Social media.the ups and downs

byJKulk1

10.2K followers

Updated 5 years ago

There is one question that everyone at Wealthy Affiliate would like to have answered.

Which Social Media is the best one for Affiliate Marketers?

This is not an easy question to answer as nearly everyone that has experimented with the various platforms will have a different answer.

There are so many variables that can cause a different result.

But the main variable will be the Niche you have chosen.

So My results are based on my Niche

Which is Gardening for beginners.

Over the last 6 Months I have tried the following platforms

1. Facebook

2. Google plus

3. Twitter

4. Pinterest

5. Quora

6. Instagram

Let's look at them one at a time.

1. Facebook. I already had a growing Facebook account before I started with WA. I figured that one day I would need heaps of followers to feed my future online business. At this time I had 800 followers.

On joining WA I started a business account that is attached to my main account. I named it Grandpa_Jims_Greenthumb.

Every day, I follow more people on my main FB account and I then post a photo that is relevant to my Niche.

Normally I follow around 50 people a day. I always look for people that may have similar interests and have at least 8 others that already follow me.

When I started I didn't use this rule. At that time it was important to build some numbers. Once my list had grown above 500 followers I implemented the 8 plus rule.

Every day, I invite people from my main site to join my business account. My main account now has about 2800 followers.

It's been a very slow process and after 6 months I have around 400 people following my business account.

My thoughts about Facebook.

Far to slow and difficult to achieve any sizable results.

2. Google plus. I started with a bang and was doing really well...until...

Enough said.

3. Twitter. I could never really get the hang of Twitter, For some unknown reason it and I never gelled.

I have not really had any success with it. But then I haven't tried very hard.

4. Pinterest. I love Pinterest. This is an incredible platform that can grow at a rapid rate.

Pinterest started slowly for me about 4 months ago. I had the belief at the start that people would simply find me.

Boy, was I wrong.

Then, about 2 months ago, I read several blogs on WA that explained how to grow Pinterest at an incredible rate. I think one was written by Tony Hamilton.

The trick was to follow 50 people every day and post twice a day.

I started by posting one a day along with following the 50..

Boy, was I rewarded with an immediate increase in both followers and unique visitors to my site.

The photo's I post each day are not necessarily from my website but they are gardening related. Fortunately I have thousands of pictures from both a previous garden built by my wife and I and our current one.

I always link each photo to my website.

At this stage Boy, was I starting to see a significant increase in followers and unique visitors. From about 8 followers to a few hundred and close to 1000 unique visitors.

Then someone mentioned that if you saved pins from other people with related sites the numbers would go through the roof.

I need to mention here.

When looking for people to follow I always check out the competition and follow their followers.

So I Revved it up.

About a month ago I started saving pins from other sites onto my board.

I have to admit I have no idea why this works.

But it does.

Things then went crazy.

I now have 1900 followers and 150,000 monthly unique visitors.

It was my goal to reach 100,000.

I've achieved that.

Now I need to concentrate on adding quality content to my site so my visitors will have something to see.

Pinterest has moved faster for me then I anticipated.

But I'm not complaining because I read somewhere that if you reach 1 million unique visitors you will have made it as an affiliate marketer .

I million is one if my goals for 2019. But that will be my next blog.

Another point I need to add here is that at this stage I only have one board. That will change soon.

I also haven't used a single hashtag....yet...

Just imagine what can happen once I implement these extra be benefits.

Have I told you that I love Pinterest.

5. Quora. I joined Quora about 5 months ago. I haven't done much with it but I can see where it would be very beneficial.

I believe it would be a fantastic tool to utilize when promoting WA.

6. Instagram. What can I say?

Once I started on Instagram I was told by both younger family members, and some WA people, that I wasting my time as it was better suited to the youth if this world.

Well!!!

My profile on Instagram is grandpas_green_thumb.

One if my younger granddaughters informed me that my account would die.

No one wants to acknowledge a grandpa...

Or do they?

After approximately 3 months I have 2,600 followers.

My bitly account tells me that approximately 30 % of my website visitors come from Instagram and that the age group ranges from 25 to 65, with a fairly even spread.

Have I told you that I love Instagram?

Up to recently I would follow about 40 people twice a day and like at least 50 other posts a day.

I would also post one to two pictures a day.

They are mainly pictures of flowers, garden ornaments and our little garden dog Willow.

People love them.

The only current issue I have

Every morning I give myself 1 hour to post and follow people on social media. Then I do the same again in the afternoon but only for Instagram

Then they Gave me a partial ban. I have no idea why. Someone told me that they will slow you down if they believe you are a bot.

I take that as a compliment.

I don't ever use bots.

I any case I'm currently restricted to one photo a day and two follows.

But it doesn't really matter because some 20 extra people follow me every day now without me doing anything.

Hopefully they'll lift the ban in a few weeks time.

Lesson Learned.

Only follow 40 people a day .

About 1 in 3 follow me back so that would still give me about 13 a day added to the 20.

33 a day X 365 days = A LOT OF FOLLOWERS

12045 a year to be precise.

Have I told you I love Instagram?

So There you are..

You should now be aware of those social media platforms I love the most .

Now go and get busy clicking, pinning and liking.

All the best. Jim

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