also what you have to sell.
There is also a vital factor to consider. Funny pictures and jokes are far more likely to get shares, comments, and likes on Facebook, and as you know from point number 1 above, this leads to you being able to reach more potential customers.
Never underestimate the value of not selling something!
6. Just Ask
Sometimes it pays not to try to overcomplicate things. If you want people to share your posts, just ask them! It really is that simple.
There is no need to try to trick them into sharing by locking your content or using other such tactics. A simple request to share, comment, like, retweet, or whatever the situation requires can be all it takes to spread the word.
Just put a short message at the bottom of your posts asking them to share and you’ll be surprised at how effective it can be.
7. Bonus Tip
If you have already built up a decent amount of followers on Facebook, then you can target their friends!
If someone sees that one or more of their friends has liked a certain page, they are going to be more inclined to like that page themselves. Your target audience can also grow exponentially, as you can then target the friends of your newly acquired fans.
This is just another benefit of Facebook’s targeting options, and how you can use those options to your own advantage.
Benefits of Social Media Engagement
If you run a website or blog, the increased social media activity can give your site a significant SEO boost. While once upon a time backlinks were the key metric used to determine the quality of a site, there has been a shift towards social media having a larger influence on that determination.
A backlink was previously thought of as a vote for the site it links to, and now social sharing is considered the new ‘vote’.
Google itself has spent a huge amount of time, money, and resources in developing its own social network, Google +, so the shift towards social indicators as a vital SEO metric is only expected to increase over time as Google places more emphasis on its own network.
So whether SEO is your sole focus or just something you consider as a second or third option to drive traffic to your site, establishing a social media presence can certainly help to increase your visibility in the search engines.
Conclusion
Social media is here to stay. That much is blatantly obvious. It is also constantly changing and developing, so taking the time to understand it and keep up with the changes and trends can benefit your marketing efforts significantly.
One of the best ways to keep up with the trends is by being active across many different social media platforms. Not just Facebook and Twitter, but other sites such as Pinterest, Linkedin, and GooglePlus as well.
If you need to learn more about social media, then align yourself with the experts – just find their social media accounts and follow and interact with them!
You will be able to sit back and watch exactly how they implement their strategies, then use those to develop your own strategies.
Oh, and of course feel free to share this post using the social buttons below 🙂
