Looking for another way to promote your affiliate products? Using social media for affiliate marketing is one of the best ways to get the word out, and there are some tricks you can use to make it a success.
There’s a ton of statistics demonstrating that using social media for affiliate marketing is a wise move.
And as an affiliate marketer, you should seriously consider using social media for your activities.
In this article, I’m going to explore the different platforms and provide the best tips for doing affiliate marketing on social media.
While each of these platforms is social, most of them have a more specific kind of demographic that they serve.
This is why you should take time when deciding which platform to go for. You can choose platforms based on their popularity, the demographic that uses them, and how suitable they are for the type of products you’d like to promote.
Want to start affiliate marketing but no money? Check out the video below to get started.
Social Media for Affiliate Marketing: Best Platforms to Use
We’re going to look at the following platforms because they work best when it comes to social media for affiliate marketing:
1. Pinterest
2. Instagram
3. Facebook
4. Twitter
5. Snapchat
6. LinkedIn
1. Pinterest
Pinterest is a visual social media platform where users search and share images and short videos that are meant to inspire projects.
High-quality photos and short clips have the power to attract attention and entice a potential customer to click on a post, to which you should attach referral links.
Pinterest has more than 400 million monthly users, and many of these are looking for inspiration for their next purchase.
By creating creative images and pinning them on this platform, you can lead potential customers to your affiliate website or to products that you’re promoting.
This platform can be great for B2C marketing as customers looking for visual inspiration will most likely head over to it since it’s the most popular image search engine.
Check out these 5 awesome affiliate programs for Pinterest.
2. Instagram
Instagram has about one billion monthly users and is the most widely used social media platform after Facebook. This is a video and photo-sharing site that draws in both men and women and is mostly made up of younger people between the ages of 18-29.
Images posted on Instagram get a lot more engagement than those posted on other platforms, including Facebook. This makes it a great platform to use for social media affiliate marketing.
Stats show that more than 130 million Instagram users engage with shopping posts on a monthly basis. The key to cracking Instagram social media for affiliate marketing is in sharing unique and eye-catching images.
You can also partner with influencers who have huge followings in order to reach larger audiences and make more profit.
Check out my ultimate guide for affiliate marketing on Instagram.
3. Facebook
Facebook is the most popular social media platform, with more than two billion active monthly users.
It’s also the most diverse, with people from all demographic groups using it to socialize. Here, you’ll find people from all genders, ages, walks of life, and any other classification.
If you’re targeting a general audience that includes everyone from boomers to Generation Z, this could be a great platform for you.
Users from around the world who have the same interests and goals can join groups on Facebook, which makes it easy to find a niche market.
By participating in such communities, you can reach many potential customers even if you don’t have a large following on your individual account.
Check out my ultimate guide for affiliate marketing on Facebook.
4. Twitter
Twitter has just over 300 million users, but it’s one of the most active social media platforms with a higher engagement rate. Users are interested in trending topics and news that ranges from students to professionals.
Age-wise, you’ll find all generations here, but there are more younger people, who are also the most active. Twitter allows you to post content in short text and include images and videos.
You can share your affiliate links in your tweets, pin one to appear at the top of your profile, or include your affiliate website link on your bio.
On Twitter, it’s important to create a personality so that users can connect to you easily. Before getting started with affiliate marketing on this social media network, decide whether you’ll take a professional or informal approach.
5. Snapchat
Snapchat is a more personal kind of platform, where users can connect with people in their contacts and share short clips or photos. It’s a hit with people under 35 who view media shares on the platform at least 8 billion times a day.
Getting a following on Snapchat can be difficult unless you share your handle on other socials or on your website.
You can also follow other users and interact with them so that they can follow back. Once you’ve built a substantial following, start sharing your product links in the form of images and videos in your posts or stories.
6. LinkedIn
Are you targeting professionals as potential leads? LinkedIn is the ideal platform to opt for in order to connect with this group.
This is a site famous for job searching, but since it allows sharing of articles, images, and videos, it also has huge marketing potential.
It has a high engagement rate, and it’s one of the best places to meet professionals who you can partner with for B2B marketing and sales.
Build your presence on LinkedIn by sharing valuable posts that can entice both business partners and customers on the site to grow a following.
Is Social Media Worth Pursuing?
More than half of the world’s population uses social media. That alone is a huge reason why marketers should turn their attention to the available platforms.
Recent data shows that 3.96 billion people around the world are active social media users, which is more than half of the world’s population.
This figure also presents a growth of about 10% of global social media users in the past year. 99% of them access social media through mobile phones, which means that they can access the platforms as often as they like.
On average, each user spends about 2 hours and 24 minutes across various social networks on a daily basis. This means that there are people who spend a lot more than 2 hours each day browsing their favorite social platforms.
Understanding how various platforms operate and how different groups use social media will make your selection process smoother.
By failing to keep these factors in mind, you might completely miss out on the audience that you’re targeting when using social media for affiliate marketing.
I’ve already mentioned that social media has a huge ready audience, and it’s up to you to get through to them. This can either be easy or difficult, depending on the approach you take.
Social Media for Affiliate Marketing Tips
Now, let’s look at some of the best strategies to promote affiliate links successfully on social media…
1. Use Catchy Images
This isn’t rocket science. People like pretty stuff.
And social media users are more drawn to posts that contain images. A post with a high-quality image draws more attention than a plain text one because it’s more exciting to look at.
Make sure to use photos that are related to the product you’re promoting in order to catch your audience’s attention.
Ensure that the photos that you use are of high quality and fit the context. The image used doesn’t have to be of the product you’re promoting (if fact, that might not be the best image to promote), but it should be related.
With proper use of images, you’ll find it easier to use social media for affiliate marketing purposes.
2. Connect with Your Fellow Affiliate Marketers
There are many affiliate marketers who are already using social media for their activities or who are thinking about it. While some are just finding their feet in this, others have been at it for a long time and know exactly what works and what doesn’t.
As a beginner, it’s a good idea to join a community of social media affiliate marketers. There, you’ll receive support and make connections that can help widen the reach of your links.
Affiliate marketers on social media help each other by teaming up to share posts and links. If you get into such a partnership, you’ll be able to grow your followers and build your social media presence.
You can also learn a lot from marketers who have been in the game for a long time. Some have no qualms about sharing their tips for success, and they can help make social media for affiliate marketing a lot easier.
3. Shorten Your Links When Posting
Plain affiliate links are unattractive, boring, and long. This makes it easy for your readers to skim over them as they read your content.
Plus, many social media platforms do not allow affiliate links.
That’s why people who have more success with affiliate marketing on social media change these links to be more appealing and less obvious that they’re an affiliate link.
You can do this by creating a redirect link that cloaks affiliate URLs and makes them look more exciting.
Shortened URLs have also been shown to have a higher click rate, and it’s considered a best practice when it comes to promoting affiliate links on social media.
4. Look for Pay Per Click Affiliate Programs
Traditionally, affiliate marketers get paid when a customer makes a purchase after clicking on their link. However, there are programs that allow you to earn even if the customer doesn’t buy anything after viewing the product through your link.
Examples are pay per click and pay per lead.
The first means that if someone clicks on your link, you’ll get paid, whether they take further action after that or not. And the second means you’ll get paid if the referral hands over their contact information.
This is definitely an easier way to make money through affiliate marketing on social media. However, note that in most cases, pay per click and pay per lead programs pay less than programs that give you a commission for purchases made.
Check out the best high ticket affiliate programs here.
5. Target Specific Groups
One of the advantages of using social media for affiliate marketing is that there are already niche-specific groups that exist on various platforms.
You can easily find groups that are relevant to the products you’re promoting on Facebook or Instagram. Look for ones that allow affiliate marketers on social media to share their content and promote their links.
Many people on such groups are looking for product and service recommendations from social media affiliate marketers like you. Research shows that at least 49% of consumers on social media depend on influencers to make their purchasing decisions.
This means that once you share your posts on these groups, you have a high chance of increasing your organic traffic.
6. Stay Active
Once you’ve chosen your social media platform for affiliate marketing, you need to be consistent in posting new content.
This is one way to ensure that you build a steady following. Social media users like keeping up with influencers who have a lot to offer, and they’re unlikely to familiarize themselves with you if you don’t create new content regularly.
This is also the reason why you should only select one or two platforms to begin with. It’s impossible to give adequate attention to your audiences on a bunch of platforms.
As time goes by, you can expand to other platforms. Just don’t do it right out of the gate.
Making a posting schedule can also help you remain active and ensure that you produce new content regularly. You can set a few hours each day to check your social media and engage with your audience.
7. Prioritize Your Content
As an affiliate marketer, your job is to promote various products and hope that your audience clicks your links. But, when you’re using social media for affiliate marketing, you can’t just push your links onto people each chance you get.
You need to build trust and loyalty before recommending products to them.
Do this by providing them with high-quality content that is entertaining, informative, or educative. In fact, these kinds of posts should be what you deliver most of the time.
This gives your audience a reason to follow you on social media. It’s also through this kind of content that you become an influencer.
If you’re providing valuable content, then you’ll grab the attention of your target audience. And that will help a lot when you have affiliate links to promote on a few of your posts.
So, basically, you should not make everything on your posts about the affiliate links. Let the majority of your posts have a different intention rather than trying to make sales.
Because if all you do is try to get your audience to buy stuff, they won’t care about you and they’ll ignore your posts.
But if you make an effort to share valuable content with them, they’ll be more open to trying product recommendations that you make.
8. Promote High-Quality Products
There are countless companies with affiliate programs, but that doesn’t mean that you can pick any product and introduce it to your audience.
As a social media affiliate marketer, your goal is to become an influencer. Social media users are looking for influencers who can help make their lives easier and better.
Therefore, it’s up to you to identify the best products to promote to them. Look for products that can actually serve them well and provide value for their money.
Do your research to ascertain that the product has features that can provide the benefits your audience is looking for.
But before you even get to that stage, you should make sure that the products you’re promoting can be useful to your target audience.
Start with the products that you’ve used and love. This way, you’ll have firsthand experience and will be able to tell your followers what they can expect after buying it.
By all means, avoid low-quality products. It’s best to spend more time looking for the best products to promote, rather than sharing numerous links from questionable products.
If you recommend a product that your audience ends up loving, they’ll be back for more recommendations from you. This is how trust is built between social media users and influencers, and you should be able to build this connection if you want to be successful.
Here are a few of my favorites:
- Legendary Marketer
- Credit Card Affiliate Programs
- Baby Product Affiliate Programs
- Coffee Affiliate Programs
- SaaS Affiliate Programs
Want to know which affiliate marketing method works best for you? Answer the short quiz below:
Conclusion
73% of marketers claim that social media marketing has been effective for their business to a certain extent. And with 54% of social media users browsing the various platforms for recommended products, there’s still a lot of space for more marketers.
Opting to use social media for affiliate marketing can be one of the best decisions you make, as long as you keep in mind what it takes to be successful at it. There are millions of potential customers waiting for your word, and it’s up to you to reach out to them.
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