How To Use Social Media For Affiliate Marketing
Last week I wrote about how to start on Pinterest from scratch. If you missed it, click here for my complete step-by-step process.
So as I started caring more about social media, I had to take a moment and think about what the whole point of it was...
Why Am I Doing Social Media?
Sometimes, a single social media post can already bring a small surge of traffic straight to my blog or YouTube video.
I don't even have established social media accounts at all, but I can already see the power if done right.
For affiliate marketing, why are we doing social media in the first place?
I didn't have a clear answer to this at first...
So I had to sit down and think how I could measure my social media efforts in a way that drives my website forward. And so I decided on this: Growing my list.
Which brings me to the next point...
We Have To Get Paid For Our Time On Social Media!
I started reading the "No B.S. Social Media Marketing" book by Dan Kennedy, and there was really a kind of wake-up call for me: "You can't put likes and comments into your bank account!"
If you remember last time, I was getting really excited by my Pinterest post that go re-pinned and received over 12k impressions. And I even received a spike of traffic.
But you know what?
- I didn't make a single sale from that traffic.
- Nor did any of those visitors download my free affiliate marketing blueprint.
- And there were no blog comments on that day.
In other words...
I didn't get paid for my efforts in any way at all!
How To Properly Deal With Social Media
I think it's super important to have a clear goal for our social media marketing efforts. And as affiliate marketers, we must set goals that pay us eventually.
Converting cold traffic into sales is hard...
But there are so many other things we can do with social media traffic, for example:
- Blog comments,
- Newsletter subscribers,
- YouTube channel subscribers,
- etc.
Likes, re-tweets, re-pins are not enough! They might make us feel like we have accomplished something, but all we did was create content for a third-party platform (the social media network).
My point is this...
Make sure you use social media to achieve a clear goal that drives your affiliate marketing business forward.
Don't get baited into thinking all the likes and re-tweets will pay you.
It might help indirectly, but it could just as well turn into a huge time sink - with nothing to show for it.
What's your social media goal? Let us know in a comment below!
Recent Comments
27
Still learning,
I saved your “starting Pinterest from scratch” (bookmarked) post last week .
Today you have thrown new light, onto the “why” I guess I had automatically assumed the likes, impressions it would eventually come good...
But remembering Kyle’s post about some influential book writer who managed only a fraction of likes compared to his book sales and to me be mindful of time and of course distraction...
On holiday from Friday time to look and study set goals.
Thank you James looking fwd to the next instalment.
How’s the YT vlogs coming along?
Cordelia
Hi Cordelia, thanks for your comment! Yeah Kyle is also super careful about Social Media, which I like a lot.
I think that social media is currently in a kind of "hype state"... I see posts like "run a successful online business with only your phone", meaning that all you need is an instagram account and you can make 5k+ per month.
I'm sure there's people out there who are doing it, but following the exceptions is a dangerous path. Moreover, we don't know for how long that model will work either! Much better to follow a proven strategy (like here on WA).
And social media has introduced a ton of new metrics to quantify our influence on the network. But such "influencer metrics" do not guarantee referrals or sales.
So that's why: Likes & shares do not automatically turn into money. We need a better plan than that, else we risk wasting 1 hour per day on social media... 1 hour that could have been spent writing blog posts for example, or finding low-competition keywords, etc.
I'm still posting on my YouTube channel every week, but views are coming in super slow! It's like 1 view per day on average... It's definitely rough!
Can people really make 5k per month on their mobile?
You can see so many different companies offering a myriad of ways to make money online.
As you have said previously (think it was you) master one area properly
You Tube is a bit tough by the sound of things. Joe Wicks (Body Coach) said he spent 2 years doing you tube posts with only his Mum and friends watching them but slowly he had traffic, then it took off. Now he is so incredibly successful, his vlogs, exercise tutorials and 15 min recipes are now viewed in their millions...you can do it Jame 👍
I'm convinced there's people making 5k and more on Instagram, with their phone alone. But is it the norm? No. Does it work for everyone? I'm pretty sure the answer is No again.
But exceptions are more interesting than "what is normal"... So that's why such stories are highlighted, and more people are intrigued by it.
Regarding YouTube, I appreciate your motivational words very much. It's really really rough investing a whole day into creating 1 video, and then it sits at 4 views for several weeks straight. (I'm currently investigating video descriptions & tags to see if I'm going wrong somewhere. Once I've figured it out, I'll be sure to summarize it in a separate article.)
I've never heard of Joe Wicks, but the fact that he fought through 2 gruesome years of being ignored, that's super impressive. I'll fight it out for you Cordelia, just so we can look back on this comment again in 2 years and see what happened ;D
Thanks again for the motivation, it really helps.
Live that idea,
2 years from now let’s see where we are.
See how many followers you have
And me with social media
Check out Joe Wicks, (body coach) he is absolutely huge in the UK,
👍
The challenge is on Cordelia ;D I've already subscribed to Joe Wicks, so that I can see what it is that he's doing with his videos and channel.
OMG, dead impressed,
Let me know how you like him, he now has so many outlets, his Lean in 15 recipe books, his Lean in 15 exercise videos, and his 90 60 & 30 day challenges, he is a phenomenal powerhouse, is also very easy on the eye, for both male and females.. 👍
I watched his video where he goes from school to school, and tries to figure out how he can help kids be more physically active. That already shows how much he cares and believes in his mission. Very inspiring!
My goal for starters is just to build a fairly substantial audience. Eventually they may convert.
Hi Fran, I hope you are doing great! Are you also using Pinterest? Or are you on a different social media network?
I keep forgetting about Quora! I think it has a lot of potential, it reminds me of the old traffic generation from forums, which has always produced great results for me. Thanks Fran!
Just joined Pinterest last week, thanks for sharing and will go and have a look at your last blog.
A little confused with it at the moment, it does look good, however.
Darren :)
Hi Darren, send me your Pinterest link and I'll give you a follow! Yeah it can be a bit confusing when starting out, I think it's mainly due to the terminology of pins & boards.
Check out my last week's guide, I think it should go over it pretty detailed. If you still have questions or are left confused, just leave a comment I'd be glad to help.
Cheers!
Interesting to hear your experience James. I have been avoiding social media for now as I fear the time it will suck up that I could use for something else.
I have been avoiding it too for the longest time... But I've seen others using Pinterest successfully, and the traffic on my newest blog is coming very very slowly.
So I decided to add Pinterest to my traffic generation tools. It looks like the most reliable one at this point. (The worst one must be Instagram.)
I hope you are doing well, Dave!
Thank you for posting. Those have been my thoughts as well - what purpose is there. Thanks for sharing.
Exactly Debbie! If there is no purpose to it, then it's only a trap that turns us into content consumers - instead of content creators.
I'm so glad you wrote your post. Funny awhile ago I paid someone to create and manage a pinterest page for me because i heard it was good to have - this was for a different business. She kept telling me how many people had viewed it but after 6 months I didn't get one new member to my website coming through pinterest - for me it was a waste of money. Thanks again because now I'm not going to stress about doing social media for my WA site.
I feel your pain... Social media CAN be a powerful tool, but it has to be used as a tool. And compared to most other tools, it is very easy to get heavily side-tracked on social media. It's also difficult to track success properly because it introduces numerous distracting metrics (likes, reach, engagement) that don't earn you money in any way.
There are many people using Pinterest successfully. But there are also tons of affiliate marketers who achieved success without it.
What matters is that we all choose 1 or 2 tools that we like, and then master them.
Anytime Debbie! The one traffic tool that all of us learn here on WA is blogging for SEO. So that's tool number 1.
When I started out, my other traffic tool was forums and it still works great for me until today. I suggest doing it on a forum that allows you to have a signature eventually (most don't allow it for brand new accounts).
So in the past, these were my 2 tools:
Tool 1: Blogging for SEO
Tool 2: Forums
For my newest blog, which is in the online marketing niche, I replaced forums with YouTube videos & Pinterest social media. So I'm working on mastering 2 additional tools now:
Tool 1: Blogging for SEO
Tool 2: YouTube (new)
Tool 3: Pinterest (new)
I hope this helps a little!
Thank you so much for taking the time to post your reply. That is great advice. Thank you for steering me in the right direction. I bet you'll do great on the additional 2 tools.
See more comments
You may not have had immediate results from retweets, re pins and post shares but it brings them to a wider audience where someone who is interested will see it.
Plus if it brings traffic to the site it will help with google rankings so it pops up sooner for those searching with keywords.
It's never time wasted, it just may not have the immediate effect that you want.
Good post.
Thanks for your comment Linda and bringing perspective into this! I agree, if it generates a lot of traffic it can still be worth it.