Affiliate marketers take note: social networking isn't yet another niche or vertical. With the CEOs of Yahoo, Google and Microsoft launching 2008 with public previews of next-generation portals integrating social networking, communications, feeds and open platform application development to their staple search content (and with Facebook and Myspace scrambling to arrive at this same all-in-one product, from the opposite direction) the web is poised to become a lot more personal.
And the trend is backed by numbers. In 2007, Facebook's total user base soared from 15 million in January to over 58 million in December, with almost two million new users from around the world currently signing up each week, driven largely by pre- and post-college demographics plus the over 35 crowd. As of December 2007, Facebook ranked 17 on comScore's Top 50 Properties (U.S.).
Which makes the current presence of affiliate marketing on social networks – limited - surprising. Affiliate forums are littered with threads from otherwise experienced affiliate marketers dismissing social networking as at worst an overly hyped channel with a failed advertising model and at best as one who's viral reach has yet to translate consistently from social web to social shopping.
Facebook's much-publicized launch of its Beacon social ads platform in November 2007 and the “ opt-out now” storm of controversy surrounding consumer privacy that followed also failed to impress affiliates with social networking's advertising viability.
But there's still plenty of money to be made on sites such as Facebook, and starting in 2008 affiliates have more tools and programs to promote than ever before.
Read on as we share tested Facebook affiliate marketing strategies for Share Results programs such as Real Networks and Photobucket to make social networking convert for you.
Free entry
If you're an affiliate marketer prepared to stake your personal identity behind the products you're promoting, Facebook offers a huge range of free, guerilla marketing techniques to exploit.
Your Facebook Profile, for starters. Profile pages generate by far the most traffic on Facebook and are the core tool affiliate marketers use to share their authentic enthusiasm for products and services. The key word here is “authentic”. On Facebook, it's critical affiliate marketers craft genuine real-life narratives underscoring how valuable they find their brands, and honest enthusiasm towards sharing their merits.
Facebook Groups and Pages are the next free tools affiliate marketers can use to increase their marketing reach. Both allow marketers to create conversations around their brand through discussion boards, news updates, and more, but Pages (introduced in November 2007) gives marketers fresh features.
Facebook Pages are much more customizable compared to Groups, permitting flash, html and Facebook applications. On members' profile pages, Facebook Page fans get more prominent eye-traffic positioning then similar Group users. The 1000-1500 member message blast limitation on Groups is gone. But to guard against abuse, Facebook limits direct invites between fans to a “share” system, and vigorously shuts down Pages that spam.
Facebook Photos are one the most popular applications on the site, with over 1.7 billion user photos and 3+ billion photo images served to users every day (source: Facebook blog, May 2007). Photobucket is currently the top image hosting site on the web, standing at #46 in comScore's Top 50 Properties (U.S.) in December 2007, and many Facebook users simply share their images directly from Photobucket. Affiliates promoting Photobucket through Share Results can capitalize on this popularity by marketing Photobucket's pro account services (featuring increased storage capacity, higher resolution images, unmetered traffic, longer slideshow and video lengths, and more) and earn a $3 CPA every time a member upgrades.
Facebook Networks link together all members sharing work, regional and educational ties. With every member in a network able to post messages, invites, events, etc on a network page, affiliate marketers can find potential customers IF they can craft a relevant enough message to stand out in these often crowded venues.
Facebook Events can be a great community building exercise for affiliates, especially those promoting services or special offers such as exclusive limited time discounts or freebies with purchase.
Facebook Messages themselves are a major cause for complaint from affiliate marketers used to email marketing, since they have limited functionality compared to email and volume mailings to users not part of your Group or Page are restricted.
Focus on Facebook's News Feed and Mini-Feed instead, the tools which have revolutionized Facebook's viral reach among users. By recording your customers engagements with the products you're promoting, then syndicating it to their friends, groups, networks and beyond, affiliate marketing campaigns achieve a word-of-mouth reach difficult to achieve through traditional affiliate marketing strategies.
Facebook Applications developed by merchant program partners will also be an exciting promotional avenue for affiliates. For example, Real Networks launched a beta test in December 2007 of a new Facebook application to bring full-song streams from its Rhapsody service to Facebook users. With a cap on 25 songs per month for non-Rhapsody-subscribers, affiliates should find the application's try-before-you-buy appeal increases conversions. And with the Real Networks scoring at #34 on comScore's Top 50 Properties (U.S.) in December 2007, traffic numbers certainly can't be faulted!
Pay-to-play
For fans of PPC, Facebook's launch of Social Ads in November 2007 drew a sigh of relief from affiliates frustrated by failed experimentation with Facebook Flyers and Marketplace.
Social Ads tap into a huge targeted search realm for affiliate marketers, allowing them to craft ads appearing in either Facebook's dedicated (and prominent) ad space on profile pages or meshing alongside user conversations about brands. With CPC or CPM budgeted options starting at just a few dollars, and targeting via keywords plus a wealth of personal data such as location, sex, age, interests, education, workplace, politics and relationship status, Social Ads seem a natural fit for affiliates hoping to monetize Facebook demographics through affiliate programs on offer from Share Results.
Facebook Beacon is the parent platform to Social Ads, allowing major advertisers to showcase consumer activity on their sites through Facebook News Feed and Mini-Feed. A simple enough concept – a Facebook user buys a book at Amazon.com, his Facebook profile mini-feed updates with an entry about that purchase – but one that's unleashed a storm of controversy about personal data mining and consumer privacy.
Facebook quickly responded – in December 2007 Beacon shifted from opt-out to opt-in, and now includes a privacy control to turn off Beacon completely. What impact this has Facebook's advertising potential remains to be seen. But with Facebook and Google joining DataPortability workgroups in January 2008, an alliance determined to create one shared user identity reference across the web, it's evident that the major players are embracing a one identity/one log-in portability philosophy despite privacy concerns.
Tech-savvy
Facebook delivers yet another avenue for affiliate marketing profits: application development. For affiliates with the technical know-how, the Facebook Platform API allows developers to create new profile, invitation, mini-feed and news feed apps that Facebook users adopt and spread virally, carrying your brand message with it.
For example, Mark Cuban's launch of RadicalBuy in November 2007, an app promoting the spread of classified listings through commission incentives, caused a flurry of Facebook application discussion among affiliates. A harder route to follow, for sure, but one who's reach might bring affiliate marketing the biggest profits of all on Facebook!
Social web to social shopping
As Facebook evolves from a pure social media to a full-service user destination, it makes an incredible venue for affiliates to hone their social networking marketing skills: a necessity given the social core of next-generation portals from today's eyeball aggregators – Google, Yahoo and Microsoft.
So take a second look at affiliate programs such as Real Networks and Photobucket on Share Results to discover your affiliate marketing favorites for Facebook today!
About Share Results
http://www.shareresults.com
Share Results prides itself on its commitment to providing exceptional service in Affiliate Marketing, building personalized, mutually-rewarding partnerships with select online merchants and quality affiliates.
No comments:
Post a Comment