Social media marketing – promoting products on social media
There is no shortage of ways to promote in social media. One method that can be implemented right away is affiliate marketing, i.e. promoting brands and products through affiliate links.
Social media marketing – why it’s worth it
If you run a Facebook fanpage or an account on Instagram, Pinterest, or TikTok, you can recommend selected products from affiliate programs and add affiliate links. You will earn a commission from every recommendation that ends with a transaction in the store the product comes from.
The way you recommend advertisers’ products to your fans or followers depends solely on you. You can accompany the links with an appropriate graphic, add them in a comment, or send them in a private message. Many people have moved their affiliate activities entirely to the area of social media marketing, because they often have a larger fan base there than on a blog or website. Of course, we are talking here about various channels—besides Facebook or Instagram, affiliate marketing also works perfectly on YouTube or Snapchat.
Social media marketing on Facebook
The question of how to make money on Facebook is asked by many people developing their activity on this platform. However, the simplest and fastest way is to place an affiliate link in the content of a post.
Social media marketing on Instagram
Instagram does not offer as many possibilities for placing active affiliate links as Facebook, but due to the huge engagement of Instagram users, you can reach broad groups of recipients with your posts. It is therefore worth including Instagram in affiliate activities and testing its possibilities in the area of social media marketing.
We add the affiliate link to the Link Sticker in exactly the same way as any other link that the sticker is to be associated with. Anyone who sees the story can tap the sticker to go to the redirection destination. The affiliate link will take the user directly to the recommended store and will credit a commission if the user buys something in the store within 30 days.
Social media marketing on YouTube
If your online activity focuses mainly on video content, you can monetize it as well. YouTube offers many possibilities for adding affiliate links. Definitely, the most common is adding them under a specific video in which, for example, you recommend some products and want to show viewers where they can buy them cheaply. However, earning on YouTube is much more possibilities!
Social media marketing on TikTok
No additional skills or imposed reach are needed for this. It is a very simple and intuitive method that you can implement immediately after registering as a publisher in an affiliate network. It is enough to provide a link to your TikTok profile in the bio, join any affiliate programs of selected brands, and you can already start recommending products and earning commissions from their sales.
Social media marketing on Pinterest
Pinterest is a very interesting platform where you create thematic boards. On each board you can place any products and, of course, attach affiliate links to them! And thanks to a special plugin, you will add specific Pins to your board very quickly. We refer those interested to reading about How to make money on Pinterest.
Private messages and social media marketing
There are many applications available on the market that enable communication. Use social media marketing also with the help of messengers. All you need to do is send your friends a link via Messenger, WhatsApp, email or even SMS and you can already start earning in affiliate marketing!
What to avoid in social media marketing?
Let’s assume that you have a Facebook fanpage that has gathered several thousand fans. Social media marketing is not unfamiliar to you, so you want to start monetizing your activities through affiliate marketing. First of all, you must remember that Facebook is not for earning money, but is a platform for communicating with your fans. If you flood your profile with advertising materials, they may turn away from you. After all, no one likes being pushily encouraged to shop. Besides, remember about consistency between your existing activity and advertising content. A complete change of concept from one day to the next is not the best idea, because it may discourage users.
Is social media marketing worth it?
There is no single good answer to this question. Certainly, with a properly selected strategy and a significant number of active users, affiliate marketing combined with social media marketing—so using channels of communication other than a standard blog or website—can bring profits. In the case of a smaller scope of activities it is also possible, but it certainly requires more commitment and work to achieve satisfactory results. Acting as an authority for your users, success will certainly come more easily. Therefore remember that you should always think about what you can do for the audience, not how they are supposed to help you. Starting from this assumption, it will certainly be easier to get good results.
Is it hard to stand out in social media marketing?
More and more publishers are joining affiliate networks who do affiliate marketing via their social media. At webePartners, for example, many publishers indicated Facebook as their source of activity. Slightly fewer indicated Instagram, and third place is taken by YouTube, which is only beginning to grow into a serious player in affiliate marketing. However, it is difficult to beat Facebook’s popularity, primarily because it gives the greatest possibility of placing affiliate links. Users sometimes even give up fanpages in favor of, for example, closed groups where they can share links to attractive promotions with others. What’s more, via FB there is also the possibility to share, for example, discount codes. Remember that affiliate marketing in social media marketing is still not as popular as in the blogosphere, therefore it is all the more worth getting interested in it.
If not social media marketing, then what?
Of course, there are a few ways. Let’s start with the fact that you can share affiliate links via any platform. Also via email! Perhaps your friends consider you a specialist in promotions? Try preparing special messages in which you present them the most interesting offers along with affiliate links! Maybe such “friendly” newsletters will turn out to be a hit? Remember that you can also send affiliate links via other messengers, such as: Skype, Hangouts or WhatsApp. In this case, however, do not focus on long-term activities, but rather single situations when you suggest to friends the purchase of a product they need. These can, however, be your first steps to start an adventure with affiliate marketing.
Each channel has a different specificity, so remember to think carefully about what advertising strategy to use. We also encourage you to test several different portals, thanks to which you will be able to check where affiliate marketing is most profitable. Above all, however, remember that the more you engage in developing your social media, the easier it will be later to use them in promotional activities.
You will find many examples and practical tips on earning in social media in our free e-book! We encourage you to use it! 🙂
