Print Article for : Leverage Social Media Marketing

Your Online Guide » Internet » Affiliate Marketing Program

[L282]Leverage Social Media Marketing

by Michael Mulkern, Mic

The advent of social media portals such as MySpace, Facebook, and the myriad of blogs out there has made affiliate marketing even more promising as an online marketing strategy. In fact, affiliates can be considered to be very active in the social media scene; bloggers review and recommend the latest products and services, ordinary people making and uploading videos and “marketing” a product or company without them even realizing it… there is undoubtedly some form of marketing going on amongst users of social media sites, whether directly or indirectly. So if you're interested in knowing how social media can boost your affiliate marketing marketing program, then read on.

Social media can help in your affiliate marketing efforts because it makes the presence of your company or product known across various social media channels. This is a strategic method for effective promotion, because if done right, you can attract potential prospects into becoming both your customers and affiliates simultaneously. Once you've earned customers' loyalty they would more than likely promote and endorse your company or product via the same channels you had reached them; that being social media.

Depending on which side of the fence you're on, whether as the merchant dependant on affiliates to get your name out there or if you're the affiliate trying to market a merchant's products, there can be many ways to utilize social media for affiliate marketing. For either the merchant or the affiliate, you can consider using video content and create traffic via platforms such as YouTube or iTunes or even your own website. In the case of an affiliate, this can be done by procuring content from merchants and creating your own viral video or having regular specific podcasts. You can also adapt contents to include affiliate links or combining videos that ends with an ad for the merchant or their products. The most important thing here is to spread the content on a platform that would have the widest reach of audience in the social media landscape.

You can also create constantly fresh content with low maintenance using RSS feeds. RSS is good because its content is updated automatically, and the content can be provided by the merchant or the affiliate network. Again, it's important to note that the content should spread throughout the various social media platforms, so be sure to include links to such feeds in profiles of whatever social networks you involve yourself in.

Now that we're on the topic of social networks, you need to be social and market to friends in social networking platforms such as MySpace and Facebook. Whether you're the merchant or the affiliate, marketing through such platforms can be lucrative because of the number of people you're able to reach. These platforms have the potential to grab people's attention, and you can collect friends (or prospects) and build relationships with them to encourage their loyalty to you as a merchant. Consider having multiple profiles for specific purposes, those that potential prospects might be interested in so it can lead up to you marketing your products to them. Write blogs and include the occasional affiliate links if you're an affiliate. Add pictures or post in guidebooks and include affiliate links here and there.

Whether you're a merchant or an affiliate, using social media to boost your affiliate marketing marketing program is quite possible. The avenues are there; you just need to choose the right one to embark on.

The most recent phenomenon to hit the Internet Marketing scene in recent years is another form of Internet Marketing in its own right called Social Media Marketing. While Social Media Marketing has the capability to drive hordes of targeted traffic to your website there are still some pitfalls involved which you should try to avoid, at all costs, if you want to be successful with your Social Media Marketing campaign.

First of all one of the major targets of Social Media Marketers are the social media websites themselves, for example, MySpace and Facebook. In order to target and market to these sites you have to join and attract friends to your profile page. The first thing to avoid after joining is becoming involved with any of the software available which allows you to send mass invitations to certain groups you may have targeted inviting them to be your friends.

Everyone in the group receives a generic message inviting them to be your friend. If the site owner or webmaster discovers you are using this software you could be banned for life or, at the very least, have your membership suspended for a period of time. This can result in giving you a bad reputation within this community and make it very difficult to build any type of trusting relationship you need to establish for your future marketing activities on this site.

Another pitfall to be avoided is related somewhat to the first demonstrating how any type of news, good or bad, travels fast within these social media networks. When you approach your Social Media Marketing campaign and any of these social media websites you have to do so with the right attitude. By saying this I mean you have to be open and honest about your intentions. You have to be Transparent.

If you try to deceive any of your social networks it will usually come back to haunt you which can, again, result in a tarnished if not trashed reputation within these internet communities. A wise Internet Marketer once told me, when it comes to Internet Marketing the more you give, the more you receive. This brings us to a third pitfall which, if not avoided, can stall your Social Media Marketing campaign as if it were mired in quicksand. And this is, always be available and eager to offer help and advice.

But don't offer advice if it's not requested. If you are available to answer a Blog or forum question for someone who is stuck in a particular situation and needs help then by all means try to help. This will pay big dividends later on when needed because your reputation will precede you which, in this case, will be a good thing.

A fourth and final pitfall has to do with knowing who you are approaching. In other words you wouldn't take a trip to Singapore without doing a little preparation and study about the culture and practices of these particular people. You should take the same approach when planning your social media campaign. If you're approaching communities such as Facebook or MySpace, learn the proper etiquette and above all try not to offend anyone.

Especially try not to offend anyone who wields any kind of influence or power over the other members of the community. This too can result in a quick death for your Social Media Marketing campaign. If you approach your promotion with these four pitfalls in mind and put in the necessary planning and preparation as you would with any marketing campaign then you will be much more likely to encounter success with your social media strategy.

Article Source : How To Get Free Programs

About Author

Both Michael Mulkern & Bob Withers are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.

Michael Mulkern has sinced written about articles on various topics from E Books, About My Space and Affiliate Programs. to discover how to drive hordes of visitors to your website via