Affiliate Marketing & Social Media

As affiliate industry representatives descend on Los Angeles social media continues to change the ways publishers are implementing and getting compensated for their referrals.

How it Affiliate Marketing Works

A company with a product or service they want promoted pays a referral fee to publishers who drive sales, leads or visitors to the company's website. The publisher signs up for an account with an affiliate program which, among other things, can provide trackable links for the publisher to use in content.

Publishers take on risk by using their own resources to promote products or services. Until recently publishers primarily drove traffic to companies through their websites or blogs. Amazon.com's Affiliate program pays 4-15% of referral fees to publishers when a site visitor clicks through and makes a purchase at Amazon.com

Real Time Recommendations

The latest trend is real-time referrals where purchases are made via recommendations from Twitter & Facebook. This type of referral is changing who the publishers are. Although email, instant messaging, and blogging are useful for established publishers, Tweets have the potential to reach a wider audience faster and turn anyone into a publisher.

The problem is most internet links used are not trackable. Even if someone purchases a product using a link you provided, if it's not tracked you will not be compensated. If someone only earns a few dollars a month via their recommendations, and or is being handled by a 3^rd part affiliate program which discontinues services (stops updating links) they may become discouraged from generating trackable links

Amazon.com has announced that they will pay for referrals using links to their products in tweets and Facebook status updates and comments. These links have to be generated through the Amazon Affiliate program. The program which is already in practice, will optimize Twitters ease of use and connecting abilities to generate leads and create $$ for users of the Twitter platform.

Potential Problems

Spam is a big concern for potential users of this service. If you're tempted, beware! Use your influence wisely or you'll hinder your personal brand. There is also the fact that a lot of potential users are lazy and won't go to the trouble to generate trackable links.

As Companies expand into social media affiliate marketing individual publishers will continue to gain influence as purchasers look to real time communities for solutions. For more on the ever evolving world of affiliate marketing, social media trends and real time internet evolution, keep checking out the blog and look for our new web video series!