How To Use Social Marketing

Myrtle Williams has done freelance copywriting for me for almost four years. She is a Digital Marketing Coordinator at Spark Boutik, a boutique marketing company with a focus on social marketing.

There has been a lot of talk about social media experts lately. Peter Shankman wrote a blog post called Why I Will Never, Ever Hire A “Social Media Expert” and AdHustler wrote a blog post called In Defense of “Social Media Experts”. The fact of the matter is that you should never hire a “social media expert” or anyone else that says they’re an expert.

Remember the affiliate guru showdown? Successful affiliates were annoyed that new affiliates who had very little traction were claiming to be affiliate marketing gurus. This is the exact same debate with the exact same answer. If you have to call yourself an expert to get attention, you probably aren’t much of an expert.

Just because social media experts aren’t usually as amazing as they sound doesn’t mean social media marketing is a bust. In fact, there are three great ways you, as an affiliate, could be using social marketing right now.
1. Individual Campaigns
Most campaigns are short-term, but many affiliates admit that they have found two or three consistently successful campaigns or niches. Here’s where the opportunity for social marketing comes in. You can use Twitter to reach out to people who are already talking about what is relevant to your offer. Twitter is perfect for gaining attention, creating term paper writing service and keeping people talking after they’ve left your landing page.

Setup a Twitter page for your landing page and get started with engagement. That is, get people talking about your offer or niche. You’re paying hundreds or thousands to send traffic to the landing page. Why not capitalize on organic traffic?

Tip: A number of companies and networks have plans to list social media sharing offers in the future. These are expected to replace quite a few e-mail and zip submit offers in the next few years.

2. Personal Brand
An affiliate’s personal brand is extremely important. Think of all the super affiliates right now. Many have a single photo that people associate them with or a character that resembles them.

Most affiliates own companies, but their brand is their personal identity. For example, ShoeMoney is backed by Shoemoney Media Group and Jonathan Volk is backed by Surge Marketing Inc., but very few people ever talk about the companies.

Setup a blog, Twitter page and Facebook page for your personal brand! Start providing value by posting industry-related articles, personal insights and more. Use social media to develop new relationships, find new opportunities and build your brand.

Tip: My last three copywriting clients found, and contacted, me via Twitter.
3. Ecommerce
More and more affiliates are getting involved in ecommerce. What’s great about this is that ecommerce is a big, long-term commitment, which means there’s opportunity to develop real relationships with real customers.

Using a blog to capture organic traffic is a good start. Twitter and Facebook can be used to establish relationships, encourage repeat sales, generate buzz, provide improved customer service, etc. Essentially, with e-commerce, you can use social media platforms the same way savvy startups and big brands do.

Social marketing is not just a fly-by-night solution. There is logic and methods behind it. If you’re going to get started with this, take the time to research it and understand how it works. Despite what some “experts” might say, it’s not as simple as writing a 140 character sales pitch every few hours.

Have you tried combining affiliate and social marketing? Was it a success?